Slow-Roasted Balsamic Strawberry Cheesecake Bars Recipe
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These Slow-Roasted Balsamic Strawberry Cheesecake Bars are a delicious hit, inspired by my friend Irvin’s new cookbook, Marbled, Swirled and Layered.
A few months ago, my dear blogger friend, Irvin Lin, sent me his brand-new cook book, Marbled, Swirled and Layered. It is so pretty and filled with many delightful treats. Woo hoo! Go Irvin!
The cookbook is a collection of his favorite baking recipes. I’ve been flipping through the beautiful recipes for months now and they all look so great. He has chapters on cookies, brownies and bars, cakes, pies, tarts, cobblers and crisps, muffins, breads and more. I knew I had to try one and share. The trouble was choosing which recipe to make first!
I finally settled on the Slow-Roasted Balsamic Strawberry Cheesecake Bars, an alternative to Honey-Lavender Cheesecake Bars. Strawberry season has me drooling over any recipe with ‘strawberry’ in the name, and balsamic-roasted-anything with cheesecake? Count me in! The recipe was easy to follow and instructed how to make the strawberry syrup instead of the lavender syrup in the original recipe. The recipe for the crust and cheesecake layer are the same for both so just follow along.
WARNING: Roasting strawberries in your home will make it smell absolutely delicious. Everyone will be impatient for dessert, but the cheesecake bars must cool. Neighbors and friends may find excuses to visit and be invited to partake, not unlike a milkshake and boys in your yard.
For a few notes on the recipe itself, I don’t often make cheesecake, but the recipe was easy to follow and my family thinks they turned out great. The recipe is divided into three parts, the slow-roasted balsamic strawberries, the crust, and the cheesecake layer. By making the parts in that order, the crust and syrup have time to cool while preparing the cheesecake layer, and the whole thing goes quite smoothly. The strawberries take two hours to roast so I was able to get the crust together in that time.
The Slow-Roasted Balsamic Strawberry Cheesecake Bars have long since been devoured, and I can’t help but think that I should maybe make them again soon. All in all, I am so proud of Irvin and this beautiful book. Go check out Marbled, Swirled, and Layered!
More delicious strawberry dessert recipes you will enjoy:
- Easy Strawberry Upside Down Cake Recipe
- Frozen Strawberry Squares Recipe
- Easy Strawberry Salsa Recipe
Slow-Roasted Balsamic Strawberry Cheesecake Bars Recipe
Slow-Roasted Balsamic Strawberry Cheesecake Bars
These scrumptious strawberry cheesecake bars are perfect for entertaining.
Ingredients
For the roasted strawberries:
- 1 pound strawberries
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoons red wine
For crust:
- 9 ounces grahams crackers
- 2 tablespoons packed down dark brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
For the cheesecake layer:
- 28 ounces (or 3 1/2 bricks) cream cheese at room temperature
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons honey
- 3 large eggs
Instructions
- For roasted strawberries: Preheat oven to 275-degrees F.
- Hull and quarter strawberries and place in large mixing bowl.
- Add vanilla extract, dark brown sugar, balsamic vinegar and red wine. Toss gently to coat strawberries; spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet, scraping any juices into the pan.
- Roast until the berries have softened and darkened in color and juices have thickened, about 2 hours. Stir every 30 min to make sure they don’t stick to the pan.
- Allow to cool on the baking sheet. Once cooled, use a food processor or blender to puree.
- For the crust: Preheat oven to 325-degrees F.
- Lightly coat a 9x13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. To easily remove bars after cooking, fit a piece of parchment paper inside the pan, overhanging the edges of the pan by about 2-inches.
- Place graham crackers, brown sugar, and salt in a food processor; process until crumbs form.
- Drizzle butter over the crumbs, pulsing until the crust starts to clump together.
- Spread the crumb mixture into the lined baking pan; use a flat bottomed glass (or your fingers) to press crumbs down firmly to form an even crust on the bottom of the pan.
- Bake until the crust is fragrant, about 5 min.
- Allow to cool on wire rack while you make the cheesecake filling.
- For the cheesecake layer: Place cream cheese and flour in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat together until incorporated, about 30 seconds.
- Add vanilla extract and honey; beat until incorporated
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate and scraping down sides between each addition. Do no over beat.
- Pour about one quarter of the cheesecake filling into a separate bowl; stir in the strawberry mixture; mix until evenly incorporated.
- Gently spoon about half of the plain cheesecake batter over the graham cracker, being careful not to disturb the crust too much.
- Layer the cheesecake batters by adding most of the strawberry batter, reserving 2 to 3 tablespoons of it. Add the remaining plain cheesecake batter to the pan.
- Use a spoon to drizzle the reserved strawberry batter over the plain batter and then swirl it decoratively with a butter knife.
- Bake until the center of the cheesecake slightly wobbles, 35-45 minutes. The cheesecake will puff up a lot while baking but will sink as it cools.
- Let cool to room temperature the cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Before serving, allow cheesecake bars to sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes before cutting. If you lined pan with baking parchment, carefully fit bars out by holding the sides of the parchment paper and lifting straight up and out onto a cutting board; cut and serve.
