While I’m not from a cheesecake family — it is never unwelcome, but we are more deeply devoted to things like pastry creams, chocolate pudding, and stellar coffee cakes — I married into one, which means that even though this site’s cheesecake archives are very well-populated, not a single peep of protest could be heard as far as my apartment walls reach (to be fair, a short distance) as I tinkered with these bars over the last few weeks.
It doesn’t hurt that they’re as pretty as the explosion of peonies that co-starred in this week’s photoshoot. They remind me of tie-dye, marble countertops, and wisps of smoke, yet require no cheffy brilliance to pull off — just a bag and a toothpick. But unlike baked goods where a flawless veneer makes me suspicious they’ll overpromise and underdeliver, these taste like the best of everything: a gently lemony, perfectly creamy, dead simple cheesecake layer swirled with a sweet-tart puree on a buttery graham crust. Or, a berry and cheese danish formatted as a picnic/potluck/party-ready bar. I hope you get to make them (or get someone to make them for you) as soon as possible.
Cheesecakes, previously: Easy Basque Cheesecake, Cheesecake Bars with All The Berries, New York Cheesecake, Cappuccino Fudge Cheesecake, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake, Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake, Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake, Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake, Key Lime Cheesecake, Layered Mocha Cheesecake, Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake, and Pumpkin Basque Cheesecake
Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Bars
- 1 cup (110 grams) graham or digestive cracker crumbs (about 7 sheets of grahams)
- 2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 3 tablespoons (45 grams) unsalted butter, melted
- 6 ounces (170 grams) fresh or defrosted frozen raspberries
- 2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 pound (2 8-ounce or 225-gram packages) cream cheese, at room temperature
- 3 large eggs
- Finely grated zest and juice (1 to 2 tablespoons) from half a medium/large lemon
Crust
Swirl
Cheesecake
Line bottom and sides of an 8×8-inch square baking pan with a large piece of parchment paper pressed into the corners and up the sides.
Make the crust: Combine crumbs, sugar, salt, and butter in a bowl with a fork until evenly mixed. Press firmly into the bottom of your prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, make raspberry sauce for swirl: Process raspberries with sugar in a food processor or blender until smooth. Pass puree through a fine sieve into a small bowl and discard the seeds. Set raspberry sauce aside.
Make the cheesecake: Beat cream cheese with sugar until fluffy, then beat in eggs, one at a time, until thoroughly mixed, scraping down the sides and bottom of your bowl between each addition. Beat in lemon zest and juice. Pour cheesecake batter over the prepared crust (still warm from the oven is fine). Food processor method: Place sugar, then cream cheese (cold is fine here; cut into chunks) in work bowl of food processor and blend until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping bowl down between each. Add zest and juice and blend, scraping again.
Assemble: Transfer raspberry sauce to a squeeze bottle, piping bag, or a zip-lock bag with a tiny corner snipped off, and squeeze raspberry sauce into the cheesecake batter in two ways: First, pressing the tip into the batter to deposit raspberry in the lower half of the bars (essentially making “underwater” blobs of raspberry sauce all over) and then placing droplets all over the top surface. [Tips: Use all of the sauce, even if it seems like a lot. And don’t worry if it’s runny or makes a mess. It’s impossible for this not to come out pretty!] Use a toothpick or skewer to swirl the raspberry sauce decoratively. Transfer bars to the oven.
Bake the bars: For 40 to 50 minutes, or until the cheesecake batter jiggles just a little when the pan is shimmied. Let cool on a rack for 15 minutes, then transfer to the fridge to chill the rest of the way.
To serve: Use the parchment paper to carefully lift the cool bars out of the pan and onto a cutting board. Cut into 16 squares. Swipe the knife clean between each cut for neatness. Dipping the knife into water can help too.
Do ahead: Bars keep in the fridge for 5 to 7 days.
