Lovely Lemons - Lemon Cheesecake Bars

Thursday, February 21, 2008, by Leigh Anne

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I love lemons!

I love everything about lemons!

I love the taste of lemons, the smell of lemons, the color and shape of lemons!

I purchase lemons by the pound, not individually - last week I bought 5 lbs. of lemons. Wondering what 5 pounds of lemons look like? - see the above photo (you can also see my lemon tablecloth in the picture!).

Over the next few weeks I am going to share with you what I did with 5 lbs. of lemons!

But before I do that I want to tell you about two kitchen tools you are going to need if you are going to work with lemons.

First - the microplaner. I love this tool. It is a long, small grater type tool. You use it to “zest” a lemon which basically means grating the lemon rind. Fresh lemon zest adds great flavor to recipes.

Second - you will need a lemon juicer. I use this handy little hand juicer - it quickly and easily squeezes all the juice out of the lemon. I got mine for a couple of dollars at Ikea but both of these tools can be found at any kitchen shop or even Target.

You are going to want to use fresh lemon juice, not that fake stuff that comes in the green bottle at the grocery store for the recipes I will share with you so get juicing!

One of my favorite lemon recipes is Lemon Bars. Recently a new friend I met through my blog, Rachel, shared with me her recipe for Lemon Cheesecake Bars and promised me they would become my new favorite lemon recipe - she was right. The cheesecake layer makes for a much creamier and yummier lemon bar!

Lemon Cheesecake Bars - you will need 3-4 lemons for this recipe

Crust:

3/4 cup butter, chilled

2 cups flour

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

Cheesecake:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

2 Tbsp. milk

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Lemon Layer:

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup flour

Crust: Preheat oven to 325. Cut butter into pieces. In a food processor (or blender on low, pulse setting) Process all ingredients until mixture becomes tiny and fine pieces. Sprinkle mixture into a 9 x 13 baking pan and press evenly into bottom of pan. Bake for 12 minutes and remove from oven.

Cheesecake: In medium bowl, blend cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and mix well. Cream together the rest of the ingredients until smooth. Pour cheesecake evenly over hot crust. Bake 15 minutes. Remove from oven and reduce oven temperature to 300.

Lemon layer: In a bowl whisk together eggs and sugar until combined well. Stir in lemon juice and flour. Pour over semi-baked cheesecake. Bake at 300 for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle powdered sugar over top if desired.

Cool for an hour and then refrigerate. Can be served warm but better after it has chilled. I let it sit out of the fridge 20-30 minutes before I serve it. For families, it will probably be eaten as soon as they are out of the fridge.

Makes 24 bars

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Categories: Cookie Jar, Recipes

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15 Responses to “Lovely Lemons - Lemon Cheesecake Bars”

I can testify the lemon cheesecake bars are delicious. Thanks for the plate of them you brought to us. Mom

I am so excited that you like them, too, Leigh Anne! This recipe is pretty special to me, because it was created by one of my good friends, Teresa. She had several favorite recipes that she combined to make the perfect Lemon Bar! Teresa plans at least one annual tea/garden party in her beautiful backyard each year, and this was just one of several scrumptious desserts she served last summer. Teresa… now you are famous! :o)

Also… Leigh Anne- your photos of your dishes are always SOOOOOOO cute! Do you use a specific software program to put the title on top of the picture? Is it something you do with “memory manager”? And what’s your brand and type of camera?

Oh my word do those ever sound good…I’m drooling right now!

Thanks Rachel for the compliments and thanks Leigh Anne for posting this so others can enjoy the scrumptiousness. I created this recipe for a tea party several years ago and was delighted that it turned out so well. One special reason I love this recipe is because it brings back many happy memories of sitting with friends, having lovely conversations and eating delicious food. What a perfect way to spend an afternoon!

Oops….I can cook, but I can’t navigate through websites.

Oh dear…. lemons are my absolute favorite of all the wonderful tastes out there. I even go so far as to buy all my cleaning, dish-soap’s, candles…. always lemon or at the very least lemon infused.

I am going to try this recipe out this next week. Hope it turns out as well as your’s has.

Yum!

Teresa,

Thanks for stopping by and thank you for creating such a wonderful recipe and sharing it!! Wish I could come to one of your tea parties! I love tea parties!

Rachel,

In answer to your question about my photos. I use a program by Creative Memories called Storybook Creator Plus to add the text to my photos and other fun stuff. My camera is a Nikkon D-40 and I love it.

well, i made these the day you posted the recipe…because i am so lucky to have a huge meyer lemon tree in my backyard…the bars are DELICIOUS! we ate through the entire pan in two days - my father-in-law loved them and he was so impressed! thank you, leigh ann, for sharing - another great recipe!

Julie,

I am so jealous - a lemon tree of your very own. I would be in lemon heaven!!! Glad you and your family enjoyed the recipe.

Hi,

I am Brooke’s aunt and I just want to testify that your lemon bars are indeed the best I’ve ever had (and I’m pretty picky)! I was in Provo yesterday visiting my daughter, Kelsie, who is Brooke’s roommate. Brooke offered me a lemon bar that she and Clark had made the night before. At first I declined, but then Kelsie showed them to me and told me to try “just a bite”. Of course the bite turned into the whole piece and I was hooked! When I demanded the recipe, she told me about your blog. Loved it!!! Your photos are as great as the recipe!! Just know you have several new fans- I showed your website to my daughters and they were impressed. Can’t wait to try the recipe, I think it will be tomorrow or sooner! By the way, you have a wonderful son. I got to meet him on Valentines’ Day.

Sincerely,

andi wagstaff

Andi, you made my day! I’m glad I could make something that others enjoy. My neighbors and I have a bi-monthly cooking class and this month we are doing a class on cheesecake. I plan to make this recipe, but would welcome others. So if any of you have a cheesecake recipe with a twist…please send my way! I’m particularly looking for a diabetic recipe, because we have a gal with diabetes and I want to do one for her. Thanks everyone!

Teresa,

Would love to see what great cheesecake recipes you come up with - my oldest son Logan, loves cheesecake and for his birthday last year I had a cheesecake from Carnegie’s Deli in New York sent to him at school - he was in heaven.
Please share!

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