These creamy lemon bars are a twist on the classic lemon bar, and it’s more of a little lemon cheesecake bar. With the addition of cream cheese, they’re creamier than a standard lemon bar, but also not quite as cheesy and rich as a traditional cheesecake. They are super easy to whip up and have bright lemon-y flavor. They make a great ending to a simple meal, or a perfect treat for a party or gathering- I’ve also made them with lime and they’re delicious!
Ingredient Notes
- Nilla wafers – The crust is made with Nilla wafer cookies. Name brand or store bought will both work. A lot of crusts are comprised of simply cookie crumbs and butter, but this one has some dry ingredients added to it, like flour and sugar. So you get the tender crumb from the flour, but the amazing cookie-ness from the Nilla wafers.
- Butter – This recipe was developed using real butter, so that is the best choice. Here’s a great tip for cutting in butter to create a flaky crust: use a cheese grater! If I’m making something like pie crust or biscuits I use a more traditional method, but for something like this, a cheese grater works perfectly. Popping your butter in the freezer for a few minutes before grating makes it even easier.
- Cream Cheese – Full fat or low fat will work. Avoid fat free.
- Lemon (or lime) juice – You will need both the juice and the zest of your lemons or limes. I don’t recommend bottled juice or dried zest. Fresh is best!
- Foil for easy cutting – Line your baking pan with foil or parchment and you will be able to lift the entire pan full of bars out for easy cutting after they are cooled.
How To Make Creamy Lemon Bars
- Prepare crust by either chopping or grating cold butter into dry ingredients and then combining until it looks like crumbly wet sand.
- Place mixture into a parchment-lined 8×8 pan and press down evenly. Pre-bake your crust while you prepare the filling.
- For the filling, beat up cream cheese and sugar. You’ll also add in some eggs and vanilla and a tiny bit of flour and then fresh lemon juice and zest
- Pour the batter into your partially baked crust and pop it back in the oven.
- After they are baked, cooled, and chilled you can pull the foil right out for easy cutting. Slice them into bars and sprinkle extra zest on top. You can also sprinkle them with powdered sugar, but just keep in mind the bars are moist so the sugar melts into them quickly. I do it right before serving just to make them look pretty.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make these creamy lemon bars ahead? You bet! These bars honestly get better with time. Feel free to make them a day ahead of time through the refrigeration step. When ready to serve, sprinkle with powdered sugar, garnish with zest, cut, and serve.
Can I freeze these? While I haven’t tested freezing them myself, other readers report that they do indeed freeze and thaw well. Make sure they are tightly wrapped before freezing!
Serving Suggestions and Related Recipes
These yummy bars are a great treat to go with summer barbecues, perfect for potlucks, and beautiful for receptions or brunches. Serve as a light dessert after a meal, or add to a sweet spread at celebrations.
Looking for other fun bar desserts? Check out these other Our Best Bites favorites:
Blueberry-Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake Bars
Banana Bars with Cream Cheese Icing
Texas Sheet Cake
Oatmeal M&M Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Did You Make This?
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Print
Creamy Lemon {or Lime!} Bars
- Total Time: 1 hour
Description
Tart and creamy, these sweet lemon bars are almost a cross between traditional lemon bars and cheesecake bars. Delicious with lemon or lime!
Ingredients
CRUST
20 Nilla Wafers, finely crushed
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold real butter
FILLING
1 8-ounce package cream cheese (you can use 1/3-less fat cream cheese)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temp (just place eggs in a bowl of warm water for about 10 mins)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons grated lemon peel, divided
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (don’t even think about opening a bottle!)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
powdered sugar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Spray lightly with non-stick spray and set aside.
In a bowl, combine Nilla Wafer crumbs, 1/2 cup flour and the brown sugar. Chop butter into small pieces and then cut into crumb mixture with a pastry blender. If you don’t have a pastry blender, just use 2 knives, or even your fingers to break up the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Press crumb mixture firmly onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake 15 min.
While crust is cooking, beat cream cheese and granulated sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, vanilla, 2 tablespoons flour, and baking powder; mix well. Blend in 1 tablespoon lemon zest and lemon juice and then pour mixture over crust.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until center is set. Cool completely. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight. These bars improve with time. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and remaining 2 tablespoons grated lemon peel just before cutting into squares to serve. Store leftover squares in refrigerator. (As if you’ll have leftovers!)
