Eclectic Red Barn: Key Lime Bars

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Key Lime Bars

Although I love lemon desserts, I had key limes available so when you want a dessert, use what you have. When I first saw these Lemon Cheesecake Bars from Aimee I knew I wanted to try them.

My lemons are done but my key limes are still producing so I am trying to make dishes with them. Her lemon bars looked so good so I modified her recipe to use my key limes.

Mainly, I substituted key limes instead of lemons. The tricky part was trying to determine how many key limes to use to replace the lemon juice and zest. I like things tangy so I added a little extra juice. Store ones are a little smaller than mine so you may want to add 1-2 more.

I also substituted vanilla for the lemon extract.

They turned out great and I loved the key lime flavor. Next time I will give the original recipe a try. Hope you like my key lime version.

Recipe Print

Key Lime Cheesecake Bars

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

2 cup Graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

For the Cheesecake Filling:

2 packages (8oz each) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 key limes, zested
Key lime juice

For the Cookie layer:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 cup all-purpose flour
2-3 key limes, zested
11oz white chocolate morsels (I use Ghirardelli)

Directions:

Line a 13x9 baking dish with parchment paper. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a food processor, pulse Nilla wafers or graham crackers with sugar until fine crumbs. Add in melted butter and pulse until combined.
Press crumbs into the bottom of prepared baking dish. Using the palm of your hand, press crumbs firmly until they are pressed into the bottom of the dish.
For the filling, beat cream cheese with sugar, eggs, key lime juice and key lime zest using the whisk attachment of your electric mixer. Beat until fluffy and smooth (about 3-4 minutes). Pour over cookie crust.
For the cookie dough, beat butter and sugar for 2 minutes. Add egg, vanilla and key lime zest and beat until combined. Add in baking powder, salt and flour, beating until fully blended. Fold in white chocolate morsels. Scoop dough by large spoonfuls onto the top of the cheesecake layer. Use your fingertips to spread gently until covered.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until lightly browned. The center will still be a little jiggly, that's okay. Allow to cool completely. Refrigerate for 4 hours (or overnight). Slice and serve COLD. Enjoy!