Butter Crunch Lemon-Cheese Bars

Butter Crunch Lemon-Cheese Bars

  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hrs 10 mins
  • Servings: 8

    • About This Recipe

    “Pucker up, these are heaven!”

    Ingredients

    Crust

  • 1nonstick cooking spray
  • 1/3 cupbutter, softened
  • 1/4 cuppacked dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoonsalt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground mace or 1/4 teaspoonnutmeg
  • 1cupall-purpose flour

    • Filling

  • 1cuplow fat cottage cheese
  • 1cupgranulated sugar
  • 2tablespoonsall-purpose flour
  • 1tablespoongrated lemon, zest of
  • 3 1/2 tablespoonsfresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoonbaking powder
  • 1largeegg
  • 1largeegg white

    • Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Spray an 8-by-8-inch square baking dish with nonstick spray.
  • To prepare the crust, in a mixing bowl beat together on medium speed the butter, dark brown sugar, salt and mace until smooth.
  • Spoon 1 cup flour lightly into a dry measuring cup and level with a knife.
  • Add the flour to the butter mixture and beat at low speed until well blended.
  • Press the crust into the prepared baking dish and bake for 20 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, prepare the filling.
  • In a food processor fitted with the metal blade, process the cottage cheese for 2 minutes or until smooth, scraping sides of the bowl once.
  • Add the sugar, flour, lemon zest, lemon juice, baking powder, egg and egg white.
  • Process until well blended.
  • Pour the filling over the baked crust.
  • Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until set (the edges will get lightly browned).
  • Remove from the oven and cool.
  • When cool, cover and chill for 8 hours.
  • To serve, cut into bars.

    • Reviews

  • “These are so good! Like little lemon cheesecake bites. Used mace which gives the bars a distinctive but lovely flavor. I cut these in smaller serving sizes, about 1 1/2 inch squares. Thanks for sharing the recipe!”

  • “These are really good. I did use lowfat yogurt instead of the cottage cheese since I didn’t have a blender to process the cheese.I also added a little less sugar to the filling because I like them really tangy.The crust is great and the nutmeg adds a really complex flavor without overwhelming.The filling is smooth and lemony and just firm enough to cut.I’ll definitely make these again.Edit:They freeze well too.Just use wax or parchment paper to separate the layers.”

  • “I can’t believe this went so long without anyone making it! I loved the combo of the crunchy brown sugar/mace flavor crust with the creamy lemon cheesecake like topping….VERY NICE! I used premium molasses dark brown sugar. I used my immersion blender to puree the cottage cheese in a bowl and then beat in the rest of the ingredients with my electric mixer. It used about 2 lemons. Mine baked for much longer than the recipe says…it took 40 minutes before it looked set. This does have a very nice lemon flavor but mine wasn’t puckerable. Also, I’d say it makes 8 large servings but 16 small ones so the calories are even less! Thanks for this keeper recipe Mirj!”

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