A Sincere Apology and Marbled Cheesecake Bars

Dear Blog,

It is with a most sincere apology that I would like to acknowledge that you have suffered from a serious state of neglect as of late. What began as a fruitful and abundant endeavor has now turned stagnant with all the craziness in each of our lives (although admittedly it would be in the lives of the 2 married sisters who actually posted consistently). I would like to make this up to. My plan is to post a recipe a week for...uh...well, for awhile. I will try my best to not make them all dessert recipes, but I make no promises. That is one love in my life that is still quite strong (just thinking about some sugary goodness makes my heart melt).

Recipe #1 on this very ambitious trek of mine comes from the "Hershey's Cookbook"and it is called...

Marbled Cheesecake Bars

This is recipe that involves just a few simple steps before being united with a delectable and delicious treat. It could almost be considered evil, at least with a few minor adjustments it is. I will give you the recipe as it is in the book and have little asides showing my adjustments which (I think) take this recipe from delicious to divine...but don't just take my word for it.

Chocolate Crust:
Stir together 2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs (about 60 cookies), 1/3 cup Cocoa and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Stir in 1/2 c. melted butter until well blended and press into the bottom of a 9x13 pan.
*My notes: first time I made this I didn't have vanilla wafers so I used graham crackers, I liked how it wasn't so sweet but would recommend cutting back on the cocoa as it makes it a bit too bitter. I would also use granulated sugar instead of powdered if you don't like your crust so sweet, but if you like the sweetness go all the way and indulge with the wafers and powdered sugar!

Cheesecake:
3 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 sections (1.2 oz each) unsweetened chocolate (I would actually cut back on the amount of chocolate... shocking, I know)

Beat the cream cheese until fluffy and then add the sweetened condensed milk, beating until smooth. Now just add in those eggs and the vanilla and mix well and voila! You have a delicious cheesecake batter! Split aside some of the batter (the recipe says 1/2, I recommend less than that, maybe around 1/3) and add your (now) melted chocolate to it, mixing it up until it looks silky smooth (mmmm). Pour your non-chocolate batter over your crust and then spoon the chocolate batter on the top of it. Use a knife or spatula to go to town making it pretty and marbley (marbly? marbleicious? marbled? Whatever. You know what I mean.)

Bake 45-50 minutes in a 300 degree oven until it is just set. Remove and let cool, refrigerate several hours until chilled and then cut into bite sized chunks of tantalizing heaven perfect for guilt free indulgence...ok so maybe not completely guilt free, but still, so worth it!

Cayenne