Fresh blueberry cheesecake bars with coconut crust

Hmmmm… who doesn’t love cheesecake!?  

Well, these Fresh Blueberry Cheesecake Bars are exactly that.  Yummy! 

I wanted to make some sort of cheesecake item for Easter this year.  Cheesecake is always a hit in our family -- (Faye has a recipe that is delicious!) Since I knew we were going to have quite a big group this year for Easter I wanted to make desserts that were easy to grab …… so this year my Easter basket included:  Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies, homemade Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting and these delicious Fresh Blueberry Cheesecake Bars.

The bars were the perfect size to get your cheesecake fix without having to eat a whole cheese cake.  The cheesecake had a sweet vanilla-lemon flavor with a burst of blueberry in every bite, and the crust, with its addition of sweet coconut, added just enough texture to complete this bar.  I truly loved this cheesecake bar and will keep it in my ‘go-to’ file for the future. 

Enjoy  ….  And Happy Cooking everyone.

Fresh Blueberry Bars with a Coconut Crust

                                  (adapted from Better Home and Gardens recipe)

Ingredients:

Crust

½  cup unsalted butter

¾ cup crushed graham crackers

½ cup all purpose flour

½ cup ground pecans

¼  cup sugar

½ cup of flaked coconut (packed)

Filling:

12 oz cream cheese (1 ½ -8oz  packs), softened

2/3 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 cups of fresh blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven 350

1.       Line a 13x9x2 inch baking pan with foil.  Leave enough on the sides so you can easily lift bars from the pan once cooled.

2.       Starting with the crust:

a.        melt butter in small sauce pan at medium heat.  Continue to stir until butter is a light golden color. Remove from stove.

b.      In a bowl, mix together the graham cracker crumbs, flour, pecans and sugar.  Add coconut.

c.       Add butter to the mixture, stirring until all the ingredients are well combined.

d.      Pour crust mixture on to the 13x9x2 baking pan.   Spread out evenly to cover bottom and press down lightly.

e.      Bake crust for 10 minutes until crust is lightly brown. Remove from oven.

f.        While crust is baking, start the filling.

3.       Filling:

a.       In a large bowl, combine cream cheese and sugar, beating until well blended.

b.      Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.

c.       Add heavy cream, vanilla and lemon juice to the cream cheese egg mixture. Beat an additional 2 minutes.

d.      Pour cream cheese batter over warm crust

e.      Sprinkle the fresh blueberries evenly over cream cheese batter.

4.       Bake for 20 minutes at 350.  Check to make sure that the middle has set with either a fork or tooth pick. It should come out clean.

5.       Cool in the pan for about 30 minutes. Using foil edges, pull bars out of pan and cool another 30 minutes.

6.       Cover and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

7.       Cut into bars ( I got about 20, recipe states you should get 32)

Bailey's Irish Cream Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

Another amazing dessert recipe just in time for Saint Patrick's Day: Bailey's Irish Cream Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake! Luscious, creamy cheesecake flavored with a hint of Irish Cream topped with swirls of chocolate baked atop an Oreo cookie crust and garnished with fresh whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Sound like heaven?

Cheesecake may seem hard to make, but it's actually quite easy as long as you know the proper techniques. Here's how you do it:

Cake Ingredients:
3  8oz packages cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla or vanilla bean paste
2/3 cup Bailey's Irish Cream Coffee Creamer
1/3 cup sour cream

Chocolate Topping:
4 oz bittersweet, semi-sweet or dark chocolate chopped
6 tablespoons heavy cream

Crust Ingredients:
24 oreos, crushed (no need to remove the filling)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted


Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 and place oven rack in the center of the oven.

To make the crust:

Place the oreo crumbs in a large bowl. Drizzle the melted butter over the top and combine using a fork. Press evenly onto the bottom and 1" up the sides of an 8" springform pan. Set aside while you prepare the filling.

To make the chocolate topping:

Place the chopped chocolate (or you can use chocolate chips) and the heavy cream in a glass bowl. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval, until chocolate is completely melted. Set aside.

To make the filling:

Place the softened cream cheese in a large bowl. Add 1 cup of granulated sugar and beat on medium speed until well combined and creamy, approx 1 minute. It is essential that your cream cheese is at room temperature to prevent lumpy batter and ovemixing. You should be able to easily press the tip of your finger into the cream cheese. I usually set my cream cheese out on the counter a few hours before.

Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing until combined after each addition. Be sure to scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula after adding the second egg. This will help to break up any remaining lumps when you beat in the 3rd egg. Your batter needs to be lump free before you do the next step.

Add the vanilla, Baileys creamer and sour cream. Mix just until combined.

Pour into the prepared pan and scrape the bowl using a rubber spatula to get all of the batter out of the bowl. If you happen to see any lumps at the bottom of the batter, leave those out. You don't want any lumps in your cheesecake.

Dollop spoonfuls of the melted chocolate on top of the batter and create swirls using a knife or wooden toothpick/skewer.

