Ingredients
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Blackberry Sauce
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8 oz Fresh Blackberries
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1/4 cup Sugar white
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1 tsp Lemon juice
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1 tsp Corn starch
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1/4 tsp Lemon zest
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Crust
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1 box Pamela's Honey Grahams Graham crackers
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1/2 cup Almonds blanched
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1/3 cup Melted butter unsalted
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1 TBSP Sugar white
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Cheesecake Filling
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16 oz (2 bars) Cream Cheese
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1/4 cup Sugar white
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1/2 cup Condensed milk
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2 Eggs
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1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
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1 TBSP Lemon zest
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1/4 cup (2 lemons) Lemon juice
Directions
Blackberry Lemon Cheesecake Bites are one of my favorite things to eat. I use Pamela’s Honey Grahams for a couple of reasons. They are incredibly dense which when pressed down in the baking dish forms a solid bottom crust. I also use 2 bars of cream cheese, and this makes a firm cheesecake. Put them together, and you have a cheesecake that you can hold in your hand and eat just like a cookie. It is perfect.
Blackberries and lemons bring me to this time of year. Blackberries we use to pick late in the summer when they started to ripen on the bushes by the side of the road. Lemons are just the perfect summer fruit that brightens up any day. Combine blackberries and lemons, and it reminds me of saying goodbye to mid-summer and hello to early fall.
You can tell fall is closing in the schools are starting here this week in Lancaster, PA. Which means summer will be coming to an end soon. I use to eat so many blackberries when I was a kid I often wondered if they were good for me. Well, they are so please read this article on the 6 Blackberry Health Benefits.
Other Blackberry or Lemon Cookies
Blackberry Roll with Lemon Glaze Cookies
Tools I Use
Breville Sous Chef Food Processor
KitchenAid 4.5 Stand Mixer
Microplane Master Series Wood Handle Zester Blade
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Steps
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1
Done
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Blackberry SauceIn a small bowl combine the cornstarch and the lemon juice and stir till combined. In a saucepan add the blackberries and the sugar and bring to a low boil, stirring continuously for about 1 or 2 minutes. You want the blackberries to start to break up into smaller pieces. Then add the cornstarch mixer and low boil for another minute or two till it thickens slightly. Cover and refrigerate overnight. |
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2
Done
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CrustIn a food processor add the blanched almonds and pulse till small pieces. Add the whole box of Pamela's Honey Grahams to the almonds and pulse till they are small pieces also. They should be about the same size in the bowl. Add the sugar and the melted butter and using a fork mix till the butter is through all the graham cracker and almond pieces. |
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3
Done
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Line an 8X8 baking dish with tin foil (make sure it comes up all sides of the baking dish). You don't want the cheesecake mixture to run down the back of the tin foil. Pour the crust onto the tin foil and evenly press down so that it covers the whole bottom of the baking dish. Set the baking dish aside. |
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4
Done
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Cheesecake FillingPreheat oven to 325° Juice 2 lemons to get 1/4 cup of lemon juice set the bowl aside. In a stand or hand-held mixer, mix the cream cheese and the sugar till the sugar is incorporated. Add one egg at a time. Then add the condensed milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and the vanilla extract and blend thoroughly. The mixture will be on the thin side, but it thickens while it bakes. Pour the mixture into the tin-foiled lined baking pan. |
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5
Done
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Take the blackberries out of the refrigerator and with a bowl and strainer separate the blackberries from the juice. Take the blackberry juice and gently pour over the cheesecake mixture. I take a fork and run it through the cheesecake batter to blend. Taking some of the berries in the strainer, I add to the top of the mixture for extra blackberry taste. You can add a little lemon zest on top or not. |
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6
Done
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Bake for 40 minutes, it should just jiggle a little when you take it out of the oven. Let it cool for half an hour then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. When you take it out of the refrigerator, pick it up on the sides of the baking dish with the tin foil. It comes right out, and the tin foil will come right off. The cheesecake will be hard enough to cut into whatever size pieces you want. I cut mine into 36 bites size pieces. |
