M&M’s® Hot Chocolate Cheesecake Bars #Recipe

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Now with Halloween officially behind us that only means one thing… the winter holidays are coming! As I’ve mentioned before, my love of baking comes from my mom. Growing up she always made us kids the most delicious holiday treats to enjoy during the holiday season. There was always some type of goodies waiting for us in the kitchen!

In fact, my mom STILL bakes for us around this season. However lately I’ve decided to step up my game to give her a little bit of a baking break. I think bake on my memories of her baking away, and I’m inspired. One of my favorite new products to use in my culinary creations are M&M’s® Hot Chocolate and White Peppermint flavored candies!M&M’s® always has such an amazing offering of holiday flavors. Plus I love that even their regular selection of candy is available in holiday colors. This makes M&M’s® the perfect candy to use in baking. Pillsbury™ Funfetti® Holiday Cake Mix is another great product to use in baking, as well as Great Value Milk. You can purchase a whole gallon for a super low price! For example of great holiday baking, check out these M&M’s® Holiday Snowflake Cookies.

Check out below for a detailed tutorial on how to create M&M’s® Hot Chocolate Cheesecake Bars. Please note you can make these bars with the M&M’s® White Peppermint instead if you choose to.

Ingredients

8 oz bag of M&M’s® Hot Chocolate
25 chocolate sandwich cookies (50 cookies total)
1/4 cup of melted butter
1/4 cup of Pillsbury™ Funfetti® Holiday Cake Mix
1 (8 oz.) package of soft cream cheese
1/4 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 egg
Sprinkles

Directions

First you’ll want to go ahead and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Now with the cookies, I usually purchase a package of sandwich cookies, which really gives me 50 cookies to use. I usually scrap the cream filling out between the cookies, as I did with this recipe. Though I have made these bars WITH the filling mixed into the crust before. It’s all on your own preference.

Take your cookies and run them through a food processor (or crush them in a plastic bag using a rolling pin) so that they are crumbled. Mix them with the melted butter, and Pillsbury™ Funfetti® Holiday Cake Mix. If your store doesn’t not have the Holiday mix in stock, regular Funfetti® works great too!Make sure it is blended really well. Then you’ll wan to press the crust mixture into a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake the crust for 10 minutes.While the crust is baking, this is when I like to combine my cheesecake topping ingredients. Mix together the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and egg. Make sure you mix well so that it is nice and smooth.Once the crust has baked for 10 minutes, place whole M&M’S® over the crust so that it covers everything to be a complete layer.Then on top of the candy, add your cheesecake topping. You should still have Holiday Cake Mix left in the package. Go ahead and dust a little bit of that on top of the cheesecake. Also add your  sprinkles on top. I like to add red and green sugar sprinkles to add holiday flair. Bake the cheesecake bars in the oven for 40 minutes.After it is done baking, allow to cool for at least 30 minutes. I personally like to set the bars in the refrigerator overnight (or in the freezer for a couple of hours) before slicing and serving.I love serving these yummy cheesecake bars at my holiday parties! You didn’t think I kept them all for myself, did you? I know, it’s pretty tempting! However, I do share the bars with my friends. Maybe I should start leaving them for Santa too on Christmas Eve?I love that I was able to purchase everything (at great low prices) I needed for this recipe at my local Walmart. M&M’s® Hot Chocolate can be found in the “Seasonal” aisle, but be sure to look for displays through the food section of your store! They may also be in the “Candy” section. I was able to easily find the Pillsbury™ in the Baking aisle, plus milk is in the Dairy section!Want to earn even more savings? Be sure to grab this coupon to save $1.00 on ANY TWO (2) M&M’s® Chocolate Candies, 8 oz or larger!

The Great American Milk Drive

During the holiday season I always make sure to count my blessings that I can afford to place a roof over my child’s head, and food on the table so that he never goes hungry. Sadly there are hungry children and families here in America that are missing out on the essential nutrients supplied by milk. Often milk is not typically donated to food banks. Though it is in such high demand!

This is where the Great America Milk Drive comes in! When you place a small donation at pourmilklove.com, the Drive, in partnership with Feeding America, will deliver a gallon of milk to a family in your local community that could truly use all the essential nutrients and protein that milk provides. It’s really heart breaking that more than 46.5 million Americans rely on Feeding America food banks each year. Alternately you can purchase two bags of M&M’s® at Walmart (9.4 oz bags or larger), which then up to a gallon of milk will be donated to the Drive. How awesome is that?Be sure to check out more delicious holiday-inspired recipes here. I’d love to hear your favorite!

Do you have a favorite holiday recipe to bake?