Cherries and chocolate plus cream cheese all combine to make these cheesecake bars totally scrumptious! One slice is not enough for these holiday favorite cherry and chocolate cheesecake bars!
Before the pandemic and lockdowns, we used to have a monthly fellowship meal at our church. It was always a potluck gathering and each family was requested to bring a salad or appetizer, a main dish, and some dessert.
I usually make a savory dish because my daughter takes care of dessert. She’s only 12 years old but is quite a good baker and actually makes better cakes than me. So I let her choose whatever she wants to make.
This time though, we were a bit short on time and didn’t want to make any dessert that’s complicated or would require too many ingredients.
So I did some quick google search and looked for a dessert that uses a cake mix, after all, we already had one on hand. It was just a case of what do we do with it.
I found quite a few recipes online for Chocolate Cherry Bars and they all truly looked delicious.
However, I found out that some of them required too much sugar on the recipe like an extra 2 1/2 cups of icing sugar on top of having sweetened cherries and chocolate chips. That was way too much sugar for me.
While I like sweets, I don’t like them so sugary to the point of being sickening. I wanted a touch of sweetness but a hint of something else that could provide some contrast to the sweetness. I wanted something slightly complex than just the flavor of sugar.
I thought of adding cream cheese to the mix as that surely would be a nice and creamy contrast to the sweetness of the other ingredients. So as not to mask the cream cheese taste, I only used about 1/2 cup of icing sugar (instead of 2 1/2 cups!).
After all, the cake mix is already sweet and the maraschino cherries and choco chips would also add extra sweetness so there’s no need to overdo it with extra sugar.
This formula made these Cherry and Chocolate Cheesecake Bars yummy, still quite sweet but not sickly sweet! Anyway, hope you like it.
This is a great dessert bar to serve any time but especially during the holidays whether it be for Valentine’s Day or Christmas Day!
Cherry Chocolate Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick), melted and cooled slightly
- 1 box white cake mix (15 oz)
- 3 large eggs (divided), room temperature
- 1 package cream cheese (8 oz), softened
- ½ cup confectioner’s sugar (powdered or icing sugar)
- ¾ cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
- 1 bottle maraschino cherries (10 oz), drained and coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 F. Grease or lightly butter a 9 x 13 baking dish.Stir together the melted butter, cake mix and 1 egg until moistened. Press evenly over the prepared pan.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the softened cream cheese, sugar, and the remaining 2 eggs until smooth and free of lumps. Make sure the cream cheese has been fully softened so the cheesecake turns out smooth.Stir in the chocolate chips and the chopped cherries. Spread evenly over the cake mix layer.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 35-40 minutes or until the cheesecake is set at the center. Let cool completely in the pan before cutting and serving. Chill if not serving right away.
Last updated on August 17th, 2023 at 02:21 pm
This looks so yummy and delicious! I can’t wait to give this a try! So excited to give this a try!
This sounds like a great dessert for tonight! I love cherry and chocolate together the flavor is one of my favorites!
What an easy recipe for such delicious cheesecake dessert bars. I love the flavor combination of cherries and chocolate too!
Cherry and chocolate is a match made in heaven, the fact they’re in a cheesecake bar just tops everything off! Can’t wait to try the recipe 🙂
Such a fun and unique treat are these cherry and chocolate cheesecake bars! So easy and delicious; exactly what I needed to cure my sweet tooth!
These were so good! I am going to lock this recipe up or I will be making them every day. Thanks for sharing.