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Lemon Cream Cheese Bars are tangy, sweet, soft, chewy, and perfectly delicious. These tasty treats are always a crowd pleaser!
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Lemon Cream Cheese Bars are a true family favorite. My mom made these for years when we were growing up and we all loved them. The luscious, creamy bar cookies took center stage at every family reunion, every picnic, and every weekend lake trip and they were always the first thing to be devoured. I like them more than traditional lemon bars because they’re much creamier and more like cheesecake. The buttery crust layer and crumble on top complement the light, fluffy lemony cream cheese mixture. They’re so yummy; you will absolutely love this recipe.
Ingredients in these Lemon Cheesecake Bars
All you need for luscious, rich lemon cream cheese bars is six ingredients! This dessert comes together really fast. Here’s all you need:
- Lemon cake mix – you can always find lemon cake mixes in the baking aisle of your grocery store. This little shortcut gives you all the flour, salt, baking soda, and other baking ingredients right in one cake mix and gives the recipe a delicious shortbread crust.
- Vegetable oil – you could try other types of oil, or melted butter but regular vegetable oil helps give this the perfect consistency.
- Eggs – you’ll need one for the cakelayer and another for the cream cheese layer.
- Cream cheese – make sure it’s room temperature before you start to whip together your ingredients for a smooth, light texture that makes a creamy cheesecake filling.
- Lemon juice – use lemon juice from a bottle, or you can use a sharp knife to cut a fresh lemon in half and squeeze fresh lemon. Then save a little of the lemon zest to sprinkle in for an extra zingy lemon flavor.
- Sugar – regular white sugar works great.
Benefits of Lemon
Cooking and baking with lemons is not just delicious; there are so many health benefits too! Lemons are high in vitamin C, fiber and is known to control cholesterol and improve overall health. Of course this is a rich dessert, but everything in moderation, right?
Tips for the Perfect Lemon Cream Cheese Bars
- These bars taste delicious cold. When we were little, our mom would pack these cream cheese squares in a cooler and bring them to the lake. I also love them right out of the refrigerator or freezer. They are a bit more chewy when they’re cold, which I love!
- Make sure to grease your baking pan by spraying a light layer of cooking spray or a sheet of parchment paper.
- Then, to the bottom of the prepared baking dish, gently press the crust into a nice, even layer. Sometimes I find that using my fingers is the best way to get it even.
- Pour in the cream cheese filling, then top with the rest of the crust in crumbles.
- You can get fancy and top these with blueberries, raspberries or strawberries too. So delicious!
- When mixing the filling, make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature! Cream cheese at room temperature mixes up light and fluffy with absolutely no lumps. Use an electric mixer at low to medium speed, then whip at high speed until it’s fluffy and creamy.
How to Store Lemon Dessert
- Store Lemon Cream Cheese Bars covered in the refrigerator for up to five days.
- Serve at room temperature by allowing them to rest on the counter for about thirty minutes.
- You can also freeze cream cheese desserts. Chill in the fridge until they’re firm, then layer using parchment paper into an airtight container. Keep them in the freezer for up to two months.
- If you love a graham cracker crust, you can add some graham cracker crumbs to the cake mix or sprinkle some on top for extra texture and flavor.
Frequently Asked Questions
If your lemon squares have cracked you may not have baked the crust long enough. This can cause the filling to lose moisture and absorb into the crust.
To avoid these lemon cream cheese bars from being underbaked, make sure you allow them to set completely when you take them out of the oven. You know when lemon bars are done when you move the pan a bit and they don’t jiggle.
Anything made with cream cheese should be refrigerated within two hours, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) This includes baked goods made with cream cheese, such as pound cakes and cream cheese cookies.
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How to Make Lemon Cream Cheese Bars
Lemon Cream Cheese Bars
Video
Equipment
- Conventional Oven
- 9 X 13 inch Pan
Ingredients
- 1 box lemon cake mix
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup sugar
Instructions
- Combine dry cake mix, vegetable oil, and 1 egg until crumbly. Reserve one cup of crumble mixture and set aside.
- Spread remainder of crumbs in a 9×13 pan and pat down to form a crust.
- Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until crust is lightly golden brown.
- Place remaining ingredients in a bowl; whip until fluffy and light.
- Spread over baked crumb mixture nice and smooth, covering the whole pan.
- Add the crumble from the reserved cup of crumbs over the top.
