Cinnabon Cheesecake

So, what could  be more sinful  than cheesecake or cream-cheese frosted Cinnabon rolls?  Umm.... that would be  Cinnabons inside a cheesecake.... with an extra layer of cream cheese icing and a cinnamon-sugar swirl.  Like most cheesecakes, it goes together quickly. No need for a crust; the buns  take care of that step.

Preheat the oven for at least 15 minutes to 325.  Place racks on the lower  part of the oven and another in the center. Use a large flat-ish pan...maybe a roaster or deep  9x13, half-filled with water, on the bottom shelf to keep the oven  moist.

Use about 1 lb  mini   iced Cinnabons ( or substitutes below) cut in half vertically to lay over the bottom of a well sprayed 9" springform pan.Put  them in cut-side down. No need to cram tightly. 

On medium speed, beat  32 oz room-temp cream cheese with 1 1/2 c sugar til light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Beat in 5 eggs, one at a time. Add 1/4 c. flour, 8 oz sour cream, 1 TB vanilla; beat til well combined and smooth.  Pour batter over the buns; jiggle a little to get it in between any gaps in buns.

Bake 1 hour on the center rack, or til center jiggles  just slightly. Turn oven off and leave it in there  for about an hour.  Remove and cool completely on a rack.  When  completely  cool, spread on the  topping, then  the drizzle, in any pattern you like. I didn't do it in this photo but  it's fun to use the drizzle to draw on circles like individual cinnabuns, so the top  appears  like a pan of buns.

As for the Cinnabons, no doubt, they are wonderful but pricey as an ingredient--- if you have an acceptably close version of frosted cinnamon buns  available, use it. Here in the Great Lakes states  the Meijer grocery chain's bakery department  sells a wonderful ( and  far less expensive) box of heavily frosted cinnabuns called Cinncredible, or something similar. Since they aren't "mini's" they'll be higher than  they should be ... I trimmed about an inch off the bottoms ... the icing is really thick so there's no chance I'd have trmmed that!  The buns shouldn't come more than  2/3 up the sides of your pan.

So here's the topping: Beat 3 oz cream cheese with 3 TB butter til well blended, 1-2 minutes. Gradually beat in 1 c. powdered sugar, then 1 TB milk, til smooth.  Refrigerate til you're ready to put in on the cheesecake.

The drizzle: In a small nuke-able bowl mix 2 TB packed dark brown sugar, 1 TB butter, 1/4 tsp  cinnamon.  Then nuke it on high in 15-second intervals, til it's melted and smooth; cool just slightly, it needs to  flow but  be cool enough to handle.  Place in a small ziplock bag, cut off the tip, and use it to make your design on the topping. Re-nuke if you wait too long and it hardens up.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

There's no need to agonize over whether to bake a cheesecake or make chewy chocolate chip cookies.  Enjoy the best of both with this cold cookie bar or dessert square. The top and  bottom crusts are cookie dough. The filling is orange-y cheesecake. Either on its own is great, and the combination is superb. The only difficulty is that refrigerated cookie dough in tubes is becoming hard to find.  The manufacturers* are packaging pre-cut chunks instead. Even if you have to alter the chunks you will be so happy with the results it won't matter a bit that it took an extra 2 minutes of your life.

Spray a 9x13 pan and preheat the oven to 350. Chill or briefly semi-freeze  two rolls of refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough - the colder it is, the easier it will slice thinly, about 1/4". Layer the slices from one roll on the bottom of the pan, no need to make them all  touch, and don't press them down or together.  Refrigerate/freeze  the dough again while you make the filling.With a mixer, combine 2 eggs, 1/3 c. sugar, the zest of one orange, 16 oz softened cream cheese, and 1 tsp vanilla   til well blended. Pour  it over the bottom crust. Slice the second roll and lay the slices over the filling. Bake for about 35 minutes, cool completely before slicing. Chill before serving, and store in the refrigerator. Cut in squares or rectangles.

If you wind up having to buy the dough in 'chunks' instead of rolls, slice  each in half horizontally. Using them as-is, you won't have enough to make a crust, and the chunks  are  too thick. Whatever configuration the dough comes in, slice thinly as possible  and remember that fully  half needs to  not-quite-cover the bottom before baking ..... it will spread like cookies do, when baked, and the rest will go on top. Some  some space between  the top layer cookies   is expected.

Feel free to make plain cheesecake filling by eliminating the zest and orange extract, and using vanilla extract instead, or to make a lemon or  key lime version.

Like most bar or square cookies, cutting  the portions  larger  and topping with ice cream and a drizzle of some sort of syrup or ice cream topping  make an already-delicious cookie into an impressively  rich and easy   dessert.

*Edited to note that its safest to stick with Nestle Toll House dough.  A few others are ok but several store brands ( Kroger and Wal-Mart so far) are seriously sub-standard cookies!