These keto cheesecake bars are a lemon lover’s dream! A creamy lemon cheesecake filling baked on a tender almond flour crust. Sugar-free and grain-free but oh so delectable. Keto desserts don’t get more delicious than this.
I’ve just fallen in love with these keto lemon cheesecake bars all over again! I haven’t made them in years and years, but I got it in my head that it would be fun to re-make them and shoot a video. And then when I took a bite, I was forcefully reminded about how seriously delicious they are.
That tender shortbread crust! That creamy bright lemon filling! Oh my. They both just melt in your mouth. And the fact that they are keto-friendly and less than 4g total carbs?
Bring. It. On.
Trust me, keto bakeaholics, you’re going to be really happy I decided to re-visit this old recipe. Originally published in June 2013!
A Keto Cheesecake Obsession
I have Cheesecake on the brain. Fortunately, it’s not a serious affliction as there are far worse things to have on the brain than cheesecake. But there is only one known cure for this disease and that is to make, and then to eat, copious amounts of keto cheesecake.
Cheesecake-like things, such as keto cheesecake popsicles, cheesecake ice cream, and cheesecake bars are also acceptable forms of medication. This is still an experimental treatment, however, and the results are not guaranteed. There is a real danger that the cure will not assuage the symptoms, but instead exacerbate them, until one’s brain is so consumed with cheesecake, it’s all one can think or talk about.
This is when the real problem starts. Because who wants to spend time with someone who can talk about nothing but cheesecake? Well, I might. But I am strange like that.
And given the popularity of all of my keto cheesecake recipes, I think I can safely say that many of you also suffer from this obsessive cheesecake disorder.
How to make Keto Cheesecake Bars
There are so many great ways to make keto cheesecake that we have plenty of fuel for our collective obsession. Lemon cheesecake bars like these are easier to make than a full size cheesecake, and they’re so low carb, you can have two and still meet your macros for the day.
A few quick tips on how to make the best lemon cheesecake bars:
The shortbread crust:
This is my favourite keto crust recipe and I use it often. It’s so tender, with great flavor, and it holds together well. Be sure to bake it for 10 minutes, and then let it cool before adding the filling. It won’t be completely baked through but this firms it up enough to stand up to the cream cheese filling.
Soften that cream cheese properly!
You want to leave it at room temperature for at least a half an hour, and it should have plenty of give when you press a finger into it. If it’s not properly softened, your bars will end up with cream cheese lumps. Beat it well to smooth it out before you add any other ingredients.
Beat the eggs in last and don’t over-beat.
A little trick I learned when writing The Ultimate Guide to Keto Baking is to beat the eggs in at the last minute, and only until just combined. Many cheesecake fillings suffer from being over-beaten, which causes them to rise too much during baking and then fall and crack.
Don’t rush the chilling time
When you smell these coming out of the oven, the temptation will be to dig in right away. But you will end up with some lovely lemon cheesecake goo if you do so. Be sure to let them chill for at least 2 hours.
Truth be told, I had to rush the chilling time when shooting this video! My cheesecake was only barely set and some of the bars look a little worse for wear. So do as I say and not as I do!
Can you make Lemon Cheesecake Bars ahead?
If you’re making these keto cheesecake bars just for your family and you want to put some away, they should freeze well. Again, wrap them up in some plastic wrap to avoid freezer burn. You can do them as individual servings or simply wrap the whole piece at once.
Flash freezing is recommended if you want to store them in the freezer. Simply place the unwrapped bars on a cookie sheet for a few hours to firm them up. Then you can wrap them more easily without crushing or damaging them.
More delicious keto cheesecake bars
- Keto Salted Caramel Cheesecake Bars
- Keto Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars
- No Bake Peppermint Cheesecake Bars
- Keto Pecan Cheesecake Bars
- Keto Blackberry Cheesecake Bars
- Espresso Chocolate Cheesecake Bars
Keto Lemon Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 ¼ cups almond flour
- ¼ cup Swerve Sweetener
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup butter melted
Cheesecake Filling:
- 16 oz cream cheese softened
- ½ cup powdered Swerve Sweetener (more if you like it sweeter)
- 2 teaspoon lemon zest (about 1 large lemon)
- 3 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
- 2 large eggs
Instructions
Crust:
- Preheat the oven to 350F. In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, sweetener, and salt. Stir in the melted butter until well combined.
