Cherry Chip Cheesecake Bars Recipe

Cereal sales are one of the easiest to find at the grocery store, and I love buying them up whenever I see a great deal. One of the drawbacks to that of course, is that it can be easy to overbuy and then I'm stuck with tons of cereal that may expire before I get a chance to use it!

To combat this problem, I like to get a little creative in the kitchen and switch up my usual desert recipes to include some of the cereal I have sitting around in the pantry. Here is one of my favorite (and super-easy) recipes for chocolate-flavored cereal.

Cherry Chip Cheesecake Bars

Makes 12-15 Bars

Ingredients:

• 6 cups Cocoa Puffs cereal (it should equal about 1-1/2 crushed cups)
• 1 container (24.3 ounces) Philadelphia Ready-to-Eat Cheesecake Filling (bring to room temperature before using)
• 1 21-ounce can cherry pie filling
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4-cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Crush Cocoa Puffs into small crumbs. (I put the cereal in a plastic baggie and crush it with a rolling pin.

Place crumbs in a 9"x13" baking dish.

Stir the melted butter into the crumbs until mixture is moist, but not wet.

Create a crust by pressing the crumb mixture down against the bottom of the baking dish.

Place the dish in the oven and bake the crust at 375 degrees for 7 minutes.

Cool the crust on the counter for 20 minutes.

Spread cheesecake filling over the crust after it has cooled. If you allow the cheesecake filling to come to room temperature, it will be much easier to spread.

Spread the cherry pie filling over the cheesecake, making sure to spread the fruit evenly over the entire dessert.

Sprinkle 2 to 4 tablespoons of the miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips over the cherries, adding more or less chocolate as desired.

Enjoy!

Disclosure: I received no compensation for this post and, as always, my opinions are purely my own.