Crème Brûlée Cheesecake Bars

Crème Brûlée Cheesecake Bars – EASY bars that taste like crème brûlée met a cheesecake on the way to the oven with a sugar cookie crust!! Rich, sinfully decadent, and a great make-ahead dessert for parties and events!!

How Do The Crème Brûlée Cheesecake Bars Taste

One of my favorite desserts is Crème Brûlée and these easy bars taste like crème brûlée met a cheesecake on the way to the oven. 

There is a sugar cookie crust that is thick, chewy, and it’s a great contrast to the velvety smooth crème brûlée-cheesecake filling.

The toffee bits on top melt slightly and create that signature sheen that you typically see on crème brûlée. 

The bars are thick, rich, decadent, and a small piece is probably all you’ll need.

How To Make The Bars

The crust for the bars starts out with a couple baking shortcuts including a packet of sugar cookie mix and instant French vanilla pudding. Mix everything together and press the dough into the bottom of your pan. You don’t have to prebake this crust which is convenient and saves time.

If you don’t have those items in your area, I’m sure you can improvise and make a different crust. As a jumping off point and I haven’t tested this, but I would make a 1.5x-batch of this Samoas Cookie Pie crust, and don’t prebake it. 

Then mix together the filling which is cream cheese, eggs, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla.

A huge tip here is to make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature and very soft. If it’s not, when you try to beat the ingredients together, small ‘blobs’ of cream cheese will remain because it’s too cold to emulsify with the eggs and you’ll have a very lumpy and unappetizing looking batter.

Baking Time Adjustments

I ever so slightly adapted this recipe from this site and while they suggest a baking time of 30 to 35 minutes, the center of my cream cheese layer was still far too loose and jiggly and I needed to bake for 45 minutes.

I suggest starting to check at 30 minutes just in case your bars bake much quicker.

As with anything and everything you bake, bake until it’s done, in your oven, with your pan, ingredients, climate, and to your liking. Use the baking times listed only as guidelines and watch your item and not the clock.

The bars do firm up a bit after cooling at room temp and then chilling in the fridge.

Easy Make-Ahead Dessert

Because the bars need to chill for about 3 hours in the fridge (I chilled overnight), they’re a great make ahead dessert. Serving them well chilled is definitely the way to go.

You can easily make this recipe 24-48 hours in advance and they will hold up just fine. 

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Crème Brûlée Cheesecake Bars

Crème Brûlée Cheesecake Bars - EASY bars that taste like crème brûlée met a cheesecake on the way to the oven with a sugar cookie crust!! Rich, sinfully decadent, and a great make-ahead dessert for parties and events!!

Yield: 24

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Additional Time 3 hours

Total Time 4 hours

Ingredients

Crust

• one 17.5 ounce pouch sugar cookie mix
• one 3.5 ounce box instant French vanilla pudding mix
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Filling

• two 8-ounce blocks cream cheese, at room temp and very soft
• 1 large egg
• 3 large egg yolks (discard whites or save for another use)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup toffee bits

Instructions

Crust

1. Preheat oven to 350F, line a 9x13-inch pan with aluminum foil for easier cleanup, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
2. To a large bowl, add all the crust ingredients and stir to combine until a thick dough forms. Turn dough out into prepared pan into an even flat layer; set aside.

Filling

1. To the same large bowl (wipe it out with a paper towel if necessary), add all ingredients except the toffee bits, and beat with a handheld electric mixer on high speed until the blended and smooth. Tip - Make sure your cream cheese is very soft otherwise it will be hard to fully emulsify the cream cheese and you'll end up with little 'blobs' that are hard to blend.
2. Turn filling out over the crust and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes or until the center is set and not jiggly. Start checking for doneness at 30 minutes and bake as necessary. Note - I adapted this recipe from another website and that site says to bake for 30 to 35 minutes but the center of my bars was still way too loose at 35 minutes and I needed to bake for 45 minutes; bake as long as necessary given your oven and how your bars look.
3. Immediately evenly sprinkle the toffee bits and allow bars to cool at room temp for about 30 minutes.
4. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or until chilled before serving. Bars will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Adapted from Betty Crocker

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

24

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 254Total Fat: 15gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 81mgSodium: 179mgCarbohydrates: 25gFiber: 0gSugar: 19gProtein: 4g

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