What’s better than one dessert? Two, of course! Tender almond flour crust meets creamy sugar-free cheesecake in these delicious Keto Sugar Cookie Cheesecake Bars.
I don’t think I ever truly appreciated sugar cookies in my youth. They just seemed kind of uninteresting compared to other cookies.
But once I created my own keto sugar cookies, I came to understand their appeal. Tender and sweet, they are kind of blank slate, waiting for you to add your own special touch.
I have any number of keto recipes that play on the sugar cookie theme, such as soft keto lemon sugar cookies. And my kids often request this keto cookie cake for their birthdays.
And now I’ve combined it with the creamiest keto cheesecake for a truly delicious dessert mashup!
Two desserts in one
Everyone loves recipes that combine two desserts into one mouthwatering treat. I mean, why wouldn’t you love it? So much flavor in a single bite.
For example, keto chocolate chip cookies and keto pecan pie come together in my Kentucky Derby Pie recipe. And Keto Brownie Cheesecake really needs no explanation!
This current recipes is a bit of a riff on another popular dessert: Keto Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars. I spotted a conventional sugar cookie version on Smart Schoolhouse and thought it was ripe for a keto makeover.
Ingredients
- Butter
- Cream cheese
- Almond flour
- Keto sweetener – both granular and powdered
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Baking powder
- Heavy whipping cream
- Sugar-free sprinkles – you can make them yourself or you can purchase them online.
How to make Keto Sugar Cookie Cheesecake Bars
- Cream the butter: Make sure your butter is nice and soft but not melted, and beat with the granulated sweetener until nice and fluffy.
- Use room temperature eggs: There’s no sense in adding cold eggs to nicely creamed, softened butter. It will clump up all over again!
- Beat in the dry ingredients: You can add the almond flour and other dry ingredients all at once and beat them in.
- Fold in the sprinkles: Gently fold in the sprinkles rather than beating them in, as they are small and breakable.
- Par-bake the bottom crust: Press about half of the mixture into the bottom of a 9×9 inch pan as evenly as you can, then bake 12 minutes. It will still be quite soft at this point but let it cool completely before adding the filling.
- Prepare the cheesecake filling: This is a basic vanilla cheesecake filling that tastes divine matched with the sugar cookie crust. Once the crust is cool, pour the filling over top and spread to the edges.
- Crumble the remaining crust: Take the remaining crust mixture and use your fingers to break it up and crumble it over the filling.
- Bake until golden: Bake until the top crust is turning golden and the cheesecake filling is mostly set, with a little jiggle in the center.
- Chill before cutting: Let cool completely on the counter and then chill for at least one hour to set the cheesecake center.
Frequently Asked Questions
This is a tricky one. Coconut flour does not make for very good sugar cookie dough, in my opinion. You could try sunflower seed flour, but it has a grey tinge and you will need to add some lemon juice to offset the green reaction.
Very possibly but you need to understand how this will affect your results. Please read my Guide to Keto Sweeteners. I will say that allulose has a tendency to brown baked goods much faster and I don’t recommend it here.
That’s definitely possible! Try coconut oil in the sugar cookie dough, and dairy-free cream cheese like Kite Hill plus 2 tablespoons of coconut cream, for the filling.
You can purchase pre-made sprinkles on Etsy (The Sprinkle Company) or on Amazon from Good Dee’s. You can also make your own and I link to my homemade version right in the recipe below.
Store the bars in the fridge in a covered container for up to 5 days. You can also freeze these bars in an airtight container for up to 2 months.
More delicious keto dessert bars
- Keto Nanaimo Bars
- Copycat Keto Twix Bars
- Keto S’mores Bars
- No Bake Keto Peanut Butter Bars
- Butterscotch Cheesecake Bars
- Strawberry Cheesecake Bars
- Linzer Cookie Bars
Keto Sugar Cookie Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients
Sugar Cookie Dough
- 3/4 cup (170.25 g) butter, softened
- 3/4 cup (136.5 g) Swerve Granular
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp (1.5 tsp) vanilla extract
- 2 3/4 cups (290 g) almond flour
- 1 1/2 tsp (1.5 tsp) baking powder
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) salt
- 2 tbsp sugar-free sprinkles
Cheesecake Filling
- 8 ounces (226.8 g) cream cheese softened
- ⅓ cup (60.67 g) powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Sugar Cookie Dough
- Preheat the oven to 325ºF and grease a 9 inch square pan well.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter with the sweetener until well combined and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg, egg yolks, and vanilla.
- All at once, add the almond flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat until the dough comes together. By hand, gently stir in the sprinkles.
- Press about half the dough into the prepared baking pan and bake 12 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. Then remove from the oven and let cool (it will not be fully baked at this point)
Cheesecake Filling
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the powdered sweetener and beat until well combined. Beat in the egg and vanilla, then add the heavy cream, beating until smooth
- Pour the filling over the cooled crust. Take the remaining cookie crust mixture and crumble over the top of the filling, pressing lightly to adhere.
- Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until the top crust is golden and the filling is just a little jiggly in the center. Remove from the oven and let cool, then refrigerate for 1 hour until set.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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2nd time – better this time – I only had 2/3 of cream cheese but came out very good. I sifted the almond flour and found it was less grainy, moist , a little hard to get out of pan. will use more coconut oil in bottom next time. Yummy thanks
I made a half batch of this recipe in a loaf pan, it was delicious. However I wish I had made a full batch of the cheesecake to half the cookie portion.
These are so good!
Thanks for sharing!!
So enjoyed the melt-in-your-mouth Sugar Cookie Cheesecake Bars! They were fabulously delicious!!! Thank you for sharing yet another delicious bar with the world!!
I really love the taste of these! However I did not have the right size pan and so they didn’t come out like they should. But they still tasted great! I was wondering if a person could make these into a muffin type?
I just printed your sugar cookie bar recipe but now am going with this one. My bf loves bars that are piled with ingredients lol
Well these are perfect, then!
Could you replace the almond flour with Carbquik??
I don’t use it but I don’t recommend it as a sub… much too dry, your dough would be awful.
WOW! I finally made this recipe. What a winning combo of flavors. They will be served at todays cookout, despite my mixer immediately breaking when turned on. Fortunately, the butter and cream cheese were soft at room temperature so was able to mix by hand. Phew! Thank you for another fabulous recipe!!!
Enjoy them!
Love these! I was out of powdered sweetener. I used granulated only, it tasted fine! This is one of my new favorites! Delicious!
Have you ever substituted lupine flour or coconut flour for the almond flour? I’m not too keen on almond flour and neither is my husband it seems to make all recipes a little dry and off tasting.
Neither will work in this recipe.