Making swirled gingerbread cream cheese bars!!

I decided to try something that I've never made before and use a gingerbread recipe. I used this recipe from Cookies to Die For! by Bev Shaffer that utilizes two layers of cream cheese flavor and one solid large layer of gingerbread that combined great! I would highly recommend this recipe to a friend, especially since many of mine enjoyed it.
"Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus additional, melted, for brushing foil
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 molasses
• 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13x9" baking pan with foil. Lightly brush foil with melted butter.


In a small bowl, mix together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.


Using an electric mixer, in a large bowl, beat the butter with 3/4 cup of granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.


Beat in egg until well blended. Mix in flour mixtures until combined. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl


Stir in molasses and 3 tbsp. water just until blended. Do not overmix.


Gently spread into prepared pan.


Using an electric mixer, in a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat in remaining 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar and the vanilla. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.


Reserve 1/2 cup of the frosting; cover and refrigerate remaining frosting until ready to use. Spoon teaspoonful dollops of the reserved 1/2 cup of frosting over the gingerbread batter in pan. With knife or spatula, ever so gently swirl frosting throughout the batter to marbleize.


Bake for 28 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Carefully lift out of pan using foil. Cool completely on a wire rack.


Invert and gently peel off foil. Invert again so bottom is down, then spread refrigerated frosting over gingerbread. Cut into bars, makes about two dozen" (Shaffer 164).


This recipe was troublesome occasionally, when it required careful spreading of the cream cheese upon the gingerbread batter. But, it was completely worth it for the flavor. This was likely one of the recipes that took a longer time, especially with all of the baking and cooling time, but I had time to spare so it wasn't an issue. Just don't expect to be done with this recipe within an hour.

 While I enjoyed the end results, I did make a mistake that likely was damaging to the flavor cream cheese. In the recipe it says to reserve 1/2 cup of frosting to put on before baking (Shaffer 164). I misread the recipe, I think because it uses the word reserve I assumed it meant to save for later, not the other way around. This put more frosting on the gingerbread before baking, and not on the other side of the bars which would likely have given a stronger cream cheese flavor, which I think was weak.

As much as I liked the results of the bars, and how many people enjoyed them, I think they could've been better. In my opinion, the gingerbread to cream cheese ratio was not exactly where it should've been. Other than that mishap, I think all of the flavors were great and many people agreed with this.

In the future, if I ever do try this recipe again, I might change things with the cream cheese. Since I don't think there is anything I could do differently with the gingerbread and cream cheese flavors themselves, I think proportions is what I could work on. I could either follow the recipe for once in my life, or I could make more cream cheese than prescribed by multiplying all of the measurements by 5/4 or 3/2.

Do you think I should change the cream cheese frosting at all? How so?

Shaffer, Bev. Cookies to Die For! Gretna, LA: Pelican Pub., 2009. Print.