Snickerdoodle Cheesecake Bars

I drove to Grinnell Saturday. Roger was in the garden — the garden that is his whole world now, the 84-year-old man who tends six tomato plants and twelve sunflowers with the same care he once gave four hundred acres. He's slower but he's still Roger. He still watches the crop reports. He still calls Jack on Wednesdays.

Thursday was tater tot hotdish, because Thursday is always tater tot hotdish and the schedule doesn't change for anything — not pandemics, not loss, not the passage of years. The tater tots go in at 375 and come out golden and the family eats them and the eating is the Thursday and the Thursday is the structure and the structure holds. But I also made chili three ways earlier this week, because the kitchen doesn't only look backward. The kitchen grows.

January. The real winter. Dark and cold, the wind off the prairie personal in its grudge. We endure with soup and blankets and the belief that spring comes eventually. I made bread — sourdough from the starter named Marlene, the bread rising in a warm kitchen while Iowa does its worst outside.

The bread helped — it always does — but when the cold is that particular Iowa kind, personal in its grudge as I said, something sweeter is called for. I wanted cinnamon and warmth and a little frosting-like creaminess, something that sat on the counter and said it’s fine, we’re fine. These Snickerdoodle Cheesecake Bars were exactly that: the cinnamon-sugar crust like a snickerdoodle cookie doing its best work, the cheesecake layer cool and steady on top, the whole thing holding together the way a good Thursday should.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 55 min (plus chilling) | Servings: 16 bars

Ingredients

Crust & Topping:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
Cheesecake Filling:
16 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup sour cream

Instructions

Preheat. Heat oven to 350°F. Line a 9x13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the sides for easy lifting.
Make the cookie dough. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, beat butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. Gradually mix in the flour mixture until a soft dough forms.
Press the crust. Press about two-thirds of the dough evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Set remaining dough aside.
Make the cheesecake layer. Beat cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar together until smooth and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Beat in vanilla and sour cream until fully incorporated and silky.
Layer and top. Pour the cheesecake filling evenly over the crust. Drop the remaining cookie dough in small pieces over the cheesecake layer — it won’t cover completely, and that’s exactly right.
Add the cinnamon sugar. Stir together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Sprinkle generously over the entire top of the pan.
Bake. Bake 32–36 minutes, until the edges are set and the center has just a slight jiggle. The top should be lightly golden.
Chill and cut. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight. Lift from pan using parchment overhang and cut into 16 bars.

Nutrition (per serving)

Snickerdoodle Cheesecake Bars — The Sweet Thing You Make When Winter Asks Too Much