- Press evenly into the bottom of an 8-inch square pan and bake 10 minutes - it won't be cooked through. Set aside and let cool.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 275F.
Lemon Cheesecake Filling:
- Beat the cream cheese in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in the sweetener, and then beat in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and cream until no lumps remain.
- Beat in the eggs until just combined - do not overbeat as this can cause cracking.
- Spread the filling over cooled crust and bake 35 to 45 minutes, or until filling is just set and the center barely jiggles when shaken.
- Let cool 30 minutes, then chill for at least 2 hours.
- Garnish with powdered sweetener and additional lemon zest, if desired.
Misty says
I made these last night and they were amazing. I have had such success with your recipes. Thank you so much for opening my low carb eyes to foods other than meat!
cassie says
Is there anything I could use instead of the stevia extract?
Carolyn says
More Swerve or erythritol if you’d like.
cassie says
Okay, thank you! I wasn’t sure if there would be a huge difference in texture by not using the drops.
Diane N - Philzendia says
You had me at cheesecake! I would have to swap out the erythritol though becasue it hurts my tummy!
Carolyn says
What can you use that doesn’t hurt your tummy?
Ann Forti says
How much is the zest of one lemon? Is that just grating the outside of a lemon or can store bought “lemon” Peel sub for it?
Carolyn says
It’s just the grating from the outside of the lemon. Peel usually contains a lot of the white pith, which doesn’t taste very good. One lemon is about 1 1/2 tbsp of zest.
Jeanette says
I wanted to let you know how much I/we enjoyed these! Love the texture and taste minus the following. The only problem my family and I seem to be having is with the “cooling” taste of the Swerve in recipes. I did use the powdered form of Swerve. Is there any way to lessen this effect? If we drink water with it our water taste sweet. Any ideas?
Carolyn says
Hi Jeanette. Swerve usually has a lot less of the cooling effect than other erythritol based sweeteners. But some people are hyper-sensitive to it. I do not get any with it. Sounds like you might be one of those who is very sensitive.
Jeanette says
Thank you Carolyn. I will continue to make these because they are just that good even with the cooling effect! I will also continue my search for a way to “soften” this reaction for my family. I have read a little about possibly adding polydextrose or inulin to help with this but know very little. Any thoughts? It would make this way of eating a bit easier during the holidays if I could find a sweetener that I/we could tolerate better.
Carolyn says
I haven’t heard about either of those, but I have heard that Just Like Sugar is good. I haven’t used it myself. It’s made from chicory.
Mary Kate says
I’ve made a lot of low carb things, but this is DEFINITELY the best I’ve tried. I used almond meal instead of flour and the only thing was that the crust was a little crumbly and it kind of fell apart. But I just sprinkled it on top, delicious. Alot of the things I’ve tried to make low carb have been failures (compared to this) but I wouldn’t hesitate to make this for my friends or family (non low-carbers). Great recipe 🙂
Liz says
These were absolutely delicious! I have a massive load of almond flour that I don’t particularly like, but it worked perfectly in this recipe. Thank you from Japan!
Marilyn says
I should never tune in to your site. Love your cheery description of your food adventures and I want to make absolutely everything you develop. How you do it is a mystery to me with your have 3 young children. If I were ever down in the dumps I would hastily go to your web site and cheer myself in a flash.
Carolyn says
Aw, Marilyn. What a sweet, sweet thing to say!
Linda Lee says
Would liquid sucralose work for the liquid stevia?
Carolyn says
I think so, yes.
Margaret says
Hi Carolyn,
Really enjoying your website. Thanks so much for sharing all of your wonderful recipes with us. I made this recipe yesterday and they turned out so delicious. I always get my husband to rate things on a 1-5 scale. He gave them a “6” and wanted to know where I was hiding the rest of them! He also made the comment “these are sugar-free???”, he couldn’t believe how good they were for a sugar free/low carb/wheat free dessert! Keep up the great work, you have one of the best websites out there!
