It’s always nice to end the day with something sweet. But after you make and taste Ina Garten‘s Limoncello Cheesecake Bars, it’s going to be hard to wait until after dinner to have one. They’re so sweet, tangy, rich, and creamy, you’ll find yourself dreaming about them at night and convincing yourself it’s okay to eat them as breakfast pastries, too.
To make the bars, you first want to assemble the crust. And like traditional cheesecake, Garten makes her crust with graham crackers ground up in the food processor. She mixes her graham cracker crumbs with melted butter and a bit of sugar before dumping the mix into a baking pan.
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“This is my trick for making a little bit of an edge,” Garten explains in a clip from Barefoot Contessa posted to Food Network’s Instagram page. “Take a metal cup and just press it down lightly.” This packs the graham cracker crust into the pan while also maintaining a neat edge around the interior of the pan.
While the graham cracker crust bakes and cools, you can then move on to the ricotta filling. In a stand mixer, blend together cream cheese, sugar, and ricotta cheese. Then, drizzle in a bit of limoncello and vanilla to create even more sweetness, and also add in some lemon zest to get that tang. Complete the ricotta mixture with five eggs, and you’re ready to assemble your cake.
Garten likes to cook this cheesecake in a water bath. So she pours the ricotta mixture onto the baked and cooled graham cracker crust and then places the baking dish into a larger pan. She then adds really hot tap water to the larger pan and bakes the entire thing for about 50 minutes. The water bath helps the custard-like filling stay smooth and creamy during the baking process.
Finally, remove the cheesecake from the oven and allow it to cool completely. Then, refrigerate it overnight before cutting it into squares. You’ll be left with a delicious, cool, and tangy treat that might just become your new addiction. Grab the full recipe here to make Ina Garten’s Limoncello Cheesecake Bars from start to finish and treat yourself to a new summer delight.
Before you go, check out Garten’s best dinner recipes below:
