Strawberry Cheesecake Bars

My digital camera has ceased to function. These tasties vanished so quickly I was unable to acquire a photo through other means. Here is an artistic rendering of these delicious treats. By "artistic rendering" I mean "mediocre sketch thrown together in a few minutes in GIMP."


Evil Bitch-Monster of Death's Fruit Preserves Cheesecake Bars recipe

Cheesecake Bars Instructions:

1 – Make about half a recipe of cookie dough OR a bunch of crumb crust and bake according to directions. Cool.
2 – Spread 3/4 c. fruit preserves* evenly onto top of cooled crust.** Let it sit there a while and soak into the crust. A few hours should do it, more if storing in the fridge.
3 – Make Cheesecake Bar Filling and pour / spread evenly over jam-covered crust.
Bake at 335 degrees for 40 minutes. The middle will be a bit jiggly. If it looks too jiggly, bake ~10 minutes more. Cool.
4 – Make Sour Cream Fruit topping and pour / spread evenly over cooled cheesecake.
Bake whole thing again at 350 degrees for 7 minutes. Cool.

Refrigerate until set (overnight, at least 8 hours). Refrigerate some more so the preserves and cheesecake soak into the crust. Make a day or so in advance, or have a springform 9 x 13 and ignore this part.
Try to cut into bars. Expect about 1/4 of them to come out wonky and in need of immediate consumption. The nice ones will indeed look very nice.

* You don't have to make your own fruit preserves. Just make sure to use fruit preserves and not jelly.

** Optional: instead of spreading fruit preserves onto crust, beat them into the cheesecake bar filling.

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Cookie Dough:

1/2 c. butter, softened (1 stick)
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
-- cream all together
1 c. flour
3/4 c. chocolate chips
-- add, mix well

Press dough into greased 9 x 13 pan evenly. Bake at 350 degrees for ~15 to 20 minutes. Let cool.


Crumb crust:

1 c. flour
1 c. finely chopped nuts
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp. salt
-- mix all together well
1/3 c. butter, melted
-- add, mix well with fork

Once crumb crust is evenly moistened by melted butter, press evenly into greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for ~15 minutes. Let cool.

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Fruit Preserves:

1 quart fruit
3/4 to 1 cup sugar
2 to 3 tblsps lemon, lime, or pineapple juice

Put fruit and sugar in a stove-top safe stainless steel pot, mix up, and let sit about 4 to 8 hours. The sugar keeps it from spoiling -- don't fret.
After 4 to 8 hours, mix up again and slowly bring the sugar-fruit mixture to a boil. Make sure all sugar is dissolving.
Once boiling and sugar is dissolved, add lemon, lime, or pineapple juice. Boil until 220 degrees F (about 15 minutes, until translucent and thick).
Remove from heat and cool in a shallow pan for about a day.
Store in fridge or jar/can.

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Cheesecake Bar Filling:

2 packages 8 oz. cream cheese (16 oz. total), softened
2/3 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
-- beat all together with electric mixer, ~2 minutes
3 eggs
-- beat on low until well-blended

Note: this is one more egg than typical cheesecake recipe of this ratio, because bars need to be more firm to hold up to cutting.

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Sour Cream Fruit topping:

version 1:
1 c. sour cream (8 oz.)
1 yogurt, fruit-flavored (about 4 oz.)
1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)

version 2:
1 1/2 c. sour cream (12 oz.)
1/4 c. fruit preserves (not jelly)
1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)

Mix all ingredients together util well blended.
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Strawberry Pies

Fresh strawberries make delicious treats.

This is a sugar-free white chocolate pie I made with instant Jello pudding mix. Ignore the ratios on the package and use at most 2 cups cold milk to 2 packages Jello pudding mix. I poured it into a shortbread Ready Crust.


Strawberry Lime Cheesecake

Into my standard cheesecake ratios, I stirred blenderized strawberries and lime juice. This made a much less viscous filling that I baked for longer at a lower temperature (and tried not to spill on the way in the oven). About a cup and a half of chopped strawberries went in, and 1/4 cup lime juice. I left out the melted chocolate for this one. It is in a chocolate Ready Crust.


For the glaze on the strawberries, I melted orange marmalade and concord grape jelly in a pan with some honey and let it cool before applying. Next time I plan this, I will either beat chopped mint into the cheesecake batter or stir it into the glaze.


Evil Bitch-Monster of Death's Simple Cheesecake Recipe

The Pie (9")
    2 8-oz. packages cream cheese, softened
      (Neuf works fine, fat free does not)
    2/3 cup sugar
    1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract,
     or 2 tsp. liqueur (optional)
    seasonings (optional), tsps for strong stuff,
     tblsps for pumpkin pie spice, etc.
     -- Beat for about 2 minutes

    add 2 eggs
    add 3 - 4 oz. melted chocolate
    (white chocolate goes with everything)
     -- whisk (or beat a little more on low setting)

Pour in shell* and bake @ 335 for 40 - 50 minutes (for 10" pie, bake @ 325 for 60 - 70 minutes). Let cool -- when you can touch it without burning yourself, cover and set in fridge for 3 - 4 hours. (I have made this on a time constraint and used the freezer to set in ~2 hours. Just don't let it freeze.) *If using a dough shell instead of a crumb shell, bake the empty shell for about five minutes @ 375 to harden it before pouring in the cheesecake batter.

Chocolate topping:
However much melted chocolate you use (3 - 4 oz. is plenty to decorate the top), add 1 tsp shortening (Crisco) per 2 oz. chocolate. You can also melt enough chocolate to make a top layer. This looks great, until you cut the cake with anything other than a samurai sword and the chocolate falls apart.

Fruit topping:
If you use preserves, it mixes well during baking. For fresh fruit, I put it on after the pie cools or blenderize it for mixing in with the pie. Finely chopped fresh fruit can also go in the pie, just stir in carefully after adding the eggs and chocolate.
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