'So This Is What Heaven Tastes Like!' Cream Cheese Bars

If a recipe calls for cream cheese, I will like it. I love that stuff. I'm not sure what I expected when I started out, I can just remember being pleasantly surprised. These are pretty dense, maybe that was it. I was thinking more cake-like in texture, but these were more so. But, oh so yummy. This recipe was found at Allrecipes.com.

Mix together the butter, cream cheese and sugar. Mmmm..sounds good so far.
The Boy apparently had never seen the mixer in action. He kept telling me to turn it off :)
Add in eggs and vanilla and mix again.
Let The Boy "help" by giving him a spatula.
Add in flour, salt, chocolate and walnuts. You're going to mix this in until it's just incorporated. Just like you would with muffins.
Then gently (and quickly before The Boy eats them all) fold in the cherries. The Boy LOVES cherries.
Pour into a pan and bake for half an hour. You will want to let them set for about 10 minutes so they don't fall apart when you take them out of the pan.
I loved these, but no one else seemed overly taken with them. Sure, Jeff will eat anything if there is nothing else available, but he didn't really rave about them. This recipe will probably get saved, but since I don't want to have to eat an entire pan by myself, I'm not sure how often they will get made.

But you should definitely try them!

Click here for Printable Recipe

'So This Is What Heaven Tastes Like!' Cream Cheese Bars
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/2 cup well-drained chopped maraschino cherries (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan. Beat the margarine, cream cheese, and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the margarine mixture before adding the next. Beat in the vanilla with the last egg. Mix in the flour, salt, chocolate chips, and walnuts until just incorporated. Fold in the maraschino cherries; mixing just enough to evenly combine. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out nearly clean, about 25 minutes. Watch closely - the finished bars will be very pale in color. Remove from oven immediately if the sides begin to pull away from the pan. Cool pan on a wire rack before cutting into bars.