Food: The Wall (Blackberry Cheesecake Bars)

I’ve hit a wall with Cooking Light recipes, and the wall is crust. It turns out crust really needs fat to a) taste good and b) not break your teeth when you bite into it. The crust for these bars was bland, hazardous, and way off in ratio to the amount of filling. I attempted some Cooking Light lemon bars a few months ago and made the same observation, so I’m giving up on reduced fat crust.

The filling, however, was great – replacing half of the cream cheese with non-fat Greek yogurt was a pretty genius move. The recipe called for fresh or frozen cherries, but I used blackberries instead, and halved the amount of lemon juice. Here is my (improved) version of the recipe, which uses the crust from my Sweet Potato and Orange Cheesecake Bars.

Blackberry Cheesecake Bars
1 cup blackberries
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp water
1 cup cream cheese (1 8 oz bar)
3/4 cup fat free plain Greek yogurt (1 6 oz container)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 stick butter
1 sleeve graham crackers

Pulse crackers in food processor until they are crumbs, add 1/2 stick of melted butter. Pat into bottom of greased pan, bake at 350 for 12 minutes, set aside to cool.

Put blackberries, water, and sugar into a pan, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Mix in lemon juice and cornstarch for 1 minute or until thickened. Puree mixture in a food processor or blender, set aside. Put cream cheese, yogurt, 1/3 cup sugar, vanilla, and egg in a food processor, blend until smooth. Spread cream cheese filling on cooled crust, then dollop berry mixture on top and swirl. Bake at 325 for 30 minutes or until set. Chill. Voila.