Who needs cream cheese frosting when you’ve got a layer of cheesecake filling? These bars combine two of our favorite cakes in one: crumbly chunks of carrot cake baked into a velvety layer of cheesecake. Fair warning: you may not be able to have one without the other again.
Carrot Cake Cheesecake Bars
Makes 24 bars
Ingredients
- 1½ cups (340 grams) unsalted butter, softened
- 1½ cups (330 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1¼ cups (250 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs (100 grams)
- 4 cups (500 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons (4 grams) ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons (4 grams) ground ginger
- 1½ teaspoons (4.5 grams) kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking powder
- 1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- 1½ cups (161 grams) lightly packed grated carrot
- Cheesecake Layer (recipe follows)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 13×9-inch baking pan with parchment paper, letting excess extend over sides of pan.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars at medium speed until fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape sides of bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, ginger, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and allspice. With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating just until combined. Beat in carrots.
- Evenly spread 4 cups (about 1,120 grams) dough in prepared pan. Top with Cheesecake Layer. Crumble remaining dough (about 2 cups [about 560 grams]) on top.
- Bake until edges are set, center jiggles just slightly, and an instant-read thermometer inserted in Cheesecake Layer registers 175°F (79°C) to 180°F (82°C), 50 to 55 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Using excess parchment as handles, remove from pan, trim edges, if desired, and cut into bars.
Cheesecake Layer
Ingredients
- 16 ounces (454 grams) cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon (8 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs (100 grams)
- 1 tablespoon (13 grams) vanilla extract*
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and flour, and beat until combined, stopping to scrapes sides of bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Use immediately.
Notes
We used Heilala Pure Vanilla Extract.
This is not for a 9×9 square pan. It says 9×13 in the recipe . It’s not small batch. Please remit recipe with proper conversions. Thank you!
Hi Jolie,
This is our original Carrot Cake Cheesecake Bars recipe. We have another recipe just for a small batch of them! You can find that one here: https://bakefromscratch.com/small-batch-carrot-cake-cheesecake-bars/. Happy baking!
These were excellent! Made them with my granddaughter. Another family favorite.
(It’s a shame that someone who had a complaint about how the recipe was categorized, chose to rate the recipe with one star, when that doesn’t reflect how the recipe tasted.)