This recipe for lemon cream cheese bars is simple to make and delicious. Fresh lemons are the best way to make a recipe come to life! You don’t need to look any farther if you want a change of pace from lemon bars made with custard.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 5 mins |
| Servings: | 24 |
| Yield: | 1 9×13-inch baking dish |
Ingredients
- cooking spray
- 2 (8 ounce) packages refrigerated crescent roll dough (such as Pillsbury® Recipe Creations®), divided
- 2 lemons, zested and juiced, divided
- 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup white sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 3 tablespoons white sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line the bottom of a 9×13-inch baking dish with aluminum foil and coat with cooking spray.
- Unroll 1 crescent roll dough; press into the bottom of the prepared baking dish, stretching to the edges.
- Mix together lemon juice and 3/4 of the lemon zest in a large bowl. Beat cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar into juice-zest mixture with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy; spread over crescent roll dough in the baking dish.
- Unroll remaining crescent roll dough and place over cream cheese mixture, stretching to the edges. Brush melted butter on top. Mix together 3 tablespoons sugar and remaining lemon zest in a small bowl; sprinkle over melted butter.
- Bake in the preheated oven until top is golden brown, about 30 minutes. Allow to cool for about 20 minutes.
- Lift dessert from the baking dish using foil; transfer to a cutting board. Cut into squares, leaving on foil. Return dessert to the baking dish and refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour.
- You can make this recipe with Splenda and low-fat cream cheese.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 171 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 15 g |
| Cholesterol | 23 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 209 mg |
| Sugars | 7 g |
| Fat | 12 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Made this last night for our family cookout today. It was a hit! Everyone raved about how good it was & the pan was emptied!
As others suggested, I baked the bottom layer of dough first, (pricked it) then cooled it and topped with lemon cream cheese. When done, refridgerate before trying to cut it into bars. I forgot to put foil down first and it worked just fine. I’m going to try serving it with strawberry compote to make it more interesting.
So easy and yummy. All my friends love it and I have shared the recipe. I make a Christmas version with cinnamon sugar topping and without lemons; one egg is used.
Not tried yet but looks amazing !! It takes exactly 20 min to cook.!!!
How is it was to make!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO VERY GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I like lemon so I used the zest of 3 lemons and the juice of 4 lemons and found them to be perfect. One of my favorite dessert recipes so far.
I thought the end result was terrific and the process was so easy! (I just had to try one almost the minute I took them out of the oven!) These bars turned out lemony and not too sweet. In recipes like this that call for the crescents to be rolled out in one piece, I always use the sheets vs. the individual rolls. That makes a big difference! I was so tempted to add an egg to the filling because I have made similar recipes in the past that called for one. I DID NOT add any eggs and the filling was perfect! I didn’t think the bars turned out “doughy” as a few others have mentioned. However, I did not line my pan (I used a glass 9×13) with foil. Perhaps that made a difference in how the crescent dough cooked on the bottom. I’m certain I will make this recipe again!
I did make a few changes to suit my baking tastes. Instead of using the entire roll of dough, I only placed enough to cover the bottom. Then buttered it lightly as I pressed it into place, with a small amount of sugar sprinkled on top. Prick the dough so it doesn’t puff up in the oven. Bake just until it starts to lightly brown, then cool completely. I increased my sugar to one and one quarter cup to balance out the quarter cup of lemon juice. I added the one egg as suggested by another reviewer. I also added one teaspoon of pure vanilla extract and grated in a small amount of nutmeg. Finished off with an eighth of a teaspoon of lemon extract. I wanted the lemon flavor to be pronounced! Again with the second roll of dough, used only enough to cover the top. I used kitchen shears to cut up pieces of dough to fill in any open spots. The end result was great, with a crispy top and bottom and no sogginess from too much dough. I’ll save the extra crescent dough for rolls, lol.
This was so easy to make and delicious. I took it to a gathering where there were several desserts, and this was gone in no time!
This was a very good dessert. Took other reviewers’ advice and baked the bottom layer first, let cool, then proceeded as directed in the original recipe, no soggy crust and overall good lemony taste, no bitterness. Thank you for a good recipe!
I loved these. I’m not a fan of lemon so I swirled some eras berry jam thru the cream cheese mixture. I didn’t have a problem with the bottom crust but I’m making them tomorrow for a family dinner so I’ll try pre cooking the bottom crust this time just to see if I like them better. This time I’m going to use a blueberry compote.
Yes I used a very generic brand of crescent rolls that did not stretch so I used more than called for on the bottom layer, baked that layer immediately to a nice golden brown then took it out to cool while I made the filling, so another thick layer of generic brand crescent rolls covered the top for the crust, so I used 4 tablespoons of butter to brush on top , then mixed the zest, white sugar and a touch of nutmeg together to sprinkle on top of the raw buttered crescent rolls , spots left a bit open I sprinkled a light amount of sugar on the bare open areas for consistency. Then I baked it in the oven for 30 minutes, took it out to set, then my grandson wanted a taste after 20 minutes and so did I , it was very delicious, very unusual in an unexpected good flavor. I never knew these generic brand crescent rolls would ever transform into a lovely dessert bar such as this. This is a true story from me, an old lady who taught myself to find recipes on Pinterest and like to share them with my , I got a thumbs up on this recipe and it was rated a ten!
Made this yesterday, very easy to make. Family loved it!!
Made this recipe for Father’s Day and it was just “eh”. I did like the lemon filling but the crescent rolls used as a base and top layer were not good. Too “bready”. I did bake and cool the bottom layer before adding the lemon filling, but that didn’t help the consistency of the layers. I would do what other reviewers said and use a puff pastry or pie crust dough instead of the crescent rolls. Probably won’t make again. There are too many other good looking lemon bar recipes out there.
I took some of the advice and pre-baked the bottom croissants. I like the flavor of the lemon cream cheese mixture, but overall the bars are just way too bready. You lose the lemon bar-ish-ness with the overwhelming bread component to the bars. Maybe it would be okay without the top croissants? I don’t know, I’m just not going to make them again.
It was good, but not outstanding. Definitely was eaten quickly in my house.
Flavor of cheese cake was good. It could use an egg to make it better. Not a fan of the crescent rolls. I cooked bottom layer first, as I saw many recommendations, so it was not soggy. But crescent rolls are not good for a dish like this. Too bready. Might be good with puff pastry.
2nd time I made it and we loved it again! Basically tastes like a cheese Danish.
I used Splenda for the cream cheese mixture but real sugar on top crust. I thought sugar would make a better crust like finish with the butter and zest. I used more zest than called for and let the sugar/zest mixture sit while I prepared the filling.
The recipe is fine, however taking it out and putting it back in the 9 x 13 pan at the end makes no sense. So I let cool a bit on the rack and put it in the fridge for an hour then cut it and put the cut bars on a plate. And I have made Cresent roll recipes a lot and never had them be mushy or soggy. That statement is to the one person that said it came out soggy. I used a glass baking pan.
Amazing!!! I will make this again. I followed the feedback given and baked the bottom first. Perfect!