Lemon Cheesecake Bars

It’s SPRING!!! Well close enough anyway. 🙂 I am so excited that it is finally March. There is so much to do! I am already planning what I’ll plant out on my deck. I love flowers, spring, summer and best of all the warm weather. Although I could do without the dumb bugs, like mosquitoes, june bugs and cicadas. Ick. But it’s a small price to pay for summer!

So in celebration of the upcoming Spring, I made Lemon Cheesecake Bars. These have an intense lemon flavor. I love it when a flavor is super strong and in your face. These are definitely not your ordinary lemon cheesecake bars. Super lemony and they are super easy to make.

I had four cans of crescent roll dough and a bag of lemons donated to me because a relative no longer needed it. I was debating what to do with them, when it hit me. Lemon Cheesecake Bars!! Yum! I was thinking of modifying the Sopapilla Cheesecake Bar recipe, but then happened upon this post from all recipes: Lemon Cream Cheese Bars.

I love lemon and I wanted to make this recipe a bit more lemony. Two lemons just isn’t enough in my opinion, I like a BAM! IN YOUR FACE! Lemon flavor. I don’t like subtle flavors AT ALL. If it’s lemon, it should scream lemon.  So I added an additional lemon, extra zest and some lemon extract. They turned out great! Super lemony and creamy.

Ingredients:

• 2 packages of refrigerated crescent roll dough (8 oz each)
• 3 lemons, juiced
• 4 lemons, zested, divided (3 for the cream cheese mixture and 1 for the topping)
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 2 packages of cream cheese (8 oz each)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 4 tablespoons granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350

Line a 9 x 13 pan with aluminium foil or parchment paper, making sure to overlap the sides of the pan, so you can lift it out later, and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Press one can of the crescent roll dough in the bottom of the pan, pinching together the seams and stretching to cover the bottom of the pan.

In a small bowl mix the four tablespoons of sugar and the zest of one lemon. Set Aside.

Add the cream cheese, lemon juice, zest from three of the lemons and the lemon extract to a large mixing bowl. Whip until smooth and creamy. Spread over the crescent rolls in the pan.

Open the second can of crescent rolls, unroll it and carefully lay it over the top of the cream cheese mixture, being careful to stretch and spread it all the way across the pan.

Melt the butter and brush across the top of the crescent roll dough. Sprinkle the sugar and lemon mixture that was set aside in the first step.

Bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Let cool at room temperature for about thirty minutes, then refrigerate until chilled, for at least one hour. I chilled them overnight.

Enjoy!