Thursday, May 15, 2008

Oh my, these are delicious!


I came across this recipe at Leigh Anne's website. She's got lots of really truly fabulous recipes on her website, so I'd highly recommend taking a peek over there when you've got some time on your hands. I've been hankering after these for a couple of weeks now and finally made a batch yesterday. They are divine! I think they'd be really lovely for a baby or wedding shower cut into 1 inch pieces and topped with a fresh raspberry and mint leaf. Or just eaten right out of the pan like I did yesterday... I finally divied up the last half of the pan between my friends so that I wouldn't scarf them all down myself.

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. (**When I did this part, I found that the cheesecake layer was a bit fragile and if I tried to pour too fast the lemon would pop up portions of the cheesecake and run underneath it. Still tastes fine but not quite as attractive when cut.) 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

2 comments:

Patti said...

Sitting at work, waiting for the day to be done, I had plenty of time to look at Leigh Anne's website. Thanks for the recommendation. The lemon bars look heavenly, by the way.

Anonymous said...

I am so glad you liked the Lemon Cheesecake Bars - they are divine. I haven't made them in a while and I have a few lemons on the counter so I think I should get busy! yum!! Love your site and can't wait to try a few of your wonderful recipes!! Thanks!