Key Lime Cheesecake Bars

Welcome back to my channel. Today I'm going to show you how to make these delicious key lime cheesecake bars that would be perfect for Easter Sunday. They're quick and easy and full of spring flavors and so delicious too. Let me show you how to make them. So the first thing you want to do is create the graham cracker crust. So in the bowl of a food processor we are going to add 13 of these honey made graham crackers into the bowl they go. Now if you don't have graham crackers where you are I have heard that digestive biscuits are kind of the same thing so you could use those or you could also use some oreo cookies if you wanted to scrape out the filling and do a chocolate crust. That would also be pretty good. Okay then you're just going to put the lid on and pulse them up. Then at this point we're going to add one tablespoon of sugar. Then with the machine running you're going to add seven tablespoons of melted butter. You're going to keep going until it starts to stick together. Then I'm using a nine by nine square brownie pan and you just want to it with a little bit of baking spray just so that the cheesecake doesn't stick on the sides because we are going to add a little bit of parchment paper just in one direction to make it easier to remove the cheesecake once it's done. Now if you have a square cheesecake pan you absolutely could use that. I only have one cheesecake pan which is circular so I use the parchment paper but this would also make a great cheesecake. You know you don't even have to make them into bars you could just use a cheesecake pan if you prefer. All right then I just have a piece of parchment paper that I cut to fit and I am just going to crease it in there and see that way when it's cooled and refrigerated all I have to do is just lift up the parchment paper. This is a good little trick that works for brownies too or any kind of bar dessert you might have. All right then we are just going to hit it again with a little bit of baking spray make them easy to cut. Then I do like to take a spatula and just mix at the bottom of the bowl with this because sometimes the butter has a tendency of sticking with the crumbs and you want to make sure that you get that all loosened up before you pour it into your pan. There we go and then you're just going to pour those crumbs in. It should have the consistency of like sand, wet sand. Then you want to go ahead and level it out. You can either shake the pan or just go in there with your fingertips and you're just trying to get a nice even layer. I find that this is really my favorite ratio for graham cracker crust which is seven tablespoons of butter to 13 graham crackers. It just creates the perfect amount of moisture so that the crumb sticks together without being too dry and crumbly and not too wet that they get kind of soggy. So for any of your cheesecake needs for a nine-inch cheesecake this is a great recipe and then I would just tamp down the corners. Then this is going in a 325 degree fahrenheit oven for just 10 minutes. You'll know that it's done when it starts to look golden brown and fills your kitchen with the most delicious aroma. While your crust is in the oven baking you can get on with juicing the key lime. So if you're not familiar with the key lime they look like this. They are a variety of lime that's smaller than a traditional lime. Just to give you an idea of how much smaller they are. This is a lime squeezer. Traditionally a lime is this size and a key lime is this size. Now the biggest difference between a key lime and a regular lime is the acidity. So a key lime is a lot sweeter. It's tart but it's more floral than a regular lime which really can be very acidic and tart. But if you only have regular limes and you want to make this dessert then I would just add a quarter cup more of sugar to the cream cheese mixture that we're going to make in a minute. So years ago when I was first married I made a key lime pie for Easter and I squeezed all of these key limes by scratch without a lime squeezer. Just squeezing and squeezing and my hands were like so arthritic by the time I was done. So if you're going to be making this I highly recommend one of these little lime squeezers because a you will get so much more juice out of each lime and b it will make this job so much easier. It's going to take about a pound and a quarter of key limes and all we're doing is looking for three quarters cup of which is why I like to juice it in a little pirate's pitcher so I can see how close I'm getting. Now one other thing I'll say before you get too carried away with all of the squeezing save yourself two to three pretty key limes because you'll want these for the garnish at the end. We're going to use a little bit of zest on top of the whipped cream and I also think it's pretty to slice some of the key limes and put those on top as well. Off we go. I promise this is the most tedious part of this recipe. I've been working with a lot of key limes lately because they just came into season and I have a fantastic key lime pie recipe that's going in my cookbook so I was testing recipes for days trying to just get the consistency right of this super yummy key lime pie recipe and it was sort of making me sad that I couldn't share that quite yet so I figured I would just show you the cheesecake bar instead which is equally yummy. Definitely stay tuned for the cookbook because you're going to want that key lime pie recipe. It's a winner and if you're just hearing about my cookbook we have a ways to go. It doesn't come out until June 2025. I know but you'll all be the first to know. It's just so amazing to me how much longer cookbooks take. It's a two-year commitment from the time you