White Chocolate Cheesecake Butter Bars

It can be tricky naming or re-naming a dessert and I have decided that something with a long name must be good!  I found this recipe and quickly realized that the title it had didn't seem to do it justice.  Everyone who has read my postings know how I love cheesecake and these bars essentially have a cheesecake layer that wasn't getting any recognition in the title, such a shame!  These tasty little numbers are really quite easy and are so very yummy!

While I love chocolate, especially dark chocolate, I still have this love of vanilla.  For a cake mix, this translate to the yellow cake mix so the fact that this crust is primarily a yellow cake mix makes for a great start!  You will mix the cake mix with some butter, slightly softened and 1 egg.  I started out by using my pastry blender,

Then just decided to use my hands to really get the butter and egg to combine with the cake mix. 

Once it formed a thick dough, I kinda pulled the dough out (should have left it in the bowl!) sprayed the cake pan and pressed the dough to form the bottom crust.

Once that was done I sprinkled the white chips over the crust.

Next was the filling of cream cheese, powdered sugar, the rest of the eggs and some vanilla.  This is pretty much a basic cheesecake here so once that was all blended together nicely I poured that on top of the chocolate chip layer.

Next it is time to bake it.  Since this has a cheesecake layer I decided to go ahead and do a water bath, to make sure the layer didn't crack at all.

It bakes for 20-30 minutes, or until the center is set.  I was nervous about over baking this one so I kept a careful eye on it and took it out at the 30 minute mark.

You can see that the edges are lightly browned.  Next it needs to be sprinkled with powdered sugar.  For me, trying to sprinkle a fair amount of powdered sugar is never easy.  It seems to stick together and when I try to gently shake it loose, I get large amounts of the sugar that just seem to burst out!  I found this little handy sifting too to help with just such tasks.

Keeps the big clumps out as well.  Once the dessert  has a nice thick layer of powdered sugar, try very hard to resist the urge to cut into this right away!

 Like any cheesecake you need to let it set up for a bit.  Now, I did let it set up for a bit so it was at room temperature when I tried it and it was so good!  I stored it in the fridge and tasted good cold, but I think it is meant to be enjoyed at room temperature or even warmed up for 10 seconds.

Give these a try and enjoy!

White Chocolate Cheesecake Butter Bars

Ingredients

1/2 cup cold butter
1 box yellow cake mix
3 eggs, divided
1, 8 oz block of cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar, plus more for dusting
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325.  Spray a 9x13" pan with cooking spray
2. In your mixing bowl combine the butter and cake mix. Mix until the cake mix looks crumbly.
3. Add egg and beat until smooth. Batter will be stiff. May need to use your hands at this point.  Press your mixture into your prepared pan.
4. Sprinkle the white chocolate chips evenly over batter.
5. In another mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.
6. Pour this evenly over white chocolate chips and spread to edges of pan.
Bake for approx 30 minutes until center is set. Remove from oven and dust with powdered sugar.
Let cool before cutting into squares.