Blackberry Cheesecake Bars

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.  Line a 9-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving 1-inch of foil overhanging at 2 opposite sides of the pan.  You'll need this extra foil to lift the cheesecake out of the pan when you're ready to cut it into bars.  Spray the foil with cooking spray. 

Crust:
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
5 Tbsp butter, melted

Place the almonds in a food processor (I love my Magic Bullet for things like this!) and pulse until the almonds are mostly all ground up.  Combine them in a small bowl with the graham crumbs, sugar cinnamon and butter and stir until the crumbs look sort of like wet sand.  Spread them in the foil lined pan and press firmly into the bottom of the pan.  Bake the crust for 10-12 minutes then remove the pan but don't turn the oven off yet!

Let the crust cool while you prepare the filling.

Filling:
3 (8-oz) packages of Philadelphia Brand cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1/3 cup seedless blackberry jam
Fresh blackberries and mint leaves to garnish, if desired

In a large bowl, beat the cram cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla on medium speed until smooth.  On low speed, beat in the eggs, one at a time, just until blended.  Pour into the crust. 

Spoon small dollops of blackberry jam over the filling and then swirl them with a knife to create a marbled effect.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until set.  Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 1 hour.  Cover pan with foil and refrigerate at least 2 hours (or overnight). 

When you're ready to serve, use the overhanging foil to lift the cheesecake carefully out of the pan.  Cut into bars and top each with a fresh blackberry and a mint leaf to garnish.  

Store, covered, in the refrigerator.

I found this recipe at bettycrocker.com  They are called Blackberry Cheesecake Bites on that site and call for cutting them into 36 bars.  Personally, that's just too small and too much work.  And my husband would laugh at me if I served him a piece of cheesecake that small!  So I cut this into 12 pieces and that seems just about right to me.  These bars taste SO good!  You can't really go wrong with cheesecake for dessert.  However, they took about 1 hour to completely bake and the top cracked so they didn't look as pretty as I would have liked.  But they definitely tasted good!  - New Year's Day, 2014