Key Lime Cheesecake Bars with Pecan Pretzel Crust
By Lizzie on September 14, 2017
Hi my friends! Well, it has been quite a difficult few weeks here in my home state of Florida with Hurricane Irma causing such damage and destruction in her path. Sadly, Texas was also ravaged by Hurricane Harvey, and my heart is absolutely broken for all of the people affected by these storms. As a huge animal lover and volunteer with www.bestfriends.org , it was so important for me to jump in and help the precious animals affected by Harvey. I started a bake sale to raise money for Harvey’s displaced animals in need and was moving towards reaching my goal of $1,000 when we started hearing about Irma coming our way. Watching the news each night, we started getting pretty nervous about Irma coming straight for Florida. As soon as we heard about the mandatory evacuations of the beaches in the Jacksonville area, we packed up and went to higher ground inland. The night Irma came through Jacksonville, I stayed awake in our hotel listening to 90 mile an hour winds thrashing everything around outside and prayed most of the night. I was truly terrified and at the same time stunned by the power of Mother Nature We got back to our home on Tuesday after hearing we had gotten power back. Our neighborhood was hit pretty badly, but we are so much luckier than so many who came through this storm losing everything. These kinds of catastrophic events make you pay close attention to what is truly important in life…the ones you love and their safety. Thankfully, all of my family and friends are safe and sound, and that is all I need in life to be ok. Now, my next goal will be to raise money for the animals affected by Irma. Feel free to send me a friend request on Facebook where I will be setting up my fund raiser soon. If any of you reading this survived either storm, let me know how you are doing. My thoughts and prayers are with anyone who came through these terrifying storms.
About a week before the storm, I decided to create a new recipe with these amazing limes my neighbor brought over from her tree. I also had a lot of cream cheese in the fridge, so I wanted to come up with something really yummy. As you all know, I love the combination of salty and sweet, so I created the most delicious pretzel and pecan crust for these cheesecake bars. A tart lime cookie crumble goes on top and really gives them a unique flavor. I used the most wonderful lime extract from Ballard Extracts too! You can buy it and so many other delicious flavors on www.foodlyn.com !!! I hope you enjoy making these fabulous treats. They need to be eaten really cold for optimal flavor 🙂
I always use the best quality ingredients in all of my baking!! The lime extract smelled so heavenly, I wanted to splash a little behind my ears just like perfume 🙂
A food processor is a great tool to have and makes this crust so simple to put together!
Lining your pans with parchment guarantees all your baking will come out of the pan easily!
I love the simplicity of a photo like this 🙂
The luscious lime cheesecake batter poured over the pretzel, pecan crust!
The lime cookie crumble adds the perfect amount of tartness to balance the sweetness of the filling!
Cooled and cut up and ready to devour!
Almost too pretty to cut 🙂
Hold still for your close up 🙂
Key Lime Cheesecake Bars with Pecan Pretzel Crust
Makes: 30 bars Prep time: 45 minutes Bake time: 23 to 25 minutes
Ingredients
Crust
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 and 1/2 cups salted pretzel sticks
3/4 cup melted unsalted butter
Cheesecake filling
16 ounces full fat cream cheese at room temperature
3/4 granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon lime zest
1/2 teaspoon lime extract, ( I used Ballard Extracts)
Lime cookie crumble
10 tablespoons unsalted softened butter
1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon lime extract
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups all purpose flour
Directions
Line a 13″x9″ baking pan with parchment paper. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In your food processor, combine all crust ingredients and pulse until combined.
Pat firmly into your parchment lined pan and set aside.
In the bowl of your mixer, combine cream cheese, sugar, eggs, lime extract and lime zest. Mix until creamy and smooth.
Pour over the crust and prepare the cookie crumble.
In another mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the egg, extract, baking powder and flour. Mix until just combined.
With your hands, crumble pieces of the dough all over the cheesecake filling. It is ok to still see the cheesecake, but it should cover almost all of it.
Place the pan on another baking sheet to prevent the crust from getting over done and bake for 15 minutes. Rotate the pan and bake for another 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
Cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, then place in the fridge for at least an hour before cutting into bars.
Store in the fridge for up to a week, or wrap in wax paper and foil for up to a month.
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