Rainbow-Swirled Cheesecake Bars
Instagrammer @EatTheLove's rainbow-swirled cheesecake bars were created for us during Pride Month, but are perfect any time of year! The crust is not to be outdone, it's studded with rainbow sprinkles! 💜✨
💛Preheat oven to 325°F, grease and line 9x13 pan with parchment paper.
❤️Base: cream 1 C unsalted butter, 1 C white sugar, 1/2 C brown sugar, 1 T vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ t baking soda, and 1/2 t salt. Add 2 large eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides between additions. Mix in 2 + 3/4 C flour and 1/2 C rainbow nonpareils. Press dough into the bottom of pan.
💚Cheesecake: cream 32oz softened cream cheese and 2 C white sugar until smooth. Add 1/2 C sour cream, 2 t vanilla, 6 large eggs and 1/2 t salt. Mix until a smooth batter has formed.
💙Pour 3 to 4 T cream cheese filling into 6 different bowls. Then pour the remaining cream cheese filling over the cookie dough base.
💜Color cream cheese in separate bowls with drop of yellow, orange, red, purple (1 drop blue + 4 drops pink), blue, green (3 drops yellow + 1 drop blue). If you go in that order, from yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, and green, you don’t need to wash your spatula in-between!
❤️Drizzle each of the colored batters over the plain cheesecake. Use a chopstick to swirl colors together, don’t overmix.
💛Bake 43 to 47 minutes or until sides start to puff up/brown but the center is still wobbly. Turn off oven and crack open slightly. Let cool for 30 minutes in the oven to prevent cracking, then cool on cooling rack for an additional 2 hours. Sprinkle cooled cheesecake with gold heart edible accents, cover and place in the fridge for at 4 hours or overnight.
🩷To serve, lift up the entire pan using the parchment paper sides, and move to a cutting board. Cut with a slightly damp, sharp chef’s knife, cleaning the knife between cuts.