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 day by day level allowance. You’ll love these dessert bars since they’re easy to organize and transport. Reduce them into squares and retailer them in a container for comfort, or take them alongside to a gathering celebration.

For those who’re questioning why these cheesecake squares are so low in factors, it’s due to just a few swaps I made within the components checklist. 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 an alternative of normal ones. All of those changes are what make the recipe Weight Watchers-friendly!

For those who’d like to take a look at another WW-friendly desserts, you possibly can have a look at my dessert recipe assortment right here.

Why You Ought to Strive This Recipe

• It’s the proper 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’ll be able to have this dessert made and out of the oven in lower than an hour.

Recipe Overview

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

Elements in Weight Watchers Lemon Cheesecake Bars

Graham Crust

• 1 cup Low-fat graham cracker crumbs
• 2 tbsp Granulated sugar alternative (use a 1:1 alternative)
• 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 alternative (use a 1:1 alternative)
• Pinch Salt
• ¼ cup Lemon juice
• 1 ½ tbsp Lemon zest
• Elective: 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 alternative collectively. Slowly add the applesauce, somewhat bit at a time, and blend gently along with your fingers till the combination is crumbly and resembles moist sand. If wanted, add a small quantity extra of applesauce than is known as 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 completely distributed.

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

Variations and Substitutions

• Splurge Model: You need to use full-fat cream cheese or common graham cracker crumbs in case you have further factors to make use of up. You can even beautify 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 wished every portion to be decrease in factors, you possibly can lower them into smaller bars.
• Graham Cracker Substitute: Be happy to make use of cookie crumbs along with your cookie of alternative. There are many store-bought sugar-free cookies that might work nicely for the crust. The quantity of applesauce could must be adjusted.
• Lemon Cheesecake Bars with Lemon Curd: For those who don’t thoughts the additional factors, you possibly can 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 fairly design on prime and an additional fruity taste.
• Sugar vs. Sweetener: For those who don’t like to make use of different sweeteners, use the identical quantity of granulated sugar. You’ll be able to modify the recipe within the WW app to find out the brand new factors quantity.

Suggestions and Methods for Making Weight Watchers Lemon Cheesecake Bars

• How one can 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 counsel freezing them since they’ve lots of Greek yogurt.
• Be sure that to not overwork the crust combination; in any other case, it can type into one huge clump and have a bizarre texture. Gently combine it along with your palms till it’s crumbly, after which press it within the pan.
• I extremely counsel 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 ensure to grease the pan nicely to forestall sticking.
• You’ll be able to put a pan crammed midway with water within the backside shelf of the oven if you want the cheesecake to have a extra custardy texture and forestall cracking on prime. Nonetheless, it isn’t vital; they bake simply positive with the dry warmth.

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