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
Questions & Reviews
Every holiday, birthday, or family dinner, I was “required” to bring my homemade cheesecake. It was very time consuming but everyone loved it. That is until I made these!! EVERYONE loves and requests them now. Couldn’t be happier as this is so much easier! Thanks for the recipe!
We have a bumper crop of tangerines. Will the juice from those work in place of lime or lemon?
You could certainly try- the only problem I see is that the flavor isn’t quite as strong as lemon or lime so the favor might not come through. But I’m jealous of your crop!
Also one box of nilla wafers is about 4 recipes of crust
Just to add to the conversation about freezing these, YES you can freeze them! They are delicious straight out of the freezer. I prefer them that way!
I’ve made these (lime version) several times now-they came out great, family and company loved them. I use 1/2 fresh (persian) lime juice and 1/2 (bottled) key lime juice to make up the 1/4 cup called for in the recipe. I zested the persian limes for the garnish, didn’t bother with the powdered sugar.
Oh goodness but these were delicious made with limes my neighbor gifted me with. Yes, I shared. So very good. these will be made often!
Our family loves these bars!! Just wondering if you could freeze them? We are going camping soon and I wanted to make them before hand.
I’m not sure Kelly, you’ll have to experiment (and let us know!)
I took the lime variant of this recipe to a dessert contest at work and won Best In Show. Thought I’d pass that along and thank you for the recipe. I did make one modification, though. In my test batch the crust was too hard, so I halved the amount of brown sugar that went into it so there was less there to caramelize.
I just made these for a work treat and they were a gigantic hit!! So delicious! I made a double batch in a 9×13″ pan, lined with non-stick foil. (No clean up!!)I used both fresh lime juice and bottled key lime juice. The only question I have for the author is whether or not there is supposed to be vanilla in it. The list of ingredients does not list vanilla and vanilla is not used in the instructions. But in her commentary, the author mentions adding vanilla, so I added a few drops. I figured it couldn’t hurt. But I would like to know the correct recipe. Thanks for sharing!!
These were SO good! Definitely going up there towards the top of my favorite desserts list. The whole family loved them. I couldn’t stay away from them!
I am making lemon bars for a friend and don’t have a recipe – her favorite dessert is lemon bars. Would you recommend this recipe or the “Glazed Lemon Bars”?
OMG…these are making my mouth water….YUM!
Tried and these are amazing! Pretty much stuck to the recipe and use whole wheat pastry flour to up the ‘health’ factor. Cut back on the sugar a bit but these were sooo tasty. And they do definitely improve with age…don’t think the pan is going to last through the night!
For the longest time I have been looking for a lemon bar that comes close to one that I had when I was younger. These are so good! Thank you! Thank You! I can’t wait to make them with lime….has anyone tried orange?
If I want to double this recipe what kind of pan should I use and should I adjust the baking time?
Just use a 9×13 pan and you’ll just have to keep an eye on the baking time as it will take a bit longer. I actually almost always double it every time I make them!
I noticed that in the pictured instructions there is mention of adding vanilla, but there is no vanilla in the printable recipe. They’re in the oven now, so it’s too late for this batch, but I wondered about the vanilla for the future??????
Honestly I’m not sure! lol I probably added vanilla just because that’s normal for baked goods. It really won’t make or break them. Add it or leave it!
Have you tried adding raspberries to these? It seems like these would make delightful lemon-raspberry bars. YUM!!
I LOVE lemon bars but these are like taking it to the next level! 🙂 Can’t wait to try them!
I wonder if graham crackers would work for the crust… I don’t have Nilla’s on hand, but maybe I should just go get some tomorrow. I’ve got some limes I’ve got to use up.
I’ve made these a few times now. First time with lemon was yummy. Second time with lime (from a bottle, I’m a rule breaker like that!) was yummy too. Third time with real limes and 1/4 unsweetened coconut added to the crust was Heaven! I love the lemon & the lime, I can’t pick a favorite! But I do know I will always add the coconut to the crust from now on!
I made these yesterday morning for a wedding shower last night, and they were a hit! My husband, who doesn’t like lemon bars at all, loved these! Also, I tried some this morning (for breakfast:-) and they really are better the next day, amazingly, because they were wonderful yesterday!! Great recipe! Can’t wait to try it with limes:-)
OH my… These look so good. Say “cream cheese” and I’m there. :9
do you have a printable copy of this?
I made these last night and they were GREAT! I didn’t think they were too-lemony, which was perfect. I was actually making them as a “tester” to see if I should make them for a dinner party we are having this weekend and they definitely passed the test!