Cookie dough cheesecake

Several weeks ago, my friend Lauren and I took a day trip to Dallas, and one of our treats for the day was a trip to the Cheesecake Factory. We ate many wonderful things there, but the one thing we felt inspired to attempt to duplicate was cookie dough cheesecake. Now, some people might go online and look for cookie dough cheesecake recipes. This thought did not occur to me. Instead, I looked for eggless cookie dough recipes and for no-bake cheesecake recipes. I suppose it was a more exciting challenge to hunt for multiple recipes and combine them, than to just look for one.

Anyway, I made it for a dinner last night, and the result did not really taste like what we had at the Cheesecake Factory, but it was still very good. (Honestly, I would consider it a success if mine turned out half as good as the Cheesecake Factory's!)

You may notice there are no chocolate chips in this
dough. That's because one of the friends who would
be eating it cannot have chocolate.

CRUST:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 Tbsp. white sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted

COOKIE DOUGH:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 Tbsp. water
Pinch of salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 to 1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

CHEESECAKE:
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup frozen Cool Whip, thawed (I used lite)

For crust, combine the three ingredients and press into a 9-inch springform pan.

For the cookie dough, cream the butter and sugar in a bowl. Add the vanilla, water, and salt. Add the flour and mix until well blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. Using your hands, scoop out some dough, flatten it, and place it gently into the springform pan, being careful not to mess up the graham cracker crust. Once you’ve transferred all the dough into the pan, carefully press the seams together, again being careful not to mess up the crust.

For the cheesecake, beat the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Fold in the Cool Whip. Pour cheesecake filling into springform pan on top of the cookie dough layer, and smooth.

Cover and chill at least 2 hours. (Mine ended up chilling for about 24 hours and was fine.)

Next time, I plan to use chocolate graham crackers for the crust, and mix the chocolate chips into the cookie dough. Also, this particular cheesecake recipe was more fluffy/light, and I wish it had been heavier/creamier. So I may try a different recipe for the cheesecake layer. Or, perhaps I might even search for cookie dough cheesecake recipes and see what they suggest.

Tah-dah! As you can see, I sprinkled the mini chocolate chips on
top for those of us who could eat chocolate.

And, in the interest of not plagiarizing, here are the no-bake cheesecake and 

cookie dough recipes that I pirated.