Nutella Cheesecake Bars.

The other night, I decided to have some friends over to watch movies and I wanted to have some really delicious treats for us to snack on. I had an extra large jar of Nutella and decided to use it to make a cheesecake. I cut up the cheesecake into small bar in order for it to be portable/hand held for everyone to easily eat.

Ingredients.

I used Oreos for the crust instead of graham crackers because...well, who can't get enough of chocolate? So I layered the cheesecake into 3 levels: the Oreo crust, plain cheesecake, and Nutella cheesecake.

3 layers of deliciousness: Oreo crust, plain cheesecake, and Nutella cheesecake.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of Oreo crumbs
• 1/4 cup melted, unsalted butter
• 16 ounces of cream cheese at room temperature (very important!)
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup Nutella

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and butter an 8x8 baking dish and line with parchment paper making sure the parchment is well pressed in the corners.
2. In a food processor, pulse Oreos until they become crumbs. Add in melted butter and pulse until moistened. Press Oreo mixture evenly into the bottom of the baking dish and bake until the crust is set about 12 minutes. Set aside.
3. Mix cream cheese, eggs, sugar, 1/4 cup heavy cream, and vanilla until its smooth. Put 2/3 of the mixture in a bowl and set aside. Add Nutella  and a tablespoon of heavy cream to the remaining cream cheese mixture. Pulse until smooth.
4. To assemble, spread the plain cheesecake mixture over the cooled Oreo crust. Then pour the Nutella cheesecake layer on top of the plain cheesecake layer and spread evenly. 
5. Bake on the center rack of the oven for 35 minutes or until the center slightly jiggles.
6. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a cooling rack. Then refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
7. When ready to serve, lift the cheesecake out of the pan and cut into 16 squares and serve.

Voila!

Donut Friend.

Donuts are one of America's classic desserts. It's not only police officers who love them. But donuts have kind of been put on the back burner in lieu of more popularized cupcakes and macarons. I mean let's face it, donuts haven't really made a comeback since Krispy Kreme came around and introduced a whole new level of decadence to the glazed donut. Anyway, since I love donuts, I've been on a search for some good donut shops. A lot of the places I've tried going to, however, have had long lines, ran out of their products, or just send their products to other bakeries. That's pretty snobby if you ask me...in fact, one of those places was named "Donut Snob".

Last week, however, I found out about Donut Friend...a quaint, new donut shop in Highland Park with some pretty amazing combinations of ingredients in their donuts and even a build your own option! The donuts were to die for and what I love about this place is that its not....well, snobby. They don't pride themselves on selling out of their products and they want to serve everyone who enters the store.

My friend opted for the build you own option, which was great. I indulged in Nutellavision and Walnut Voodoo. Both were amazing and I will definitely be back there again!

Nutellavision: Nutella and a dash of olive oil inside a traditional donut, topped with a sugar glaze.

Walnut Voodoo: a traditional donut stuffed with cream cheese, toasted walnuts, and a drizzle of maple syrup.