Today I have a sweet treat for you and I am sure that you will enjoy these strawberry lemon cheesecake bars! These bars start with the base of a simple shortbread crust and it’s topped with a lemon-y cheesecake layer with dollops of a fresh homemade strawberry sauce that are swirled around creating a pretty pattern of red and yellow! As far as baking goes, these cheesecake bars are easy to make so even if you don’t do a lot of baking they will turn out great! The fresh summer-y strawberry and lemon flavour combination is absolutely amazing and these strawberry lemon cheesecake bars are the perfect way to celebrate summer!
I like to shave a bit off the outside to ensure that the bars are more uniformly square.
I like to line my baking pan with heavy foil so that I can just lift the whole thing out of the pan without worrying about the bars sticking to the pan or breaking the bars as I remove them from the pan one at a time.
Strawberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars
Creamy lemon cheesecake bars with strawberry swirls!
ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
For the lemon shortbread layer:
For the strawberry sauce:
For the lemon cheesecake layer:
directions
- Mix the flour, butter, sugar, lemon zest and salt and press into the bottom of a greased 9×13 inch baking pan.
- Bake in a preheated 375F/190C oven until lightly golden brown on top, about 15-20 minutes, before setting aside to cool.
- Simmer everything in a small sauce pan until until the sauce thickens a bit, about 10-15 minutes before pureeing in a food processor or blender.
- Beat the cream cheese until smooth before beating in the eggs followed by the sugar, lemon zest and vanilla.
- Pour the cheesecake onto the shortbread layer in the baking pan, dollop on a few spoonfuls of the strawberry sauce and swirl it around with a knife to create a nice pattern.
- Bake in a preheated 350F/180C oven until set (the centre should only wiggle a bit when you shake the pan a lightly), about 25-35 minutes, before removing from oven and letting cool. (Optionally let chill in the fridge overnight.)
For the lemon shortbread layer:
For the strawberry sauce:
For the lemon cheesecake layer:
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These bars are the true essence of summer flavors!!
These are just gorgeous!
What a great summer treat!
These are ridiculously gorgeous!! Definitely pinning and making for a future summer party!
Sues
These look gorgeous and I'm betting quite tasty! However, I'm not sure I'll be 125 servings out of this. 🙂 Am guessing you meant 12-15?
I hope I get the chance to make this recipe soon. Pinned for later. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I have made these several times and they are scrumptious. The lemon is a nice complement to the strawberry flavours. They also freeze beautifully; I cut into squares before freezing and add the strawberry garnish when thawed, and a dollop of whipped cream on the side adds a nice touch. Perfect and convenient for summer entertaining. Thanks, Kevin.
125 servings? I think you need to correct something!
This looks great for a summer BBQ! Or for a Pot luck dessert!
LOL! That should be 12!
Hey there! I’ve got these bars in the oven and I’m heading toward 40 minutes as the bake time. Will the chilling overnight firm up the cheesecake layer? I’m afraid to let them bake any longer fearing the crust will burn.
I have some cherry pie filling in hand and I was thinking of substituting that in for the fresh strawberries. Should I swirl in the thick cherry sauce, and then after it bakes top them with more of the canned cherries ?
That would work!
Really! 1 & 1/4c butter🤨
Butter makes everything better!! Maybe if you’re this worried about fat content, you should just stick to low fat recipe websites?
I don’t think it’s the fear of fat, it’s the fact that that is A LOT of butter for only 2 cups of flour. I am currently baking this and the butter is just melting and bubbling up through the crust. I don’t think that’s the correct ratio.
Shortbread generally follows a 3/2/1 ratio (flour/butter/sugar) and this one is pretty close with more flour and butter compared to sugar. Shortbread will generally look pretty ‘liquidy’ while baking but when it cools, it will become solid!
Do I dollop all of the strawberry sauce on to the cream cheese layer?
Use as much of it as you want. I usually use enough to cover about 1/4 of the surface of the cream cheese layer. Enjoy!
We have dairy free family members. Would this work with vegan butter and cream cheese?
I have not tried this with vegan butter and/or cream cheese. If you do try it with them I would love to know the results!
Made this and it came out so good. Next time I’ll use parchment paper. This will stick. You see in one of the pics that aluminum foil was used. I did however, skip the pureeing part and added a half cup more of strawberries. A little bit of chunk won’t hurt nobody. Easy to follow recipe.