What is better than cheesecake? Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars. Decadent, luscious, perfectly sized and bursting with sweet, fresh blueberries. These dessert bars deliver an intense cheesecake flavor with the sweetness of blueberries and tartness of lemon on top of a buttery graham cracker crust. The most perfect dream team.
Table of contents
Recipe Inspo
This traditional and simple Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Bar recipe is easy. It’s inspired by a clipping from a magazine a few years ago. I believe it’s a Philadelphia Cream Cheese recipe so you know it’s delicious and for the most part easy to make. I’m not a baker. Baking, especially desserts is not my strength so I take inspiration, often from books and magazines. For this recipe two things that jumped out at me, my love for blueberries and my love for lemons. And the third is really, cheesecake. So here is the trifecta of favorite flavors baked into small, almost guilt free squares. They really aren’t guilt free, but they are smaller and in my mind, almost calorie free. 🙂
Cheesecake vs cheesecake bars
What is the difference between a slice of cheesecake and a cheesecake bar? A typical cheesecake is baked in a round, springform pan. It’s typically baked in a water bath resulting in a 2-3 inch thick round cake that is cut into good size wedges. A bar takes the flavors and density in a smaller package. Typically the dessert bars are about 1 inch thick and bake easily in a common baking dish making this an easy recipe for those of us who may not be the best bakers or just simply don’t have the time.
Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Bar Recipe
So let’s get to it. The recipe yields 12, 2 inch dessert bars. For us, this is a perfect size. For larger families or for entertaining, you can easily double the recipe and bake in a 9×13″ pan or dish.
Ingredients for a creamy Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake
This is one of the easiest cheesecake recipes I’ve ever made. Simple with readily available ingredients and a simplified method for baking makes this recipe perfect for novice bakers. What you will need are the following:
- 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs
- 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp of sugar
- 4 tbsp melted butter
- 1 1/2 cup of blueberries
- Juice of half a lemon and 1/2 tbsp of lemon zest
- 2 packages (8oz each) of block style cream cheese, regular, softened
- 2 eggs
Preparation
We are going to start by making the buttery graham cracker crust. It’s a traditional crust made with butter, sugar and crushed graham crackers.
Graham cracker crust
Preheat oven to 325ºF. Start by crushing enough graham crackers to make 1 cup of crumbs. It’s about 4-5 crackers in total. I place them in a zip type bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Place crumbs and 1 tbsp of sugar in a small bowl and set aside.
Now line a small, 8×8 inch casserole dish or 6×9″ ( I used a 6×9″) with foil paper. Ensure there is excess foil paper over the rim of the baking dish. The dish is now ready for baking the graham cracker crumb crust.
Melt 4 tbsp of butter and add to bowl with graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Mix well with a spoon until all of the crumbs are covered in butter. Now add cracker and butter mixture to the foil covered casserole and press mixture onto the bottom of the casserole dish. The crust should cover the bottom of the baking dish evenly.
Bake for 10 minutes and then remove from the oven.
Cream cheese filling
Reserve 1/4 cup of blueberries and 1/2 tsp of lemon zest and set aside.
Beat cream cheese, lemon juice, remaining sugar and zest with a hand mixer or stand type. Beat until everything is blended. Now it’s time to add the eggs.
Add 1 egg at a time, and mix on low just until blended. Repeat for second egg. Now gently fold in blueberries and pour mixture into graham cracker crust. Spread evenly onto the crust and even out with a small spatula or spoon.
Baking the blueberry lemon cheesecake
Bake about 35-40 minutes. When you remove it from the oven, the middle maybe a little jiggly, that is okay as long the rest of the cheesecake is set. Remove from oven and allow to completely cool. Once cooled, refrigerate for minimum of 4 hours.
TIP: How to cut cheesecake bars cleanly
You will quickly notice on the first cut, that there will be cream cheese filling on the knife and crumbs. This quick tip will provide for cleaner edges. Run cutting knife under hot water for a few seconds. Wipe the knife dry and make the first cut. With a paper towel, wipe excess cream cheese and crumbs off and make the second cut. Repeat until all the bars are cut.
Refrigerate and Serve
After the Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake has been refrigerated and set, it’s time to cut into bars. Gently remove the cake with the excess foil, using the foil like a handle. Place on cutting surface and carefully peel foil down from sides of the cheesecake. Cut into 8 large bars or 12 smaller ones.
Serve with the extra fresh blueberries and top with a little lemon zest. Enjoy!
