Butterfinger Nutter Butter Cheesecake Bars

Does everyone else love Pinterest as much as I do? Seriously, I have so many pins it's crazy. Of course I had so many food pins that I had to divide them into categories. It's really convenient though. When Menu time comes around I just click on cooking, breakfast, side dish, dessert, whatever I'm looking for and instantly there's a million (okay, slight exaggeration) choices. The hardest part is actually deciding.

Butterfingers, Nutter Butters and Cheesecake are all on my list of favorites so when I saw these cheesecake bars, I knew they must be made.

Considering there was cheesecake involved I automatically assumed I would be spending a little extra time making these babies, but knew the end result would more than make up for it.

And boy did it ever! I did alter the recipe and bake my Nutter Butter crust.(I wanted to make sure it didn't get soggy and  I prefer a baked crust. You make the call.) The cheesecake layer was creamy and smooth with just the right amount of cheesecake to Butterfinger ratio so neither one overpowered the other. The silky chocolate topping was the perfect compliment to tie it all together.

Bonus--I was wrong about spending extra time in the kitchen! I couldn't believe how easy & quick these were to make. They only bake for about 20 minutes. Which can be a good or a bad thing. Good for the lips, bad for the hips! Go run 5 miles if you're concerned. Then try to restrain yourself from eating the whole pan. I made myself stop at 3. They are that good.

** Dads and kids. Mother's Day is Sunday and it's not too late to surprise Mom with a delicious treat that looks amazing, tastes great and it can just be our little secret how easy they are to make!**

Butterfinger Nutter Butter Cheesecake Bars

Yield: 36 small squares

Ingredients:

for the crust-
16 whole nutter butter cookies
1/4 cup melted butter

for the cheesecake filling-
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 tablespoon all purpose flour
6 fun size Butterfinger chocolate bars

for the topping-
3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9×9 square dish with foil or parchment and set aside. {If you are lining your pan with foil, lightly grease with non stick cooking spray.}
 Grind nutter butter cookies in a food processor until the consistency of graham cracker crumbs. Pour in melted butter and pulse a few times to mix. Press into prepared dish and set aside or if desired, bake crust for 8-10 minutes until firm and golden brown. Turn oven temperature down to 325 degrees.

 In a large bowl, whip cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Stir in egg, vanilla and flour. Finely chop butterfingers and fold into the cheesecake mixture. Pour over top nutter butter crust and bake for 18-22 minutes or until cheesecake has set. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until completely chilled.

Pour chocolate chips and butter into a small bowl and microwave using the ‘melt chocolate’ function, stirring every 20-30 seconds. If your chocolate is almost melted, don’t put it back into the microwave! Just keep stirring- the residual heat will continue to melt the chocolate completely. {If your microwave doesn’t have this function, zap your chocolate at 50% power at 20 second intervals, stirring in between.} Spread melted chocolate overtop of the bars evenly and place back into the refrigerator 5-10 minutes to harden the chocolate. Remove from refrigerator and using the foil or parchment, remove the entire block of bars from the pan. Cut into bars and serve.

Recipes Notes: If you leave the bars in the refrigerator longer than 10 minutes after you’ve topped it with chocolate, cutting into the bars might be more difficult and the chocolate is more likely to crack.

Recipe & Picture
 Source: Lauren's Latest


Posted by: Sallie