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Why It Works
- A mix of cream cheese and goat cheese offers the cheesecake a creamy texture and nice tanginess.
- Gently cooking the strawberries concentrates the fruit’s taste and creates a jammy sauce for swirling by the filling.
- Baking the cheesecake in a water bathtub ensures it cooks evenly and minimizes the chance of overcooking.
In Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s satirical novel Lengthy Island Compromise, one of many characters, Beamer, muses to himself about how a lot he loves cheesecake whereas his mom is on the telephone to inform him his grandmother has died: “The way in which the bitter of the cheese attacked the perimeters of the tongue, the way in which the salt of it assaulted the diameter unfold from the perimeters to the tip in order that the candy might have its approach with your entire area. All this directly! Cheesecake!” It’s a ridiculous scene, and but I can’t assist however discover his practice of thought relatable. What number of instances have you ever been in a totally severe—even grave—dialog, solely to seek out your thoughts drifting away to ideas of one thing extra nice, like cheesecake? No? I suppose it’s simply me.
However actually, Beamer has a degree. Cheesecake ticks loads of bins: It’s candy, savory, creamy, and tangy unexpectedly, and its versatility makes it an ideal canvas for different flavors resembling fruit, chocolate, and nuts. There’s a taste for each season: lemon ricotta within the spring, berries or stone fruit in the summertime, pumpkin or candy potato through the fall, and bittersweet chocolate or citrus fruit within the winter. Within the hotter months, I particularly take pleasure in pairing cheesecake with ripe, juicy strawberries from my native farmers market. Candy and tart, the fruit offers a vibrant foil to the richness of the cheesecake, serving to to loosen up an in any other case heavy dessert.
Severe Eats / Jen Causey
As majestic as a complete cheesecake is, generally I need one thing I can decide up by the slice. That’s the place cheesecake bars are available in: Baked in a 9- by 13-inch baking pan, they are often simply portioned into squares for mess-free snacking at potlucks and picnics. The recipe beneath, which comes from our Birmingham, Alabama-based check kitchen colleague Melissa Grey, options jammy strawberries swirled right into a tangy combination of cream cheese, goat cheese, and lemon zest, all baked on prime of a buttery graham cracker crust.
Most cheesecake bars recipes name for spooning saucy strawberries on prime of the cheescake, however that may make them tough to eat with no plate and a fork. To maintain every slice mess-free however nonetheless full of fruit, Melissa cooks the strawberries with a contact of cornstarch and sugar till they simply begin to break down, then swirls them into the filling. Cooking the strawberries concentrates their taste, and the small amount of cornstarch helps thicken the compote-like combination—this reduces the chance of introducing extra moisture into the cheesecake batter, which may hamper it from setting effectively.
Melissa additionally added one other twist to her bars: Along with cream cheese, she additionally makes use of goat cheese within the filling, which brings a refined tartness to the combo. One other professional transfer Melissa incorporates in her cheesecake recipe is baking the assembled dessertin a water bathtub, which ensures it cooks evenly and minimizes the chance of overcooking. The result’s a silky easy cheesecake that’s wealthy and creamy, and one value bringing to all of your picnics, potlucks, and barbecues.
The recipe was developed by Melissa Grey; the headnote was written by Genevieve Yam.
The Strawberry Cheesecake Bars I’m Bringing to All My Potlucks This 12 months
Prepare dinner Mode
(Preserve display awake)
For the Crust:
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Cooking spray, see notes
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8 1/2 ounces graham cracker crumbs (240 g; 2 cups), see notes
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1 3/4 ounces granulated sugar (50 g; 1/2 cup)
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1/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for desk salt, use half as a lot by quantity
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4 ounces unsalted butter (113 g; 8 tablespoons), melted
For the Filling:
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12 ounces chopped recent strawberries (340 g; 2 cups)
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4 teaspoons (12 g) cornstarch
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9 1/2 ounces granulated sugar (267 g; 1 1/3 cups), divided
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Three 8-ounce packages cream cheese (24 ounces; 680 g), at room temperature
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8 ounces goat cheese (226 g; about 1 cup), at room temperature
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3/4 ounces all-purpose flour (24 g; 3 tablespoons)
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1 teaspoon lemon zest plus 1/2 tablespoon recent juice from 1 medium lemon
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2 teaspoons vanilla extract
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1/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for desk salt, use half as a lot by quantity
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4 giant eggs (7 ounces; 200 g), at room temperature
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Scorching water
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Regulate oven rack to center place, and preheat oven to 375°F (190ºC). Utilizing baking spray with flour, evenly coat a 9- by 13-inch baking pan. Line backside and sides with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on 2 sides; put aside.
