Lemon Cream Cheese Bars are simple to make with crescent roll dough but taste as good as a made-from-scratch pastry.
Only 6 ingredients needed for this easy bar recipe.
Lemon Flavor
A combination of lemon zest and fresh lemon juice gives lots of bright, fresh lemon flavor to these creamy bars. They are both sweet and tart.
Recommended Equipment
- Zester- this OXO Zester is very easy to use.
- Electric Mixer- a hand-held mixer is perfect for mixing the filling together.
- 9×13-inch Baking Pan
- Parchment Paper
3 Easy Parts
These easy dessert bars consist of a crescent dough crust, a creamy cream cheese/lemon filling, and a top layer of crescent dough which gets brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with sugar and lemon zest for a buttery, crispy finish.
Bottom layer of crescent dough after being baked.
Cream cheese filling spread over crust.
Bars after being removed from oven.
Crescent Dough
I love using crescent roll dough in recipes and I almost always have a tube of crescent dough in my refrigerator. Crescent dough also works great for these easy Cream Cheese Crescent Danishes, Crescent Roll Coffee Cake, and Sausage and Crescent Roll Casserole. You can use either the crescent sheets (so handy) or the regular crescent roll dough.
Lemon Cream Cheese Bars Storage
Because of the cream cheese, these bars should be stored in the refrigerator. They will last about 4 days. They are great served cold or at room temperature.
More Lemon Desserts
- Lemon Chess Pie
- Lemon Lush
- Slow Cooker Lemon Cake
- Lemon Cookie Bars
- Lemon Icebox Cake
- Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Lemon Cream Cheese Bars
Ingredients
- 2 (8-ounce) tubes refrigerated crescent roll dough
- 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
- zest from 2 lemons
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 3 tablespoons sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9X13-inch pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil. If using foil, spray lightly with cooking spray.
- Unroll one tube of crescent roll dough and stretch it to cover the bottom of the pan. Bake for 5 minutes. Let cool.
- Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and lemon juice until smooth. Set aside about 1 teaspoon of lemon zest and add the rest to the cream cheese mixture along with the 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla extract. Beat until mixed well.
- Spread cream cheese mixture on top of bottom layer of dough.
- Unroll second piece of dough and lay it on top of cream cheese, stretching it to fit.
- Brush top with melted butter. Combine the 3 tablespoons of sugar and the set aside lemon zest and sprinkle on top.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool 20 minutes. Cut into squares and refrigerate until chilled.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe adapted from AllRecipes.com
