Peanut Butter Cheesecake Cookie Bars

Peanut butter cheesecake cookie bars combine soft peanut butter cookies with a creamy cheesecake filling studded with peanut butter morsels.

Hands up if you are a peanut butter lover? How about cheesecake? Or cookies? If you like all three, get ready to sing, “Glory,” because this peanut butter cheesecake bar recipe is going to blow you away! It combines the best of all 3 desserts to make a dessert bar that’s simultaneously chewy and creamy. If the flavor and texture don’t blow you away, did I mention that every bite just melts in your mouth?

Okay, let’s break down the layers and the simple 6 ingredients so you know what’s in store. First, there’s the cream cheese filling, which is sweetened with vanilla, condensed milk, and peanut butter chips. The cheesecake filling is in the middle of two layers of Reese’s peanut butter cookie dough.

It may seem complicated because it’s 3 desserts in 1, but this is such an easy recipe to throw together, even at the end of a long day. All you have to do is mix the wet ingredients together, separate the cookie dough, and layer the dish. Then bake and it will be ready to eat in under an hour. It’s the perfect combination of cookie and cheesecake with all that delicious peanut butter flavor (because you can never have enough).

If you need another reason to love this recipe, these peanut butter cheesecake bars also travel and pack well, too, so I highly recommend taking them to your next party, picnic, or potluck.

Recipe Ingredients

• Cream cheese (check out our easy recipe for homemade cream cheese here).
• Vanilla extract
• Sweetened condensed milk
• Peanut butter cookie dough
• Peanut butter chips
• Egg

How to Make Peanut Butter Cheesecake Bars

Place softened cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, egg, and vanilla in a medium bowl.

Most recipes would tell you to beat it until it is fluffy, but here I want you to beat it until it blends together in submission to your supreme cooking will.

You can be the ruler of the universe, it’s just a teeny tiny universe and it only resides in your kitchen.

With the sweetened condensed milk, you’ll have some leftovers from this. I’ve heard it is absolutely decadent in your coffee!

Add in peanut butter chips.

Stir those in until well mixed.

The next step is to divide your peanut butter cookie dough in half (I do this quite literally).

Pat half of the cookie dough into the bottom of an 8×8 baking dish that you have greased with cooking spray.  If you use foil like in the pictures I would still lightly grease the foil.

If you wet your hand, it will pat this out really easily and the dough won’t stick.

Pour your yummy cream cheese mixture over the top of the dough.

Take the other half of your dough and break off little pieces of it to put on top until you don’t have any dough left.

Now, bake your peanut butter cheesecake cookie bars at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until it is golden brown on top.

Cool (if you want), cut, serve, and ENJOY! 

Storage

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. You can also freeze leftovers for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge before serving.

Recipe Notes

• For extra peanut flavor, add 1/2 of creamy peanut butter or 1/2 cup of crushed Reese’s pieces to the cream cheese mixture.
• Another option is to add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to the cheesecake filling or drizzle the bars with melted chocolate to make chocolate peanut butter cheesecake bars.

You may also like these cookie bar recipes:

Fruitcake Bar Cookies

No Bake Peanut Butter Bars

Butter Bars From Scratch: Gooey Goodness Awaits!

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

Cranberry Cheesecake Bars

Oatmeal Raisin Bars with Butterscotch

 

Optimist: Someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster. It’s more like a cha-cha.

Submitted by Jackie. Click here to submit your own!