Cheesecake Bars With Brown Sugar Crust

These are a wonderful (and easy) way to satisfy a cheesecake craving. I like to spoon cherry pie filling over mine too! For more lemon flavor add some grated zest to the cream cheese mixture.

• Ready In: 55 mins
• Serves: 12
• Yields: 12 small bars

Ingredients

• 1⁄3 cup butter, softened
• 1  cup flour
• 1⁄3 cup  firmly packed brown sugar
• 1⁄2 cup  finely chopped walnuts
• 1 (8 ounce) package reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
• 1⁄4 cup white sugar
• 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2  tablespoons milk
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons lemon juice
•  cherry pie filling (optional)
• 1  egg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cream together butter and brown sugar until smooth.
3. stir in flour, and walnuts to create a crumbly mixture.
4. reserve 1 cup crust mixture to use as topping and press the rest into bottom of an ungreased 8x8 baking dish. Bake for 9-11 minutes until browned.
5. cream together cream cheese and white sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla extract, milk, lemon juice and egg. Mix well and pour over baked crust.
6. Add crumb topping and bake for 23-27 minutes until golded brown on top.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool. If desired to with cherry pie filling or other topping.