Sunday, June 1, 2008

Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Squares

It was a gloomy kinda Saturday yesterday. Cloudy and the threat of rain all day. Most weekends we are outside working in the yard, but yesterday wasn't that kind of day. I had a bridal shower breakfast to go to in MA and by the time I got home, half the day was over. Tati called and said she had made some Bolognese sauce....did we want to have dinner together? Sure! Pot Luck Dinners rock. I had already taken some chicken out which was marinating in the fridge (olive oil, lemon, ginger, garlic and soy, yum). It was 2:00pm so I had to think of something quick and easy to make for dessert. Hmm. What to make?
I had made these Cream Cheese Squares several times already and they always had been a hit, but they needed something....something more....chocolaty (doesn't everything?). So I tweaked the original recipe and added in some chocolate chips and chunks that I had left over from another recipe. I almost went with a bag of mini chips I had, but I'm glad I didn't because the chips and chunks really proved to be the perfect size for this. This recipe is quick, delicious, and great for dessert or as a breakfast treat.



Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Squares
Printable recipe
2 cans (8oz each) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls, divided
2 pkgs (8oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg, lightly beaten
¾ cup sugar, divided
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350. Unroll 1 of the cans of crescent rolls and press it into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan to form a crust, firmly pressing the seams together to seal.

Beat cream cheese, vanilla, egg and ½ cup sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Stir in one cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips (or chunks or both).

Unroll remaining can of crescent dough onto a large sheet of wax paper. Pat out the dough to form a 9x13 rectangle, pressing the seams together to seal. Invert over the cream cheese mixture to form the top crust.

Bake 30 – 35 minutes or until light golden brown.

Combine ¼ cup sugar and cinnamon into a small bowl and sprinkle over the squares when they come out of the oven. I know it looks like a lot of topping, but it really is just enough for the finished product.

These squares are very versatile. You could mix in a flavoring, add some fruit, nuts, etc. Experiment and see what you can come up with.

We had a really great dinner, laughed a lot and ended the night with a fire until a downpour cut it short. Sometimes last minute plans prove to be the most fun.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

These cream cheese square would be a great dish for our party too! Now we're having to scale back, but if we don't make this for the party, we'll certainly remember it for all our other summer events!

Anonymous said...

I made something like this one time. It was a recipe from Tastefully Simple using their Oh My Chai. They were great! This chocolate twist on them sounds good!