Berry Lemon Cheesecake Bars

I had bought a couple of lemons recently and still had one lemon that I wanted to use. It was starting to show its age so I went looking for recipes, hopefully something where I had all of the necessary ingredients. Since I try to keep cream cheese on hand, this helps a lot! I found these lemon cheesecake bars, which were perfect. The original recipe called for strawberry preserves, which I didn’t have, but I figured I could find something.

Our kitchen is stocked with quite a variety of preserves, which I think I have mentioned before. I knew we would have something that would work with lemon. While some of the flavors we had on hand didn’t combine well with lemon, I ended up finding some preserves that were a combination of blueberry and blackberry. Blueberry and lemon are classic together, and the blackberry would be even a little bit better.

These bars take a little bit longer because there are several steps. I made my crust in the mixer, but I could have also used my food processor. That does a better job of making pastry, but the mixer was fine. The mixer bowl was quite clean so I just used that for the filling as well. These bars are excellent with the blueberry/blackberry preserves! The only challenge was cutting the bars when they were very cold, which was nearly impossible! Once I let the bars sit at room temperature for a short time they were much easier to work with!

Berry Lemon Cheesecake Bars
2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3/4 cup cold butter, cut into tablespoon sized pieces
16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup berry preserves

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon lemon zest and butter. Mix on low until the mixture is crumbly. (You could also use your food processor for this.) The mixture will be dry. Press the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.  

Bake for 20 minutes, until the crust begins to brown.

While the crust is baking, make the filling: in a large mixer bowl beat the cream cheese, sugar, and lemon zest on medium until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring until combined. Stir in the lemon juice.

Once the crust comes out of the oven, carefully spread the preserves in an even layer over the crust. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the preserves and smooth the top.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cheesecake is set in the center. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour before refrigerating for several hours. Bring the bars to room temperature for about 30 minutes before cutting into bars.

Recipe from Cookies and Cups