Caramel Cheesecake Bars

These bars are creamy, have the freshest graham cracker crust and perfect caramel bits for a surprising addition. You will NOT stop eating them and neither will your guests. They were huge crowd pleasers on Christmas and so easy to make. They should be on your list for your next party or even night in. 🙂

A cheesecake is best when it’s baked low and slow so this is how I have it listed below. I also like to bake the graham cracker crust for 10 minutes before adding the cheesecake filling to it. Obviously you can use a pre-made crust, but if I have time, I like to make it from scratch which only takes about 20 minutes (including the baking). WORTH IT!

Caramel Cheesecake Bars

Prep time: 25 minutes | Cook time (including graham cracker crust and the cheesecake: 1 hour and 10 minutes | Total time: 1 hour and 35 minutes

Ingredients

Crust:

4 tbs butter
6-8 graham crackers crushed in a ziplock
2 tbs granulated sugar

Cheesecake filling:

3 blocks of cream cheese at room temp
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tbs flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup caramel bits
3 tbs cinnamon

Recipe

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Melt the 4 tbs of butter in a sauce pan and while you’re doing that, pour the graham cracker crumbs and 2 tsp of sugar into a bowl.
Pour the melted butter onto the crumbs and sugar and stir until it’s all been mixed together.
In a 9×9 oven safe pan, lay parchment paper down and then spray with cooking spray. Once done, dump the graham cracker mixture into the pan and smooth it out to all sides making the crust. I like to use a 9×9 pan since they’ll be bars.
Put the dish into the oven for 10 min, this will give it a nice crispy texture prior to adding the filling.
While the crust is in the oven, put the 3 bricks of cream cheese into a mixer, or mix it with a hand mixer until it begins to get a little fluffy. You can’t really over mix cream cheese for a cheesecake, it just gets fluffier and that’s okay!
Once it’s all mixed, add the brown sugar and 3 eggs, one at a time until combined.
Add the flour and vanilla extract. The last thing, once it’s all mixed together and smooth is to add the cup of caramel bits. I usually have some extra off to the side to sprinkle on top before I put it into the oven.
Once the timer goes off, take the crust out of the oven and add the filling. Sprinkle the caramel bits on top and then bake the dish at 450 for 10 minutes and then reduce the heat to 250 and bake for an additional 50 minutes– like I said low and slow.
Once that’s done, put the dish into your fridge to cool completely. I like it to set overnight, but at the least- it needs to chill for a few hours.
Cut the cheesecake into bars when you’re ready to serve and sprinkle cinnamon on top.
Enjoy!