These are extremely creamy lemon blueberry cheesecake bars baked on a graham cracker crust. Get pleasure from contemporary lemon taste and clean cheesecake, plus there’s no scarcity of juicy blueberries and crispy crust!
Like many bakers and dessert lovers, I take pleasure in baking a basic cheesecake. It’s a tall and mighty dessert with large crowd enchantment and infinite topping choices like strawberry sauce and salted caramel.
However there’s no arguing that baking a cheesecake could be daunting: Don’t over-sweeten! Keep away from over-baking! Don’t overlook the water tub! Will your springform leak? We’ll discover out!
It’s typically definitely worth the effort—I imply, I RAVE about this cheesecake recipe—but when I’m on the lookout for a faster, much less fussy cheesecake choice, I normally make cheesecake pie or right now’s cheesecake bars.
Right here’s Why You’ll Love these Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars
- All the feel of conventional cheesecake, however simpler and faster
- Additional creamy, additional thick
- Tangy-sweet taste with a great deal of blueberries
- The cheesecake model of in style lemon blueberry cake
- Seize & go—no fork wanted!
Reader Pam says: “So scrumptious! Good quantity of lemon tartness with the sweetness of the blueberries is to die for! Since blueberries are in season right here proper now I used contemporary. Love the thick crust additionally. It holds up nicely to the load of the filling… ★★★★★”
Graham Cracker Crust Success Suggestions
Beneath you’ll discover my fundamental graham cracker crust recipe. It suits right into a 9-inch sq. baking pan completely, in addition to many 8-inch and 10-inch pans. I like this explicit crust as a result of it’s altogether crunchy, buttery, thick, and never overly candy like many crumb crusts of its variety. We use it for blueberry cream cheese pie, banoffee pie, and these mini key lime pies.
Some useful ideas:
- You want a cautious ratio of three substances: graham cracker crumbs, sugar, & melted butter.
- Use a meals processor or blender to grind 12 full-sheet graham crackers into crumbs.
- Stir the graham cracker crumbs and sugar collectively earlier than mixing within the butter.
- Press into your lined pan simply till it’s not crumbly. Don’t pack down too onerous.
Pre-bake the crust for 8 minutes so it has a bit of head begin:
Seize These Elements for the Filling
- Blocks of Cream Cheese: Ensure you’re utilizing blocks of full-fat cream cheese and never the cream cheese in a bath you’ll use for spreading on bagels. Similar rule applies when making cream cheese frosting and strawberry cream cheese pie.
- Sugar: When over-sweetening these bars, you’ll be able to’t detect the pure lemon and blueberry flavors. 6 Tablespoons is the magical unicorn quantity; it’s greater than 1/3 cup and never fairly 1/2 cup!
- Lemon: 1 giant lemon or 2 medium lemons are sometimes sufficient for these lemon blueberry cheesecake bars. You want 3 Tablespoons of juice and 1 teaspoon zest, which collectively is the proper quantity for beautiful lemon taste (that isn’t pucker-your-lips-sour!).
- Vanilla Extract: For scrumptious, wealthy taste.
- Egg: The cheesecake bars would crumble with an egg.
- Blueberries: You should utilize contemporary or frozen blueberries. If utilizing frozen, your batter will probably be swirled blue/purple.
The filling we use for lemon blueberry cheesecake bars is quite a bit like this cheesecake pie. Lemon juice replaces the bitter cream and we will get away with 1 egg because the bars aren’t fairly as thick.
Count on a thick filling. Ensure you unfold it over the crust whereas the crust continues to be heat. Why? This can assist the filling adhere to the crust a bit of higher.
Success Tip: Right here’s how I wish to line sq. baking pans. Really easy!
The right way to Lower Neat Squares
Cool and bars at room temperature for about 1 hour, after which refrigerate them for two hours or till the underside of the pan feels chilly. If you happen to minimize the bars into squares too early, they’ll utterly crumble. If I’m serving these at a celebration or occasion, I put together them the evening earlier than simply so I do know they’ll cool and chill lengthy sufficient to yield neat squares.
Slice them with a pointy knife and wipe it clear between every minimize.
I wouldn’t change a factor about this recipe! The entire group beloved how gentle they tasted, in addition to how the buttery graham cracker crust complemented the lemon cheesecake filling. Discovering the tasty steadiness between tart and candy is hard in terms of lemon desserts, however these bars nail it!
Extra Lemon Desserts You’ll Love
Description
Creamy lemon cheesecake bars studded and swirled with blueberries. They’re ready on my easy graham cracker crust and can completely be your new favourite dessert!
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 9-inch sq. baking pan with parchment paper with sufficient overhang on the edges to simply raise the chilled bars out as a complete. Put aside.
- Make the crust: Utilizing a meals processor or blender, pulverize the graham crackers right into a tremendous crumb. Pour right into a medium bowl and blend with melted butter and sugar. Press into the lined pan. Bake for 8 minutes. Permit to chill as you put together the filling.
- Make the filling: Utilizing a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese for 1 minute on medium velocity till clean. On medium velocity, beat within the egg, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla extract collectively till clean and creamy, about 3 full minutes. Gently fold within the blueberries. Spoon filling onto the crust.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, or till the cheesecake has arrange and the sides are flippantly browned. The bars will probably be very puffy, however will sink barely down as they cool. Permit to chill for half-hour at room temperature on a wire rack after which chill within the fridge for a minimum of three hours.
- Elevate the parchment paper out of the pan and minimize into squares.
Notes
- Make Forward & Freezing Directions: The bars keep contemporary in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 5 days. You possibly can freeze the bars for as much as 3 months. Thaw in a single day within the fridge earlier than serving.
- Non-US Readers: Don’t have graham crackers the place you reside? Use 200g floor digestive biscuit crumbs as a substitute (about 13–14 biscuits), the identical quantity of butter, and add a bit extra sugar (about 1/3 cup, or 67g). You might want so as to add a couple of additional minutes to the pre-baking time, as digestive biscuits usually are not fairly as crispy-crunchy as graham crackers. And from what I perceive, spreadable cream cheese bought in a bath in international locations outdoors of the US is a bit of totally different from the spreadable cream cheese within the US. It’s thicker, sturdier, and extra stable and needs to be OK to make cheesecake. I’ve no expertise with it, however that is what I’ve heard from different non-US readers.
Key phrases: lemon blueberry cheesecake bars
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