How to Store, Freeze and thaw my Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars
So now you have baked these scrumptious cheesecake bars, and you want to save some for the rest of the week or for a rainy day. They can be refrigerated for up to 4 days, if they last that long! I like to freeze them in individual portions in the freezer and thaw them as needed. There are two ways of freezing them: one is individually with waxed paper and placing them in a container or a large zip type bag. The second method is to freeze the precut bars on a small rimmed baking sheet and once frozen placing them in a container or zip type bag. Both work well. These bars can be frozen up to 4 months.
The thaw time is about 30 minutes on the counter or about 2 hours in the fridge.
Variations of this cheesecake recipe that work well
Blueberries are my first choice for this cheesecake dessert, but this recipe works well with fresh diced strawberries or raspberries. I will be baking this recipe with blackberries “berry” soon. Sorry, had to do that. 🙂 I’ll be sure to update this post and update you all on my findings. If you have other ideas for this recipe, chime in below in the comments section.
Love lemons? So do we! Other lemon recipes you will love!
I have so many recipes on this site with lemons. It’s one of my favorite ingredients that I use so often in so many of my daily meals. I just love lemons! Here are some fan favorites: Lemon Arugula Pasta Salad, Lemon Potato Caper Salad, Rosemary Lemon Water, One Pan Lemon Rosemary chicken and rice, and one more for you, Grilled Lemon Oregano Chicken + Salmoriglio Sauce . All sunny, delicious and lemony!
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Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars
Equipment
- 1 small casserole or baking dish 8×8 inch or 6×9 inch
- foil paper
- microplane for zest
- hand or stand mixer
Ingredients
- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
- 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp sugar
- 4 tbsp butter melted
- 1 1/2 cup blueberries fresh
- 1/2 lemon juice of, fresh
- 1/2 tbsp lemon zest
- 2 8oz cream cheese, regular block style
- 2 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325ºF.
- Start by crushing enough graham crackers to make 1 cup of crumbs. It's about 4-5 crackers. I place them in a zip type bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Place crumbs and 1 tbsp of sugar in a small bowl, set aside.
- Now line a small, 8×8 inch casserole dish or 6×9" ( I used a 6×9") with foil paper. Ensure there is excess foil paper over the rim of the baking dish. The dish is now ready for baking the breadcrumb crust.
- Melt 4 tbsp of butter and add to bowl with graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Mix well with a spoon until all of the crumbs are covered in butter.
- Now add cracker/butter mixture to the foil covered casserole and press mixture onto the bottom of the casserole dish. The crust should cover the bottom of the baking dish evenly.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- Reserve 1/4 cup of blueberries and 1/2 tsp of lemon zest and set aside for serving.
- Beat cream cheese, lemon juice, remaining sugar and zest with a hand mixer or stand type. Beat until everything is blended. Now it's time to add the eggs.
- Add 1 egg at a time, and mix on low just until blended. Repeat for second egg. Now gently fold in blueberries and pour mixture into graham cracker crust. Spread evenly onto the crust and even out with a small spatula.
- Bake about 35-40 minutes. When you remove it from the oven, the middle maybe a little jiggly, that is okay as long the rest of the cheesecake is set. Remove from oven and allow to completely cool. Once cooled, refrigerate for minimum of 4 hours.
- TIP FOR CUTTING THE BARS CLEANLY: You will quickly notice on the first cut, that there will be cream cheese filling on the knife and crumbs. This quick tip will provide for cleaner edges. Run cutting knife under hot water for a few seconds. Wipe the knife dry and make the first cut. With a paper towel, wipe excess cream cheese and crumbs off and make the second cut. Repeat until all the bars are cut.
- After the Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake has been refrigerated and set, it's time to cut into bars. Gently remove the cake with the excess foil, like handles. Place on cutting surface and carefully peel foil down from sides. Cut into 8 large bars or 12 smaller ones.
- Serve with the extra fresh blueberries and top with a little lemon zest. Refrigerate and Serve
Notes
How to Store, Freeze and thaw my Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars
So now you have baked these scrumptious cheesecake bars, and you want to save some for the rest of the week or for a rainy day. The can be refrigerated for up to 4 days, if they last that long! I like to freeze them in individual portions in the freezer and thaw them as needed. There are two ways of freezing them: one is individually with waxed paper and placing them in a container or a large zip type bag. The second method is to freeze the precut bars on a small rimmed baking sheet and once frozen placing them in a container or zip type bag. Both work well. These bars can be frozen up to 4 months. The thaw time is about 30 minutes on the counter or about 2 hours in the fridge. Recipe adapted from a Philadelphia cream cheese ad.Nutrition
Nutritional information is calculated online and should be used as a guide.
All content and photographs ©Claudia’s Table and claudiastable.com
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