Anne, one of my most favorite bloggers From My Sweet Heart inspired me to write this post. (She just doesn’t know it yet.) All it took was one look at her Vanilla Bean Cheesecake with Strawberries and I knew that I needed to make something cheesecakey too. With a shortage of time and baking supplies I decided to make these Vanilla Cheesecake Bars to hold me over until I get around to making Anne’s delicious recipe which I’ve filed away for future use.
Typically, I make individual mini cheesecakes but this time I made the recipe into bars.
*Please note – if you opt to make bars instead mini’s you will bake them in a 9”x13” foil lined pan. Spray the foil with non-stick cooking spray and bake the bars for about 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes clean when inserted in the center. The foil helps you lift the baked bars out of the pan for easy cutting.
And for this delicious Blueberry Sauce? The recipe can be found below.
Blueberry Sauce
Makes about 1 1/2 cups
3/4 c. of blueberries, crushed
1 c. of whole blueberries
3/4 c. water
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. butter
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
2 drops of blue food coloring (optional)
In a large saucepan, add crushed berries, water, sugar, and cornstarch. Mix ingredients using a whip until cornstarch is completely dissolved. On medium heat, bring mixture to a boil and stir constantly until it thickens. Add in whole berries and remove from stove top. Stir in butter, vanilla extract, and food coloring.
Keep in the fridge until ready to use. Re-warm in microwave if desired.
Oh, and I almost forgot, this topping is also great on ice cream too!
What is your favorite flavor of cheesecake? And what is your favorite topping?
looks delicious!! *.*
I love anything made into a bar! The topping looks heavenly. I could eat that blueberry topping all by itself!
I threw some of my fresh picked blueberries in my freezer. This lovely recipe would be perfect for those extra berries! 🙂 Yum, Hugs, Terra
Oh Eileen these look soooooo good! Honestly, I would have made my last cheesecake with blueberries if my son hadn’t specifically asked for strawberries! I just love them that much. I’m going to have to rethink a blueberry cheesecake recipe of some sort before the summer is over! Thanks so much for thinking of me. You inspire me as well and I can’t tell you how often I wish we could be having coffee and blueberry cheesecake bars and GREAT conversation at the kitchen table in the Pink Paradise. So glad we are friends! : )
Ditto!
Oh now I need to make cheesecake! These look just heavenly and the sauce is beautiful! How vibrant! Thank you for sharing with us!
That blueberry sauce! ….yeah.
You and Anne are making it very difficult not to bake something cheesecakey. The Mr. is partial to blueberries and it would really like this. Guess I could share with him!
I like making cheesecakes into bars, because it makes it so easy to feed a crowd – and the whole berries in that sauce look wonderful!
Those cheesecake bars look delicious! I bet that blueberry sauce would be good on pancakes (I’ve recently been craving blueberry topped pancakes)!