cheesecake

My family is a walking, talking/immobile, babbling petri dish. We are a bunch of sicks. I have a stuffy, runny nose, Autumn has a juicy cough, and Price, poor Price, has the worst of it with a mix of everything from a sore throat to cough to a possible case of pink eye.

Oh and the dog won’t stop throwing up. But not because he is sick, because he is dumb and eats Autumn’s socks that he steals off her feet or steals out of the laundry bag. In fact, on Saturday morning he threw up a sock of hers, but before I could clean it up he ATE IT AGAIN. So infurating. And then he threw it up yesterday (Monday!) afternoon. Thankfully, I got it before he did again.

Ya, still reading? Good…

Besides all the germy stuff going on, my mom came up from Florida for a long weekend visit. She was last up in January so to her Autumn was huge and ready for college. They cuddled up and snuggled up while Price and I got to go out on a date on Saturday night. A SOLO DATE! We’ve been doing really well going out with the 3 of us but having this chance to go out alone was so good. SOOOO GOOD. 10x.

We went out for dinner for hibachi in our old stomping grounds in Brookline. After an amazing stuff-yourself-silly-dinner we strolled around a bit getting a scoop of ice cream to share and then doing some shopping at Brookline Booksmith. By then my buzz from my 1 lychee martini had worn off and we headed home (Price drove anyway, chill…). On our way home we stopped by the Yawkey Train Station project Price had worked on at his old job. Always fun to see completed work getting used by the public. And then we were home snuggling Autumn before bed.

Hey mom, sorry in advanced for your upcoming cold…

 

Anywho… Swirly Cheesecake Bars.

Cheesecake. Chocolate. A yummy crumbly pecan crust.

  

I fell in love with this crust. I think I need to use it with everything. I guess I just love pecans. And butter. It’s thick and crumbly and such a good base to these creamy cheesecake bars.

You can prepare the baking pan by greasing it but I’d also suggest placing two long pieces of overhanging parchment paper in the pan. This makes it really easy to remove the whole thing later to cut out the squares vs cutting them and then trying to remove them from the pan.

These bars are so good. Not super sweet which is really nice. It uses bittersweet chocolate so they still are a bit tart from the cream cheese and the chocolate, which I tend to like with some cheeescakes. If you don’t like it being too tart then just swap out the bittersweet chocolate for some semisweet chocolate and you’ll love these bars.

The top swirl is just for decoration. So be sure to swirl it up really pretty. Please don’t judge my lack of swirl skills. I need to work on them. Hey, maybe add some food coloring to jazz it up. And then send me a pretty picture. K, thanks.

Swirly Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

Makes 16 bars

Ingredients

• 2 ounces Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bar or chocolate chips
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 24 ounces cream cheese, softened at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar

Process

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease a 8 or 9-inch square baking pan. Or place overhanging pieces of parchment in the pan.
2. Combine the flour, pecans, butter, and brown sugar to make the crust. Press the mixture onto the pan. Bake 15 to 16 minutes, or until light golden brown. Let cool while preparing batter.
3.  Break the chocolate into small pieces (or use chocolate chips). Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in a microwave until smooth. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, granulated sugar, and vanilla extract until well blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
5. Remove 1 cup batter and set aside.
6. Add the melted chocolate to the batter in the large mixing bowl and combine. Spoon the chocolate batter over the cooled crust. Dallop the reserved plain batter over the chocolate batter. Using the blade of a butter knife, swirl the plain batter to create a marbled effect.
7. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until the center is set. Place the pan on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Cover and transfer the pan to the refrigerator to chill in the refrigerator approximately 3 hours. Dip a knife in warm water to warm up, waire off and then cut out the 16 squares. Whenever the knife gets dirty clean it off by dipping it into warm water again. Store covered in the refrigerator.

Sourced from Ghirardelli