Carolyn says
Awesome! That’s what I like to hear!
Gail says
Made these yesterday and we had a little piece for dessert last night – OMG – so very yummy!!! In my sugar eating days I loved lemon bars – totally satisfied that. Thanks for another winner recipe Carolyn!!!!
dgidaho says
Oh. my. goodness! This was absolutely fantastic! I just had two servings…. 🙂 I knew it would be good even before it baked as I tasted the beaters, then had to fight the urge to stick my face in the bowl to lick it clean! This is a brilliant recipe—and I’m so happy you shared!
Carolyn says
Thank you!
Erin @ Texanerin Baking says
Love this! And I’ll have to try that crust. Looks great and I love my almond flour. 🙂
I love cheesecake too but after eating half of one the other day and then feeling sick… I’m over cheesecake for the moment. 😉
Roberta in Alberta says
Sing “YUMMM”, then smile. These are deliciously lemony, Caroline. I am taking them camping this weekend with my soon-to-be-converted in-laws. Thanks for another hit!
Sarah W says
I am wondering what brand of granulated erythritol you would recommend. For some reason my taste bud rejected Swerve. All I find is powdered granulated erythritol on Amazon. thanks for the great recipes.
Julie M. says
Go to http://www.xylitolcanada.com
Click on xylitol store (bottom, right)
down the side bar, you’ll find erythritol, click on that and order from there.
Don’t recommend xylitol. Erythritol is better.
Courtney says
Oh, I can’t wait to make this heavenly, sinless sweet! Any idea on calorie count per serving?
Anna says
how are these so low carb with all the Swerve? That’s 5g/tsp.
Carolyn says
That’s 5g of “carbs” that have zero effect on one’s blood sugar. The FDA requires that they are labeled as carbs, but as they produce no insulin response, they don’t count as carbs. May I suggest you check out the Swerve website for more information?
Kristyl says
I made these before work so they would chill all day and be ready tonight after dinner. They are delicious! Always keep the ingredients on hand. You’ll be glad you did.
Joan says
Thanks for another outstanding recipe!
This really isn’t about the recipe but about the formatting you use. I am wondering if you changed it in the past several weeks?
I copy your recipes from the website and put into an office document and save to a folder in dropbox, so I can access it from my phone, iPad, computer, etc., when I travel, as I don’t always have ability to go online.
Up until a few weeks ago it copied and pasted perfectly. Now however all the text runs together with no spacing. In other words there is no new line for each ingredient or directions. I need to go through and re-do it so I can read it. I am happy to do this to get the recipe, but I am wondering if you did change the way you encode it if it would be possible to return to the prior method?
Or maybe it’s my computer, it recently updated to the newest OXS 10.8 and I have had some problems with other programs.
Thanks for feedback!
JBS
Carolyn says
Hi there. I think it may actually be a Ziplist coding thing that they’ve updated to help deter people from “stealing” recipes. You should also get a little note at the bottom with the link to the recipe and a “read more at…”. Copyright is a HUGE issue online and many many times, people find their entire recipe posted on another blog/website with no credit given. So I am guessing that’s an update they did on their end.
I know it makes it more complicated for you and I am sorry. I have no issues with you saving recipes into word docs at home, but the Ziplist format (which has its own recipe saving tool, by the way) is useful for me and makes it easy for people who want to save recipes in one place online. In fact, I have requests to go back and do all my old recipes through Ziplist! If I could ever find the time…
Carolyn says
Hi Joan,
I just made a discovery for you. If you hit the Print button at the top of the recipe, you can copy and paste from there, without actually printing, and it will stay in proper format. Hope that helps! 🙂
Joan says
THANK YOU! now more time to cook and eat!
Carolyn says
🙂
Georgia @ The Comfort of Cooking says
These bars are so beautiful and summery, Carolyn! You are such a little low-carb, gluten-free wizard with baking… I’m always stunned!