Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars
It’s no secret that I am an unadulterated cheesecake fanatic. If it’s on a menu, I can’t turn it down. It’s my birthday cake of choice, and I’ll come up with the most obscure excuses to bake one up at home. I love trying new varieties when out, and experimenting with new recipes when at home. If there ever happens to be time when I don’t want to make a full-blown cheesecake, I’ve found cheesecake bars to be a more than acceptable substitute. In some cases, they’re (gasp) even better. You can pick them up and eat them without a plate and a fork, and you don’t feel nearly as guilty if you eat multiple pieces (I speak from experience, of course). In the past, I’ve whipped up Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars, Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Squares, and Eggnog Cheesecake Bars, all of which were amazing. With summer on our doorstep, I was salivating just thinking about the bright, fresh flavors of cheesecake bars loaded with lemon and blueberries. Cheesecake is my favorite dessert, and blueberries are absolutely my favorite fruit, which makes them a match made in heaven!
Last Sunday, my mom and I had a marathon garden-planting day, which included a 2-hour trip to Lowe’s. We had a list of plants we definitely wanted to buy, and then, of course, we impulse-shopped like nobody’s business. Among those impulse purchases? A beautiful blueberry plant. Although berries grow wild around many parts of the area we live in, I’ve never attempted to actually grow fruit myself. All of those little budding blueberries were too much to resist, and I snatched it up faster than a cute pair of shoes. Hopefully in a couple of months I can walk out onto the deck and grab the blueberries for my oatmeal (or my latest baking project), instead of going to the fridge and opening a plastic container!
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In the meantime, I’ll trek to the grocery store for blueberries if the end result is a plate full of cheesecake bars infused with lemon and loaded with blueberries! Hello summer!
Have any of you grown blueberries (or strawberries or blackberries) before? Any tips?
One year ago: Root Beer Float Cake
Two years ago: Classic Lemonade
Three years ago: Chocolate Chip Cookie-Topped Brownies
Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 9 graham crackers, broken into pieces
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- Pinch ground cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
For the Filling:
- 16 ounces (453.59 g) cream cheese, room temperature
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- Zest and juice of 2 lemons
- 1½ cups (222 g) fresh blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9x9-inch baking pan with butter. Line the pan with parchment paper, letting excess hang over the sides of the pan.
- Make the Crust: In a food processor, process the graham crackers, sugar, and cinnamon until you have the texture of bread crumbs. Add the melted butter and pulse a couple of times to fully incorporate. Press the mixture into the lined baking pan and gently pat down evenly. Bake for 12 minutes, until golden. Set aside to cool.
- Make the Filling: Wipe out the food processor. Add the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, lemon zest and lemon juice. Process until well combined. It should have a smooth consistency. Pour the filling onto the cooled crust and then sprinkle the blueberries over top. The blueberries will sink slightly, but should still be half exposed. As they bake, they will sink a little more and break down.
- Bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until the center only slightly jiggles. Remove from the oven and cool completely to room temperature and then refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. Once set, remove from pan using the parchment lining and slice into 16 square bars.
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made these twice this week…SOOOOO good!!!
yummy bites…gotta try these out…everyone else really love them
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I made these on wednesday and they were amazing!! My boyfriend ate almost half the pan that night! The lemons I had were really big (I got over half a cup of juice from them) so I wasn’t quite sure how much to use. In the end I just winged it and went with 1T of zest and about 4 or 5T of juice. I was going for a capital L in the Lemon department. I even had enough batter to make my mom her very own mini cheesecake with a gluten free graham cracker crust! My next mission, oreo cheesecake cookies!!!
Your cheesecake bars looks absolutely deliciously! :)
I made these yesterday and brought them to my office today and everyone loved them! I even used reduced fat cream cheese and I think the lemon covered up any difference in the taste between the full fat and reduced fat cream cheese. They are delicious!
I made these yesterday (tweeked to be sugar free for my diabetic hubby) and they are a hit! Thanks for posting such yummy recipes!
Oh, dear. Whatever miniscule amount of cheesecake willpower I possessed just disappeared!
I was stunned and drooling at the first photograph!