say yes to the time it's on the shelf so I'm working away rest assured. Okay done. Now one thing I would recommend after you've done all of this juicing is to strain it because sometimes the tiny pits of a key lime can get through these holes which are really size more for a larger pit of a lime so just so you don't have any pits in your cheesecake bars I would recommend straining your juice through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl or another pitcher because look see how many pits we caught and you don't want all of that in your dessert so straining is a good thing to do. Okay now for the filling. So we're going to be adding 24 ounces of just brick cream cheese into a standing mixer. You do want to make sure it's at room temperature because it'll just make this whole thing blend together a lot better and then to that we're going to add one and a quarter cup of white granulated sugar. If you want the metric measurements they're in the description or you can head to my blog entertainingwithbeth.com. If you're using the regular limes remember do one and a half cups of sugar because I think those limes will just be a lot more tart and then we want to beat this up until it's nice and smooth and combined. Then we're going to add two eggs one at a time and you want to beat in between each addition and then I would also scrape down the bowl in between each addition and then I also like to add one egg yolk just to give it a little bit more richness and creaminess so in it goes and then we're also going to add two teaspoons of vanilla extract, a good pinch of salt and then we can't forget our beautiful key lime juice that we worked so hard to squeeze. Just give that a slow churn at first so it doesn't splatter all over you. Give it one final scrape down and then you want to add a quarter cup of all-purpose flour. I do that to my cheesecakes to avoid having to use a water bath. Now sometimes these bars can crack a little bit here or there but I have a way to fix that. At the end I'll show you we're going to pipe some whipped cream on top but if you're really a traditionalist and a stickler for that you could definitely put your pan in a roasting pan filled with about half an inch to an inch of hot water. Okay in we go with the flour. Okay now we can add the filling to our cooled crust. One tip that I would give you is if you're using a stand mixer or even really a bowl with a hand mixer get a wire whisk and just mix up that filling because sometimes the cream cheese can have a tendency of not mixing on the bottom there and you don't want a lumpy cheesecake. So I actually whisk it while I'm pouring it to make sure that all of that filling is really combined. I'll show you what I mean. Here we go. You see you can just see how smooth it is and you just want to keep whisking to make sure that all of it continues to be nice and smooth and then go ahead and tap it down just to get rid of any air bubbles and then you're going to place this in a 325 degree fahrenheit oven for just 30 minutes. It should jiggle a little bit in the center but not wiggle not splash around and then here's the important part you're going to turn off the oven open the oven just a jar and you're going to let that go for another 15 minutes and that will continue to bake the cheesecake but at a lower slower temperature as it starts to reduce and that will prevent it also from cracking and then I do an additional 15 minutes on my cooktop before putting it in the fridge and I think you want to refrigerate this for at least four hours. Overnight is even better and that way you'll have the best texture. Then after it's been all refrigerated you could cut it into squares like this and you'll see how luscious it is. It is like the most creamy delicious cheesecake. Now when you cut it I would recommend using a sharp knife and just running it under hot water in between each slice. Then another thing you can do because the crumbs do get a little crumbly is you could take a pastry brush if this bothers you and just give it a brush if you want to get rid of the crumbs. I kind of like the crumbs so I leave it but all right then you're going to take some homemade whipped cream and I have left you my recipe in the description. Put it in a piping bag and just pipe a little mound of whipped cream on top and that'll just hide any little cracks or blemishes as well and it also just looks so festive. I think the thing that makes desserts pretty it's the texture it's the color but it's also kind of the height of things so cheesecake bars just the way they are they're just kind of flat and it doesn't actually look that pretty but if you put a little mound of whipped cream on top suddenly they look extra fancy right? All right and then we're going to make this even more fancy by taking one of our key limes and a microplane and just adding a little bit of zest on top that also makes it look extra fancy and spring-like. I would do this part as a family member or friend is clearing the plates from Easter lunch because you don't want to cut this too far in advance or the cheesecake will start to dry out so I think it's the perfect thing to do as people are digesting people are clearing the plates chatting you can be in the kitchen whipping this part up. You could stop right there or if you wanted to really gild the lily you could put a few little slices of key lime either on every bar or maybe just a few. I just think it looks a little extra fancy and festive especially for an event like Easter. I think you will really love this recipe between that creamy cheesecake the whipped cream topping and of course that delicious crumbly graham cracker crust. All right you guys I'll see you back here next time until then bye!