Previously
6 months ago: Baked Potatoes with Crispy Broccoli and Bacon
1 year ago: Challah French Toast
2 years ago: Black Bean and Vegetable Bake
3 years ago: Hash Brown Patties
4 years ago: Snacky Asparagus
5 years ago: Spring Asparagus Galette
6 years ago: Roast Chicken with Schmaltzy Cabbage
7 years ago: Cannellini Aglio e Olio
8 year ago: Fig Newtons and Crispy Tofu Pad Thai
9 years ago: Granola Bark
10 years ago: Caramelized Brown Sugar Oranges with Yogurt and Potato Pizza, Even Better
11 years ago: Why You Should Always Toast Your Nuts (Please!) and Obsessively Good Avocado-Cucumber Salad
12 years ago: Dark Chocolate Coconut Macaroons and Baked Eggs with Spinach and Mushrooms
13 years ago: Spinach and Smashed Egg Toast and Bee Sting Cake
14 years ago: Over-the-Top Mushroom Quiche and Banana Bread Crepe Cake with Butterscotch
15 years ago: Blackberry and Coconut Macaroon Tart
16 years ago: Baked Kale Chips and Almond Macaroon Torte with Chocolate Frosting
17 years ago: Artichoke-Olive Crostini and Chocolate Caramel Crackers
18 years ago: Spring Panzanella and Lemon Yogurt Anything Cake
19 years ago: Arborio Rice Pudding and Gnocchi with a Grater
This looks lovely and like a must for our upcoming graduation party. Is it 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice and zest, or each? Thank you – many of your dishes and desserts will be featured to celebrate my daughter.
It’s the zest of the half lemon *and* whatever amount of juice there is from that half, estimated 1-2 T.
Must be cheesecake season lol I just made the black bottom cupcakes today!
Check out the flower prairie smoke (geum triflorum). That’s what these remind me of!
Is it possible to use raspberry jam instead of the raspberries and sugar? I have a mostly unused jar in my fridge at the moment!
I didn’t test it with jam, but it could work. My favorite is a mixture of mashed raspberries and jam, but it will have seeds.
Checking if I have all these ingredients right now!
The Nordstrom Rack ad covers up the ingredients.
I just want to thank you for using the term “sheets of graham” crackers. You’ve solved the problem found in other recipes of how to count graham crackers for a recipe. Looking forward to trying this!
FYI, you have written “8×8” rectangular pan
Fixed now, thank you.
These look delicious! But I think there is an error in the butter amount for the crust. I think 85g of butter comes out to ~6T. Which is the correct amount? Thank you!
I read over this at my desk yesterday and realized I hadn’t made a cheesecake bar in years. Fast forward to afterwork, I’m in the produce section of the grocery store and I keep looking at the raspberries; needless to say, I pulled up the recipe on my phone and began impulse buying cream cheese. I used your chocolate cheesecake filling from the layered mocha cheesecake recipe (I just took a third off of everything) and added the raspberry swirls. Not this recipe exactly, but it was great!
I made these today. They are still in the oven, so I can’t vouch for how they turn out, but I do want to share a word of warning.
I used a piping bag without any tip to put the raspberry sauce in, and it poured right on through. Luckily, I’d positioned the bag over the pan of cheesecake before I started loading the raspberry sauce in, and so the swirls are less intentional and less all over than planned, but there was not a horrible mess in my kitchen.
I saw the recipe and knew my family would love it. I made it today and we cut into it slightly too soon because we just could not wait any longer. It was delicious even with the slightly squishy texture. Assuming my 20-something son doesn’t eat it all overnight, I’m excited to try it fully cooled tomorrow. I used the plastic bag-cut corner approach for the raspberry sauce, and didn’t have much control over where it went. It didn’t matter. The swirl worked beautifully.
Any thoughts on frozen sour cherries in place of raspberries? Tartness is a virtue in this kitchen
What fruit would you recommend as a substitute for the raspberries? Can’t find kosher (bug free) raspberries… Would blueberries work?
I made these for my sister’s birthday and they were a huge hit! Totally stole the spotlight from the chocolate devil’s food cake. Everyone loved how light and fluffy they were and we thought they were the perfect balance of sweet and tart.
Also, they were so simple to make – I was able to throw them together while my babies napped! I ended up making the whole thing in three rounds in the food processor. First made the graham cracker crumbs; wiped it out and made the cheese filling while the crust baked; poured the filling into the crust, gave the food processor bowl a quick rinse, and made the raspberry sauce. Definitely adding these to my repeat dessert roster.