Red, White, & Blue Cheesecake Bars
Red, White, & Blue Cheesecake Bars
These Red, White, & Blue Cheesecake Bars are sure to make you eat your dinner quickly to get right to your dessert! The colors are perfect for Memorial Day, July 4th, or Veteran’s Day. But if you love cheesecake like I do, you don’t need a patriotic holiday to cook up a batch of these tasty bars! The recipe is from Southern Living Magazine, the repository of delicious recipes for as long as I can remember.
You can make this cheesecake up to 2 days ahead of time. Don’t be intimidated by the long list of instructions! The cake is not difficult to prepare but you do need to give it at least 5 hours of cooling time before serving, so start early in the day or just fix it the day before.
Crispy Pepperidge Farm Bordeaux cookies mixed with melted butter make up the crust. I could just eat the crust by itself!!
Swirling blueberry & raspberry purees through the top of the cheesecake is like painting on a blank canvas!
Cooling time is 1 hour at room temperature, followed by at least 4 hours of refrigerator time.
Cut into bars, serve (and impress!) your dinner companions, and enjoy!
Red, White, & Blue Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients
- 2 6.75 oz pkg. Pepperidge Farm Bordeaux cookies
- 1/4 cup salted butter melted
- 1 cup raspberries - fresh or frozen about 5 oz
- 1 cup blueberries - fresh or frozen about 5.5 oz
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar divided
- 2 tbsp water divided
- 3 8 oz pkgs cream cheese softened
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 lg egg whites
- 1 lg egg
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 tbsp flour
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp vanilla
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Process cookies in a food processor or blender until finely ground crumbs. Pour melted butter into the cookie crumbs & mix well.
-
Press cookie crumbs into the bottom of a greased 9 X 13 inch baking pan. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.
-
Combine raspberries, 1 tbsp. water & 1 tbsp. sugar in a saucepan, bring to a boil & cook until thickened, stirring frequently to mash up the berries. You can also do this in the microwave - cook about 30 seconds at a time, stirring between each.
-
Place raspberries in a fine wire mesh strainer over a bowl and press until you have about 3 tbsp. of puree. Discard the solids in the strainer. Cool puree completely.
Now repeat the same procedure with the blueberries.
-
Beat softened cream cheese, salt, & remaining 3/4 cup sugar until smooth. Add egg whites & egg one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add sour cream, flour, lemon juice, & vanilla. Mix well. Pour over top of cooled cookie crust, smoothing out the top.
-
Drop level teaspoons of raspberry & blueberry purees all over top of batter, gently swirl with a knife.
-
Bake at 325 degrees until cheesecake is almost set (top will still jiggle when dish is touched), 25 to 28 minutes. Run a knife or offset spatula around the edges of the dish to loosen the sides. Cool on a wire rack at room temperature for 1 hour. Cover & chill in the refrigerator 4 hours or overnight. Cut into bars.
These look amazing and I’m surprised not really hard to make
This looks so good! I love berry flavored desserts in the summer. It’s very convenient that it can be made ahead of time too.