Cheesecake Bars

Update: The bars were a success! One thing that I forgot to say in the original post was that I did not use real lemon juice. I did not feel it was worth the effort for 2 teaspoons. Obviously they were looking for taste not liquid. I simply used an 1/8 of a teaspoon of lemon extract. Worked great.
They asked me why? You are doing what? That will cost a lot of money. Aren’t you going to gain weight? But, 6 months and 89 recipes later I’m still here.
It has been a big week of Ebaying, fancy things, some baking, and a little detective work on the side. I have an excellent story for you later that has absolutely nothing to do with baking, but one you will think is simply amazing. Well, I thought it was amazing, but I tend to be overdramatic about little things. I’m not going to tell you now because I would like to share it with a few other people in person.
So what is the recipe for Sunday School? Glad you asked, Cheesecake Bars. I asked for a few requests today and cream cheese was one of them. I don’t really like going to other dessert blogs to get my recipes because I feel like a copy cat. However, I ran out of time and jumped over to Cookie Madness for some help. One of the ways I try to challenge myself when baking a new recipe is to see the least amount of bowls and utensils I can use for one dessert. This one today was a one bowler and I used a sheet of wax paper to set aside my topping. Very easy. The recipe was simple and it did not take that long to bake so my oven did not heat up the house very long. Another thing I liked about this dessert is the bake time is very exact. No guesswork. yea.
Taste? Good question. Okay. You know what a moist cheesecake tastes like? Now, instead of a crumb crust, substitute a crumbled up Mexican Wedding cookie minus the powdered sugar. Wow. Excellent and I tried it before it chilled. I can't imagine how good it would be after sitting in the frig for two hours!

Cheesecake Bars
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped, toasted nuts (pecans or almonds)
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 tablespoons milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 inch square metal pan or line with non-stick foil. Beat butter, brown sugar and salt together until creamy. Add flour and stir until it is fully blended – batter will be thick and crumbly. Stir in the nuts. Measure out about 1 cup and set aside. Press remainder into bottom of pan. Bake crust for 15 minutes .Beat cream cheese and granulated sugar until creamy. Beat in lemon juice and vanilla, then add egg and milk and beat just until smooth. Pour cheese mixture over baked crust. Sprinkle reserved crumb topping over top. Return to oven and bake for 25 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack, then transfer to refrigerator and chill for at least 2 hours or until ready to serve. Makes 12 bars.

Where did those come from?