This recipe turns out perfect cheesecake bars flavored with just the right amount of fresh lemon juice and zest. They are a summery, sweet dessert to make for parties, and they are easily made in an 8×8-inch pan. The recipe makes 12 lemon cheesecake bars, which is manageable for a small gathering. You won’t have a bunch left over. Everyone loves a good cheesecake, so these are likely to be a big hit!
Ingredients needed:
CRUST: graham cracker crumbs, sugar, salt and butter cream cheese powdered sugar sour cream lemon juice lemon zest vanilla extract eggs
Notes about ingredients:
It’s easiest to buy a box of already processed graham cracker crumbs. They should be on the shelf in your market’s baking aisle. Otherwise, you can use a food processor to grind the graham crackers into crumbs. It’s best to use full-fat cream cheese and full-fat sour cream for these bars. They will taste much better and have a nicer texture than using the low fat version of cream cheese and light sour cream. That being said, you can definitely use lower fat versions if you need to, and the bars will still turn out just fine.
How to make Lemon Cheesecake Bars:
Combine the crust ingredients in a medium bowl, and pat them into a foil-lined, 8×8-inch baking dish. If you don’t like to bake with foil, it’s okay to bake these bars in an 8×8-inch pyrex pan instead. The rest of the ingredients are combined with an electric mixer to make the filling. The filling is spooned onto the crust and spread to cover evenly. Then it goes into the oven for about 30 minutes.
Once cooled, the pan of lemon cheesecake bars is refrigerated for several hours until well-chilled. The more chilled they are, the easier it will be for you to get nice, clean cuts. Use a sharp knife to cut the pan of lemon cheesecake into evenly sized bars.
You can certainly leave the bars plain, or you can add a pretty garnish. We added whipped cream, fresh berries and fresh mint here. A spoonful of strawberry topping would be delicious too.
Keep these bars refrigerated until ready to serve. Enjoy!
