Strawberry Cheesecake Bars

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Vanilla cheesecake with a crispy graham cracker crust and fresh strawberries.

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I’m so excited for this weekend! Homework free, pie filled, and some time away from the cities. If there is one day to indulge shouldn’t be that one? At least I’ll be the one with pie! I get a lazy morning full of cuddling with these two. I’m thinking of whipping up some of these peanut butter and bacon dog treats just to spoil them a little bit.

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When you make these bars, it’s really important to make sure the cream cheese is completely softened because otherwise it won’t completely blend in with the other ingredients. It will taste the same if it’s not completely softened, but there will be weird little pieces of cream cheese that will absolutely refuse to blend into the rest of it. It sort of reminds me of a very fine cottage cheese.

I used vanilla bean greek yogurt in this recipe and it worked really well- that variety has lovely little vanilla bean flecks in it.You can use any brand of vanilla greek yogurt, even plain if it’s all you have on hand. (When I’m not cooking away from home I always keep a tub of 0% Plain in my fridge) If you go the plain route, add in an extra 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Although I really love peppermint everything, wouldn’t the red strawberries be so pretty? Especially when the strawberries are sitting atop a creamy, vanilla, (skinny!), cheesecake. For cheesecake, I usually stray towards the ganache dripping, peanut butter infused, chocolate cheesecake, this was a nice, fresh change. It’s recipes like these that make me really miss my KitchenAid. I didn’t even have a hand mixer to use!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

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Ingredients

1 cup graham cracker crumbs*
2 tablespoons melted butter
6 oz vanilla greek yogurt
2 8 oz bricks of cream cheese, softened (I used neufchâtel)
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 egg + 1 egg white
1 lb. strawberries

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line an 8x8 baking pan with tin foil, making sure it extends over the sides. This will allow you to easily remove the bars from the pan for cutting.

Mix graham cracker crumbs and melted butter in a small bowl and press into the lined pan. Bake for eight minutes and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, make the filling. Beat the cream cheese for one minute, then add the greek yogurt, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Continue to beat until completely combined. Pour filling over the top of the crust and bake for 20-25 minutes. If the cheesecake starts to brown on the top towards the end of baking, cover with a sheet of aluminum foil and continue to bake. You can tell if the cheesecake is done if the center only jiggles slightly when you lightly shake the pan.

Let cool for 30 minutes and put in fridge until completely chilled. To serve, remove cheesecake from pan, slice into bars, and top with strawberries.

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Notes:

*I used one of the package of graham crackers out of the box and smashed them using a rolling pin rather than buying the pre made crumbs.



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1 comments
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That looks really tasty with those beautiful strawberries 🤗

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