Some days are just made for cheesecake. You know them, right? Not the days when you are sad and just want to stuff your face with ice cream straight from the tub. No, I am talking about bright, sunshiny days that are made even brighter by this beauty!
I am writing from a truly happy place right now because these creamy cheesecake bars, studded with plump and juicy raspberries and sandwiched between almond flavoured buttery crumbs are still in my fridge. Within reach. So close. Put that on a pretty plate and that’s happiness, friends.
I am sure you can tell how excited I am by the amount of pictures I’ve taken. I surprised myself. What I am trying to do here is to entice you with these scrumptious treats. Don’t you want the one with a raspberry on top?
The recipe for these bars come from my family. I grew up eating them for special occasions and not so special ocasions. Basically, whenever my mom felt like the day called for a cheesecake. The women in my family are impulsive like that, I can already see that in my little girl. It makes me happy. 🙂
Start with making the pastry. Unlike the traditional North American recipe where the crust is made from graham cracker crumbs and butter, this recipes uses homemade shortcrust pastry.
It’s very important to chill the pastry before you roll it out and fill with the cheese and raspberry filling. The top layer is made out of pastry crumbs mixed with ground almonds.
- 2½ cups- flour
- 1 cup- sugar
- ½ cup- ground almonds
- 1 cup/250 gr- cold butter
- 1- egg
- ½ tsp- baking powder
- 500 gr/ 16 oz- cream cheese or farmer's cheese Tvorog
- 2- eggs
- 1 cup- sugar
- 2 tbsp- semolina
- 2 tsp- vanilla essence
- ½ cup- raspberries, fresh or frozen
- ¼ cup- ground almonds
- In a food processor combine flour, ground almonds, cold butter, sugar and baking powder and pulse until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs, add the egg and pulse until just combined. (This could also be done in a bowl with a pastry blender.)
- Take the pastry out of the food processor; it will be soft. Pinch off ⅓ of the pastry, wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer. Wrap the rest in plastic wrap as well and put it in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
- Combine cream cheese or farmer's cheese, eggs, sugar, semolina and vanilla in a large bowl using a hand mixer or a food processor if you want your farmer's cheese to be silky smooth.
- When the pastry is done chilling take it out of the fridge and roll it out to fit a rectangular 9x13 baking dish on a floured surface, making sure it comes up the sides. Don't worry if it tears, you can patch it up, this pastry is very forgiving.
- Then put it back in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes longer.
- Preheat the oven to 350F/180C
- Take it out of the fridge and fill it with the cheese filling, top with raspberries.
- Take the frozen part out of the freezer and grate it with a vegetable grater, then toss the crumbs with ¼ cup of ground almonds.
- Scatter all over the cheese filling.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes until golden.
- Cool completely for 3 hours, ideally overnight in the fridge before cutting into bars.
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These look like the picture of spring! The idea of a light crust underneath AND on top of the filling sounds especially nice.
Thank you, Sue. The double crust balances out the richness of the cheese a bit. I love it! 🙂
Beautiful and love the combination of raspberries, cream cheese and almond. I don’t make bars often enough. I suspect because I can’t trust myself with a whole baking pan of them. For these though … I might make an exception 😉
I am in the same boat! Luckily, my kids love them so they are disappearing quickly without my help. I did sacrifice lunch for one yesterday and no regrets. 🙂
Oh, these are so lovely! Bright, happy and beautiful… perfect for an afternoon pick-me-up or an indulgent dessert with a splash of double cream. Thanks for sharing your recipe. I would’ve taken many photos also! xx
Thank you, Laura! Sometimes I get carried aways while clicking only to find out later that somehow 269 photos got uploaded to the computer! Crazy!
My, my, my! I need these in my life! pronto! I might make these in the next couple of days 😀
I hope you do! It’s one of my favourite recipes from my mom!
Such gorgeous bars, I love anything almond and raspberry!
Thank you, so do I!
I gave sweets up for Lent, but WOW..this looks amazing. I think this will be the first dessert I will make after Easter. Two of my hubbies favorite things: cheesecake and raspberries. Thanks for posting this!
Margaret @ Live Like No One Else
This cheesecake will be the perfect “after Lent” reward, Margaret! 🙂
These are some of my favorite flavors to eat in spring, love the bars!
Thank you Nik!
OH my gosh are you even serious?!?!?!? These look like HEAVEN. I didn’t like cheesecake for many years, but I became a convert once I tried chocolate cheesecake…and now I’ll even eat non-chocolate cheesecake 🙂 So saying this looks AMAZING coming from a former cheesecake-hater…well, these are truly phenomenal 😉 I LOVE your photos!!
Hahaha, I am also a cheesecake convert so I understand! Thank you for stopping by, Erica!
What is semolina? I’ve heard of semolina flour. These look fabulous & would like to make them for Easter.
Thanks
Nancy, semolina and semolina flour are the same thing, just different terms used in various countries. I hope you enjoy it. 🙂
Can you use regular flour? I don’t know if I have ever seen semolina in my grocery store.
Nancy, you can use regular flour or you can skip it altogether.
Thanks!
Hey, I just stumbled upon your blog and am super inspired by your beautiful pictures and recipes but in many of the recipes I see things I have never used of even heard of like Jerusalem artichokes and semolina. I live in the states. Do you know where I can find semolina or what I can substitute it with?
thank you. I can’t wait to try out your recipes. I’m trying the lamb for Easter!
Nadya, thank you for visiting and your sweet comment. I am sure there are some ingredients that are different because I live in Europe and use what is available to me. However, semolina or semolina flour is what your pasta is made out of and should be available in any supermarket in the US. Jerusalem artichokes might be a bit more difficult to find, try farmer’s markets or substitute with potatoes. 🙂
Thanks you! I went to Fred Meyers and was able to find both almond and semolina flour made by Bob’s Red Mill flour. so excited to try this out!
Gorgeous bars, I will have to make them.
OMG these look devine!! I’m going to have to try to make these gluten-free… they look too good not to try!
Those bars look wonderful!
While copying it into my recipe program I noticed a problem with the volume/weight conversion. The difference between 1 cup (=227 g) and 250 g butter is not much, but 16 oz (=454 g) and 500 g cream cheese is quite a bit off, and can change the consistency.
Greetings from Maine,
Karin
Thanks for letting me know, Karin. Fortunately, in this particular recipe it won’t make a big difference. 🙂
This cheese cake looks faboulous ! Love it! Do you think I can used Philadelphia cheese? Thanks 😉
Thanks, Eva! Oh yes, definitely. 🙂
I made these for my New Year’s dessert display. Everyone loved it. However, I swictched the raspberries for pineapple and also used silvered almonds instead of ground almonds for the topping. Thank you for a wonderful reciepe. These remind me of a dessert I learned from my mom. However instead of farmers cheese she would add typically apricot jam in the middle, I think it is called sterlitz.
Just made this with our two granddaughters. I divided it into two “pies”. I skilled the semolina flour, and just crumbled the crusts on the tops. SO good! We served it as “pie” with whipped cream.
Sounds delicious, Heidi! I need to make these bars again soon. Love them!