Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Light and delicious no-bake cheesecake bars filled with creamy frozen yogurt, cream cheese, and fresh cherries.

Cherry Cheesecake Bars

It’s cherry season, and that can only mean 1 thing… baking allllll the delicious things with our fresh cherries!

I’ll be honest here.. I was not a huge fan of cherries as a kid. I think I got so many flashbacks from the doctor’s office and cherry-flavored cough medicine! I hated the way that tasted. Buuuut, eventually I came around and discovered that cherries are actually one of the best, most tasty and delicious fruits EVER.

So fast-forward to today, I’m absolutely obsessed with the little guys! And when I went to the grocery store the other day cherries were on sale for $2.99/lb, which is such an amazing deal, so obviously I couldn’t resist. I wanted to do something really fun with these, so I decided on these No-Bake Cherry Cheesecake Bars!

What are Cherry Cheesecake Bars?

Not only are these bad boys no-bake, but they’re also filled with an incredible homemade vanilla frozen-yogurt. This makes them the most perfect summer dessert! They’re so light and fresh, you’ll be making these allllll summer long.

So, to start off, I wanted to make the crust super easy. Obviously it had to be some sort of graham cracker crust, so I thought “why not just ditch the food processor and use whole graham crackers?!? I’d say it worked perfectly 🙂 You get all the flavor of the graham crackers without the hassle of crushing them, adding butter, and baking it. WIN!

Next, these Cherry Cheesecake Bars are filled with fresh cherries and a smooth vanilla frozen yogurt. As an option, you can absolutely buy store-bought frozen yogurt, but honestly it’s so much fun to make your own 🙂

Ingredients for Cherry Cheesecake Bars

  • Cherry Preserves: I used Bonne Maman cherry preserves because I think their jams/preserves always have the best consistency!
  • Vanilla Beans: Because we love alllll the flavor that vanilla beans give us! As an option, you can substitute the beans with 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or 2 tsp pure vanilla extract (but I reallllyyyy suggest you splurge just a little bit and get the vanilla beans 🙂 )
  • Pitted Cherries: We’re adding allll the fresh cherries to this beautiful recipe! I have a cherry pitter from Williams Sonoma that I absolutely ADORE. It’s so helpful to have this tool on hand for recipes like these.
  • Graham Cracker Squares: By “squares” I mean like 1/2 of the full-size rectangle!
  • Cream Cheese: bc cheesecake of course!!
  • Full-Fat Greek Yogurt: Please PLEASE make sure your yogurt is full-fat. Obviously non-fat Greek yogurts have their place, but using full-fat here will help us get the right texture in the frozen yogurt.
  • Sugar: For flavor.
  • Orange Zest: just to add a little zing to the bars. If you only have lemons on hand, feel free to substitute with 1 tsp lemon zest instead!

How to Make Cherry Cheesecake Bars

Ok, enough about the ingredients. Let’s talk about the how-to!

  1. Heat the Cherries: First, we’re going to cook the cherries, 1/2 of the vanilla seeds, and the cherry preserves in a saucepan over medium heat. We really just want to make sure all the flavors from the vanilla and the cherry preserves start to come together in a cohesive taste. Let it come to a slow boil for 4 to 5 minutes.
  2. Place the Saucepan in Ice Water: Once we’ve heated everything together, we’re going to remove the saucepan from the heat and place it (the entire saucepan) in a big bowl of ice water. DO NOT dump the cherry mixture into the bowl of ice water!! Keep everything inside the saucepan, because we really just want to cool everything down so that it doesn’t melt the frozen yogurt once we add everything together.
  3. Freeze the Pan: Line the pan with foil, then your graham crackers, and place it in the freezer.
  4. Process Yogurt Mixture: Combine the remaining vanilla seeds, cream cheese, yogurt, sugar, and orange zest in a food processor or blender and let it blend until it’s smooth.
  5. Make the Frozen Yogurt: Freeze your yogurt mixture in an ice cream machine according to package directions OR until it comes to the right texture (almost like soft-serve ice cream). You’ll want to pay attention to your yogurt here because mine only took about 15 to 20 minutes, while my ice cream machine defaults to 25 minutes.
  6. Assemble Your Bars! Spread 1/2 of the yogurt over the graham crackers, then top with the berry mixture. Top with remaining frozen yogurt and the remaining graham crackers. Freeze until completely solid, but preferably overnight!

I hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as I do, and don’t forget to tag me on socials if you make this one so I can seeeee!

XO,

Sarah

 

Print Recipe

Cherry Cheesecake Bars

Light and delicious no-bake cheesecake bars filled with creamy frozen yogurt, cream cheese, and fresh cherries.
Prep Time1 hour
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: bar, cheese, cheesecake, cheesecake bars, cherries, cherry, cream cheese, frozen, frozen yogurt
Servings: 15
Author: Sarah Crawford

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup cherry preserves
  • 2 vanilla beans scraped and seeds removed
  • 2 cups pitted cherries
  • 30 graham cracker squares
  • 1 (8-oz) pkg cream cheese cut into chunks
  • 2 cups full-fat Greek yogurt
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp orange zest

Instructions

  • In a medium saucepan combine preserves and half the vanilla. Stir in cherries and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture begins to bubble, 4 to 5 minutes.
  • Set pan in a bowl of ice water and stir often. Set aside, replacing ice if needed so cherry mixture stays cold.
  • Meanwhile, line a 9- x- 13-inch pan with a piece of foil extending over the ends. Arrange half crackers in pan, flat side up, in 3 rows of 5 squares with sides touching; freeze pan.
  • Process remaining vanilla, cream cheese, yogurt, sugar, and orange zest in a high-powered blender or food processor until smooth.
  • Freeze yogurt mixture in an ice cream maker according to package directions, about 25 minutes.
  • Spoon half frozen yogurt over graham crackers and gently spread to cover, using a flexible scraper or offset spatula.
  • Spoon berry mixture on top of yogurt. Dollop remaining frozen yogurt over berries. Pat yogurt smooth.
  • Draw a knife tip or toothpick through the layers all over until top looks swirled. Gently push remaining graham crackers into top.
  • Freeze, covered with plastic, until center is firm enough to cut, at least 5 hours. Grasping foil, lift sandwiches from pan, transfer to a work surface, and cut into squares, trimming edges.