Bready or Not Original: Lemon Cheesecake Bars

Lemony. Fresh. Perfection. Those words are the best way to describe these incredible bars.

Not only are these delicious, but they are easy to make. A food processor is especially handy as you can chop up the nuts and then add in the rest of the crust ingredients, too.

To soften the cream cheese for the filling, leave it at room temperature for a bit, or do what I usually do: place the cheese on a plate and microwave for like 5 seconds. Then flip it over and zap again, if needed. It just needs to be soft enough to blend, not cooked.

I confess, I sometimes get nervous when I do dessert bars with bottom crusts. Because sometimes, no matter how I compress them into the pan, they fall apart when the bars are cut apart. Not so here! They were surprisingly cohesive. (Here’s hoping you have the same experience.)

That cohesiveness makes these dangerously easy to eat. These bars have it all going on. Buttery crumb. Nutty crunches here and there. Vivid lemon flavor in the creamy filling.

I’d like to report how long these can last in the fridge, but I don’t know. I make these bars, and they are suddenly GONE. Poof.

Print Recipe

Bready or Not Original: Lemon Cheesecake Bars

A Bready or Not Original! Bake up a large dish of delicious, lemony-fresh bars in under a hour.

Course: Dessert, Snack

Keyword: bars, cream cheese, lemon

Author: Beth Cato

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 cup pecans
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter 1 1/2 sticks , softened

Filling

• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 16 oz cream cheese 2 boxes, softened
• 2 lemons zested and juiced
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• 2 eggs

Instructions

• Prepare a 9x13 pan with aluminum foil and nonstick spray. Preheat oven at 350-degrees.
• Use a food processor (or knife and cutting board) to chop up pecans to small pieces. Add flour, 1 cup confectioners' sugar, and butter to bowl, and blend with pecans until crumbly. Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the mix; press the rest into the prepared pan. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until it's just turning golden.
• As the crust bakes, combine all of the filling ingredients until fairly smooth.
• Pull the crust out of the oven. Pour filling over the top and smooth to the edges. Crumble the reserved crust across the top.
• Bake for another 30 to 35 minutes, until the edges are golden and the middle is set.
• Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes to an hour, then place in the fridge to completely chill.
• Use the foil to lift the bars onto a cutting board for easy slicing. Store in a sealed container in the fridge.
• OM NOM NOM!