These Strawberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars are the best fruity desserts for the summertime. These fresh and tangy treats are made with a buttery shortbread crust for perfection in every bite.
Strawberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars
Helloooo people!
Today I’m looking out for ya! Honest.
…A giver, a people pleaser, an all around go-to girl, that’s what I am. The thing is, I hear you need fruit in your diet. Health is important.
So today two fruits for the price of one. See? A giver! Plus there’s dairy and fiber: cheesecake and shortbread. A people pleaser!!! I told ya!
OR, I suppose you could say I’m a saboteur. A mean girl. An enabler…
Because, honestly I’m trying to sell you cheesecake bars as a well rounded meal. But I’m pretty much sure that might make me the coolest mean girl ever.
You say tomato.
Strawberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars. Complete daily sustenance. Feel free to eat 30.
How to Make Strawberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars
The crust is yummy shortbread…and I actually used my pastry cutter…I knew I bought that thing for a reason!
It’ll be super crumbly and dry. Don’t you worry…
Press it into the pan and bake it until the edges are beginning to golden up.
When the crust is partially cooked, pull it out and spread on some Strawberry preserves. Use good ones, people.
How pretty is that?
Then pour the lemon cream cheese mixture on top of that.
I didn’t show this step, but while the crust is partially baking, you can mix this up. Super simple.
While it’s baking clean up.
No one likes a messy kitchen 😉
And finito!
I’m telling you, a full meal.
Strawberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 36 bars 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These Strawberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars are the best fruity desserts for the summertime. These fresh and tangy treats are made with a buttery shortbread crust for perfection in every bite.
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tsp lemon zest, divided
- 3/4 cup cold butter, cut into tablespoon sized pieces
- 2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 cup strawberry preserves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl combine flour, powdered sugar, 1 tsp lemon zest and butter. Cut together with a pastry cutter until mixture is crumbly. It will be dry, don’t worry.
- Press the mixture into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 20 minutes until edges start to golden.
- Meanwhile, in bowl of stand mixer beat together cream cheese, remaining zest and granulated sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, stirring until combined. Stir in lemon juice.
- When crust is golden, remove from oven and spread strawberry preserves evenly on top. Pour cream cheese mixture on top of preserves.
- Continue baking for 25 minutes until cheesecake is set in the middle.
- Allow to cool on wire rack for 20 minutes and then chill in refrigerator for at least 4 hours.
- Cut into squares when ready to serve.
Notes
Garnish with whipped cream and strawberries if desired.
Recipe adapted from Southern Living
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 126
- Sugar: 10.1 g
- Sodium: 22.4 mg
- Fat: 5.8 g
- Carbohydrates: 17.3 g
- Protein: 1.4 g
- Cholesterol: 25.3 mg
Keywords: strawberry cheesecake bars, lemon cheesecake bars, lemon bars recipe, best lemon bars recipe, lemon cheesecake recipe, strawberry cheesecake recipe, strawberry lemon cake
Perfect.
★★★★★
Crust cracked during baking( need tips on doing it better please) also this was a first time for me. Cheesecake part past the taste test so that should be fine.
★★★
I made this for Easter at my in-laws. I take pride in making desserts for family events and I only make the best. I was hesitant since this was a new recipe for me, but the flavors and ingredients seemed to make logical, tasty sense. Unfortunately, I was semi-wrong. The crust turned out like a brick, which I’ve never had happen before with similar desserts. I couldn’t cut through it with any knife in the house. We ended up scraping the strawberry and cheesecake layers off and just eating those, which were fine. The preserves made this dessert taste a little cheap. If I were to make this again, I’d try a Graham cracker crust and a lighter strawberry preserve layer.
These were awesome! The whole pan went so fast. I am going to make them again this weekend. Thinking of using lemon curd instead of strawberry preserves this time.
i love your idea of using lemon curd in place of the strawberry preserves!! i am going to make it this way and put slices strawberries on top 🙂
★★★★★
This just came out of the oven and it smells divine! I can’t hardly wait to cut them into squares and try them. Thanks for a simple recipe. (By the way, the reader who commented that she used rhubarb/strawberry jam…I’m so envious! That would be amazing.)
★★★★★
Hi Shelley 🙂 I was dying to do something simple with some leftover cream cheese that I had. I had no preserve so I went ahead and tried it without the strawberry layer. It was almost perfect! My brother (who dislikes anything resembling yogurt-y) would’ve finished it all up if I hadn’t put it away for my parents. Thank you for the recipe! Next time, I would double the cheese layer and add a little extra lemon juice and I’d have easy peasy lemon cheesecake!
Hi Shelly!
I just wanted to let you know that I made this recipe this past weekend and it was scrumptious! I had some cream cheese that needed to be used up and was wondering what to make with it. I also happened to have some homemade strawberry rhubarb jelly in my pantry and oh my…the end result was divine! I shared some with family and half of the pan went to work otherwise I am afraid I would have eaten them all! Huge hit at work as well! Thank you so much for the recipe! It is a keeper!
Love hearing this!
Would this be really weird if I mixed some of the regular creamcheese with strawberry creamcheese? I just got so much strawberry creamcheese at home and trying to use it up somehow. I’m just wondering if they would be too sweet if I did that.
I bet that would be great!
I’m such a strawberry lover that I don’t normally like them to appear alongside anything else but I’ll make an exception for these bars because they look so delicious =)