Perfect for valentines or galentines, these beautiful and festive cheesecake bars are light, slightly tangy, fruity-chocolate swirled perfection, sitting on a toasty biscoff crust. Plus, the filling is no bake (we are baking the crust to avoid a soggy bottom), so if you use store-bought jam, they come together in under 30 minutes. Essentially, these will impress all of your friends with MINIMAL work.

I do have a few notes on the ingredients and process to help make this as simple and smooth for you as possible!

Number one, and a rule I have repeated many times (that doesn’t mean I always even listen, but still): actually let your ingredients come to room temp when the recipe calls for it. In one of my tests of this recipe, I forgot to set out my cream cheese to soften, but had to get out the door, so proceeded with cold cream cheese. I did a few of the viral quick-softening tricks, but ultimately ended up having to set my oven to its lowest setting for 15 minutes to heat it up, and then stick my bowl in a 100 degree oven for 10 minutes at a time until it was soft enough. It was very stressful and chaotic and all would have been avoided if I had listened to my own advice!

As for ingredients – the base here is a biscoff cookie crust, which is essentially a graham cracker crust but made with biscoff cookies instead (the little ones you get on some airplanes). If you haven’t tried them before, they are wonderfully delicious spiced cookies that I highly recommend. If you can’t find them, opt for ginger snaps or another variety of crisp, spiced cookies (or of course, graham crackers).

For the jam, I half made my own with a 1:1 ratio of the remainder of a jar of cherry preserves and homemade pomegranate jam. To make the jam, I used my any fruit jam recipe, which you can adapt to make your own cherry pomegranate jam (or to do what I did and make just the pomegranate half, which may be more difficult to come by). If you don’t want to bother making your own, store bought is fine as well. If you can’t find a cherry/pomegranate combo, you can buy both separate and combine, or just pick one – it will still be delicious!

I also have to say, do not be afraid of making ganache! I promise it is far easier than you would think. It is simply 1 part heavy cream, brought almost to a simmer, poured over 1 part chopped chocolate, stirred until you have ganache. Pour when warm and it will be runny and set up glossy, or chill for a fudgey, thick texture and matte appearance. It is that easy. Use for the center of lava cake, as a filling or glaze for a cake, on brownies, cupcake, anything you can imagine.

The last note, and one on most of my baking recipes – I have the below recipe in grams/weight and I HIGHLY encourage you to weigh your ingredients!! It is far more accurate – did you know there is not even a standard “cup”? So there really is no way to know you have the proper amount of whatever ingredient without the weight. This is especially important in baking where just a few dozen grams in the wrong direction could have a big impact. Here is the scale I use.

Chocolate cherry pomegranate cheesecake bars

Recipe by BakesWithRachCourse: DessertsDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Light and fluffy no-bake cheesecake filling on a toasty biscoff crust (baked to avoid a soggy bottom), swirled with chocolate ganache and cherry pomegranate jam.

Ingredients

• Biscoff crust

• 6oz biscoff cookies (12-14 cookies)

• 2 Tbsp raw sugar

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temp

• 1 egg yolk

• Filling

• 12oz or 340g full-fat cream cheese, room temp

• 93g (3/4 C) powdered sugar

• Big pinch salt

• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste*

• 250g (1 C) plain whole milk greek yogurt, room temp

• 155 mL (2/3 C) heavy cream

• Topping

• 2oz semi-sweet** chocolate, chopped

• 1/4 C heavy cream

• 1/4 C cherry pomegranate jam***

Directions

• Make the crust
• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a lightly greased 8×8 baking dish with parchment paper, smoothing it so it sticks to the entire surface, letting some overhang.
  
  **This is a great point to set out your cream cheese and greek yogurt if you have not already.**
• Break up the cookies as you put them into a food processor and process until they form a very fine crumb, but stop before they start to release oil and start to get wet. Transfer to a medium bowl.
• Add the yolk, butter, sugar, and salt to the bowl with the biscoff crumbs and mix with your hands until well combined and the mixture is thick and feels like wet sand.
  
  Transfer mixture to the prepared pan by the handful, pressing it all the way to the edges and smushing it together. Once all of the mixture is in the pan (feel free to leave some out for a thinner crust), use a flat bottomed measuring cup to smooth across the surface, pushing to secure the crust fully across the bottom.
• Bake for 13-15 minutes until set across the surface, slightly toasted and browned, and fragrant. Set aside to cool.
• Make the topping and the filling
• Make the ganache. To do this, add the chopped chocolate to a heat proof bowl. Add the heavy cream (1/4 c) to a small saucepan and heat over medium-low until steaming and almost simmering. Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate, stirring until combined and melted. Set aside, but leave at room temp.
• Whip the cream cheese, salt, vanilla, and powdered sugar with a hand mixer on medium-high until very light and fluffy (from 3-5 minute depending on your mixer). Add in the greek yogurt and beat until combined and aerated.
• In a separate bowl, whip the cream to stiff peaks (the peak will stand straight when you pull the whisk out of the bowl).
  
  Using a flexible spatula, transfer the mixture to the cream cheese bowl and gently fold to combine. Smooth the mixture onto the cooled crust, using an offset spatula to create a smooth top.
• Warm the jam in the microwave in small bursts until looser and runny.
• Pour three lines of ganache evenly across the top of the cheesecake, and then pour jam lines, alternating the where the chocolate is, so you have 4 lines of jam and 3 lines of chocolate.
  
  Using two toothpicks, gently swirl the chocolate lines into the cheesecake, clean them off and then swirl the jam until you get your desired look. Cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight, 8-12hrs. (this is necessary for a clean cut!)
• Once cooled, pull the cheesecake out of the pan by the parchment, slicing around the edges if needed, and place on a cutting board. gently pull the parchment down to reveal the sides. Slice in a 4×4 grid to get 16 squares. Serve.

Recipe Video

Notes

• *if you dont have vanilla bean paste, use 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract, or use vanilla extract and scrape vanilla pod seeds in
• Use another chocolate type if your prefer it darker/sweeter
• For the jam, either make your own (see above the recipe in post for details) or combine pomegranate and cherry jam in a 1:1 ratio