I may have mentioned this on the blog before, but I like to make treats for each of my students on their birthdays. Some students request a specific type of cookie, brownie, or bar, and others ask to be surprised.
Regardless of what type of goodie I bring in, it is rarely a “healthified” (or “Laurenified”) version. Although I wish more of my students were interested in eating healthfully, a well-rounded diet of whole foods doesn’t seem to be on many of their radars. Most of the baked goods and desserts I make for myself are probably not the kind of birthday treats the typical high schooler is interested in.
<I have discussed my approach to eating and cooking with a few students, but I don’t feel it is my place to push it on them – they are old enough to make their own food choices, which will most likely mature as they do.>
That said, I decided to lighten the recipe for this double batch of Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Bars for my four students with summer birthdays. I knew from the Individual Cookies & Cream Cheesecakes I made a while back that this recipe could easily be made a bit healthier (without sacrificing flavor!) by subbing in 1/3-less-fat neufchatel cheese for full-fat cream cheese and replacing the sour cream with 2% plain Greek yogurt. I also stuck with no-junk-added Newman-O’s (linked below) in place of artificially flavored and high fructose corn syrup-sweetened Oreos. I highly doubt these ingredient substitutions can be detected – even by the most discerning teenage palate.
I divvied up most of the bars evenly between the three birthday boys and one birthday girl, and the rest were packaged up for John to bring in to work.
I think I’m going to need to make a smaller batch sometime soon for us to enjoy at home! The creamy cheesecake filling, which is dotted with pieces of sandwich cookie, sits atop a crumbly crust comprised of crushed cookies and heart-healthy canola oil (a fine substitute for melted butter). If cookies & cream is a flavor combination you like, I guarantee that you will love these bars.
Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Bars
adapted from RecipeGirl; originally from You Made That Dessert?
makes 24 medium-sized bars
Ingredients:
- 1 (16 oz) package cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Newman-Os
- 4 Tbsp canola oil
- 24 oz neufchatel (1/3 less fat) cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup evaporated cane juice or granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup 2% plain Greek yogurt, at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, allowing the sides to hang over the edges.
- Place 28 sandwich cookies in a food processor and process until finely ground. Transfer cookie crumbs to a large bowl, add in the canola oil, and stir until ingredients are well mixed.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking pan and spread the cookie crumbs evenly, using either your fingers or the back of a spoon.
- Bake for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire cooling rack.
- Place the remaining cookies (about 5 or 6) into the food processor and pulse a few times until the cookies are roughly chopped. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the neufchatel and evaporated cane juice with an electric mixer until well combined, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Beat in the Greek yogurt, vanilla, and salt. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat the mixture until smooth. Fold in chopped sandwich cookies.
- Pour the neufchatel mixture evenly over the baked cookie crust, and bake for 40 minutes, rotating pan once. Remove the pan to a wire rack to cool to room temperature, about 1 hour. Chill in the refrigerator, covered, at least 3 hours, or overnight.
- When ready to cut the cheesecake into bars, remove the contents of the pan by lifting up the sides of the parchment paper and transferring to a cutting board.
- Serve chilled.
These remind me of the Oreo Cheesecake Pie my friend made the other day. It was a dangerous thing in my house! :) I can only imagine these bars are just as dangerous and delicious!
First of all, i love that you bake for your students. That’s adorable!!
Second, I want these bars. Now. They look and sound amazing and I’m glad you lightened them up a bit. I’m going to try them soon.
These look so tasty. I don’t care about fat content when it comes to birthdays, I just have one piece/slice of the baking, and enjoy every second of it. Mmmm.
Very fun. I agree with Elina, I love that you are able to bake for your students. For some reason I thought schools were becoming really strict about this kind of stuff due to allergies and whatever and although I understood it made me sad, so I love that you are still able to do it. I’m varied in my dessert making approach – if I can lighten something up and still keep great flavor and texture (as you did here) I by all means healthify it. However, if I know I’m just going to be eating something as an occasional treat in a small portion I often go for the real thing.
Lauren! Thank you thank you thank you for sending these into work with John! He let me know right before they were about to be gone, so I was able to snag one! It was delicious, the highlight of my day. There’s no way anyone would think these were a lightened treat. Thanks again, can’t wait to make them (:
Meredith,
I’m so glad you enjoyed the bars! Let me know how they turn out if you make them :).
Thats so cute that you bake for your students…I bet they LOVE it!! What do you teach??
These look so delicious! I’m guessing that’s the mystery baked good Elina had a pic of on her latest post haha!
Bridget,
I work in a special education department – helping kids with slight learning disabilities. I’m actively searching for a guidance counselor position for next school year!
Oh my yum!
i agree, you totally can’t tell with these subs! they look amazing, and i’m sure the kiddos loved them :)
[...] close with your guesses in my last post. I made cookies ‘n cream cheesecake bars following this recipe from Food for Living. I literally saw it yesterday morning and then stopped by the grocery store on [...]
I love that you used the Newman-Os. I’ve only ever seen these types of bars made with oreos and when I saw “lightened up” on Tastespotting the cynic in me thought they’d probably still be made with junk food. :P
These look delicious! :)
These look so incredibly decadent and I am impressed that they are lightened up! I bet you would never know from tasting them!
WOW! These look soooo good!
xxMK
Delightful Bitefuls
Ahhhhh!! I’m obsessed with cookies and cream. I must must must make this.
I wanted plain cheesecake bars and so I adapted these a little and my word no one could tell they were reduced anything! They were so delicious and creamy! I made a graham cracker crust with graham crackers, plain 0% greek yogurt and brown sugar and then followed the recipe for the cheesecake batter. They came out to 150 per bar! Yum! Thanks so much!!!!
Oh I added some brown sugar, like 2 T because I figured it needed some since the cookies are so sweet and were omitted:). Perfection!