One of the best cheesecake ideas I have seen, these use candy bars!  With a shortbread crust and Twix and Rolo candies, this is a fun twist on cheesecake bars recipes.

I think I spent like $25 on candy and junk at the grocery store, just to have an excuse to make these cheesecake bars.

It seems like cheesecake bars are like the cool kid on the block these days.  Everyone is making them.  Peanut Butter Cheesecake Bars, Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars, Turtle Cheesecake Bars, Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake Bars, Pumpkin Nutmeg Cheesecake Bars… you name it, you can make it into a cheesecake bar.

And weirdly, even though I really enjoy a good cheesecake, and I post practically nothing but dessert recipes on this site, the cheesecake recipes are few and far between here.  It was time this situation came to an end.

Pinterest and I became good friends.  I put “cheesecake bars” in the search bar and oohed and aahed for, well, probably hours.  There really are an amazing number of cheesecake bar recipes out there.

I ended up forming my very own creation.  For this amazing creation, I started with a shortbread crust.  I wanted the bar to bear a passing resemblance to a Twix bar, and Twix has shortbread in the filling.  Shortbread is pretty easy to make, and requires no leavening, and since I wasn’t at all concerned about the shape of this particular shortbread cookie, I didn’t even chill the dough.  I just pressed it into my 9×13 and tossed it in the oven.

Height of laziness, I know.

The next step was to layer the caramel.  For this, I used caramel candies cut in half.  I put them on as soon as the shortbread crust came out of the oven, the the heat from the crust would start to melt the caramel.  Then I cut up some actual Twix Bars, and smashed them into the melty caramel.

Pour the cheesecake mixture over the top and you are almost done.  I decided to top these with Rolo Minis.  I chose Rolo because the chocolate-caramel combination is pretty darn similar to the chocolate-caramel-shortbread combination in the Twix bars.

Plus, the Rolos come in minis, and the minis are just so darn cute.

Ultimately, I found these bars to be very rich.  If you’re not into cream cheese and 3 zillion calories in every bite, these are not for you.  But, if you’re into $7 slices of fancy cheesecake… we should be friends!

Want more?  Check out these cheesecake recipes!

Inspired by Bakers Royale

Twix Cheesecake Bars

 

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Cook time

30 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

A caramel chocolate chip cheesecake bar with a shortbread crust, and Twix and Rolo candies.

Author: Jen @ Jen's Favorite Cookies

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 12-20

Ingredients

CRUST:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• ¾ cup powdered sugar
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 2 cups flour

CHEESECAKE:

• 12 oz. cream cheese, softened
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 6 oz. chocolate chips

OTHER:

• 4 Twix bars
• 1 pkg. Rolo minis
• 25 light caramels (I used all of an 8 oz. package.)

Instructions

1. For the crust: Mix butter with sugar and cornstarch. Add salt and flour and mix until combined.
2. Press dough into the bottom of a 9"x13" cake pan, lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
3. While crust is baking, prepare candy by unwrapping caramels and cutting them in half, and unwrapping Twix bars and cutting them in fourths.
4. When crust is removed from the oven, immediately sprinkle with caramel candies. Place Twix bar pieces evenly over the top.
5. Combine cream cheese with sugar and egg. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour mixture over the crust.
6. Sprinkle with mini Rolo candies. (Use as many as you want. I used about ⅔ of the bag.)
7. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.
8. Let cool completely before cutting. (I chilled mine in the fridge for a couple hours.)

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 If you enjoy this recipe, you might also enjoy:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake Squares from Chocolate Moosey
Caramel Toffee Cheesecake Bars from Annies Eats
Skor Chocolate Cheesecake from Once Upon a Chocolate Life