Lemon-Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

If there is one thing that I’m not good at, it’s this: patience.

Patience is hard, y’all. Whether it’s me losing my temper at work because software is moving slowly, or burning the roof of my mouth because I just CANNOT WAIT for my pizza to cool down—I really suck at this patience thing.

Patience is extremely critical in baking, which is another one of my lesser qualities. Maybe that explains my poor baking skills? Well, they’re not poor—I think I’d circle “fair” on a quality worksheet. My baking skills are far from “excellent” though.

So, patience. That tricky little P-word. My lack of patience led to some disastrously cut cheesecake bars I decided to make this weekend. Were they delicious? Of course. Did they look like a four-year-old got a hold of knife? Yep.

All of that because I lacked the patience to let the cheesecake set for long enough. Thirty minutes in the freezer was NOT enough time. I should’ve left it in the fridge, instead, and left them in there overnight. Even though my patience sabotaged my dessert-making, these cheesecake bars ended up tasting pretty darn delicious.

Lemon and blueberry have always been fated to be together, and mixed together with cheesecake makes that relationship even better. A sugar-high is definitely to be had with these bars—not only is there a sweet graham cracker crust, they’re topped with a brown sugar streusel! Yum.

Make sure you’ve got more patience than I do when making these bars. Try to let them set for a few hours, with overnight being best.

Then, when you cut into these sinfully sweet bars, you can serve them sans embarrassment.

Step-By-Step Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8″ square pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Make the graham cracker crust: In a food processor, pulse together graham crackers, sugar and lemon peel.

Slowly drizzle in melted butter and continue to pulse until crumbly.

Press graham cracker crumbs into prepared baking dish.

Make the cheesecake filling: wipe out food processor and then add cream cheese, eggs, lemon peel, lemon juice and sugar. Cover and pulse until smooth and creamy.

Pour cheesecake filling on top of graham cracker crumb crust.

Top cheesecake filling with blueberries.

Make the streusel topping: In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar with flour. Add cold butter, cut into small pieces. Work butter into sugar mixture either using fingers or a fork until crumbly.

Sprinkle streusel topping over cheesecake mixture and then bake for 40 minutes or until streusel topping is browned and cheesecake filling is almost set and jiggly.

Let cheesecake bars cool on counter for one hour, then refrigerate for another 2-3 hours or until set (preferably overnight).

Cut into bars and enjoy!