My sister’s birthday was this past weekend and I offered to make her anything she wanted for birthday dessert. She chose cheesecake, which is one of my favorites, yet I didn’t have a go-to recipe. It all has to do with my lack of success with my springform pan. I never was able to pull off a good cheesecake. The crust burned, it didn’t cook enough, water seeped through to the pan from the water bath it baked in despite double tin foil wrapping, etc.
Well, I finally made a successful cheesecake thanks to avoiding the springform pan altogether - I just made one in an 8×8 square baking pan and cut it into small squares - voila, cheesecake bars. No water bath, no cracking top. The bars are also good for portioning because cheesecake is so filling, do you really need a huge slab? A small square is satisfying, and you’ll feel better in the morning (but then you might eat one for breakfast, like I did. Oh well). Now I have a go-to cheesecake recipe.
Cheesecake Bars
Crust
1 1/2 cups graham cracker or ginger snap cookie crumbs
5 TBS melted butter
Filling
Two 8-oz. bars cream cheese, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
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2 eggs
6 TBS sour cream
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 tsp. vanilla
Sour Cream Topping
2 cups sour cream combined with 2 1/2 TBS sugar and 1/2 tsp. vanilla
Berries
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line 8 x 8 baking pan with foil - make sure to leave foil hanging over sides of pan. Grease foil. For crust, combine crumbs and melted butter until thoroughly combined and press into bottom of baking pan. Bake crust for ten minutes and set aside.
For filling, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs, sour cream, lemon juice and zest and vanilla. Pour mixture on top of crust and bake for 45 minutes. Let cool for ten minutes, then spread evenly with sour cream topping and bake 5 additional minutes. Let cool in pan and then chill in pan at least 2 hours up to overnight. Just prior to serving, remove cake from pan by lifting foil overhang, top cake with berries of your choice, slice into 16 squares and serve.
11.23.09 @ 5:47 pm
That is so smart i would have never thought of doing this. Thanksgiving is coming up and i am deffinatly using this recipe because mine always does the same thing and it can be very frustraiting. Thanks so much.
11.24.09 @ 3:54 pm
you say juice and zest of lemon. What does this mean? And how much of each?
11.24.09 @ 5:00 pm
Use all of the juice from one lemon and all of the zest - the yellow part of the rind, not the white part (the pith).
11.25.09 @ 7:23 am
I have a recipe very similar to yours from one of the sour cream companies, yours is even better though in the square pan with foil that way it can look pretty and easy to cut too! The sour cream topping gives it a very rich taste and you are so right no water baths and all the other nonsense, also mine doesn’t have the lemon and that would be great so I will make this recipe, everyone raves over the one I make and bet they will love this one too, and you are certainly right this cake is plenty big enough considering it is cheesecake after all! Thanks for this great recipe can’t wait to try it, takes all the work out of cheesecake!!!!
11.25.09 @ 10:56 am
I have just watched your Thanksgiving special that was taped in Wilmington Ohio. There are no words to express the emotion your exercise in raw humanity brought out in me. It made me realize that there are still loving, caring people left in this world. I too lost my job back in October, but my circumstances are no where near what many of those people are realizing. Thank you for being the generous, loving person that you are and your mother should be very proud. Keep up the good works. Sincerely, a fan…..
11.25.09 @ 11:04 am
I saw the special on wilmington this morning here in Kansas……..I grew up in the area and these are my people and friends. What you have done is re energize a community and this is just beyond belief. Its when people lose their energy for life in times like these.that they give up hope…..they just needed re energized and you have done that……..and actually touched my heart like never before…..What you have done and showed the nation…is just beyond words..you all have done a very good thing. It really shows that the good in people…..its still there.regardless to what we are led to believe, do to what we constantly see in the news every day.Made me want to catch a flight to ohio.but I think I would have been too late to make the show.
11.30.09 @ 2:02 pm
PLEASE tell me where I can find the tomato paste in a tube…I have looked EVERYWHERE with no luck.
Thanks a million.
Clare
01.21.10 @ 8:26 am
I AM FROM NEW JERSEY, AND WOULD ALSO LIKE TO KNOW WHERE TO FIND
TOMATO PASTE IN A TUBE.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.