Lovin' From the Oven

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

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I’ve had such a fun week catching up with friends and staying busy. I’ve been eating out a ton, though.. which inspired me to start a new project. 🙂 Here it is, my new sister website: The Darling Foodie! There will be more for you guys to read and more food porn to look at! I must be crazy thinking that I can take up another project but I love blogging and my readers just too much!

Which reminds me, if you have anything you want me to try and haven’t told me yet, tell me in a comment here! My list of 100 things hasn’t even passed 10 yet. Haha.

Let’s break this down.. graham cracker chocolate chip crust, cheesecake, chocolate chip cookie dough, then drizzled with melted chocolate to top it all of? Can we say heaven?

This recipe has been floating around the food blogger world for a while now. I finally had the chance to make it since it’s been bookmarked for about a million years and I had all of the ingredients on hand. How convenient! Don’t be fooled by how long the recipe is… it’s really easy to put together and completely worth it! Everyone that tried it LOVED it… no exaggeration needed. Even people that don’t normally eat sweets enjoyed it. It’s the perfect blend of flavors, cheesecake is meant to be with cookie dough. The original recipe says it’s best served when warm, but I think that’s the worst advice to give! Serve them COLD! Maybe even straight from the freezer! It’s ten times better. Recipe from the Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook.


Crust

  • 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 5 Tablespoons butter, melted
  • 2/3 cup miniature chocolate chips

Cookie Dough

  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Cheesecake Filling

  • 10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg, at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the crust:

  1. Preheat oven to 325°. Butter a 9″-square baking pan. Line pan with parchment paper, leaving enough to extend over the sides. Butter the parchment paper.
  2. To prepare the crust combine graham cracker crumbs and butter until crumbs are moistened. Stir in the mini-chocolate chips.
  3. Press crust mixture into bottom of pan and 1 inch up sides. Bake for 6 minutes. Set pan on wire rack to cool.

For the cookie dough:

  1. Next, prepare the cookie dough. Using an electric mixer, mix butter, brown sugar, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract at medium speed until smooth.
  2. Decrease mixer speed to low and add flour. Mix just until incorporated.
  3. Stir in chocolate chips. Set aside.

For the filling:

  1. To prepare the filling, using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar just until smooth. Add egg and vanilla extract, beating just until blended.
  2. Pour batter into baked crust. Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls over the top of the filling.
  3. Bake about 30 minutes, or until set. Transfer to wire rack.
  4. To decorate with drizzled chocolate, place chocolate in a sandwich bag on a microwave safe dish and microwave in 30 second intervals moving the chocolate around between. Using scissors, cut the very tip off the sandwich bag. The smaller your cut, the smalled the drizzle.
  5. Using the edges of the parchment paper, remove bars from pan. Cut into bars and serve. These bars are served best straight from the refrigerator, after cooled.

Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies

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So my boyfriend, one of his friends, and I have officially started our dieting/exercising routine as of yesterday. It’s been one day without carbs and I’m already having withdrawals. Whoever thought that a day without carbs is a good thing?! We’re basically doing a low carb, high protein diet with at least 3 days of cardio a week. We also get one cheat day a week (which is like a cheat hour each day for me. Shhhh don’t tell my bf!). We went on a hike right by my house yesterday and it was so beautiful! 86 degree weather? Hellooooo spring! Too bad it’s supposed to rain tonight, though.

Mocha chocolate chip cookies. Coffee in cookies? Why not? It works so well in brownies. This recipe intrigued me because it didn’t dissolve the coffee before putting it into the batter like most recipes. I made these a while ago and took them into work. My coworkers loved them, but I thought they were just okay. Perhaps there was too much coffee in them? I would definitely tone down the instant coffee powder by a tablespoon next time. But hey, if you’re a huge coffee fan, then by all means go for it. I, on the other hand, can’t drink black coffee unless it has tons of condensed milk/sugar/milk/cream. That kinda defeats the whole purpose of coffee, eh? The texture was nice and chewy, so I would imagine they’d make a great chocolate chip recipe alone by omitting the coffee. These are just slightly adapted from the cookbook Baking With Julia.

  • 2 cups flour
  • 3 tablespoons instant coffee powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 sticks butter, cut into chunks
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 pound chocolate chips or chunks

1. Whisk the flour, coffee, baking soda and salt together. Set aside.

2. Beat the butter in a mixer until lightened. Add granulated sugar and beat for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar and beat for another 30 seconds. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla and beat until blended.

3. Turn mixer speed down and add flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Add chocolate and mix until evenly blended in.

4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in fridge for several hours to overnight.

5. Preheat oven to 350. Drop a heaping tablespoon full of dough onto sheets, leaving 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

6. Cool on racks. They’re best when warm!

Copycat Momofuku Cornflake Marshmallow Cookies

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I just arrived today in Big Bear and the weather is beautiful! I love being away from the LA smog and out in this fresh outdoor scenery. It’s quite refreshing, really. Unfortunately, I had a terrible headache the entire evening and was stuck in bed dealing with it (good thing I had formspring questions to keep me entertained!). Perhaps it’s because I didn’t drink enough water. I really suck at doing that. I somehow always forget to drink water or when I do, it takes me hours to finish a glass. I’ll work on it.

Ever since my use of cereal in everything cookies, I’ve always been very open to the idea of using cornflakes in cookies. Lucky for me, I stumbled across this recipe on tastespotting or foodgawker and just had to give it a go. My second cereal cookie. Was it as good as the first? They’re good, but not as good as my first. Maybe I’m biased, but that’s just my opinion. I do admit I really like the idea of using marshmallows in cookies, though. Then again, these marshmallow cookies totally blew these out of the water. Hmmm… so much competition!

I SLIGHTLY adapted the recipe.. testing with the marshmallow method. For my first batch, I baked the cookies for a little bit before putting on the marshmallows (as listed in my slightly adapted recipe). For the second batch, I followed the original directions exactly and placed the marshmallows onto my cookie dough balls before baking them. What happened with the second batch was that the marshmallows all got pushed to the edges when baking and were practically falling off the cookie. I liked the first method much better, which resulted in the cookies pictured. I adapted the recipe from The Cookbook Chronicles, even though my cookies don’t look like hers.

  • 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 3/4 cups AP flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 3/4 cup oatmeal
  • 1 1/4 cup lightly crushed cornflakes
  • 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips
  • about 3/4 cup mini marshmallows
  1. In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes on medium speed. Add the eggs and vanilla extract, and beat until combined.
  2. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and beat on low speed, just so the dry ingredients become incorporated. With a wooden spoon, mix in the oatmeal, crushed cornflakes, and chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours.
  3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  4. On a baking sheet, scoop up and roll the dough into golf ball-sized spheres. Give them room to spread!
  5. Bake for 4 minutes. Pull them out and quickly press 4 mini marshmallows into each cookie. Bake for an additional 6 minutes**. The cookies will still look soft in the middle when you take them out of the oven. Allow them to cool directly on the tray for a few minutes before moving them onto a platter.

**If the marshmallows aren’t the color you want them to be, you can always put them under the broiler for a couple of seconds to get that nice glow. Make sure to keep an eye on them!

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