Cheesecake Bars
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Dense and creamy with a hint of lemon and a crisp graham cracker crust, these cheesecake bars are an easy and delicious alternative to NY cheesecake.
Cheesecake is one of the most crowd-pleasing desserts you can make, but baking one at home can be a project. Traditional cheesecakes need to be baked in a water bath to prevent curdling and cracking, and it can be tricky to tell when they’re done. This cheesecake bar recipe, however, is a whole different story. Dense and creamy with crisp and buttery graham cracker crust, the bars are not only a cinch to make (with a prep time of only 20 minutes!), but they also rival the very best New York cheesecake out there. They also have a high crust-to-cheesecake ratio so if you’re a crust-fan like me, you’ll love them.
“Just made these and oh. my. god. Perfect if you don’t want to make a whole cheesecake.”
What You’ll Need To Make Cheesecake Bars
- Graham Cracker Crumbs: Form the base of the crust, providing a sweet and slightly crunchy texture.
- Butter: Binds the crumbs together and, when melted, performs like glue creating a cohesive crust.
- Brown Sugar: Provides sweetness and adds a rich, caramel-like flavor to the crust.
- Cream Cheese: Forms the creamy and dense texture of the cheesecake bars, providing richness and flavor. I recommend Philadelphia brand (and make sure to use full-fat cream cheese).
- Granulated Sugar: Sweetens the filling, balancing out the tanginess of the cream cheese.
- All-Purpose Flour: Helps to stabilize the filling and prevent cracking while baking. It also makes the filling a bit lighter and fluffier.
- Sour Cream: Adds tanginess and creaminess to the filling and contributes to its smooth texture.
- Large Eggs: Bind the filling together and provide structure, resulting in a dense and creamy consistency.
- Vanilla Extract: Enhances the flavor of the filling with its warm and aromatic notes.
- Lemon Zest And Lemon Juice: Infuse the filling with a very subtle hint of lemon flavor, adding brightness and freshness to the cheesecake bars.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-By-Step Instructions
Begin by making the graham cracker crust. In a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, salt, and melted butter.
Stir, using your fingertips if necessary, until well combined with no lumps of brown sugar remaining.
Press into the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of the prepared 8-inch square baking pan. Bake for 10 minutes, until set. Remove the crust from the oven and set aside.
Meanwhile, make the batter. In the bowl of an electric mixer (either a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a hand-held mixer with beaters), beat the room temperature cream cheese, granulated sugar, and flour together until just smooth, about 1 minute.
Add the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt.
Beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as you mix. Do not over-mix.
Pour the batter into the warm crust.
Bake for about 45 minutes, until the filling is set but still a little jiggly in the center (it will continue to cook as it cools). An instant-read thermometer, inserted into the filling about 1″ in from the edge, should read 180°F-190°F. Remove the bars from the oven, and cool at room temperature for 30 minutes. Refrigerate until cold, at least 6 hours but preferably overnight.
Before serving, use the foil overhang to lift the cheesecake out of the pan and onto a cutting board. Cut into squares, wiping the knife clean with a damp cloth between slices. Serve cold and enjoy!
Make-Ahead, Freezing & Storage Instructions
Cheesecake bars keep nicely in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. They can also be frozen for up to 3 months. To freeze, place the cooled cheesecake (cut or uncut) on a plate and freeze, uncovered, until firm. Remove the cheesecake bars from the freezer, wrap in heavy-duty aluminum foil, and place in a freezer bag. Seal and return to freezer for up to 3 months. Remove the foil before thawing.
The lemon flavor is subtle, but if you don’t want to include it, it’s perfectly fine to omit it (it doesn’t have any impact on the texture of the cheesecake).
Although cheesecake bars are much less finicky than standard cheesecake, I don’t recommend adding anything to the batter.
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Cheesecake Bars
Dense and creamy with a hint of lemon and a crisp graham cracker crust, these cheesecake bars are an easy and delicious alternative to NY cheesecake.
Ingredients
For the Crust
- 1¼ cups graham cracker crumbs, from 10 whole crackers
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
For the Filling
- 16 ounces (2 8-oz. packages) cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1½ tablespoons all purpose flour
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 3 large eggs
- 2½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon packed freshly grated lemon zest, from 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and set an oven rack in the middle position. Line an 8-inch baking dish with heavy-duty aluminum foil (so that there is an overhang on at least 2 sides) and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
- Make the crust: In a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, brown sugar, and salt. Stir until well combined, using your fingertips if necessary to be sure no lumps of brown sugar remain. Press into the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of the prepared pan. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, until set. Remove the crust from the oven and set aside. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.
- Make the batter: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with beaters or the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, granulated sugar, and flour together on medium speed until just smooth, about 1 minute. Add the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt; beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute. Do not over-mix.
