Recipe: Cranberry Cheesecake Bars

After many recent experiments I have come to the conclusion that desserts are much better with cream cheese. It's funny to think that I use to despise cheesecake and thought cream cheese only belonged on bagels. Since this is my first post, I would like to present the recipe that made me fall in love with cream cheese desserts. I enthusiastically give you these cranberry cheesecake bars. 

Ingredients:

2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour

1-1/2 cups instant rolled oats

3/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon firmly packed brown sugar (divided use)

1 cup (2 sticks or 16 Tablespoons) butter, at room temperature

8 ounces (1 large block) cream cheese, at room temperature

1 can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (1 to 2 lemons)

1 can whole berry cranberry sauce

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with non-stick foil.

Combine flour, rolled oats, 3/4 cup brown sugar, and butter with a pastry blender, mixing until crumbly. Remove 1-1/2 cups of mixture and set aside for later use. Press remaining mixture into bottom of the prepared baking pan. Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes. 

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice, whipping until completely combined. Pour evenly over warm bottom layer crust.

Scoop whole berry cranberry sauce into a bowl, stirring gently with a fork to break up the jelly. Add 1 tablespoon brown sugar and cornstarch. Mix until combined. Drop cranberry mixture by spoonful over the cream cheese layer. Gently smooth with the back of a spoon to cover. Sprinkle top with reserved crumb mixture.

Bake 45 minutes, until top is golden brown. Cool bar cookies completely before cutting. Refrigerate before serving. Makes about 24 bars, depending on how you cut them.

Enjoy!!!