Red White and Blue Cheesecake Bars
Red White and Blue Cheesecake Bars are a colorful way to show off your American spirit and the perfect easy Fourth of July dessert recipe. Creamy cheesecake bars with red and blue swirls, these red white and blue dessert bars are the perfect patriotic dessert to celebrate July 4th.
Ingredients
Graham Cracker Crust
- 1 1/2 cup Graham cracker crumbs
- 1 /3 cup butter melted
- 2 tbl sugar
Cheesecake Filling
- 3 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 eggs, large
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Red and Blue Food Gel Coloring
- squeeze of fresh lemon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees and place a baking pan filled with water on the bottom rack of your oven
- Start by combining graham crackers, melted butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and then transferring the mixture to a 9 x 13 baking pan lined with parchment paper. Set aside
- In a large mixing bowl, beat softened cream cheese until creamy and then add in sugar and salt and mix well. One by one, add in eggs and beat until each is incorporated before adding in the next one. Add in sour cream and vanilla and continue mixing until you have a creamy filling.
- Transfer 1 1/3 cup of cheesecake filling evenly into two separate bowls and add red food coloring to one bowl and blue to the other.
- Mix the food coloring in to combine. Pour the white cheesecake filling on top of graham cracker crust and smooth until even.
- Using a spoon, pour alternating lines of blue cheesecake filling and red cheesecake filling down length of cheesecake. Swirl the colors into cheesecake filing using the back of knife (or a chopstick!) to create a beautiful swirl pattern. The more swirls, the better..
- Bake in oven for 50-55 minutes or until center is no longer wobbly. When baking time is done, turn off oven, open oven door and let your Red White and Blue Cheesecake Bars sit for one hour in the open oven. Remove from oven and refrigerate overnight before pulling up on parchment paper and removing from baking pan. Cut into squares and serve!
Video
Notes
PRO TIPS FOR THE BEST RED WHITE AND BLUE DESSERT
- Be sure to beat your cream cheese until they are creamy and fluffy. If you skip the creaming step, you will end up with large lumps of cream cheese in your cheesecake bars.
- Use room temperature ingredients like cream cheese, eggs and sour cream. They mix and emulsify better at room temperature.
- Don’t skip adding a squeeze of lemon to your cheesecake batter. Your cheesecake won’t taste like lemon but it does cut through and add acidity against the heavy richness of three blocks of cream cheese.
- Don’t care for a graham cracker crust? Graham cracker crumbs can easily be replaced with 20 cookie sandwich cookies pulverized or pulsed to crumbs in a food processor. Then add the melted butter as called for and mix to combine. Follow the remaining instructions to make your Red White and Blue Cheesecake Bars.
- If your red and blue lines are uneven or messy, don’t sweat it .. it’s all getting swirled together anyways ????
- Give clear vanilla extract a try in light colored batters. Your batter will not tint due to brown vanilla extract. You can find it in your spice/extract section of most grocery stores.
- I use gel food coloring when I can. Traditional food coloring is a liquid and using the gel coloring won't water down your batter.. plus it seems more vibrant to me.
- Want to know a trick for lining your pan with parchment paper? Turn your empty baking pan upside down on your parchment paper and then with a knife, draw the outline of your pan but with an extra one inch border. Lift up your pan and then cut your outline out of the paper. Perfect fit every time!