Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

Ingredients

• 12 oz cream cheese - such as Trader Joes nondairy
• 1 cup plain yogurt of choice - such as coconut yogurt
• 1 tsp pure vanilla
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup sugar or maple syrup, honey, or xylitol for sugar-free
• pinch uncut stevia OR 1 additional tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp cornstarch or arrowroot
• chocolate chips as desired

Total Time: 25m

Yield: 9-16 bars

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Fill any large baking pan about halfway with water and place it on the oven’s lower rack. Line an 8-inch baking pan with parchment. Bring cream cheese to room temperature. Beat all ingredients except chips in a blender or with a hand blender just until smooth – Don’t overbeat, which would introduce air bubbles that could burst in the oven and thus cause cracking. You can stir in chocolate chips now or press some into the top after baking. (For a crust, I processed 5 graham cracker sheets with about 2 tbsp coconut oil, then spread that into the lined pan. Or you can use any of the crust recipes mentioned earlier in this post.) Smooth batter into the pan, and place on the oven’s middle rack (the rack above the one with the water pan). Bake 25 minutes, then don’t open the oven but turn the heat off and let sit in the closed oven an additional 8 minutes – this helps the cheesecake bars cool down slowly so they’re less likely to crack. Take out the still-undercooked bars and let cool at room temp 1 hour (this step also helps the bars cool gradually), then cover and refrigerate overnight, during which time they will firm up considerably. Slice into bars, wiping the knife between cuts. Store leftovers in the fridge, or they can even be frozen.