Key Lime Cheesecake Squares

Key Lime Cheesecake Squares

  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hrs 10 mins
  • Yield: 36one and a half inch squares

    • About This Recipe

    “This is a delightful and refreshing dessert. I found a recipe 15 years ago that is similar to mine, but I modified it to have a very good blend between the lime juice and sugar. My crust enhances the taste of the cheesecake.”

    Ingredients

    CRUST

  • 1/2 cupcrushed graham wafers or 1/2 cupcrushed graham wafer crumbs
  • 1/2 cupcrushed vanilla wafers or 1/2 cupcrushed vanilla wafer crumbs
  • 1/4 cupground blanched almond
  • 1/4 cupbutter

    • FILLING

  • 8ouncescream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cupgranulated sugar
  • 1largeegg
  • 2teaspoonsgrated lime zest
  • 1/2 cupkey lime juice, freshly squeezed
  • 1tablespoon tapioca starch or 1tablespooncornstarch

    • Directions

  • CRUST———.
  • Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
  • In a mixing bowl, combine graham wafer crumbs, vanilla wafer crumbs and ground almonds.
  • Cut in butter using a pastry blender or a fork until mixture is crumbly.
  • Prepare a 9 inch x 9 inch oven-proof casserole dish by spraying inside with a vegetable spray.
  • Press wafer mixture firmly in bottom of casserole dish.
  • Bake in preheated 350 F oven for 15 minutes.
  • FILLING———-.
  • In a mixing bowl using an electric mixer, beat softened cream cheese, sugar and egg until smooth.
  • Add lime juice, grated lime zest and tapioca starch and beat until smooth and creamy.
  • Spread mixture evenly over baked crust.
  • Return to oven and bake at 350 F for 25 to 30 minutes or until set.
  • Cool on wire rack.
  • Chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour before cutting into squares to serve.
  • If desired, decorate top of cheesecake with pieces of lime or halved small fresh strawberries or quartered maraschino cherries (red and green).
  • You can also use regular lime juice or use bottled key lime juice.

    • Reviews

  • “These were a hit at a dinner party.The topping is wonderfully tart and the crust is particularly good – plan to use the crust for other goodies.Thanks.”

  • “Very good! Although I used regular limes, it was slightly too tart for me, (key limes definitely would have been too tart for me), so next time I’ll add an extra tablespoon or so of sugar.I didn’t make the crust as written, since I didn’t have vanilla wafers on hand, but made a simple graham cracker crust instead. Next time I will try the original crust; it sounds really good!”

  • “As you can tell from my picture, I added a little bit of green food coloring. I just liked the contrast of colors. They always get rave reviews. I like adding more cream cheese and an extra egg.”

  • “Congrats! your recipe was featured on our homepage as the “Recipe of the Day!” (7/31/11)”

  • “Easy desert for a Caribbean meal.Mine was a little bitter so don’t know if I put too much zest in as I didn’t measure.Will try again and measure next time.”

  • “With the exception of calling for a little too much lime, this is pretty much the perfect cheesecake recipe. Very, very creamy (especially if you use a water bath.) I think it’s the tapioca/corn starch that does it. I’ll definitely be making this again! (Hint: double the filling amount and adjust the cooking time to make a full cheesecake instead of bars.)”

  • “I would give a 4.5 if I could, since I can’t I’ll rate them a 5.I topped these with real whipped cream, as when I tasted them on their own, they were too sour.The Whipped cream added just the right touch.I brought these to a family reunion, the adults loved them, but they were too sour tasting for the kids.I don’t know about the easy part, squeezing all those tiny key limes was a pain, LOL!I’m sure I will make this again, I may add more sugar next time though.”

  • “These were very easy to make, and disappeared at our Memorial Day get together. I made a regular graham cracker crust, but next time I will add a little more butter than stated, because the crust was pretty crumbly. It sounded like these were going to be pretty tart, by the way the reviews let on, but I didn’t think they were at all. Just perfect.”

  • “made a crust with some cookies i had on hand and made the cheesecake with tapioca starch and substituted lemon juice and did not include the zest. however, it was way too sour for me and i honestly love sour things. i think it just didn’t do it justice, but perhaps it was because lemon juice and lime juice are different? it set fine and i didn’t encounter the problems that some others did.i baked it in a round 8″ pan and it rose wonderfully, but slowly sank back down when it cooled down.it was still very tasty, just would decrease the amount of citrus juice by a good amount. if i wanted a more substantial cheesecake i would probably double the amount of filling.”

  • “I brought these to work for a Mardi Gras party and people RAVED about them!”

  • “Second time I tried to make this, second time it never set up.Wouldn’t have mattered how long it baked.Looks like others may have had some trouble too.Sorry, won’t waste expensive ingredients, key limes again.”

  • “Pucker up baby – this one is tart! Loved it though! Thanks for a great recipe Uncle Bill.Tee”

  • “Made it for company – it disappeared fast!”

  • “I love this recipe!I made it for the big game and put it in a 9″ springform pan.It came out a beautiful little cheese tart.I didn’t have almonds so I subbed walnuts for the crust and it was very good also!Thanks Uncle Bill!”

  • “I actually made mini-cheesecakes (with the pre-made little crusts) with this recipe and they were absolutely fabulous.Great recipe!”

  • “Thanks Uncle Bill! Made this for a barbie, we made it in a springform cake tin, doubled the topping and used half arrowroot biscuits and half shredded wheat biscuits for the base, ( Oz biscuits ) Yes it was very tart, but an excellent way to end a meal. Very grown up taste. Will make again as squares, really popular with everyone at BBQ!”

  • “This was good, but the top layer was way too tart!I used key limes.Not sure how to correct that except using less lime juice / more sugar.Also used an 8 x 8 square pan and baked the crust for slightly less time, as I noticed it was getting brown.It set up fine for me.”

  • “These were fabulous!! I did make the following changes: Used a 9 in springform pan, used 1 1/2 cups of cookie and graham cracker crumbs since we don’t like nuts, doubled the cheesecake filling and used 1/4 cup of lemon juice instead of lime. The result was a wonderful, light cheesecake bar. I loved the blend of flavors in the crust. I topped it with some whipped cream with a little bit of instant lemon jello mixed in. My friend asked for the recipe and said that her DH doesn’t like cheesecake but he loved this. This will certainly become a regular around here. Thanks Uncle Bill!”

  • “These are fantastic! (Much easier than Cheesecake!)I used the wrong sized pan, so my topping was thin and cracked a bit… not to worry: I dabbed a bit of cool whip and a lime garnish so they still looked (and tasted!) great!”

  • “Yum. I made this with all vanilla wafer crumbs, and I did it in a 9″ non stick pie plate instead of a square pan and I thought that it just made it incredibly easy to serve. I topped it with whipped cream and then I garnished it with more vanilla wafer crumbs. Very pretty, and with the addition of a little Willimas Sonoma lime extract, the lime flavour was intense!”

    •