These strawberry cheesecake bars will be the hit at your next summer picnic! Creamy, rich, and piled high with fresh glazed strawberries.
One of my favorite desserts is a fresh strawberry pie. The sweetness of the strawberries combined with delicious glaze and buttery crust, make it the absolute perfect summer dessert.
I wanted to take that and step it up a notch. Adding a cream cheese filling just took these bars over the top.
The combination of the cold sweet strawberries, silky cream cheese filling, and sweet shortbread crust is enough to make your taste buds go wild.
So, if your like me and love the traditional strawberry pie, you are going to love these bars. These Strawberry Cheesecake Bars are perfect for picnics and serving a crowd. They are 10x easier to serve than a traditional pie slice!
They are super easy to make too! Just check out my video below! For more fresh summer berry desserts, check out my No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake and my No-Bake Raspberry Cheesecake Tart. Enjoy!
- Shortbread Layer-
- ½ cup unsalted butter , room temperature
- ⅓ cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon milk or cream
- Strawberry Layer-
- ½ cup water
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 small package strawberry Jell-O (1.4 ounce)
- 2 cups strawberries
- Cream Cheese Layer-
- 8 oz . cream cheese (1 block)
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup heavy cream
-
First, start with the strawberry filling.
-
In a small pan, combine water, sugar, and cornstarch on medium high heat.
-
While whisking, bring to a simmer.
-
Once simmering, add strawberry Jell-O, whisk to combine.
-
Remove from heat and cool slightly, then chill.
-
Chop and hull 2 cups strawberries. Refrigerate until ready to use.
-
For the shortbread crust-
-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-
In a small bowl, combine butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, milk or cream, and egg yolk.
-
Add flour and mix until just combined (dough will be crumbly)
-
Press into the bottom of a lined and greased 8x8 square pan or 8-9 in round pan.
-
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges begin to brown.
-
Remove from oven and cool for 15 minutes.
-
To make the cream cheese layer beat cold heavy whipping cream in a clean bowl until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
-
In a medium sized bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla together until smooth.
-
Carefully fold heavy whipping cream into the cream cheese mixture.
-
Spread mixture over cooled shortbread crust.
-
Assemble strawberries onto cream cheese layer, then pour glaze over strawberries.
-
Chill for 30-1 hour then slice and serve! Enjoy!
Recipe Video
Patricia Lehto
Hi....I have 2 questions before I try this recipe. You don't say what to do w/the milk in the shortbread layer. Your video doesn't mention it either.
Also small packages of Jell-O are 3 ounces, not 1.4 ounces. Where do you find such a small package? Or am I supposed to measure out 1.4 ounces from a 3 ounce package?
Please reply. Thanks.
theseasidebaker
Hi Patricia! Thanks so much for catching my error. I went ahead and added the milk into the directions. As for the gelatin, I actually used the brand Royal Gelatin which can be found at Walmart and comes in the 1.4 packages. If you can't find it, you can always use the 3 oz box and just pour in about half. I have made this glaze a ton of times and just eyeballed the gelatin amount, and it came out fine each time. The glaze is pretty forgiving. Hope this helps! Thanks
Patricia Lehto
Thank you so much for answering so quickly.
Robert
I believe she means the small pacs of Unflavored gelatin, which you can find in the jello isle.
Gloria Ennis
Can this be made the night before party, or would it get too soft
Candace
These look so amazing! Thanks for the recipe!
Crystal // Dreams, etc.
I love anything with cream cheese and these bars look fantastic! Will have to try these out. 🙂
Audrey Marie
These look incredible! I love cheesecake and can't wait to try this recipe. I pinned it for later 🙂
andrea
Cream Cheese and Strawberries is one of my favorite combinations. I need to try this splendid looking bars:) YUMMY
Brittany N
Well it looks like I know what I'm making for my friends BBQ this weekend! These look divine!
Angela
I doubled the recipe and made a 9x13 pan. I also had to make them gluten free so I crushed a package of GF vanilla sandwich cookies and mixed with some melted butter and pressed into the pan. That way there was zero baking. They were fantastic and my co-workers devoured them! I will be making these again!
Debbie
So I'm doing gf as well. Just crush the cookies and mix melted butter. That's all? No powdered sugar or vanilla?
Christy
Great idea I will use this for my GF friends! Thanks for sharing the idea!
Christy
Great idea thanks for sharing I will be using this idea for my GF friends!
Carmen // itsCarmen.com
These strawberry cheesecake bars look absolutely heavenly! Definitely the perfect summer treat. :]
Liaa
What type of flour did you use? Self rising or all purpose
April
How many does this make
Rosanna
I just finished making this recipe with one exception in the topping. I was about use the jello but was wondering why the need for sugar and cornstarch when jello is already sweet and has a thickener in it? I am serving this for company and was afraid it might be too sweet. I mashed the remaining strawberries from the package I had (it made it's own juice) and then added sugar and cornstarch and cooked until thickened. I added the cut up berries to the sauce. I don't often change a recipe before trying as stated first. I never saw a video link to the recipe (as someone else had mentioned) and mixed the milk, egg yolk and vanilla and then added to the flour/butter mixture.
Marilyn
When a recipe reads like this one, especially with the extra small size jello, it is not "Jello" ,but unflavored gelatin, which is in the same isle, but used in sweet or non-sweet thickened foods. Usually there are several packets in the unflavored gelatin. I think the box is orange. That is why this recipe calls for sugar & cornstarch. It should have been listed as gelatin in the recipe to avoid confusion, since it is not calling for fruit flavored "JELLO".
Caroline
A few tips before making this recipe:
The recipe says chop but it looks much prettier if you slice the strawberries, just like the picture of the product. I used raspberry jello and strawberries because the raspberry is much more tangy with a cream cheese layer than strawberry jello.
If you've read through the comments, you've seen the discussion about the unflavored gelatin and there is just strawberry jello in the recipe. You've also read the comment wondering about the extra sugar and cornstarch. If you read the box of jello, it calls for 2 cups of water and the recipe only calls for 1/2 cup which means the jello is going to be SUPER viscous. I didn't think about that before I followed the directions.. I had to remake the glaze because it had set and it was much, much firmer than regular jello and less than what I desired in with the cream cheese layer so I put 2 boxes of jello in with 2 cups of water and didn't do anything extra with the sugar and cornstarch. I let it cool before putting it on the cream cheese so that it wouldn't liquify anything just like the directions say and I really loved it.
Joe Roos
I love these bars. Made them for a Cancer bake sale and they where a huge hit. They actually where also the first item to sell out.
Kathleen Whiting
Love these. My son is the baker in our family and though labor intensive these bars are worth it.
Sheila
Had these at a party. Very good. Can I substitute cool whip instead of heavy cream ?
Emma
Made these last night and turned out EPIC. The ingredients ended up being super cheap too so will absolutely make these again! The only thing I subbed was the plain flour for gluten-free and it still turned out great. I thought I'd stuffed up the shortbread base because I beat it until it was smooth, but it still ended up fine once baked!
We're having a strawberry issue in Australia at the moment (someone put sewing needles in a batch of strawberries so tonnes have had to be dumped and it's greatly effecting the industry) so was looking for a strawberry-based recipe to help support our strawberry farmers!
Aj
Can I use frozen strawberries?