Place in the preheated oven and put a large baking sheet or sheet of foil on the bottom of your oven to catch any drippings that may leak out of the bottom of the pan. There won't be much but if you don't protect the bottom of your oven you might get a smoky oven. Trust me.

Bake for 50 minutes to an hour. Do not open the oven until it's time to start checking for doneness. Check at the 50 minute mark by gently shaking the pan. The edges of the cheesecake should be set and the center should still jiggle slightly. If there is too much "jiggling", close the oven and bake for a few minutes more then check again. Try not to check too often. Sudden temperature changes will cause cracks in your cheesecake.

When the cheesecake is done, turn off the oven and prop open the oven door slightly. I use a wooden spoon to prop mine open. Leave the cheesecake in the oven with the door slighly ajar for 1 hour. This cools the cheesecake slowly which helps prevent cracks.

After one hour, remove the cheesecake from the oven and place on a cooling rack to cool to room termperature then cover and refrigerate overnight. To achieve the best consistency, cheesecake must chill in the oven at least 8 hours but ovenight is better.

When ready to serve, run a sharp knife around the edge of the cheesecake and remove the ring from the springform pan. At this point you can place on a platter with the bottom of the pan still on the cheesecake or you can remove it by running a sharp thin knife underneath the crust to loosen then use a large spatula to transfer to the platter.

Garnish as desired. If you will be serving the whole cheesecake, you can top with fresh whipped cream and other garnish for a dramatic presentation or just top the individual slices with the whipped cream and desired garnish.

For this cheesecake, I topped it with Bailey's Whipped Cream and chocolate shavings.

To make the Bailey's Whipped Cream - whip 1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream and 3 tablespoons of the Bailey's Irish Cream Coffee Creamer until just before it forms soft peaks, with the mixer still running sprinkle 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar and continue to beat until soft peaks form. Fresh whipped cream should be stored in the refrigerator and used within a few hours.

Cherry Cheesecake Bars

Cherry Cheesecake Bars

I will start by saying; I was craving cherry pie today.  I kept remembering a cherry dessert I had years ago from a co worker.   This was the inspiration I had to create this recipe. Wow…its amazing how the mind remembers things. I must have had this dessert 15 years ago.  This co-worker was from when I first started my career in the apparel industry after college (Valerie Sanchez, back then when she was singleJ).  Actually, if it wasn’t for her neither Faye nor I would have worked at this company and become even better friends. Valerie got me in and then I got Faye in (This is usually how it works in the apparel manufacturing industry, word of mouth). Anywise, enough of the nostalgia, Valerie was a wonderful cook and I would always ask her to give me the recipe of anything I got a chance to taste.  But as you all know, sometimes recipes sad to say, get lost over time.  This is exactly what happened to this recipe, completely lost!  Well, at least until today when I decided to try to remember the ingredients that were in it and with the use of the internet filled in all the holes and recreate it!  So what we get a very flavorful and colorful bar which is perfect for any occasion.    The crust has just the right amount of crunch and the cheese filling just enough velvety smoothness.  Then you top it off with the tartness of the cherries and the flakiness of the crumb and oh lala, a completely scrumptious dessert!   If you love cherries, you will love this bar.  I added the nutmeg to add a little depth to the recipe, and it really worked in the flavor profile.  I believe the original recipe had coconut , but I decide to omit it and really make the cherries the star of this bar.  I hope you give this bar a try. Happy Cooking Everyone!

Crust

1 cup all purpose Flour

¼ cup light brown sugar

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ cup butter (1 stick), soften

½ cup walnut

Cheese filling

8oz cream cheese

1 egg

1/3 sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon almond extract

1 can cherry filling (21 oz)

Streusel Crumb topping

½ light brown sugar

½ cup flour

¼ cup  oat

¼  cup butter

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

-----------------------------------------------------

<!Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

<!Prepare 8x8 bake pan by lining with foil.

<!Combine flour, brown sugar and nutmeg. Cut butter in with pastry blender. (I used the kitchen aid with the beater attachment). Mixture will look like a crumble.

<!Press crust mixture on the bottom of the prepared pan.

<!Bake for 15 minutes

AAs crust is baking make the cheesecake filling.

<!Beat cream cheese, egg, vanilla and almond extract Beat until smooth.

<!Pour over warm crust.

<!Bake for 15 minutes
As filling is baking make the crumb topping

<!In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, flour, oats, nutmeg and butter.  Combine until it resembles a crumble using a pastry fork or mixer.

<!Stir in walnuts

Once you remove the cheese cake bar from oven

<!Pour cherry filling over hot filling. Make sure the cherry filling covers the cheese filling.

<!Sprinkle Streusel Crumb over cherry filling. Make sure the Streusel crumble covers the cherry filling.

<!Bake for 25-30 minutes (if the topping starting getting too brown, put a piece of foil over the it until the cooking process is done)

Cool for 1 hour

Refrigerate overnight . Cut into bars and serve.