Why is it that when you have 100 little pieces of something it always feels better than having 1 large piece? I'm talking specifically about dessert of course. Put a whole piece of cheesecake in front of me and in about 1.2 seconds I'll feel really guilty I ate the whole thing, not only because I ate it in record time, but because I feel like I just polished off the whole cake. But...put 5 bite size pieces of cheesecake in front of me and I'll be asking you for more. I don't have the answer to this on going mystery, and to be honest I'd like to keep it that way frankly just for these little delights. I don't need to start feeling guilty after I eat the whole batch (cut into bite size pieces of course). I saw this recipe on Tyler's Ultimate on the Food Network one day and have made them countless times. So incredibly easy to make, and a definite crowd pleaser. This is one of those recipes that looks like you spent more time than you actually did when in reality you probably will spend more time eating them than preparing them. So plus-es all around for this recipe, you gotta try it!
Tyler's Ultimate Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars
original recipe here
Ingredients
For the base:
- Butter, for greasing
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 9 graham crackers
- 1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted
For the filling:
- 16 ounces cream cheese
, room temperature - 2 eggs
- 2 lemons, zested and juiced
- About 1/2 cup sugar, eyeball it
- 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
For the base:
Grease the bottom of a 9 by 9-inch baking pan with butter. Then place parchment paper over the top, pressing down at the corners. In a food processor, process the sugar, cinnamon and graham crackers until you have the texture of bread crumbs. Add the melted butter and pulse a couple of times to fully incorporate. Pour into the lined baking pan and gently pat down with the base of a glass. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes until golden. When done set aside to cool.
For the filling:
Add cream cheese, eggs, lemon zest, lemon juice and sugar to the food processor and mix until well combined. It should have a smooth consistency. Pour onto the cooled base and then cover with blueberries. They will sink slightly but should still be half exposed -- as the cake bakes 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 before refrigerating for at least 3 hours. Once set, remove from pan using the parchment lining and slice into 10 rectangular bars. (bite-size pieces if your serving it to a large crowd or if you don't want that guilty voice screaming at you the rest of the week) ;) Dust with powdered sugar.
p.s. sorry for the low quality pics, I have a point-and-shoot camera and it was the middle of the night when I made this batch, promise they look tastier in person ;)
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