Need a Rolo recipe? Who doesn’t, right. Well here you go candy addicts. Check out what I did with a bag of mini Rolos. Yes, that’s right you are looking at some Rolo cheesecake bars. That’s a graham cracker crust topped with a caramel cheesecake body. Folded into that caramel rich body are some mini Rolos for a candy fix. Then finishing it all off is a layer of dark bittersweet chocolate with some caramel zig-zagging.
Rolo Cheesecake Bars
A few days ago I Instagramed a mini bag of Rolos asking you guys what I should do with them. Well I got back Rolo stuffed brownies, but I already did that here. So after eating almost half a bag of them, I realized I better start baking.
Thankfully, the remainder of what was left in the bag made into the pan. Although, I’m sure calorie-wise, I would have been better off just finishing them in the raw—that is, before I wrapped those mini morsels in fat and butter. But seriously, more “fat and butter” makes everything better and this is no exception. Enjoy!
A few notes:
- For a less sweet and deeper caramel cheesecake flavor use homemade caramel sauce as store bought caramel sauce tends to be overly sweet. Click here for a step-by-step picture tutorial to making homemade caramel sauce.
- If you are unable to find mini Rolos, just chop regular Rolos in half. Or for a variation replace the caramel portion with peanut butter and fold in Snickers instead of Rolos.
- To easily cut the cheesecake into bars, heat knife with hot water so that it slightly melts through the chocolate (this will prevent the chocolate from cracking). Clean knife between cuts for clean edges.
Rolo Cheesecake Bars
Makes one 8×8 pan | Preparation: Cover inside of pan with enough foil for a one inch overhang on all sides. Cover foil with bake spray. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Ingredients:
Crust
- 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 8 tablespoons of butter
Cheesecake
- 1 8oz. cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 cup caramel sauce
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup mini Rolos
Chocolate Layer
- 10oz. chocolate, 65% cacao
- 2 teaspoons corn syrup
- 8 tablespoons butter
- 4-5 tablespoon caramel sauce
Instructions:
To make crust
- Place graham cracker crust and sugar in a bowl and toss to combine. Add in melted butter and mix to combine. Press mixture onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 7-10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool while making cheesecake portion.
To make cheesecake
- Place cheesecake, caramel sauce, sugar, egg and vanilla extract in a bowl and beat until fully combined and smooth. Add in Rolos and fold to combine. Pour mixture over crust and bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees F. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
To make chocolate layer
- Place alchocolate, corn syrup and butter in a heat proof bowl over (not on) simmering water), gently stir until chocolate is melted and all ingredients are fully combined. Pour chocolate over baked cheesecake.
- Place caramel in a plastic bag and pipe straight lines horizontally across. Use a toothpick and starting at the top drag the toothpick vertically through horizontal lines. Draw second line with toothpick start in the opposite direction (from the bottom of the pan) and drag it vertically from bottom to top of pan. Continue to alternate starting points for the vertical lines drawn with the toothpick.
- Chill finished cheesecaake bars for 20-30 minutes for chocolate layer to set or chill overnight. Bring to room temperature to serve or serve chilled.
Woah. These look AMAZING. I just finished making a Rolo birthday cake for a friend and was wondering what to do with my leftover Rolos. It’s like you read my mind!
You amaze me with each and every post. The recipes themselves, the ingredients (love Rolos!) and the photography. Needs to be in a magazine!
I’d love to know what that silver surface is? Is it something you made, bought, a DIY project? It’s perfect! I want one!
These are simply dreamy! Love this idea!
Oh, mama! These look amazing! 😀
These are truly splendid, the photos are worth 1000 words!
Wow! These look heavanly and sinfull at the same time! And the pictures are stunning. Thanks for the inspiration!
Pure heaven!!
You always know how to make something fabulous out of something simple like a candy bar (or chocolate caramels in this case), beautiful as usual!
Drool….. THIS is what I want for breakfast this morning.
I think I’m in love with these, they look a-mazing. Love the rippled chocolate effect on the top too.
Seriously drooling here. Rolos… my fave!
Wow! Brilliant and I’m impressed they made it to the dessert 🙂 I love them too much.
These pictures are stunning! I love the zig zag design. I just asked my husband if we have Rolos in Germany and he told me that those are the things that are covering our windows. Hmm. I guess that’s a big fat no! Although I’m sure this would be delicious with most types of chocolate candy. 🙂
Susan McC replied: — November 14th, 2014 @ 4:27 am
I wonder if Toffifee would work?
oh my how I love Rolo’s and these look so wonderful with that cute zig-zag!!!
Okay, I am not making this up…when I saw these my mouth began to water. I can almost feel the texture. YOU ARE AWESOME!
The design on these cheesecake bars look so professional and worthy of a party, wedding or catering event. Keep up the good work!
you are my unreal. I love every recipe you put up! HONEST!! When will we meet?
Rolos were my FAVORITE growing up!! Brings back so many memories of eating WAY too many, then bouncing off the walls. My poor parents.
These look marvelous!
Such a scrumptious recipe! Your desserts always have my mouth watering. Yum!
This might be the best recipe of all time and I havent even tried it yet. Looks incredible.
Nomi- One word… NUMMY!
These look AWESOME! I love the little waves!
I love the recipe. I love cheesecake bars. Now I am craving for one. How many servings will this recipe make? I wanted to make this on weekends because my friends are coming over. Thanks for sharing!
Phoebe
Can you show a picture of the toothpick method? I’m having trouble following 🙂
I love rolos!! These look so amazing.
Wow, these look sooooo good! So happy to have stumbled across this recipe and your blog on Pinterest!
Holy crap these look incredible! Considering I’ve had a hankering for rolos lately your post came across my eyes at the right time. Can’t wait to make these 🙂
These look absolutely scrumptious, and SO decadent! I think i got diabetes just from looking at it. 🙂 Gotta make these now!
I made these. couple of small errors in the recipe. Said add the cheesecake to the other ingredients. They meant add the cream cheese to other ingredients. For the chocolate top it said to mix all the ingredients together, then a few lines down it says to pipe the caramel on the top. I put all ingredients in the double boiler. it came out fine. It just didnt look as spiffy as the photo. I did not know why the tin foil was necessary. Extremely rich, so cut pieces small. Serve at just about room temp, maybe not room temp, but dont serve straight out of the refrig. Difficult to cut since it is very dence. Very good, very rich, big hit
Naomi replied: — May 14th, 2012 @ 2:54 am
Hi Sue – Thanks for letting me know! I really appreciate it. I updated the recipe to reflect your feedback. I’m so glad you enjoyed them. They are a big hit amongst my family and friends as well! 🙂
I made these this week and they were so delicious we almost didn’t want to take them to our work group! I tweaked it to fit a 9×13 pan and it worked wonderfully – it’s such a great recipe to work with. Thank you for sharing it!
Naomi I just made these bars last night and they are hands-down one of the most amazing desserts ever! Thank you so much for sharing the recipe!!! Only change I made was using a 9×9 pan and that’s only because I pulled the wrong pan out accidentally! 🙂
It’d be great if you said what to do with them after you add the chocolate layer. Obviously you have to refrigerate them, but for how long?
Naomi Robinson replied: — September 3rd, 2013 @ 12:08 pm
Hi Em – chill for about 20 minutes or until chocolate sets.
These are honestly some of the best things I have ever tasted! The combination of cream cheese and chocolate has proved amazing yet again