Skinny Mini Cookies And Cream Cheesecakes

Skinny Mini Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

Well, they’re relatively skinny. They’re not Paleo, but they’ll do!

Everyone tries to get all healthy in the new year, but they don’t see Valentine’s Day coming. No siree, not by a mile. So imagine how health plans do when faced by giant heart-shaped boxes of candy!

This recipe lets you have your romantic dessert and still exercise portion control. These little cheesecakes are full of cookies and cream goodness, but they won’t do horrible things to your healthy resolves. Winning!

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Gingerbread Cookie Cheesecake Bars

Gingerbread Cookie Cheesecake Bars

We’re here. Gingerbread season. Let’s do it up right!

I’ll be honest with you: I have very mixed feelings about the holidays. They seem to be an elaborate ruse to guide us toward winter with enthusiasm, where we’re left in January with bare trees, chilly mornings and frozen windshields. But on the other hand, those lights sure are pretty.

While I don’t celebrate Christmas, I can get down with gingerbread anything. That includes these gingerbread cookie cheesecake bars, which are both easy and festive. They’re also studded with cinnamon chips, one of my favorite baking inventions.

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Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownie Bars

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownie Bars

Oh, lord. Here I go with the cheesecake again.

I mean, it’s pretty much impossible not to love cheesecake, so why not one more push for pumpkin? Or wait…I might have yet another post in the pipeline with that lovely form of orange squash. Can you take one more after this?

Either way, this one is quite a literal winner. I entered these bars in a D.C. top chef-style contest a few years ago, and they cleaned up. I won not only the dessert category, but also the overall grand prize. So believe me, you want to make these.

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Turkey Cupcakes

Turkey Cupcakes

It’s gobble-gobble time. All lovers of cute treats, check it out!

After Halloween, there’s a ton of spilled candy corn everywhere. In pantries, cabinets, behind the fridge…yep. I wind up finding candy corn wedged into small spaces way after it’s out of season. How to deal with this?

Use it, fast! And the best way to transition from one holiday to the next is to use candy corn in these adorable chocolate ganache cupcakes. With an Oreo turkey on top, nobody can resist! Look at their little faces.

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Peanut Butter Blondie Muffins

Peanut Butter Blondie Muffins

You all know how much peanut butter blondies rock, right? What if they were in muffin form? What then?

If you are getting excited, join me. I’m pretty psyched about these. You see, I’ve never been much of a muffin girl. To me, a muffin is a cupcake without frosting. Yes, I know that’s technically wrong, but whatever.

When a muffin gets to emulate one of my favorite dessert bars, though, I’m down. These are the best dang muffins I’ve had in many a day.

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars

Everyone loves cheesecake. Everyone loves chocolate chip cookies. Let’s make them a duo like peanut butter and chocolate. You dig?

Seriously, when you love something, you don’t set it free. You keep it in your life and obsess over it. I’ve never been able to turn down cheesecake, especially if it’s packed with milk chocolate chips. I’ve never been able to turn down a chocolate chip cookie, unless something is majorly wrong in my life.

Putting them together just equals total happiness. If anyone wants to be unhappy, stop reading.

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Snickers Cheesecake Loaf

Snickers Cheesecake Loaf

Who knew that cheesecake could be made in a loaf pan? I never even realized that was an option.

That is, until I read the narrative baking book Saved by Cake by Marian Keyes. If you’re not familiar with her work, she’s an Irish chick lit author. Her books are funny, honest, and have some fantastically complex characters. I’ve been a huge fan for quite a while.

So when she wrote a baking book a few years back, I couldn’t wait to buy it. This cheesecake loaf is an adaptation of one of the recipes in her book. I’ve changed it, but it’s the same idea. Sorry, Marian. I reserve the right to tinker. That’s what baking is all about!

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S’Moreo Cheesecake Bars

S’Moreo Cheesecake Bars

Well, it only took a month to get here.

Seriously, I bought these s’more-flavored Oreos a month ago. And I was all excited about making something with them with the vague intention of having it be s’moreo cupcakes. Life got in the way, and it didn’t happen. The cookies just sat in my cabinet until a few days ago, when fate intervened.

I was trying to make cheesecake bars and realized after I began (hate it when this happens) that I was out of both graham cracker crumbs and graham crackers. But instead of giving up, which is not what a baker does, I remembered the s’moreos. And suddenly, these cheesecake bars crystallized in my head and came to life!

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Strawberry Cookie Chips Icebox Cheesecake

Strawberry Cookie Chips Icebox Cheesecake

It just hit me: July 4th is a few short weeks away. How did this happen?

Well, that’s a dumb question. It’s not like I didn’t work hard for July 4th to become a reality. Months of commuting to work in the dark, sometimes in the ice, often in the rain. Months of teaching teenagers the difference between “it’s” and “its.” Months of wrapping myself up in a blanket at my desk when the heat in my classroom, once again, failed to deliver.

I mean, it dang well better be July 4th. And it better be icebox cheesecake weather. Because no-bake is definitely the way to go right now! Especially when this holiday-themed, easy dessert is filled with delicious Hannah Max cookie chips!

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