Easy Raspberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars

Today I'm making a dessert that combines the best flavors of spring and summer. It is a raspberry lemon cheesecake, actually cheesecake bars, and it's so much easier than a classic cheesecake. You don't need a water bath, you don't have to wait all night for it to cool, and you can enjoy it faster. And I'm craving some raspberry lemon cheesecake bars so let's get started. First preheat the oven, then line your baking pan with parchment paper. Make sure to leave a little bit of overhang on the sides so you can lift the bars out easily later. I like to lightly brush my 9x13 metal baking pan with butter. This is a little trick to help the parchment paper stick perfectly without sliding around. Set the pan aside and we're gonna start working on the crust. I love using graham crackers for my cheesecake crust but you can use other cookies if you prefer. Break them up lightly then transfer to a food processor and pulse until you see fine crumbs. You can also crush these in a ziploc bag with a rolling pin or buy pre-crushed crumbs. Transfer that to a measuring cup, add a little bit of sugar, a bit of salt, and stir that together. Then add your melted butter. Stir that butter in until all of the crumbs are evenly moistened. Transfer all of that mixture to your prepared pan, spread it out with a spoon, then use the back of the spoon to gently press it into the pan. This will help the crust stay together better. Bake at 350 for just 8 minutes, then take it out to cool while you make the cheesecake filling. You'll also want to turn your oven down to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Now for that incredible filling. In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, we're beating together softened cream cheese with sugar. Let's lock that bowl in place. Beat that on high speed and I'm using the paddle attachment here so it doesn't incorporate too much air. Beat that for a full five minutes and scrape down the bowl as needed to make sure you don't have any clumps of cream cheese. It should be ultra smooth and fluffy. Now reduce the speed to medium and add your five room temperature eggs, adding them one at a time and letting them incorporate between each addition. Scrape down that bowl as needed and now here's my secret ingredient, two tablespoons of sour cream. It really transforms the texture. Next let's brighten things up with a little bit of fresh lemon zest and a tablespoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice. Finally add vanilla extract. This is my homemade one, just two ingredients I will link to it in the notes. Also a little bit of salt and let that mix together. Now for the stars of the show, the raspberries. Make sure your berries are thoroughly patted dry with paper towels. You don't want any excess water in the batter. Gently fold them in with a spatula until they're evenly distributed. Coco, what are you doing here? Coco had to make an appearance. Pour that gorgeous filling over your cooled crust and spread it into an even layer. Here's the key to preventing cracks. Tap the pan onto the counter a few times. This helps release the air bubbles. Then just pop them on the surface with a toothpick. Since we aren't using a water bath, these are so much faster than a traditional cheesecake. Bake at 325 for 45 to 50 minutes. When it's done, you're looking for the edges to be set but the center should still have a slight jiggle when you jolt the pan. Take that out of the oven and let the pan cool on the counter for about two hours or until it reaches room temperature. Then cover with foil. Avoid plastic wrap so it doesn't touch and ruin the beautiful top and refrigerate for at least four hours. You can also refrigerate overnight. Make sure it's completely chilled before you release it from the pan and it will be much easier to slice. Run a small spatula or knife around the edges then gently lift using the parchment paper to help. Use a long knife to slice into individual cheesecake bars and the key to getting those perfect clean slices with the cheesecake is to wipe the knife with a damp paper towel between every slice. All right, we've got these plated. Just put them out on a big platter to serve and of course the glorious centerpiece for me for our taste test. We have to do a taste test, come on. The texture is perfect. Just so everybody knows, these are raspberry bars. We're gonna top them with some fresh raspberries. I like to scatter a few raspberries over the top of each one. I think they just look extra irresistible this way. Then because there is lemon zest inside, I do like to add some fresh little strips of lemon zest and I do like this fun little zester that I have. It just makes the strips a little bigger. Perfect for garnish. Look how pretty. Just like you. I have a nice husband slash cameraman. It makes it so much more fun to do the work that I do. I love you honey. I'm just hoping to score some cheesecake. Are you gonna score some cheesecake? Okay, just a little more. It's just so cute. I love that this is staring back at me. Look at how pretty this is. It seriously is one of the easiest cheesecakes you'll make. The presentation is so good. Like this is holiday worthy. Like I'd make this for Valentine's Day or Easter and the thing that I love about baking the raspberries into the cheesecake, it's freezer friendly. You can totally make this ahead. Enough talking, more chomping. I'm gonna dig right into this because I'm craving it so badly. Okay and get in close because I want you guys to see the texture here. It is so good and every bite loaded with raspberries. Oh my gosh, that's a humongous bite. I feel like I do this to myself every time. Okay, not on purpose. Okay, go big or go home I guess, huh? Here we go. It's too much but it's so good. No words. Just it has this lovely whipped texture and the sour cream really makes all the difference here because if you just use cream cheese, it can be kind of dense and it'll just taste like cream cheese but this tastes so incredible. You can really taste that lemon zest and that little bit of lemon juice in the cheesecake. It really elevates it, makes it seem so special. You guys have to make this a raspberry lemon cheesecake bar recipe. So easy, so good and I will have you know, this is based on my famous cheesecake barbs, cheesecake barbs, bars recipe in my cookbook which is Natasha's Kitchen. If you guys haven't gotten your hands on this, it is full of great recipes from every category from breakfast to desserts. I will link to this in the notes. Let me know where you guys spotted Sharky in the video and if you have any recipe requests, I would love to hear from you and we'll see you on the next episode of Natasha's Kitchen. I'm gonna go eat the rest of this.