Cheesecake Bars

These bars have a soft textured bottom of graham crackers, and a nice creamy and sweet top layer. I used the recipe from food network, and to help make it a  little healthier I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese. Some recommendations I have for this recipe, is to make sure your butter and cream cheese are at room temperature because it helps to get the right consistency for the cheesecake. When making the crust a good idea my mom had was to use a spatula to flatten and spread out the graham crackers.  By doing this it was way less of a mess compared to using a fork and it helped to make sure everything was flat and even. Also another helpful tip is that 1 cup of crushed graham crackers is about 7-8 individual graham crackers.  This cheesecake overall was super fun and delicious to make, and I definitely recommend trying it out.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of finely ground graham crackers
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 sticks of melted butter
• 24 oz of 1/3 less fat softened cream cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 sour cream
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract

Directions:
1)  Preheat your oven to 350°F  and get a 9*12in baking dish out.
2) For the crust mix together the crushed graham crackers, melted butter, and 1/4 cup sugar.  Put into the baking dish and flatten out.  Place into the heated oven for about 10min then remove and let cool.
3) Well the crust is cooling beat together the cream cheese and 1 cup of sugar together in a mixing bowl. 
4) Once mixed together beat in the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla until combined thoroughly. 
5) Take the cream cheese mixture and pour over top the cooled crust, put back into the oven for 30-35min so the edges are stiff but the center is still loose.  
6)Take out the bars  when done and let cool completely, then chill until they set. 

-Megan