BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE BARS







BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE BARS

These are ridiculously good.  You’ll find yourself carving away at this, if you are anything like my husband and I.  It’s a good dessert to feed a crowd, and thus a useful one to have in one’s low-carb arsenal of great desserts.  You cannot tell that it is low-carb either!  If you like, you can freeze this dessert and serve later.  Please don't let the steps bother you....Do the crust and filling one day and the next day once the cheesecake is chilled, prepare the blueberry sauce.  Really quite easy and so worth making.  Blueberries are chock-full of antioxidants - in fact, they are probably the one food highest in antioxidants

Graham Cracker-like Crust:
1 cup Gluten-Free Bake Mix 2 (CLICK HERE) (250 mL)
  (or replace with more ground almonds and 2 tbsp coconut flour)
1 cup ground almonds (250 mL)
6 tbsp butter, melted (90 mL)
Liquid sweetener to equal 1/cup (125 mL)
  sugar
Filling:
24 oz regular cream cheese (680 g)
Liquid sweetener (sucralose, OR stevia) to equal 11/cups (300 mL)
  sugar
2/cup sour cream (150 mL)
4 eggs
1/cup lemon juice (60 mL)
1 tbsp vanilla extract (15 mL)
Blueberry Sauce:
4 cups frozen unsweetened blueberries (1 L)
1/cup water (60 mL)
1/tsp cornstarch, OR arrowroot powder (2 mL)
Liquid sweetener to equal 1/cup sugar (125 mL)

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). 

Graham Cracker-like Crust:  In medium bowl, combine Gluten-Free Bake Mix and ground almonds.  In small bowl combine melted butter and liquid sweetener.  Stir melted butter mixture into the dry ingredients.  Place in 9 x 13-inch (2 L) baking dish, cover with plastic wrap and press out evenly.  Bake 15 minutes.

Filling:  In food processor or bowl with mixer, process cream cheese.  Add liquid sweetener, sour cream, erythritol; process.  While processing add eggs one at a time.  Add lemon juice and vanilla extract.  Process until smooth, scraping well once or twice and processing the cheesecake batter again.  Pour cheesecake batter over prepared crust and bake about 25 minutes, or until set.

Blueberry Sauce:  In small bowl, combine water and cornstarch, OR arrowroot powder.  In saucepan, over medium-low heat, cook blueberries and water mixture until thickening (it will thicken further upon cooling).  Stir in sweetener.  Allow to cool. Pour blueberry sauce over cooled cheesecake bars.  Cover entire pan with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate.

Helpful Hints:  If your blueberries are covered in ice, then you will have more liquid and may need to boil off some of the liquid or add a little more cornstarch, OR arrowroot powder.  If they don’t have much ice at all, then you may actually need a little more water.

Yield:  36 bars
1 bar
126.1 calories
3.2 g protein
10.9 g fat
0.9 g fiber
3.4 g net carbs