These crimson, white and blue bars have a brilliant creamy cheesecake filling, a thick graham cracker crust and are topped off with blueberries and raspberries to create a US flag design, making these bars excellent for the 4th of July or Memorial Day. They are often made historically or gluten-free by utilizing gluten-free graham crackers.
I’ve been running a blog for 12 years and have but to make something for July 4th. When you’ve gotten unhealthy allergy symptoms and no air-con, that means it’s a must to open your home windows for a number of hours each morning to make the indoor temperatures bearable, summer season is type of a depressing and unproductive time.
I don’t wish to contribute even additional to the unpleasantness by turning on the oven and don’t actually really feel like doing a lot of something with meals aside from making frozen desserts.
I do have my Ninja out on the balcony so I can bake smaller issues in an 8″x8″ pan like these berry bars and cornbread, each of which might be nice for the 4th of July.
However for recipes that require the regular-sized oven, I’ve to attend for a cooler day, bake late at night time after which have the home windows open all night time to chill the place down. These bars have been value it. 😁
I first thought of making no-bake cheesecake bars however determined in opposition to that as a result of they usually flip to goo within the warmth. Since so many individuals prefer to have picnics and BBQs for the 4th of July, listed here are some baked cheesecake bars that maintain up properly within the warmth.
You continue to gained’t wish to go away them outdoors all day. They’re dairy-based, so you may’t go away them out within the warmth for various hours.
By the best way, I simply posted these Memorial Day Cookies over on Simple Healthful! They are often made with all-purpose, white complete wheat or King Arthur Flour Gluten-free Measure for Measure Flour.
They’re tremendous straightforward to embellish! You want completely zero adorning expertise. 🙂
Substances
Simply your primary cheesecake substances right here.
For the crust
- Graham crackers – in case you don’t have entry to those, I discuss a sub utilizing digestive biscuits under.
- Brown sugar – you should utilize granulated sugar in case you want, however brown sugar provides a bit extra taste and makes the crust somewhat bit chewier and fewer crumbly, which I believe is an effective factor.
- Butter – I haven’t tried these bars with coconut oil or anything instead of the butter. I figured that the bars are already filled with dairy, so it’s finest to go along with butter, which is able to give the crust a greater taste than coconut oil.
- Salt
For the cheesecake filling
- Cream cheese – it is advisable use common full-fat cream cheese in order for you your bars to have the very best texture. Diminished fats would possibly work, however I’m unsure. Please don’t use fat-free!
- Granulated sugar – there’s no sub for this until you wish to use a keto sweetener. There’s extra about that under.
- Bitter cream – this makes these cheesecake bars tremendous creamy! I haven’t tried Greek yogurt or anything as an alternative, so I can’t say what impact it’d have.
- Eggs – egg subs gained’t work right here.
- Vanilla and salt
For the ornament
- Contemporary blueberries and raspberries – not frozen!
Graham cracker crust
You want 3 cups of graham cracker crumbs for the crust. That’s 23 or 24 full sheets of graham crackers.
So you know the way a lot to really purchase, you want 12.7 oz or 360 grams. A normal field of graham crackers is 14.4 oz, so that you’ll have about 2 sheets of graham crackers left over.
When you’re within the UK, digestives are a very good sub, however they’re not a direct sub as the feel is completely different. You’ll be able to scroll down right here (or press Ctrl + F or ⌘ + F on Macs) to the place it says, “Digestive Biscuit Crumb Crust Different.”
She’s upped the quantity of crumbs and sugar to make up for the variations between graham crackers and digestives.
That recipe is for a pie pan, so that you’ll must make 1.5x the recipe for immediately’s recipe. That’ll provide you with a crust utilizing 3 cups of crumbs, identical to my recipe.
And in case you’re in Germany, the Vollkornkeks from Leibniz are an excellent direct sub for graham crackers. No must make changes like with digestives.
When you stay outdoors of the US, remember to preserve studying for extra suggestions in regards to the substances wanted for this recipe.
The filling
The filling of this recipe is customized from my Keto Cheesecake – however I used common sugar for these bars. To fill a 9″x13″ pan, which is required for the US flag design, I upped the filling by a 3rd. The cheesecake layer was too skinny with the unique quantity of filling.
Additionally, don’t be alarmed in case you evaluate the 2 recipes. I deliberately didn’t improve the quantity of bitter cream by a 3rd, so what you see under is right. 🙂
I like how creamy the bars are with the bitter cream. When you don’t like bitter cream or simply don’t have any, you would make these Mini Cheesecakes, that are additionally crimson, white and blue. Greek yogurt would possibly work instead of the bitter cream, however I haven’t tried it.
Gluten-free and grain-free model
All it’s a must to do for gluten-free is use gluten-free graham crackers. Any model will do.
I like these Honey Cinnamon Seed & Nut Flour Candy Thins from Easy Mills. They’re denser than graham crackers however nonetheless nice for making crust. They’re additionally grain-free!
The one downside is that they’re extraordinarily costly. Nonetheless, it looks like all groceries within the US price a small fortune lately, so perhaps they’re not all that costly in comparison with different graham crackers and cookies.
I learn in a single publish about gluten-free graham crackers that they’re not so nice for baking. However I attempted them out on this recipe and the consequence was excellent.
I used 360 grams, identical to the recipe requires. The amount is likely to be completely different, so go by grams. I didn’t must make any changes.
You would additionally attempt utilizing the shortbread crust in my Gluten-free Cheesecake Recipe.
I believe you’d must make 1.5x the recipe to suit the 9″x13″ pan.
Keto model?
To make the filling keto, you simply have to make use of one of many beneficial sweeteners in my Keto Cheesecake recipe. Keep in mind to extend it by a 3rd!
There’s no strategy to keto-fy the crust of immediately’s recipe. It requires graham cracker crumbs and brown sugar. However my keto cheesecake recipe has a crust just like a graham cracker crust, in order that’d really be excellent for the flag bars.
I’d additionally up the crust recipe by a 3rd to ensure you have sufficient to cowl the underside of the 9″x13″ pan.
Can I make these vegan?
Sadly not. You’d want to search out an already vegan recipe. I LOVE my Vegan Cheesecake Recipe, and suppose that’d work properly. However you’d most likely must double the recipe for a 9″x13″ pan, which is able to actually be painfully costly.
And also you’d additionally must discover a completely different crust recipe. I believe one thing with out cocoa powder could be higher.
Can I make them eggless?
No, however you may attempt growing this Eggless Cheesecake recipe by a 3rd and baking it in a 9″x13″ pan. So as an alternative of three 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, you’d use 4 packages.
I don’t know of the baking time and haven’t tried it myself, however I believe it could work.
Can I exploit frozen berries?
I certain want you would! It’d actually make this recipe cheaper to make.
However you undoubtedly cannot. Not solely would the bars be ugly with blobs of shriveled, defrosted berries, however the berries would bleed into the cheesecake and make it soggy.
Don’t stay within the US or Canada?
You’ll be able to simply preserve scrolling in case you stay within the US or Canada! This recipe was examined a number of instances with US substances by a couple of completely different folks, so this part isn’t related for you.
It was additionally examined a number of instances with European substances. That is what I did.
Cream cheese
The filling was somewhat bit creamier with the US cream cheese than when utilizing European Philadelphia model (and each different model of cream cheese). The cream cheese right here (I stay in Germany) is extra watery and never as creamy because the brick-style cream cheese within the US.
So! For these of you residing outdoors of the US or Canada and solely have the kind of cream cheese in little tubs which is supposed to be unfold on toast, that is what it is advisable do:
For each 8 ounces (225 grams) of cream cheese, purchase a 300-gram bundle of cream cheese. The stuff at Lidl, Aldi, and so on. works simply in addition to Philadelphia model. Put the cream cheese within the middle of a clear tea towel or cheesecloth, and squeeze out the liquid till you’ve gotten 225 grams of cream cheese.
So for this recipe, it is advisable purchase 1200 grams of cream cheese and squeeze out the liquid till you’ve gotten 907 grams of cream cheese left. It’s completely high quality if it’s somewhat kind of.
When you suppose that is dumb and couldn’t be bothered to eliminate the surplus liquid, which I understand is annoying, I wouldn’t suggest this recipe. The baking time might be completely completely different and also you’re more likely to over or underbake your cheesecake. I do know this as a result of I’ve carried out this a number of instances and wish to prevent the difficulty.