- Pour the batter into the slightly cooled crust. Check to make sure your oven has cooled to 325°F, then bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the filling is set but still a little jiggly in the center. (An instant-read thermometer, inserted into the filling about 1" in from the edge, should read between 180°-190°F.) The cheesecake will continue to cook as it cools. Remove the bars from the oven, and cool at room temperature for 30 minutes. Refrigerate until cold, at least 6 hours but preferably overnight.
- Use the foil overhang to lift the cheesecake out of the pan and onto a cutting board. Cut into squares, wiping the knife clean with a damp cloth between slices. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Note: The cheesecake bars can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The cheesecake bars can be frozen for up to 3 months. To freeze, place the cooled cheesecake (cut or uncut) on a plate and freeze, uncovered, until firm. Remove the cheesecake from the freezer, wrap it in heavy-duty aluminum foil and place in a freezer bag. Seal and return to freezer for up to 3 months. Remove the foil before defrosting.
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (16 servings)
- Serving size: 1 square
- Calories: 248
- Fat: 16 g
- Saturated fat: 9 g
- Carbohydrates: 24 g
- Sugar: 20 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Sodium: 166 mg
- Cholesterol: 77 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Hi Jenn! This is the best cheesecake recipe, simple to make and out of this world delicious!! I have some Saskatoon berry preserves I used as a topping. Thanks so much for the recipe, and the tip regarding the internal temperature while baking. The texture was perfect, and the bars freeze really well.
Is it okay to use parchment paper to line the pan instead of foil?
Glad you like these Glenda! You can use parchment instead of foil, but I think it’s probably easier to use the foil as probably easier to “mold” and fold it up and around the edges of the pan.
Hi! This sounds super delicious and easy and I’m getting ready to make them for the 4th-my question is do you think I can substitute cinnamon graham crackers? I love the taste of cinnamon and brown sugar! Also if I did that do you think that the lemon should be omitted? Thank you and I’m super excited to get baking!
Hi Katie, I think the cheesecake bars would be really good with cinnamon graham crackers! And it’s not necessary to omit the lemon unless you choose to. Please LMK how they turn out with the cinnamon grahams!
I’ve made Jenn’s New York Cheesecake (turned out GREAT) but wanted to try these cheesecake bars to take to a friend’s casual backyard cookout and they were a hit with all the teenagers and adults (including the owners of our town’s excellent bakery!) Highly recommend you make these. My favorite part was the CRUST – it’s to die for! And I loved having to make them the day BEFORE the event and refrigerate overnight. So helpful when making multiple goodies!
I made these for a big get-together this weekend, and they were the most enjoyed food of all that I made. Everyone said my other squares were good, but these were GREAT!
I doubled the recipe, and cooked it about 10 minutes longer, I think, and it was perfect. I didn’t include lemon because I wanted to drizzle with cherry pie filling, and that worked great, straight from the can. I only wish there were more leftovers!
Thank you for your recipes.
I have made the cheesecake bars before and they always turn out delicious. I made them for Father’s Day and they were very firm and not creamy. The only thing I did differently is I mixed it in a stand up mixer and I did not use a hand mixer. Could that have made the difference?
Hi Anna, That’s a head-scratcher. I don’t think the mixer would make a difference. Did they seem overcooked?
Yes. They seemed overcooked and very firm, not creamy at all. I lowered the temperature to 325 degrees and followed the directions as noted in the recipe. Just would like to avoid this from happening again if it’s possible…perplexed.
Hi Anna, If you’ve made these before without a problem, I’m wondering if perhaps you inadvertently mismeasured something? Could that be a possibility?
I loved these. I don’t care for lemon flavor with vanilla too much, so I cut the lemon zest in half and it was perfectly subtle. The texture was to-die-for delicious. Thank you Jenn!
This was the first time I made any type of cheesecake, and they were *so* delicious! I added a bit of extra lemon zest and the citrussy flavour complimented the creaminess of the cheese so well. I topped them off with some of the leftover lemon glaze from the Lemon Pistachio shortbread recipe and some fresh berries. I took it to a party at my neighbours and everyone raved about them!
These were terrible. No flavor at all. The crust was the only good part. I followed the recipe exactly!
This is delicious and easy to make. Even tho my dish is 8×8 I always have enough left over for a separate ramekin and guess who gets to eat that one. Jenn’s French Apple Cake is another delicious and easy to make dessert.
Hi, Jenn,
I have two quick questions. First, does it matter whether the lemon used for the zest and juice is a “regular” lemon or a Meyer lemon? Second, does the 8×8″ baking dish need to be a glass dish or will a metal/aluminum pan work? Thank you so much. Your recipes are my family’s favourite! You are a fabulous cook, baker, and teacher! Thank you. Karen
Hi Karen, You could use either lemon in this recipe since it’s such a small amount. And it’s fine to use a metal pan. Hope your family loves the bars; they are a favorite at my house. 🙂
Hi Jenn, can the batter be made first and stored in fridge for a few hours until ready to bake?
Sure, Christine, that would be fine. Enjoy!
These bars are “almost” as delicious as my cheesecake. Everyone loved them and they would be great for a potluck. They are also very easy to put together.