Luscious lemon cheesecake bars with a crunchy, sturdy shortbread cookie crust, drizzled with a lightly sweet strawberry sauce to counter the acidity of the lemon, these bars are an indulgent little piece of heaven.
Because hey, even healthy eaters need a little bite of indulgence now and then! (This recipe is adapted from Delish.)
It was my son that requested this. He wanted something fruity, something sweet. I searched for fruity desserts and together we looked through a post of 50+ fruity dessert recipes from Delish. So many of them involved chocolate, which I am definitely not opposed to, but it wasn’t what my son was looking for.
These Lemon Cheesecake Bars definitely caught his eye. He asked me to put them on the “mom request” list, which means “Please mom, make these as soon as you have some spare time.” We both agreed that a 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan of cheesecake bars in our current minimal-human-contact situation would NOT work. We decided it would be best to cut the recipe in half.
So I put them on my list, but got busy with things and since he didn’t ask about them again for a few days, I kind of put them on the back burner and they were lost from my conscious “to do” list. And then he asked a few days later … “hey mom, what about those lemon cheesecake bars I asked for?” Those are probably not his exact words (and I’m sure I’ll get corrected later if he ever reads this post) … but suffice it to say that he WAS still interested in lemon cheesecake bars and if I could fit it into my busy schedule, he would really love that.
Okay, buddy. This was on a Wednesday. I have (zoom) yoga on Thursdays, but promised him I would get them done on Friday, thinking what else to I have that’s pressing? It’s COVID so I work from home, I don’t actually “go” anywhere, we just stay home pretty much ALL the time.
Except it turns out I DID have something else to do on Friday night. My good friend Irene was retiring and she really wanted her best friends to come out and celebrate with her! I hadn’t been out since COVID started, so I was a little terrified at the prospect of going “out”, but it was outdoors, so I agreed to go and give it a try. I was supposed to be there at 6.
And THEN, we had a production issue at work on Friday and I ended up working until 5:30 that day, but there were down times when I was waiting for things to load, so I started putting this recipe together during those wait times because dang it! I wasn’t going to let my son down yet again when I promised him he’d have cheesecake bars on Friday.
I was able to get the crust done and filling prepped in intermittent moments while waiting on things for work to finish up, so as soon as I was finally DONE with work (which was WAY too late on a Friday afternoon when you’re not getting paid a full salary), I threw the cheesecake bars in the oven and rushed off into the shower to make myself presentable. By the time I was ready, it was time to pull the bars out of the oven. I gave my son instructions for safe keeping (“put them in the fridge once they’ve cooled down, for at least 3 hours”) and headed out to my friend’s party.
I didn’t get to taste the cheesecake bars until the following morning, but to me they were perfect. The shortbread crust was lovely and so much better than a graham cracker crust IMHO (albeit a little harder to cut), the cheesecake layer was perfect: nice and creamy and perfectly set, with a vibrant lemon flavor. I like that these cheesecake bars are not as big or heavy or as complicated to make as a whole cheesecake and much easier to cut into little portions, for those who want just a tiny dessert (like me!) … My son thought the lemon taste was good, but a bit too acidic on its own (his taste buds are EXTREMELY sensitive) so he wanted a strawberry sauce to balance that out. I obliged and made him a simple stovetop strawberry sauce, which I have to admit really does compliment the cheesecake very nicely. You can totally skip the sauce if you want the pure lemon flavor … I’ll leave that decision up to you.
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Lemon Cheesecake Bars w/Strawberry Sauce
- Prep Time: 25 min
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 4 hours
- Yield: 25 bars 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 stick butter (8 oz.), softened
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For the cheesecake:
- 1 8-oz. package Greek cream cheese (or Neufchatel)
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
- 1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1/2 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
- Pinch of salt
For the strawberry sauce (optional):
- 1 lb. strawberries (fresh or frozen)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch + 2 Tablespoons water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. and line a 9x9x2 inch pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the crust ingredients until no clumps of butter remain and the mixture is fine and crumbly. Pour the crumb mixture into the prepared pan and press down to make an even layer of crust. Bake at 350 F. for 20 – 25 minutes or until the top is lightly browned.
- Meanwhile, prepare the cheesecake mixture. In the same bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy for about 2 minutes. Add the egg and yolk and beat for another minute, scraping down the sides with a spatula. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat for another 2 minutes, scraping as you go. Pour over the prepared crust and use a spatula to smooth it out.
- Bake the cheesecake for 25 – 30 minutes or until the cheesecake is set in the middle and lightly browned on the edges. Remove from oven and let cool completely, then refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
- If strawberry sauce is desired, put the strawberries, sugar and vanilla in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir to mix and cook, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes or until the strawberries are soft and have released their juices. Put the berries into a mini food processor or blender and pulse to roughly chop or blend until smooth (as desired). Pour back into the pan over medium heat. In a small bowl or cup, whisk the cornstarch and water together, then while whisking, slowly add to the strawberry mixture until it’s thickened to your liking.
- Slice the cheesecake into small squares or rectangles and serve with strawberry sauce (if desired).
Notes
© Copyright 2020, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. I love it when you share, but please do not use my images on your own site/page without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. Sharing, pinning, and tweeting is always appreciated as long as the shares and pins link back to here for the recipe. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.
Keywords: Cheesecake, Lemon, Bars
2 comments
This sounds interesting..!! I’ll definitely try this soon. Thanks for sharing..!!
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