TFF: A sweet little dessert

Before I get into my selection for this week's Tyler Florence Friday, did you see who "won" last week and was featured on Tyler's very own blog? It was me!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I could not have done it without Tyler's lovely recipe, some good shrimp, and most of all, my family! I love you all! Hehehehe (Is that really how award speeches go? I never watch awards, so I was being silly in winging it, so seriously? Is that really the kind of thing people say when they receive an award?)

Okay that was fun, now back to the seriously stuff: dessert!

How about Tyler's Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars? While blueberries aren't quite in season yet, they freeze fabulously, so good berries are always available to make this tasty little bar. Okay, it is really a cheesecake baked square and cut into bars, but it's still tasty!

The only change I made was to use lower fat cheesecake instead of a full fat (I think I've said before that I like the extra tang you get from the lower fat version). Otherwise I followed it faithfully. I even cut it into the recommended number of bars. I didn't cut it evenly or well, but I did get the same number of pieces that Tyler told me I would.

Be sure to head over and check out some of the recipes Tyler has posted on his blog. There is quite the selection available.

Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars
by Tyler Florence, as found on Food Network

For the base:
Butter, for greasing
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
9 graham crackers
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:
16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 eggs
2 lemons, zested and juiced
About 1/2 cup sugar, eyeball it
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
Powdered sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

For the base:

Grease the bottom of a 9 by 9-inch baking pan with butter. Then place parchment paper over the top, pressing down at the corners. In a food processor, process the sugar, cinnamon and graham crackers until you have the texture of bread crumbs. Add the melted butter and pulse a couple of times to fully incorporate. Pour into the lined baking pan and gently pat down with the base of a glass. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes until golden. When done set aside to cool.

For the filling:

Add cream cheese, eggs, lemon zest, lemon juice and sugar to the food processor and mix until well combined. It should have a smooth consistency. Pour onto the cooled base and then cover with blueberries. They will sink slightly but should still be half exposed -- as the cake bakes they will sink a little more and break down.

Bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until the center only slightly jiggles. Remove from the oven and cool completely before refrigerating for at least 3 hours. Once set, remove from pan using the parchment lining and slice into 10 rectangular bars. Dust with powdered sugar.