Serious Eats: Recipes
Gluten-Free Tuesday: Sweet Potato Cheesecake Bars
I love cheesecake but a slice of it, even a slender slice, feels like too much richness after the Thanksgiving meal—especially if I have my eye on a slice of pie. (You have to love a holiday where eating multiple desserts is acceptable and, in some families, encouraged!)
My solution to this "problem"? Cheesecake bars! This way I can enjoy a little taste of cheesecake without feeling as stuffed as the turkey.
Sitting atop a crumb crust, these bars contain equal parts cream cheese and sweet potato puree. The combination makes a smooth and velvety cheesecake with a pronounced, but not overpowering, sweet potato flavor.
You can have fun playing with this recipe, and I've included a list of variations below. No matter how you make these bars, they taste best the day after baking. So prepare them the day before the big meal.
Variations
Pecan Sweet Potato Bars. Replace half the ground cookie crumbs with toasted, ground pecans.
Ginger Sweet Potato Bars. Add two tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger to the filling.
Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars. Replace sweet potato puree with canned or homemade pumpkin puree.
Coconut-Sweet Potato Bars. Add 1/2 cup flaked coconut to the crust.
Dairy-Free Sweet Potato Bars. Replace the cream cheese with a dairy-free cream.
cheese in the filling. Replace the butter with a dairy-free substitute in the crust.
Reduced-Fat Sweet Potato Bars. Replace the cream cheese with reduced-fat cream cheese.
