Springtime came early to Alaska this year. The snow has been gone from our yard for a few weeks compared to most years with piles of snow until mid to late May. The warmer weather has me wanting things that are a bit lighter than the cold weather food I tend to make even into April. I thought it would be nice to enjoy a taste of spring with Lemon Cheesecake Crumble Bars.
I will admit it was partly my frugal nature that opted to test these out. For my husband’s recent birthday, my aspiring chef baked a batch of cheesecake brownies which necessitated my purchasing a brick of cream cheese. Rather than let it go bad, I decided to try the lemon cheesecake crumble bar recipe that came with the container. However, the boys requested that I not top it with blueberries.
Lemon Cheesecake Crumble Bars
Making the Lemon Cheesecake Crumble Bars is super easy and uses readily available ingredients. The recipe lists a yellow cake mix. So, if you are eating gluten-free, just substitute with a gluten-free yellow cake mix and you should be set to go! You can probably play around with sugar substitutes, but for this round I left it with organic sugar cane.
Personally, I am working on trying to do more from scratch and hope to figure out a homemade cake mix, both with and without wheat flours.
The different mixing steps can be done using either a hand or stand mixer. I opted to use my Bosch Universal Plus Mixer with the heavy duty cookie paddles (metal driver instead of plastic!). A quick swipe of the interior of the bowl part way through the mixing process allowed everything to incorporate well.
For making my batch of these delicious bars, I used a metal 9 X 13 pan. Mine actually has marks on the side to show you where to cut to get up to 32 bars from your pan.
Just make sure that you are using a Nylon Dessert and Bread Knife if you do this in the pan! Otherwise, you can eyeball it after removing the large bar from the pan. I elected for the second option for the batch photographed for this post.
Laura
Yields 32
20 minPrep Time
1 hrCook Time
1 hr, 20 Total Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1 pkg. yellow cake mix
- 2 eggs
- 1 lb. cream cheese; softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
- 3 Tbsp. lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Use aluminum foil to line a 9 X 13 pan so that some of the foil comes over the lip.
- In a large bowl (or the mixer's bowl), add melted butter, dry cake mix, and 1 egg. Beat with mixer until blended. Press 2/3 of this dough onto the bottom of the prepared pan. Set the other 1/3 of the dough aside.
- In the now empty large bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until blended. Add the other egg, the lemon zest, and lemon juice. Mix well. Pour over the crust.
- Using your fingers, press the remaining dough into small pieces. Firmly push them into the cream cheese layer leaving spots open.
- Bake 55 minutes to 1 hour, testing with a toothpick for when it is done. Allow to cool in the pan. Remove from the pan by holding onto the foil. Cut into small bars (I did 7 cuts lengthwise and then 4 cuts widthwise for mine.)
- You can lightly dust with powdered sugar if desired. Fresh berries make an excellent accompaniment OR alternatively you could top the cheesecake layer with berries before baking.
What types of desserts make you think about Spring?
Is a Lemon Cheesecake Crumble Bar something your family would enjoy?
For more spring posts, visit a few of my favorite bloggers:
- How to Make Easy Pickled Asparagus by Confessions of an Overworked Mom
- Strawberry Lemonade Mojito Mocktail by How Was Your Day?
- How to Make an Easy Broken Pot Succulent Container by Simply Southern Mom
- Butterfly Sun Catcher Craft by Kids Fun Reviewed
- Easy Strawberry Cream Pie by Mom Does It All
- Bird Nest Brownie Bowls Recipe by Sugar Spice and Family Life
- Vegan Rice Krispie Treat Tiger Lillies by Beyond Mommying
- Coffee Filter Butterfly Accessories by Mommy Snippets
- Spring Paper Butterflies Craft by Family Focus Blog
- Pineapple Kiwi Smoothie Bowl by Upstate Ramblings
- DIY Flower Loop Hair Bow Tutorial by Savvy Saving Couple
This post was originally published on Apr 14, 2016.
The post Enjoy a Taste of Spring with Lemon Cheesecake Crumble Bars appeared first on Day By Day in Our World.