Nutella Swirl Cheesecake Bars

I love Nutella! I first had Nutella when I went to Italy when I was 10. We would sit at the hotel eating breakfast and they had this delicious, chocolatey spread in the bowl where they kept the jelly. I had no idea what it was at the time, but it quickly became out favorite. We would spread it on toast and eat as much of it as we could. Now, my daughter has Nutella almost every morning on crackers or a bagel. Sometimes I sneak some Chia Seeds on them just to add some nutrition.

The easiest way to get the bars out of the pan is to first lay a piece of parchment paper down on the pan. This can be kind of tricky, but I have a tip for you! Take the parchment paper that you are going to use and crumple it into a ball. Then uncrumple it and place it in the pan. It will now get all in corners of the pan without coming up! Make sure that there is enough parchment paper left so you have a little handle over the edges of the pan. This will allow you to easily lift the bars out of the pan.

Normal cheesecakes have a graham cracker crust. When I was thinking about making these cheesecake bars, I wanted to try something a little different, and chocolate bunny crackers were the answer! I’ve linked them here!

Pulverize them in the food processor just as you would regular graham crackers for the crust. I did not add sugar because the cookies have enough sugar in them already. Add melted butter to the food processor and continue processing it until it resembles wet sand. When that happens, pour it into the pan and evenly spread it throughout the bottom of the prepared pan. A trick to doing this is to take the bottom of a 1/4 cup measuring cup and pat it down on the crust. This will get it into all the corners of the pan. Bake that for about 5-8 minutes and then let it cool.

You will want to use 2 bricks of cream cheese and make sure that they are at room temperature. If they aren’t at room temperature and softened, the mixture will look curdled. It will still be fine, but you want to try to get the mixture as soft and as smooth as possible. Beating the cream cheese and the sugar for a few minutes before adding anything else will keep these cheesecake bars airy and light. Once you have beaten the cream cheese and the sugar together, add the egg and the vanilla. Continue to beat that until the mixture is completely combined. You may need to scrape down the bowl to ensure everything is incorporated. Once everything is combined, pour that on top of the crust.

Now let’s get to the swirling fun! It’s easiest to melt the Nutella before you try to put it on the cheesecake filling. Put it into a microwave safe bowl and microwave it for about 1 minute. Then, take a spoonful of the Nutella and place it on the cheesecake. Continue doing that until you are happy with the amount of Nutella on the cheesecake. In this size pan, you usually can get 5 or 6 drops of Nutella throughout. Then, take a butter knife and gently swirl the Nutella into the cheesecake mixture. You will want to get the knife into the cheesecake part through the Nutella. Move the knife throughout the cheesecake to get the swirling effect. Try not to go so far into the cheesecake that you hit the crust. You want to avoid hitting the crust.

These bars will need to bake for about 30-35 minutes. The bars should be puffy and lightly golden brown. They will still be a little bit jiggly when you take them out, but that’s ok, there’s some carry over cooking that will take place. Cool them for about an hour before you try to take them out of the pan. Lift them out of the pan with the overhung parchment paper. Cool them even further on a cooling rack. You can drizzle them with some more Nutella once they are cut and cooled. The more Nutella the better if you ask me! The bars can be eaten room temperature, but I think they are even better if you refrigerator them and serve them cold.

Check out some of my other recipes like my Apple and Walnut Crisp linked here or Peanut Butter Donuts linked here!

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