Severe Eats / Jen Causey
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Put together the Crust: In a medium bowl, stir cracker crumbs, sugar, and salt to mix. Stir in melted butter till moistened; scrape into ready baking pan. Unfold into an excellent layer; utilizing a flat-bottomed ingesting glass or measuring cup, firmly press till crumbs kind a compact, even layer throughout the underside of the pan. Bake till aromatic and evenly golden brown, about 10 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack whereas making ready filling, about half-hour. Cut back oven temperature to 325°F (160ºC).
Severe Eats / Jen Causey
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For the Filling: In a small saucepan, mix strawberries, cornstarch, and 1/3 cup (67g) of the sugar. Prepare dinner over medium warmth, stirring usually, till strawberries start to interrupt down and combination is thickened, about 5 minutes. Take away from warmth; let cool for half-hour, stirring sometimes.
Severe Eats / Jen Causey
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In the meantime, within the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and goat cheese on medium pace till easy and creamy, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as wanted. Add flour, lemon zest and juice, vanilla, salt, and remaining 1 cup (200 g) sugar; beat on low pace till simply mixed, about 15 seconds. Enhance mixer pace to medium, and beat till effectively mixed, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as wanted. With mixer on low pace, add eggs, one by one, mixing till simply mixed after every addition; combination ought to be barely thickened and easy. Put aside till prepared to make use of. (Alternatively, an electrical hand mixer can be utilized to arrange filling.)
Severe Eats / Jen Causey
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Pour filling into cooled crust, and place baking pan in a big roasting pan. Utilizing a tablespoon, drop small dollops of cooled strawberry combination on prime of cream cheese combination. Utilizing a butter knife, offset spatula, or skewer, gently swirl into filling, taking care to keep away from chopping into the crust.
Severe Eats / Jen Causey
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Place roasting pan in oven, and, utilizing a big spouted measuring cup or kettle, fastidiously add sizzling water till it reaches 1 inch up sides of baking pan. Bake till edges are set, prime seems to be dry, and middle is nearly totally set, 40 to 50 minutes. Utilizing oven mitts or kitchen towels, fastidiously take away baking pan from roasting pan, and let cool on wire rack till room temperature, about 1 hour, half-hour. Cowl and refrigerate till chilled, no less than 4 hours or as much as 12 hours. Run an offset spatula across the sides to separate from edges, and utilizing parchment overhang as handles, fastidiously take away cheesecake from pan. Utilizing a pointy knife, slice bars into twelve 3-inch squares, and serve. (For cleaner cuts, run knife underneath heat water, and dry knife with a clear kitchen towel earlier than portioning every slice.)
Severe Eats / Jen Causey
Particular Gear
9- by 13-inch baking pan, flat-bottomed ingesting glass or measuring cup, wire rack, stand mixer or hand mixer, giant roasting pan, giant spouted measuring cup or kettle, oven mitts or kitchen towels
Notes
If you happen to don’t have cooking spray, you’ll be able to evenly grease the pan with unsalted butter or impartial oil, resembling canola or vegetable.
To make your personal graham crackers: Within the bowl of a meals processor, grind 16 entire graham crackers (240 grams) till finely floor, or place graham crackers in a gallon-size zip-top bag, seal tightly, and crush crackers with a rolling pin.
Bitter cream will be substituted for goat cheese.
For pink cheesecake bars, fold cooled strawberry combination into cheesecake batter till well-incorporated.
Make-Forward and Storage
The batter will be made forward and refrigerated in an hermetic container for as much as 1 week. Let batter come to room temperature earlier than baking.
The bars will be refrigerated in an hermetic container for as much as 5 days.
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