White Chocolate Cheesecake Bites with Red Velvet Swirl

Red velvet, cheesecake, white chocolate, how can these not be amazing! Well, I have to say, while these bars came out pretty delicious, this recipe is not perfect. I think I went a little overboard with the amount of red velvet. The next time I will definitely limit the amount of swirl so that the flavor of the cheesecake comes through a little more. This recipe does take a little prep, but it is well worth it in the end. Trust me!

White Chocolate Cheesecake Bites with Red Velvet Swirl

Shortbread Crust

• 1 cup flour
• pinch of salt
• ¼ cup  brown sugar
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1 stick cold butter cubed

Add all ingredients to a food processor and pulse until mixture comes together to a fine crumb that resembles sand. Press mixture into your 8X8 baking dish to evenly cover the bottom. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Lower oven temp to 325 and let cool while you make the filling

* I place foil on the bottom of my backing dish with enough to hang over the edges of the pan so that the bars can be easily lifted out.

Cheesecake

• 16 oz room temp cream cheese
• ¼ cup sour cream
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 vanilla bean (I used a Tonga bean)
• 8 oz melted white chocolate

Beat sugar and cream cheese until smooth. Split vanilla bean in half and scrape out seeds. Add to mixture along with the eggs and sour cream. Beat until combined.  Add melted white chocolate and mix until smooth. Pour cheesecake batter on top of crust.

Red Velvet

• 1 ¼ cup flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbs cocoa powder
• 2 tbs softened unsalted butter
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp white vinegar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• red food coloring

Beat softened butter, oil, buttermilk, egg, vinegar, vanilla, and red food coloring until just combined. It is ok if the butter is not fully combined. Everything will come together later. I never measure the food coloring. I just add a couple squirts of AmeriColor super red until batter is bright red. Sift flour, sugar, baking soda, and cocoa powder. Add to wet ingredients and beat until smooth. Spoon red velvet batter on top of cheesecake and use a knife to swirl. Bake at 325 for 1 hour 30 min. Let cool in pan for about 30 minutes. Remove bars and let cool completely. Transfer to fridge so that they can set. They taste the best the next day when all the flavors have time to come together.

* I purchase my vanilla beans from Beanilla.