Baking and Creating with Avril: Berry Cheesecake Bars

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Berry Cheesecake Bars

Whom ever invented cheesecake is simply brilliant! Completely and honestly brilliant. There are so many wonderful flavors and special additions that you can develop into a cheesecake. It can be sweet or a savory. No matter what the flavor it is always decadent and delicious. And a cheesecake is the perfect kind of cake to celebrate a special occasion - especially a 15th wedding anniversary!

Today we celebrate the beautiful Camilla Mann of the food blog, Culinary Adventures with Camilla, and her marriage to her beloved hubby of 15 blissful years with all things CHEESECAKE. 26 of us passionate food bloggers have gotten together and brain-stormed, created and baked to our little hearts content all things CHEESECAKE. Sweet ones, salty ones, mini and large are all being featured together in unison to honor and rejoice over the Mann's 15 years of marriage. The Mann's really like cheesecake. Can you blame them?! I can't.

I made a batch of Berry Cheesecake Bars just for today's event. I love the taste of berries and cheesecake served together so I was delighted to find this recipe which bakes berries right into the cheesecake. Instead of making a cheesecake in the traditional form using a spring form pan, this recipe is created into bars using a 9x13 pan. The crust is made out of a delicious mixture of flour, sugar, rolled oats and butter. Simple ingredients coming together to make a wonderful foundation for these bars. The filling only requires 2, 8oz. blocks of cream cheese compared to the normal 3-4 blocks in a spring form size cake. And you can choose to add in lemon juice to provide a fresh tartness to the bars or opt out of such an addition. Completely up to you! The berries that you use in this recipe can be fresh or frozen - it all depends on what is available to you and your preference.

I present to you a wonderful recipe for cheesecake bars packed with berries and full of delicious-ness. Happy 15th Camilla and Jake! Wishing you both many, many more years to come of your beautiful marriage along side an abundance of CHEESECAKES!! :-)

Berry Cheesecake Bars

(recipe from Beauty and Bedlam)

Crust ingredients:

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup rolled oats

3/4 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup salted butter, melted

Filling ingredients:

(2) 8oz. blocks cream cheese, softened

2/3 cup sugar

2 Tbsp all purpose flour

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 TBSP fresh lemon juice - optional

2-4 cups mixed berries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 375. Grease a 9x13 pan and set aside. Prepare crust - in a large bowl combine crust ingredients - flour, sugar, rolled oats and baking powder. Mix well all together. Pour in melted butter and carefully stir all together.

Gently press crust mixture evenly into prepared pan with a plastic baggie over your hand (the baggie prevents the mixture from sticking to your hands). Bake crust for about 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Cool crust for 30 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 325.

Sprinkle berries evenly over cooled crust. Make filling by beating softened cream cheese until light and creamy in a large bowl. Add in sugar and 2 Tbsp flour. Beat well all together.

Add in eggs, one at a time - beating well with each addition. Add in vanilla extract and lemon juice. Once all has been mixed well together pour filling mixture over berry layer and place into 325 oven. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until knife inserted into middle comes out clean and center feels firm to the touch.

Cool cheesecake for 2 hours before placing in refrigerator to continue to cool for at least 3 more hours.   Cut into bars and serve. Enjoy!!