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January 11, 2012

Toblerone Cheesecake Bars

Toblerone cheesecake bars
The last two Christmases, my friend has given me one of those giant Toblerone bars that I could never eat all by myself. Last year I had to get a lot of help from my family to finish it, but this year I realized that a huge amount of quality chocolate like that was just begging to be baked into something delicious! So I used part of the bar in these Toblerone shortbread cookies, which had a really nice flavour but turned out to be a little on the hard side. That could very well have been my own fault and not the recipe, so I’ll definitely be giving them another try one day. With the rest of the bar, I decided to use them in a dessert I’ve never once not liked: cheesecake!

Because I didn’t have any special occasions coming up that I could serve a big cheesecake at, and because it’s a little hard to send slices of cake to Ryan’s coworkers, I decided to make more portable cheesecake bars. I remembered a recipe from Cookin’ Canuck for Reese’s peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake bars, which I made a couple years ago and got rave reviews for. Because I already knew that recipe was a winner, I decided to use the same recipe for these bars by replacing the Reese’s with Toblerone.

Toblerone cheesecake bars
As I expected, these turned out to be amazing! Ryan said this was his favourite cheesecake recipe I’ve ever made, which is saying a lot because I force that man to eat an awful lot of cheesecake (it’s my favourite dessert). I sent them to work with him so that we didn’t eat the entire tray ourselves, and he said his coworkers all absolutely loved them too, and one agreed that it was his favourite cheesecake I’ve made (again, that’s saying a lot, as I send a lot of cheesecake to those guys too!)

If you have some leftover Toblerone chocolate laying around that you don’t know what to do with, make these cheesecake bars! If you don’t have any Toblerone, you can probably find a good sale on some right now in the discounted Christmas treats sections of stores. And if you can’t find any or don’t like Toblerone, you at least have to try the original recipe using Reese’s peanut butter cups, it’s amazing too!

Toblerone cheesecake bars

Also, don’t forget that the giveaway to win a great set of Italian food products from Aurora Importing is still on (until Thursday at midnight)! If you haven’t entered yet (and have a Canadian shipping address), head over to this post right now to enter! I’ll be back on Friday morning to announce the winner! [GIVEAWAY OVER]

Toblerone cheesecake bars
Toblerone Cheesecake Bars

Adapted from Cookin’ Canuck, who adapted from America’s Test Kitchen

Makes about 16 bars (in an 8x8 pan)

*Note: I was working with a large 400g (14.1oz) Toblerone bar for this recipe, so the "pieces" I refer to are individual pieces from that size bar. You could still make this recipe with a smaller sized bar, but you'd have to adjust the amounts of "pieces" you use.

Ingredients:

For the Crust:
7 whole graham crackers, crushed into crumbs (about 1 cup crumbs)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

For the Filling:
2 bricks of cream cheese (250g each), softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup sour cream (I used full-fat)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped Toblerone chocolate (5 pieces from a large (400g) bar)

For the Topping:
2 pieces of Toblerone chocolate, chopped (from a large (400g) bar)
3 pieces of Toblerone chocolate, melted (from a large (400g) bar)

Directions:

For the Crust:

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Line an 8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving a few inches of foil draping over the sides of the pan (which will help with removal later).

Crush the graham crackers in a food processor (or I used a magic bullet) until they form fine crumbs. Transfer the crumbs to a large bowl and add the brown sugar, flour, and salt. Whisk together until well combined. Add the melted butter and mix together with a fork or whisk until all the crumbs are moistened (alternately, if using a food processor you could just add all the ingredients to the food processor with the crumbs and pulse until combined). Transfer the mixture into the prepared pan and press evenly to form the crust.

Bake in the preheated oven until crust is beginning to brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for about 30 minutes.

For the Filling:

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth, about 3 minutes. Beat in the sugar until well combined, about 1 minute. Beat in eggs one at a time, fully incorporating each egg into the mixture. Beat in sour cream and vanilla until fully combined, about 30 seconds.

Chop 5 Toblerone pieces into small pieces and stir into the cream cheese mixture. Pour the mixture into the pan over the cooled crust and spread evenly. Bake 35-40 minutes, until the edges are set but the middle jiggles slightly when you shake the pan.