Butter
Utilizing European butter with its 82% fats is usually a catastrophe in crust recipes. It’s the primary purpose why I not often publish pie recipes, cheesecakes and different recipes with baked butter-based crusts.
However you should utilize it on this recipe. If utilizing European butter, use 156 grams of butter as an alternative of 168 grams and add 12 grams of water. Some, or the entire 12 grams, could be vanilla extract.
I hope you’ll get pleasure from these US flag cheesecake bars! When you attempt them out, I’d love to listen to within the feedback how they got here out. Thanks!
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- Prep Time:
- Prepare dinner Time:
- Prepared in:
- Yield: 20 bars
Substances
- 12.7 oz (360 grams) graham crackers (23-24 sheets of graham crackers, this gives you 3 cups of crumbs)
- 1/3 cup (67 grams) brown sugar
- pinch of salt
- 3/4 cup (168 grams) unsalted butter, melted
- 32 ounces full-fat cream cheese (907 grams), room temperature
- 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (173 grams) bitter cream, room temperature
- 4 giant (50 grams every, out of shell) eggs, room temperature
- 18 oz (510 grams) contemporary raspberries
- 1 1/4 cups (6 oz / 170 grams) contemporary blueberries
Crust:
Filling:
Ornament:
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 °F (167 °C) and calmly grease a 9”x13” pan.
- Place the graham crackers in a meals processor fitted with an S-blade and course of till you’ve gotten uniform high quality crumbs.
- Switch to a mixing bowl and stir within the brown sugar and salt till mixed.
- Stir within the butter till properly mixed.
- Pat evenly onto the underside of the ready pan.
- Bake for 10 minutes after which take away to a wire rack to chill for no less than 10 minutes whereas getting ready the filling.
- In a big mixing bowl utilizing an electrical hand mixer, beat collectively the cream cheese and sugar till fluffy.
- Add the vanilla, salt and bitter cream and beat on low till mixed.
- Add within the eggs, one after the other, till mixed. Ensure to not overmix.
- Pour this into the crust, which has cooled for no less than 10 minutes.
- Bake at 325 °F (167 °C) for 37-45 minutes or till the center seems set.
- Take away from the oven, place on a wire rack, and let come to room temperature, about 2 hours, earlier than chilling for 8+ hours. You can also make the cheesecake portion as much as 4 days upfront (and canopy and refrigerate), however I would suggest making the bars the day earlier than serving so that they’re as contemporary as doable.
- Rinse and lay the berries out flat on a paper towel to dry. Pat them dry with extra paper towel earlier than adorning the bars.
- Use the blueberries to create a US flag design on high of the bars. Within the higher left nook, make a 7×5 part of blueberries for the “stars.” For the raspberries, I like to recommend utilizing a knife to very gently mark straight strains into the bars that can information you the place to place your raspberries.
- You probably have leftovers, it is best to take away the fruit if storing for greater than 1 day to forestall it from getting soggy/moldy.
- Undecorated cheesecake bars could be refrigerated in an hermetic container for as much as 4 days.
Put together the crust:
Put together the filling:
Enhance:
Notes
- When you’re gluten-free, use gluten-free graham crackers. I examined this recipe with Honey Cinnamon Seed & Nut Flour Candy Thins from Easy Mills (utilizing 360 grams) they usually got here out nice. Common gluten-free graham crackers additionally work.
- If utilizing European butter, use 156 grams of butter as an alternative of 168 grams and add 12 grams of water. Some, or the entire 12 grams, could be vanilla extract.
- When you stay outdoors of the US or Canada, it is advisable drain among the whey from the cream cheese so your bars bake up correctly. The stuff at Lidl, Aldi, and so on. works simply in addition to Philadelphia model. That you must purchase 1200 grams of cream cheese and squeeze out the liquid till you’ve gotten 907 grams of cream cheese left. It’s very high quality if it is somewhat kind of.
- You want 35 blueberries. The quantity referred to as for within the recipe gives you sufficient so that you’ve some selection to decide on similarly-sized blueberries.
