Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Butter the bottom and sides of an 8-inch baking pan. Put a long piece of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan, letting the parchment extend up the two short sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends. (This will make it easy to remove the bars from the pan after they have baked.) Butter the parchment.

In a large bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Combine the mixture, then turn it out into the prepared pan. Using your hands, press the crust into an even layer on the bottom of the pan. Bake in preheated oven for 6 minutes. Remove pan to a cooling rack. Do not turn your oven off.

While the crust is cooling, prepare the chocolate chip cookie dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt and vanilla until smooth, about 1 minute. On low speed, mix in the flour until just incorporated. Mix in the chocolate chips. Set aside.

To make the cheesecake filling, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Mix in the egg and vanilla on low speed just until incorporated. Spread the cheesecake filling into the prepared crust. Using your hand to form clumps, distribute the cookie dough onto the top of the cheesecake batter in teaspoon-sized clumps, using all of the dough. You will cover most of the cheesecake batter.

Bake 28-30 minutes, until the top cookie dough layer feels dry and firm and the entire pan looks set if given a gentle shake. Move bars to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

Lift the bars out by the overhang; slice into desired size and store in the refrigerator. Serve cold or at room temperature.