How To Make The Best Salted Caramel Cheesecake Bars (EASY)

What's up guys and welcome to today's video. Today we're going to be making salted caramel cheesecake bars using just five main ingredients. These cheesecake bars are so quick and easy to make and they're actually one of my favorite cheesecake bars. They have a buttery biscuit base, they have a creamy salted caramel filling, and a thick layer of salted caramel sauce on top. Plus some little decorations too. I'm gonna give you all my tips and tricks on how to make them today, so let's begin. This is all the ingredients you need for the cheesecake bars. I'll put all the measurements in the description below. You're gonna need digested biscuits or graham crackers if you're in the US. You also need unsalted butter or salted butter, totally up to you. I'm gonna melt this as well, so melt yours now. You also need cream cheese, full fat cream cheese at room temperature. I always tend to use Philadelphia cream cheese because it's nice and thick and creamy and I find if you use some cream cheeses, they're a bit loose and watery and it just doesn't allow the cheesecake to set as well. So something like Philadelphia is great. Also icing sugar or powdered sugar if you're in the US and salted caramel sauce. So the one I'm using today is Sainsbury's Taste the Difference salted caramel sauce. This is actually my favorite one, but most supermarkets do their own brand of thick salted caramel sauce. I wouldn't recommend using Carnation caramel or a runny sauce because it's gonna make your cheesecake runnier and also the topping isn't gonna set as well. So something like this is great. And then our little extras that I'm not counting in my five ingredients because these are totally optional. We're gonna be using some flaky sea salt and some little fudge chunks to sprinkle around the edge as well. Let's go. First, we're gonna start by crushing up the biscuits. I'm gonna use a food processor to do this, but if you don't have a food processor, you can always use a bag and rolling pin. So I'm just gonna break these and put them in there. I'm probably gonna have to use two batches because I have a mini food processor. This is too big. And then lid on and it flips to a fine crumb. Perfect, so there should be no big chunks left. You need to make sure they're all really nice and fine. I'm gonna do the rest and then move on to the next step. Now we're gonna pour our biscuits into a nice big mixing bowl, followed by the melted butter. And just mix that all together until it looks like a wet sand and it's fully combined. By the way, when I melt my butter in the microwave, I usually do it on a low to medium heat and I cover it as well because otherwise it tends to like pop and I don't wanna make a mess in my microwave. So yeah, like low to medium heat in 30 second bursts is probably the safest way to do it. Okay, that is fully combined now. So we're gonna transfer this into a lined tin and I'm gonna show you how I line my tins. To line my tins, I always use a Bak-O-Foil nonstick baking paper because it's really thick and strong and it holds its shape well. This isn't sponsored by the way, but Bak-O-Foil, if you're out there, hit me up. So take out, oh my gosh, a piece that's about two inches around your tin. You know what I mean. Overhang, so it has overhang. And then grab another tin of the same size. I'm gonna push it down. And then you're just gonna crease and wrap the paper nice and tightly around your tin. And ta-da! It shouldn't move from there. And then we're just gonna scoop in our base. And then just push it down with the back of a spoon so it's nice and even and firm, flat. This tin that I'm using is about eight and a half inches. So eight inches will be fine or nine inches will be fine and if you use an eight inch tin or even slightly smaller than that, that'll still be fine, but the cheesecake will be a lot thicker. And obviously if you use a bigger tin, then your cheesecake is gonna be thinner. I've said this before, but I feel like baking has made me quite ambidextrous. Is that the right word when you use both hands? Because I feel quite natural now, kind of smoothing and pouring and everything with both hands. So there you go. I can't write with both hands still. Perfect, so you can just set this aside or you can put it in the fridge just while I should make the filling. Now we're moving on to our filling. So grab a large mixing bowl and you're gonna scoop in your cream cheese. So this should be at room temperature and that's gonna help it mix more easily. Then you're gonna add your icing sugar and your salted caramel sauce. So this is only part of the salted caramel sauce, because the rest of it we're gonna put on top. Now, grab your electric hand mixer or you can use a stand mixer. You can also do it by hand. It's just gonna take a little bit longer. I'm just gonna mix until everything is nice and smooth and creamy. Perfect. Okay, so that is fully combined now. Don't go overboard with your mixing because if you whisk it too much, then it's gonna go runny and we don't want that. Okay, let's get our base and then transfer this on top. Now we're gonna scoop our filling onto our base. So just dollop that on. And then you can use your rubber spatula, but I tend to prefer to use a metal spoon. Just smooth it out. And you wanna try and get it as smooth as possible. Okay, that's looking good. So let's move on to the toppings. Now, this is the time that we pour our nice thick layer of salted caramel sauce on top, but I'm gonna melt it first. So I'm gonna melt it in the microwave on a low to medium heat in about 20 second bursts, stirring in between, because this actually heats up really quickly. And then we pour over the top. So, be right back. Okay, so that literally took about 20 seconds and then I just gave it a nice stir because you want it to be really nice and loose and runny. So when we pour over, it's nice and easy to spread. Nice and gently, we're just gonna smooth it out. So what you don't wanna do is, like lift the cheesecake into the salted caramel sauce. You wanna make sure you stay surface level. Give it a little shake. And that's gonna flatten and smooth that salted caramel sauce out. So it looks perfect. Okay, and now to decorate. This bit is totally optional. I'm gonna sprinkle some little fudge chunks around the outside. I've got these in Tesco's, by the way. I usually get them in Sainsbury's, but they didn't have them, so we went all the way to Tesco's. So, I mean, you could scatter these in the shop. Okay, perfect. That looks good, in my opinion. Now I'm just gonna sprinkle some flaky sea salt on top. You can do this after it's been in the fridge, or if you don't like your salted caramel super salty, then I'd probably just leave this bit out. But I'm gonna leave that like that. I'm gonna refrigerate it, and we might stick some salt on top as well. I don't know, maybe. So this needs to go in the fridge now for at least four hours. You can do it overnight if you prefer, so we shall be back. Many unbearable hours later. We're back. Our cheesecake is fully set. That looks so good. So I'm gonna cut it up, and we'll do a taste test. I'm so excited to try this. Let me know which is your guys' favourite part of the cheesecake. With this cheesecake, I'm a top-down person because I just love the flaky sea salt on top. But I also love the base. I mean, to be fair, it's everything together that makes it good, really, isn't it? Okay, let's try it. Mm. That is so good. I also love the chewiness from the fudge cheeses as well. The flavour and the texture, and the fact that it's cold as well. I know cheesecake is always cold, but I don't know, for some reason, it just makes it even better. 10 out of 10. So I'm gonna go finish my slice of cheesecake. I might let Bernie have a slice as well. But that is the end of today's video. I really hope you guys enjoyed it. If you did, don't forget to like and subscribe, and I'll see you in the next one. Let me know what recipe you'd like me to make next. Bye, guys.