These Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookie Dough Bars are inspired by one of Kyle’s favorite treats to pick up from the Amish Farmer’s Market: Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars. They have a lightly sweetened cheesecake filling sandwiched between two layers of barely baked and slightly gooey chocolate chip cookies.
Kyle has tried to recreate these bars at home by using a fairly straightforward method: take any cookie dough recipe that yields around 2 dozen cookies and layer them with simple cheesecake filling. However, things didn’t go as planned and the test batches never quite matched the irresistible bars from the Amish Market.
During the 2020 Covid-19 holiday season, Kyle found himself with A LOT of cookie dough on hand. In fact, there were about 25 dozen portions of cookie dough stored in the freezer. With not many to share cookies with during social distancing, Kyle experimented with different flavor variations of the Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars. Sometimes recreating a recipe just doesn’t work out, no matter how hard you try. So, the chosen path for Kyle was to reinvent!
First there were Oatmeal White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies sandwiched with vanilla cheesecake filling. Then came Molasses Spice Cookies with a eggnog-flavored cheescake filling. Next, possibly the most creative grouping of the lot was the delicious medley of Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Fudge Cookie dough with peanut butter cheesecake filling.
By the time Christmas actually rolled around, Kyle had been down the rabbit hole of cookie dough bars, creating a version with pumpkin cheesecake and butter pecan with our Brown Sugar Cookies. It was Cookie Dough Cheesecake mania!
The combination of pumpkin, toasted pecans and the brown butter created Kyle’s favorite flavor of all the cheesecake bars – besides the original from the Amish Market.
The 2020 holidays were almost a memory when this latest version was created. With New Year’s resolutions and healthy eating after the holidays, it just didn’t seem like the right time to introduce a new cookie bar. So, these delicious treats waited to be debuted for the 2021 holiday season.
The Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookie Dough Bars are delicious, decadent and they will last several days in the fridge, if they don’t disappear immediately. They might be too scrumptious to resist for very long!
This recipe also benefits from a bit of planning ahead. Get the dough nice and cold in the fridge before assembling and baking the bars. This way, by the time the cheesecake filling has set, the cookie dough layers are still slightly under-baked, giving them that gooey cookie texture.
This recipe will be great for the fall season right through December. They are versatile in flavor giving them an all around holiday vibe.
Whip up a batch for Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving, Christmas or just an ordinary Wednesday. These yummy bars will be a hit whenever they are served!
- For the Cookie Dough:
- 14 tablespoons unsalted butter (1¾ sticks)
- 350 grams (1 ¾ cups) packed dark brown sugar
- 300 grams (about 2 cups) gluten free cookie flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum
- 2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cups pecans, toasted and roughly chopped
- For the Cheesecake:
- 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup (53 g.) dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup pumpkin puree
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- For the cookie dough, heat the butter in a pan over medium-high heat until melted. Continue to cook the butter until it is browned a dark golden color and smells nutty, about 2 to 4 minutes. Transfer the browned butter to a large bowl and let it rest for 15 min.
- Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, xanthan gum and milk powder in a bowl. Add brown sugar and salt to cooled butter and mix until there are no lumps. Add egg, yolk, and vanilla to butter mixture and mix well, then add flour mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in the pecans. Refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- For the cheesecake filling, beat together the cream cheese, dark brown sugar, egg, pumpkin, vanilla and spices using a stand or handheld mixer.
- Line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper and place about half of the cookie dough (it doesn’t have to be exact!) in the bottom of the pan. Press the dough down into the pan to create a flat, even layer. Spread the cheesecake evenly over the cookie dough layer. Sprinkle the remaining cookie dough over the cheesecake layer.
- Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch. Cool 30 minutes. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or until chilled. For bars, cut into 4 rows by 4 rows. Store in the refrigerator.
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