*Update 10/4/11: I won the editor’s choice award for these bars. Whee!
It’s Secret Recipe Club time again! Members of the club are assigned a secret food blog each month and they can pick any recipe(s) they want to make from the blog. On reveal day, nobody knows what other blogger was assigned their blog so I find it really fun.
This month I was super stoked to get assigned to Big Bear’s Wife, because Angie (who also happened to be my group’s host this month) has plenty of dessert recipes to choose from. I think you all know by now that dessert is both my strength and my weakness!
I thought of Dennis when I saw these bars because he loves cherries and chocolate. Chocolate-covered cherries (aka cherry cordials), black forest ice cream sundaes, cherry mudslides (layers of ice cream, cherry pie filling, and hot fudge), black forest cake. He loves it all. And I think I’ve mentioned my little cheesecake problem. So yeah, I pretty much had to make these. And then I pretty much had to get them out of the house as soon as possible so I didn’t eat the whole pan. I managed to inhale two rows before he got them out the door to bring to work. Doh!
I never buy packaged cookie dough (perhaps it’s hypocritical to be for cake mixes but against premade cookie dough-lol), so I adapted the recipe with homemade, but you can use a package of store-bought to save time.
Be sure to check out all the other secret recipe club blogs at the bottom of this post! ***Something is up with the linky thing so there may be no links at the bottom. While it is getting figured out, you can go to Big Bear’s Wife at the bottom of her post to see all the links.***
Choco-Cherry Cheesecake Cookie Bars
Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture
Sugar Cookie layer:
½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened to cool room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 large egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Filling & topping:
1 egg, separated
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
¼ teaspoon almond extract
3 drops red food color
1 jar (10 oz) maraschino cherries, finely chopped, drained on paper towels
1 (12 oz) bag semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)
½ cup butter or margarine
½ cup whipping cream
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars for 3-4 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg and extracts and mix until blended. Add half the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix. Add remaining flour and mix just until flour is incorporated and the dough is smooth and soft. Spread and press dough into the bottom of a 9”x13” baking dish. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until light golden brown. Meanwhile, in small bowl, beat 1 egg white until frothy. Brush egg white over crust. Bake 3 minutes longer or until egg white is set.
Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add egg yolk, 2 eggs, the condensed milk, almond extract and food color; beat until well blended. Stir in chopped cherries. Pour cherry mixture evenly over crust. Bake 20-25 minutes longer or until set. Cool completely, about 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, in medium saucepan, heat chocolate chips and butter over low heat, stirring frequently, until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Cool 20 minutes. Stir whipping cream into chocolate mixture until well blended. Spread over cooled bars. Refrigerate about 30 minutes or until chocolate is set. For bars, cut into 8 rows by 6 rows. Store in refrigerator.
Recipe source: adapted from Big Bear’s Wife
Veronica's Cornucopia 
These look fantastic!! Love the layers! I hope Dennis appreciated them, :-)
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These bars look so pretty! Great job with them!
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I love your choice and I love how these bars look!
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These looks delicious. I love the combo of chocolate and cherry. Add that to the sugar cookie crust and these must be wonderful!
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Wow, these are beautiful. The contrasting colors in your photos are stunning. If these taste half as good as they look, they’ve got to be a winner. Yum!
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Ohhhh these look so beautiful! And I am sure they taste even better! Great job!
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These look soooo good! Love how you said, “dessert is both my strength and my weakness.”
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Wow, very colorful!
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What awesome sounding bars! They look super tasty!
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These look delicious. The colors are speaking to me. Or is it the combination of cheesecake and chocolate….:)
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This look amazing and delicious aabsolutely tempting!!
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Holy heck! I’m speechless. But I want them now!
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Love the different layers and colors, so pretty!
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I really like the colours and they sound delicious – great job for the SRC!
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WOW – these just looks so professionally done. Nice work on SRC!
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These look absolutely fantastically amazing!
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Looks wonderful, great choice for SRC.
If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to check out my Group ‘A” ~ SRC recipe this month: Cilantro Lime Chicken
Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook
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These bars are so beautiful! I love all the layers! Great SRC post!
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One word … yum!
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Very nice. These would be great for one of those potlucks at the church. Another good recipe for SRC.
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These look unbelievably good!!! I can’t wait to try making them. :) Thanks for sharing!!
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Those bars are soooo pretty. Chocolate and cherry is the best :)
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You can beat the cherry/chocolate combo – looks amazing Veronica!
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So pretty. I loved how you applied the frosting, too!
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Chocolate and cherry are really good friends! They will always be their for each other and help us when we get sad :)
These are awesome and thanks for sharing..
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wow, these look gorgeous, I have to Book mark this!, my kid loves cheese cakes, these look very beautiful and inviting, Angie is a wonderful host, you have a lovely blog it’s a pleasure to enjoy SRC with you dear friend
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OKAY THIS LOOKS ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS……I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE NOW!!!!!!! ADDING CHERRIES 2 MY SHOPPING LIST! GREAT CHOICE FOR SRC….I LOVE BEING PART OF SUCH A FUN CLUB!!!
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These look like such a great treat! Chocolate and cherries were made for eachother =)
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Oh wow, do these look fantastic!! I can never resist the chocolate/cherry combo…I’m bookmarking this!
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That is one fantastic looking dessert!!
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Look’s like you did a great job yummy yummy yummy I see why you ate 2 rows of them.
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How can you not want to eat this? I’m not even a cherry fan, but I really want to eat this. The colors are gorgeous! Wonder if you could use another fruit, like strawberries or raspberries. Nice SRC pick!
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I bet you could!
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Soooooooooo pretty!
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I’ll have to try this cake – it looks fantastic! How many servings are there in this portion?
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It depends on how big the squares are that you cut. From 16-24.
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They Look wonderful!!!! I am so glad that you liked it! I love the color layers.
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Wow, I want to jump into your picture and devour the rest of the pan! Looks great!
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Veronica, my family would love these and they’d quickly disappear. This is my first visit to your blog so I spent some time browsing through your earlier posts. I’m so glad I did that. I really like the food and recipes you feature here and I’ll definitely be back. I hope you have a great day. Blessings…Mary
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Love the bright pink in there! These sound delicious!
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These look gorgeous, Veronica. Love the flirty pink, very interesting pick :) Glad to have you as part of the group
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These are so pretty! I love all the colorful layers!
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OMG , these bars are super cool!
Happy to meet ya @ SRC~
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This looks wicked!! My favorite treat is a Black Forest Brownie, I make it every year for my birthday! This I must make!
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WOW – these looks SOOOO tasty! Love the beautiful red color in between. I bet they taste just spectacular. Glad to be part of the SRC club with you. Great blog you have!!!
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These look incredible! Love chocolate and cherries!
<
Concetta
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IN THE OVEN NOW! I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Wow, you work fast! I hope you love them. :)
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These bars look wonderful! Love the pink.
Awesome to be in the Secret Recipe Club with you. Here is my post for September http://su.pr/1Sizv9
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LOVED THEM-WILL POST TOMORROW AND ADDED A LINK BACK TO YOUR BLOG!!!!
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Yay! Thanks for letting me know. :)
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I thought we ought to make something yummy today and of course you have a great recipe waiting for me! I told Bo I found one to make and told him the name and he said “wow.” Hah! Desserts are what I like to make (and eat) best. If only making dinner wasn’t such a drag. But who needs dinner when you have Choco-cherry cheesecake cookie bars?!?
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Tracy, you crack me up girl! It’s what I like to make and eat best too. Cooking IS a drag! lol
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oh wow! these look soooo good! would be great for a party.
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