A Bready or Not Original! Bake up a large dish of delicious, lemony-fresh bars in under a hour.
Course: Dessert, Snack
Keyword: bars, cream cheese, lemon
Author: Beth Cato
Ingredients
Crust
1cuppecans
2cupsall-purpose flour
1cupconfectioners' sugar
3/4cupunsalted butter1 1/2 sticks , softened
Filling
2cupsconfectioners' sugar
16ozcream cheese2 boxes, softened
2 lemonszested and juiced
1/3cupfresh lemon juice
1teaspoonlemon extract
2eggs
Instructions
Prepare a 9x13 pan with aluminum foil and nonstick spray. Preheat oven at 350-degrees.
Use a food processor (or knife and cutting board) to chop up pecans to small pieces. Add flour, 1 cup confectioners' sugar, and butter to bowl, and blend with pecans until crumbly. Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the mix; press the rest into the prepared pan. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until it's just turning golden.
As the crust bakes, combine all of the filling ingredients until fairly smooth.
Pull the crust out of the oven. Pour filling over the top and smooth to the edges. Crumble the reserved crust across the top.
Bake for another 30 to 35 minutes, until the edges are golden and the middle is set.
Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes to an hour, then place in the fridge to completely chill.
Use the foil to lift the bars onto a cutting board for easy slicing. Store in a sealed container in the fridge.