Place pan on a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 24 hours before serving.

For the Topping:

Melt 3 Toblerone pieces in the microwave (I did it in two 30 second intervals), and transfer melted chocolate to a ziplock bag. Cut a corner off the bag and use it to drizzle half the melted chocolate over the surface of the cheesecake. You may have to cut a larger hole than you're used to for drizzling chocolate, so the nougat pieces don't get stuck. Sprinkle 2 chopped Toblerone pieces evenly on the surface to stick to the chocolate, then drizzle the other half of the melted chocolate over top.

Using the overhanging foil, lift the bars from the pan. Remove the foil and cut bars into 16 pieces (or more for smaller pieces). Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

29 comments:

  1. Natalie, these sound soooo good!! I'll have to bookmark this, although I never have a problem finishing any type of chocolate that finds its way into my home, ha! So excited about all the comments you've gotten re Italian food favorites! Can't wait to find out the winner!

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    1. Thanks, Liana! Plain chocolate I have a hard time finishing, but chocolate in cheesecake is no problem :)

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  2. These bars were so creamy and I loved the crust too! They were the perfect bite-sized dessert for me, since I don't usually like to eat a whole slice of rich cheesecake!

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    1. I agree, but then the problem is you end up eating more when they're bite-sized, so it probably balances out anyway! Thanks for helping me taste-test :)

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  3. These look amazing. Can't wait to try making them! :)

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  4. These look really intense! I would probably try them with Reese's, but it's nice to know that you can mix up the candy any way that you like.

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    1. If you're a peanut butter fan then definitely try them with Reese's, they're amazing!

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  5. These look incredible. Just what I need, another excuse to make cheesecake. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. And thank you for stopping by! I just checked out your blog and you have some pretty incredible looking cheesecakes on there, I'll have to try them one day!

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  6. The one chocolate bar i swear i'll never stop eating! Toblerone! This is perfect :)

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  7. Thanks for the perfect timing of this post. I have 2 bricks of soon to expire cream cheese and a boat load of Toblerone kicking around. They're begging to be baked together :)

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  8. Well I just had to pin these!!  
    http://pinterest.com/pin/149744756329870007/

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  9. 250 g or 500 g cream cheese ?

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  10. Hi Daniel - It's two 250 g bricks of cream cheese, for 500 g total.  I rewrote the instructions to make that more clear, thanks!

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  11. I just made these two days ago and they are AMAZING!!!!! Thank you so much for the recipe! My husband and I love them!

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  12. Thanks so much for letting me know, I'm so glad to hear that you liked them!!

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  13. I have tried many recipes I have found on Pinterest and most of them were NOT good.  I came across yours and thought I would give it a try.  It was SOOOO yummy! Thanks for sharing it with us.  I think I will go have another piece now : )

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  14. Aw, thanks Stacey!  I'm so happy to hear that :) 
    I wish I could go grab a piece of it right now too!

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  15. I used Reese's peanut butter cup instead and it was delicious. Definitely a keeper! Thanks for the recipe !!

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  16. Can I ask how many 'pieces' there are in a 400g bar? 

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  17. Sorry, I can't remember how many pieces were in the bar now, but I preferred to just weigh the amounts of chocolate for the recipe because "pieces" on different sized bars are different sizes, so 2 pieces from the large bar I used wouldn't necessarily be two pieces from a smaller bar.  If you're planning on using a different sized bar than the one I used, I'd recommend using a small kitchen scale to determine how much chocolate to use.  Hope that helps!

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  18. This looks so delicious and like a belly ache, can't wait to make it and see.

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  19. Haha I recommend sharing them so you don't end up with a belly ache, though it's hard not to eat them all yourself!

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  20. My daughter got hooked on these candy bars in Europe.....I am going to have to surprise her and make this recipe :)

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  21. My mouth watered as soon as I saw the image, thank you very much for sharing this recipe on how to make Toblerone cheesecake bars.

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  22. These were fantastic. I used the small Toblerone bars (1.76 oz) and only had 4 - I think I needed 5. So I just skipped the drizzle part.

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  23. Thanks for letting me know Allison, I'm sure that will be helpful to others who want to make these with the smaller bars!

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