I made these yesterday to bri g to a BBQ. They were delicious, I lived the lemon flavor – it really lightened and brightened up the heavy cheesecake.
My cheesecake also came out creamier than the above pictures, but I also noticed that it looks like the above bars were broken apart (rough texture on the sides) instead of cut with a knife? Because when I cut them it was hard not to slice thru a blueberry which then smooshed the corner of the bar and left a purple stain.
Michelle – any tips on slicing these? Thank you!
Hi Jessica, I actually did slice these with a knife. I tried to position the knife between blueberries so I didn’t pop them open. Hope that helps!
Elusive blueberries, def going to grow some as I keep loosing all the store ones I buy. This looks too good, does one square equal one mouthful? if so how many do I get? :-D
Made these last night and got my first nibble in this morning. So yummy! I only made a half portion. Otherwise I’d be eating a ton of cheesecake, lol! I love lemon and my husband loves blueberries so perfect pairing=)
I love the combination of lemon and blueberry. I had never had it before I started working at a donut shop in Cambridge, MA in 1981. They had Lemon Blueberry Muffins. I had one and I was hooked. Grilled with butter?? OMG. This brings me right back to working at that donut shop. Funny, I worked there for 5 months and never ate a donut! They had many flavors of muffins and those I ate, tons and tons of them. In those days I didn’t gain any weight from them. I have to try this.
Michelle, I have grown blueberry bushes, as well as strawberries. With blueberries, be sure to apply Miracid to fertilize as well as to help the soil achieve the optimum pH to ensure abundant production. The only problem I encountered regularly was to keep the birds from eating all the berries as they ripened. The only thing that worked finally was to get a big net made for this purpose from a nursery supply. Worked like a charm, and we enjoyed loads of the most flavorful blueberries every season untIl we had move across the country. I sure miss those bushes!
Hi Cat, Thank you for the tips! We just put some netting over the strawberries and blueberries. A critter had already gotten to one of the strawberries!
lemon + blueberry = delicious taste explosion!
I made these earlier today- crossed off of my Summer 2012 bucket list. They are chilling in the fridge as I type. They look/smell soooooo good! Hard to wait for them to chill in the fridge! ;)
Very nice!
What would using frozen blueberries do to the recipe? Have you ever tried it that way?
Hi Ileana, I have not used frozen blueberries. I think you could use them, but I would thaw them first and drain off any liquid. Otherwise, I fear the batter would be too watery as they cooked down.
Made these last evening and they were a hit! Mine turned out more creamy looking, as opposed to more cakey looking. Wonder if I over-food processored? Regardless, my husband couldn’t stop eating it.. :)
These look mouth-watering! Definately on “my list of things to bake”
Shirley x
Aaaah – they look and sound absolutely delicious! Amazing combination indeed.
Oh my gosh, I’m a sucker for any and all kinds of cheesecake. This looks deliicous!
I made these today with a combo of blueberries and raspberries – they are fabulous! The cheesecake was the perfect texture. Thank you so much for the recipe – it will be in the summer rotation!
Perfect for summer! Love this.
Hands down – my favorite summer flavor combination! Love these, Michelle!
We got a blueberry plant last year and had netting on it (which worked) but the gardener at the nursery said that you shouldn’t even pick the berries the first year. It’s better to wait until the second year so the plant can get established. I only snuck a few juicy berries. Talk about restraint! Over the winter the rabbits almost killed it but it’s slowly coming back.
We got a hybrid that you could plant by itself but we got another this year because even with the hybrids I guess the plants like to have “company”. This winter we’ll make some sort of cover so the rabbits stay away! Good luck!
I make something similar but it has a brown sugar shortbread crust we love. Might be time for a little comparison baking!
HELLO! I think I’m in love, these look amazing! :)
Two things you need to know about growing blueberry bushes: they love and must have very acidic soil and more than one type of bush needs to be planted for pollination. Best way to beat the birds is to share, lol >>> grow enough plants for you and the birds, lol….recipe sounds delish btw. :)
Oh man do these look great. i have the blueberries and the lemon but no cream cheese. i have to remedy this right now!
Good luck on your blueberry plant!