- Return to oven and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool and cut. Delicious!
Notes
- Store Lemon Cream Cheese Bars covered in the refrigerator for up to five days.
- Serve at room temperature by allowing them to rest on the counter for about thirty minutes.
- You can also freeze cream cheese desserts. Chill in the fridge until they’re firm, then layer using parchment paper into an airtight container. Keep them in the freezer for up to two months.
These sound wonderful
I want to make these for a party in June. Cam I make these now and freeze? Party is 3 weeks away.
I don’t know how well cream cheese freezes. You might be ok, but I probably wouldn’t do it :/
I order from NY Juniors Cheesecakes and they do offer seasonally a lemon option and all of them come frozen to me in NC. I also send as gifts and every Cheesecake has been perfect as frozen. Hope this helps to know how a company like Juniors frozen cakes work great. NOTE: Only one cake came dethawed during summer and had cracks but was cold enough to still eat and enjoy.
Awesome
Can I use a 8×8 pan instead so that they would be thicker?
It would definitely be thicker and you would want to cook it longer and maybe at a lower temp. I don’t know exactly how to advise because I haven’t done it that way before. Let us know how it turns out!
makin these tonight
Just made these soo easy and soo good! Tickled them up with lemon zest in the crumbs
thanks for all you put up so nice and easy
I made a dish of these last night!!! AMAZING!!!!!!! I cut them small, into 26 squares. Making more today!!!! Such a quick and easy recipe.
I love this recipe too – especially in the spring and summer. Thank you for sharing!
I made this for Thanksgiving and it was yummy!! Everyone who tried it raved about it. It is also a very forgiving recipe, because I misread the instructions to back the crust for 10 minutes and then again for 25 minutes with the filling and crumbs on top. I baked the crust for 25 minutes as well as the rest. And you know what? It was a nice crunchy bottom, but not burned at all – just perfect!
Whew, disaster averted! Glad to hear it still turned out well!
I have made these 3 times since finding this recipe a few months ago….these are incredible! I love the lemon taste with the cream cheese. Most lemon bars I don’t care for the jelly-like filling, I think that’s why I love these. Plus they are super easy. Wondering…have you ever doubled this recipe and done it in a cookie sheet? Thanks for sharing a winner! One of my favorite desserts!
Yes– my mom did it that way just last week for girls camp and she said it worked out just fine! She uses one cake mix for the main part and one cake mix for the crumble.. it’s easier to divide that way.
If I had no access to “cake mix” would I just mix together flour, sugar, b. powder and b. soda with salt possibly also lemon juice for the “cake mix”. Maybe dumb ? but I live outside the USA and often have to subsitute things for what is readily availible in uSA.
I found this site that seemed to have a good recipe for substituting a yellow cake mix: http://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/homemade-yellow-cake-mix/
Thank you! I am excited to try this recipe out!
Amazing! I made these today and we loved them! I am a big fan of lemon and these are much better than any lemon bar. So easy and so tasty. I will make these again for sure!
Sunshine, is it one egg or two? It says one egg twice… 🙂
There are 2 eggs, but you use one for the crust, and one for the filling.
do I use one egg or two?
These are absolutley to die for, yummy, yummy!!!
Thanks for sharing!!!! :)-
These look amazing! Could you tell me roughly how many this batch yields? (newbie at baking, even with simple recipes I need help! lol)
We usually cut a pan into 12 slices, but you can definitely cut smaller slices and make it go further.
Thanks!
This are amazing! Made some for Thanksgiving and they were devoured. My Aunt even called asking me to make some for gifts!! Storage question: do these need to be refrigerated or can they sit out at room temperature? Wasn’t sure given the cream cheese. THANKS!
You should probably refrigerate them but we have left them out without any problems.
Just made these this evening! I did it with a square pan so that I could use less crumbs for a packed down crust, and more crumbs scattered on top! LOVED them!
Oh my god!!! These are awesome, they taste great, are easy and quick and my whole family love them. It is just like eating a cheese cake. YUMMO!!!
Just made these, they were a huge hit! So easy and yummy! I love that they are not super rich, so we could eat alot. 🙂
I made these for a get together last night and they were scarfed down fast!! Very easy and yummy! Thanks or sharing!!
Okay Erica, I just made these tonight and they are SO GOOD! Tell your mom a big ‘thank you’ from the Fishers 🙂 We’re also having the fish tacos for dinner. I can’t wait! Lindsey