With a delicious fall flavor and minimal ingredients these Maple Cheesecake Bars are creamy, tasty and absolutely a breeze to whip up!
Maple is one of my favorite flavors! It always has been, it doesn’t matter what it is in, if there is something called “maple” I’m all over it.
Don’t judge me but I even put maple syrup over my eggs, weird I know but everyone has their own quirks and that just happens to be one of mine.
These Maple Cheesecake Bars are perfect for fall and the winter season, or all year long if you love the taste of maple like I do. They are easy to whip up too!
I’ve always had a thing with bar recipes, but cheesecake bars are one off my favorites of all time. You can just do so much with cheesecake bars that it’s crazy!
Some of my other favorite maple flavored desserts include Maple Pecan Oatmeal Cookies, Baked Maple Donuts and Maple Walnut Fudge.
But that is just the tip of the iceberg of some that we make often. But let me tell you when it comes to these Cheesecake Bars, you will become addicted.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- With pantry staple ingredients help this recipe come together nicely.
- You can use maple extract or vanilla extract in here.
- You can easily double this to make a larger batch in a 9″x13″ pan.
Now I love myself a regular cheesecake all day long, but when it comes to your own little slices of smaller cheesecakes, I’m down for them! Thats why I can’t get enough of these.
If you doubled this recipe you could easily turn this into a regular cheesecake but your bake time would be a little longer than this unfortunately.
We have in the past and we love it, but we love making the bars because they are faster to bake and chill faster as well, so easier makes it just that much better for us.
HOW TO MAKE MAPLE CHEESECAKE BARS, STEP BY STEP:
- In a medium-sized bowl mix together the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, brown sugar, and salt.
- Line a 9×9 baking dish with aluminum foil and spray it well with baking spray. Press the crust into the bottom of the dish, set aside.
- In a large bowl, whip the cream cheese with a hand mixer until smooth.
- Add the maple syrup, brown sugar, sour cream, eggs, flour, extract, and salt.
- Beat until fully combined with no lumps remaining.
- Pour the filling on top of the graham cracker crust. Bake at 325 degrees F for 40-50minutes. The very center will be the slightest bit jiggly. Let cool on the counter, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for at least 4 hours before slicing and serving. Chilling overnight is best! Serve with more maple syrup and maple whipped cream for garnish, optional.
See how easy that comes together? This is why people should not be afraid of cheesecake or cheesecake bars! I know that they look intimidating, but they’re really not, I promise!
This recipe contains both maple syrup and maple extract that really enhances that maple flavor but does not overwhelm it, if you want less of a maple flavor use vanilla extract instead.
Since we really like the maple flavor we always use maple extract hands down, just gives it that extra small punch that these Maple Cheesecake Bars deserve.
CAN YOU FREEZE CHEESECAKE BARS?
Absolutely! That is one thing that I love about cheesecake and cheesecake bars is that they are easily able to be frozen.
To freeze these bars you’ll want to bake and cool as directed in recipe. What works best for us is to cut the bars and place them on a baking sheet and place them in the freezer.
Once they are fully frozen, you can wrap individually in plastic wrap then tin foil or you can place in a Tupperware container separated by parchment and they will store for about 3 months.
We like to wrap individually because it’s easier to take them out and have them be able to defrost that way. Since we never know how much we want at one time.
HOW TO STORE:
Cheesecake Bars should not be left out at room temperature for more than 4 hours as they contain perishable ingredients. The best bet for storing these is the refrigerator.
You can keep them in the baking pan or you can remove from the pan and cut int individual servings and place in an airtight container like Tupperware or ziptop bag.
If you store in the baking pan you can just wrap the pan with some plastic wrap or tinfoil and keep them in the refrigerator where they should last about 3-4 days.
These Cheesecake Bars are just absolutely delicious and we love to bring them to our Thanksgiving get togethers as an option other than the traditional desserts.
I always am a fan of untraditional desserts so having these bars at your table is a great option that I can assure you any maple lover with enjoy!
We also love to pour a little extra maple syrup over these because ummmm as I mentioned before maple!!
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- Beat your cream cheese before adding any other ingredients, this helps to prevent any lumps from forming.
- Make sure you completely cool on counter before chilling.
- You can substitute vanilla extract for maple if you don’t have it or can’t find it.
- These bars can easily be frozen, see my tips above.
- The trick for cutting the perfect slice is use a hot knife!
- Use real maple syrup and not pancake syrup for this recipe.
- The recipe can be doubled to fit in a 9″x13″ baking pan.
If you want the perfect fall or holiday or any time of the year treat really then you need to make these Maple Cheesecake Bars as soon as possible.
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Maple Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 5 Tbs unsalted butter melted
- 3 Tbs light brown sugar packed
- Pinch of salt
Cheesecake:
- 16 oz cream cheese softened
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 2 large eggs
- 2 Tbs all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp maple extract or vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- In a medium-sized bowl mix together the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, brown sugar, and salt.
- Line a 9x9 baking dish with aluminum foil and spray it well with baking spray. Press the crust into the bottom of the dish, set aside.
- In a large bowl, whip the cream cheese with a hand mixer until smooth.
- Add the maple syrup, brown sugar, sour cream, eggs, flour, extract, and salt.
- Beat until fully combined with no lumps remaining.
- Pour the filling on top of the graham cracker crust. Bake for 40-50minutes. The very center will be the slightest bit jiggly. Let cool completely on the counter, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for at least 4 hours in the refrigerator before slicing and serving. Chilling overnight is best! Serve with more maple syrup and maple whipped cream for garnish, optional.
Notes
- Beat your cream cheese before adding any other ingredients, this helps to prevent any lumps from forming.
- Make sure you completely cool on counter before chilling.
- You can substitute vanilla extract for maple if you don't have it or can't find it.
- These bars can easily be frozen, see my tips above.
- The trick for cutting the perfect slice is use a hot knife!
- Use real maple syrup and not pancake syrup for this recipe.
- The recipe can be doubled to fit in a 9"x13" baking pan.
Nutrition
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