Weight Watchers Lemon Cheesecake Bars

These WW Lemon Cheesecake Bars are extremely gentle and decadent with flavors of tangy cream cheese, recent lemon, and a yummy graham cracker crust. Every cheesecake bar is simply 4 WW factors per serving, which is great since they don’t take up an excessive amount of of your each day level allowance. You’ll love these dessert bars since they’re easy to organize and transport. Lower them into squares and retailer them in a container for comfort, or take them alongside to a gathering get together.

Should you’re questioning why these cheesecake squares are so low in factors, it’s due to a couple of swaps I made within the elements record. Often, cheesecake bars have common cream cheese, sugar, and graham cracker crumbs. Nonetheless, the bottom of this recipe has about half Greek yogurt and half cream cheese. I exploit a Jell-o pudding combine to assist thicken it! Additionally, the recipe requires another sweetener somewhat than sugar and low-fat graham crackers as a substitute of normal ones. All of those changes are what make the recipe Weight Watchers-friendly!

Should you’d like to take a look at another WW-friendly desserts, you may have a look at my dessert recipe collection right here.

Why You Ought to Attempt This Recipe

• It’s the right gentle dessert. This candy deal with satisfies your craving whereas additionally being good and light-weight.
• It’s low in fats and sugar. There are lower than 5 grams every of fats and sugar in each serving! That is considerably decrease than different recipes for cheesecake bars that use actual sugar and full-fat cream cheese.
• It’s straightforward to make! You possibly can have this dessert made and out of the oven in lower than an hour.

Recipe Overview

• Serving Measurement: 1 bar
• Variety of Servings: 12
• Time to Cook dinner: 35 minutes
• WW Factors Per Recipe: 4 WW factors per serving (Click here to view the recipe within the WW app. WW login is required)

Components in Weight Watchers Lemon Cheesecake Bars

Graham Crust

• 1 cup Low-fat graham cracker crumbs
• 2 tbsp Granulated sugar substitute (use a 1:1 substitute)
• 4-5 tbsp Unsweetened applesauce

Cheesecake Filling

• 8 oz 1/3-less fats cream cheese
• 2 cups Nonfat plain Greek yogurt
• 3 Eggs
• 1 oz field Sugar-free Jell-o cheesecake pudding combine
• 6 tbsp  Granulated sugar substitute (use a 1:1 substitute)
• Pinch Salt
• ¼ cup Lemon juice
• 1 ½ tbsp Lemon zest
• Non-compulsory: ½ tsp lemon extract

Directions for making Weight Watchers Lemon Cheesecake Bars

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Make the crust by mixing the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar substitute collectively. Slowly add the applesauce, a bit of bit at a time, and blend gently together with your fingers till the combination is crumbly and resembles moist sand. If wanted, add a small quantity extra of applesauce than is named for.
2. Press the crumb combination right into a parchment-lined 8×11 baking dish. Bake within the oven for 10-14 minutes till set. Put aside and let partially cool.

3. Make the cheesecake filling by mixing the softened cream cheese with the salt and sweetener. Add the Greek yogurt, eggs one after the other, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Then, add the Jello combine and stir till the combination is thickened and the Jello powder is totally distributed.

4. Pour the cheesecake filling into the crust and unfold with a spatula so it has a good prime. Bake within the oven for 35-40 minutes or till set. Enable to chill to room temperature after which transfer to the fridge to completely cool earlier than slicing into bars.

Variations and Substitutions

• Splurge Model: You should use full-fat cream cheese or common graham cracker crumbs in case you have further factors to make use of up. You too can adorn the bars with whipped cream!
• Decrease the Factors: There isn’t a lot room for modifications with this recipe because it requires exact measurements, nonetheless, in the event you needed every portion to be decrease in factors, you may reduce them into smaller bars.
• Graham Cracker Substitute: Be at liberty to make use of cookie crumbs together with your cookie of selection. There are many store-bought sugar-free cookies that will work properly for the crust. The quantity of applesauce might must be adjusted.
• Lemon Cheesecake Bars with Lemon Curd: Should you don’t thoughts the additional factors, you may unfold a skinny layer of lemon curd over prime of the baked bars to amp up the lemon taste.
• Lemon Cheesecake Bars with Raspberry Swirl: Make raspberry coulis after which swirl it into the highest of the batter earlier than baking for a reasonably design on prime and an additional fruity taste.
• Sugar vs. Sweetener: Should you don’t like to make use of different sweeteners, use the identical quantity of granulated sugar. You possibly can regulate the recipe within the WW app to find out the brand new factors quantity.

Suggestions and Methods for Making Weight Watchers Lemon Cheesecake Bars

• Methods to retailer leftover lemon cheesecake bars: Switch the bars to an hermetic container and retailer them within the fridge for 3-4 days. I don’t recommend freezing them since they’ve loads of Greek yogurt.
• Be certain to not overwork the crust combination; in any other case, it’s going to type into one massive clump and have a bizarre texture. Gently combine it together with your fingers till it’s crumbly, after which press it within the pan.
• I extremely recommend utilizing parchment paper as a result of it makes the cheesecake bars a lot simpler to take away from the pan. Nonetheless, in the event you don’t have parchment, simply make sure that to grease the pan properly to forestall sticking.
• You possibly can put a pan stuffed midway with water within the backside shelf of the oven if you need the cheesecake to have a extra custardy texture and stop cracking on prime. Nonetheless, it isn’t crucial; they bake simply tremendous with the dry warmth.

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