Nutella Swirled Cheesecake Bars

 If you love Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread) as much as I do, then you simply MUST try this recipe. It's from Pillsbury, so you already know that it's gonna be amazing, and OMG wait'll you taste it! I was looking for a picky-uppy dessert something, and as soon as I saw it, I couldn't wait to try it. Actually, I'm not even kidding when I say that. I stopped what I was doing, went to the store to buy the ingredients, and made them as soon as I got home. And of course they were as decadent as I thought they'd be!
 I've literally made them twice in as many weeks. The first time I made them was just as a little thank you to my friend Anthony, who said that "they might be his favorite thing ever." Then I made them for a my friend Marie's dinner party where they got RAVE reviews from everyone! I PROMISE you'll get the same reviews when you make them too!
 The only challenge is to not run out of Nutella before you go to make them! Does anyone else find it difficult to not eat it with a spoon right out of the jar? Uh.. I mean... I'm asking for a friend...

1 package (16 oz) Pillsbury™ Ready to Bake!™ refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough

3 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 tbs vanilla bean paste (or extract)

3 eggs

1/2 cup Nutella™ hazelnut spread

 Heat oven to 350°F. 

Place cookies in ungreased 13x9-inch pan. Press dough evenly into pan. Bake 9 to 13 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Spread evenly over baked crust. In small microwavable bowl, microwave hazelnut spread uncovered on High 10 to 20 seconds to soften. Drop teaspoonfuls of spread on cream cheese mixture. With knife, carefully swirl spread into top of cream cheese mixture. Bake 25 to 30 minutes longer or until filling is set. Cool 30 minutes. Refrigerate about 2 hours or until chilled.

 

 

Tips:

 If you'd like to make the crust from scratch, just use your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, but it seems to me that this is one instance where store bought is just as good!

This recipe has been slightly tweaked from the original Pillsbury recipe. The first time I made them, I felt that the bars were too thin (as you can see in the picture), and I wanted them to be a little thicker. So I increased the filling ingredients by half, but still followed the rest of the baking directions. I also used vanilla bean paste instead regular vanilla extract. They turned out MUCH better! Well, in my humble opinion, anyway.

 More is more, right?