Lemon Cheesecake Bars with Lemon Glaze

  • Lemon Cheesecake Bars with Lemon Glaze

    You can’t possibly imagine how good this dessert smells.

    By now you know I have a thing for smells in the kitchen (like how squirrely I get when the Classic Shortbread Cookie explodes with the Best Smell Ever after about 20 minutes in the oven).  I’m hyper-tuned-in when it comes to the trillion odors that we humans can detect (seriously- the newspeople just reported last week that our superior species can differentiate between a trillion different smells)… and this Lemon Cheesecake Bar with Lemon Glaze is easily near the top of that insanely ginormous list.

    Imagine the scent of the buttery vanilla cookie crust, then layered with a waft of rich lemon cheesecake, then the smell of a tangy but sweet glaze to top it all off.  If I was totally cheesy [this IS a cheesecake post, after all… get it?!], I’d say you could also detect the sweet smell of success.  Oooh, that’s a tad too corny.  Sorry about that.

    Adapted from Kraft’s recipe…

    2 1/4 cups vanilla wafers, finely crushed (1 box of Nilla wafers)

    4 tablespoons butter, melted

    5 eggs, divided (3 eggs + 1 egg white for filling; 2 yolks for glaze)

    4 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese*, softened to room temperature

    2 1/2 cups sugar (1 cup for filling; 1 1/2 cups for glaze)

    3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

    1 tablespoon lemon zest

    1/2 cup lemon juice (2 tablespoons for filling; 6 tablespoons for glaze)

    1/2 teaspoon vanilla

    4 tablespoons  cornstarch

    1 cup water

    1. Preheat oven to 325° and grease a foil-lined 9 x 13″ pan (use extra foil to help lift bars out before serving).
    2. CRUST: In a food processor, process vanilla wafers into fine crumbs.  In a medium bowl, melt butter in microwave (for about 30 seconds) and stir in wafer crumbs until well mixed.  Press onto bottom of prepared pan and bake 10 minutes.
    3. FILLING: In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, flour, lemon zest, 2 tablespoons lemon juice and vanilla until blended.   Scrape sides of bowl.  Add 3 whole eggs and 1 egg white (keeping yolk in the fridge for later to use in glaze), one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition until just blended.  Pour over crust and bake for 40 minutes or until center is almost set.  Cool 1 hour, then refrigerate at least 2 hours prior to spreading glaze over top.
    4. GLAZE:  In a medium saucepan, stir cornstarch and 1 1/2 cups sugar together, and gradually stir in water and 6 tablespoons of lemon juice until blended.  Bring just to boil on medium heat, stirring constantly; cook and stir for about 2 minutes (until clear and thickened).  Lightly beat reserved egg yolk in a small bowl with fork until blended; stir in 2 tablespoons of the hot cornstarch mixture.  Return yolk mixture to remaining cornstarch mixture in saucepan; stir until blended.  Cook 1 min. or until thickened, stirring constantly.  Cool slightly (for about 20 minutes), then spread lemon glaze evenly over chilled cheesecake.  Refrigerate 1 hour or until set.

    Tips:

    • *Philadelphia brand of cream cheese is the best.  I’m not paid to say that… it’s just true.  I have used my share of organic, fancy-pants brands, and nothing compares to Philly.
    • You can bake this in a round springform pan if you want a traditional cake… just press the crust up the sides of the pan and increase the bake time to 50 – 55 minutes (until just set in the middle).
    • You’ll need about 4 lemons to get 2/3 cup lemon juice.  (You’ll want to use real lemons, because lemon juice from a bottle or little plastic lemon won’t do this dessert justice…)
    • Wondering what’s up with the steps to add the egg yolk to the hot cornstarch-lemon mixture?  It’s called ‘tempering’.  If you just added the yolk into the hot mixture all at once, it would scramble (as eggs are supposed to do)… but if you add a little bit of the hot stuff to the yolk, stir it up, then add it to the pot of hot sugary & lemony wonder, well, it can handle the heat.  Don’t you love science?
    • If you like less glaze, just make half.  (The picture shows half of the glaze I wrote the recipe to call for, because The Husband made a request for more of it after he tried his first piece.  He wanted more of the sweet lemony tang.  So there.)
    • Serving lemon desserts with a bit of blueberry is kind of a thing- the flavors just go together.
    • Cheesecake can be frozen but isn’t totally recommended… it really is best if eaten within a few days of being born.
    • Enjoy!
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    April 12th, 2014 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: ,

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