Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake Bars

First off cherries are not my favourite fruit.  I mean I’ll eat them but if the choice be given I’d probably go another way.  Secondly I had to use them before they went bad and since everyone else loves them in the house I thought why not create something.  But instead of pie, which is a fan fav, I decided to make them into bars.

So to the pantry I went and this is what I came up with.  I took several recipes and took the parts I liked the best.  I used my cherry pie filling recipe, combined with a wafer crumb crust and added a little cheesecake filling to balance the tartness of the cherries.  So even though I’m not a fan, these were damn good!  Rob even said they had to go to work because he’ll eat the entire pan.  So I’ll take that as a positive review ;)

Recipe:

• 2 pkgs chocolate wafer cookies
• 1 stick butter melted
• 2 cans tart cherries in water
• 3 tbsp corn starch
• 2 tbsp flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Crush up the wafer cookies into crumbs and mix with melted butter.  I used my food processor to get the crumbs small.
2. Reserve 3/4 cup of crumbs and place aside, pat the remainder of the crumbs into baking pan.
3. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes and let cool.
4. In large saucepan take juice from 2 cans tart cherries.  Heat until it starts to steam.
5. Add sugar, corn starch and flour and bring to boil.  Remove from heat when thickened.  Stir in cherries. Set aside.
6. In bowl of mixer, combine cream cheese, sugar, egg, milk and vanilla. Set aside.
7. Pour cherries over chocolate wafer curst making sure it completely covers.
8. Pour cream cheese mixture over cherries.
9. Take remaining crumbs and sprinkle over top.
10. Bake at 350 for 20-25minutes.  Let cool for 15 minutes then chill in fridge for an hour.
11. Slice and serve!

I really like the combination here of the sweet and tart!  I also really like creating a new recipe from several others, it makes me feel accomplished :)

Thanks for looking!