Friends – I’m no good at sticking to a diet. There are just too many delicious treats out there. Once I start thinking about something yummy, I can’t get it out of my head. Take these Lemon Cream Cheese Cookie bars, for example. 
They’re heaven in a pan. My mom says she found the recipe on a cake mix when we were kids, but since they’ve been in her recipe box for 35 years, she can’t tell me just which box they came from. They’re quick to make – the perfect blend of a chewy lemon cookie with creamy sweet filling. You mix just a few ingredients with a package of lemon cake mix and then press a portion of this into a baking pan. After baking for a few minutes, you take the cookie base out of the oven and spread a lemon cream cheese mixture over the top. Sprinkle the rest of the cake mix mixture over the top and bake again. The hardest part about this recipe is waiting for the cookies to cool down enough to cut into them. Yum!
Ready for the recipe?
Lemon Cream Cheese Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 1 pkg. lemon cake mix I use Betty Crocker.
- 2 eggs 1 for crumble mixture, 1 for cream cheese mixture
- ⅓ C. vegetable oil
- ⅓ C. sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon peel
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 8 oz. package cream cheese softened
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix 1 package of dry cake mix, 1 egg, and vegetable oil until blended and crumbly.
- Reserve 1 cup of crumbly mixture; set aside.
- Pat remaining mixture into a 13 x 9 in. baking pan and bake for 12 minutes.
- In separate bowl, beat together softened cream cheese, 1 egg, sugar, lemon peel, and lemon juice.
- Beat until smooth and fluffy.
- Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over baked crumble mixture.
- Sprinkle reserved crumble mixture over the top of cream cheese layer.
- Bake 15 minutes longer or until crumb topping is just beginning to brown.
- Allow to cool completely, cut into bars, and eat up!!
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Here’s the other hard part – try really, really hard not to eat the entire pan in one day.
Comments & Reviews
Sherri says
have you ever frozen them
Stefanie says
I haven’t, Sherri. We typically don’t have enough to make it through one day, much less stash them in the freezer. lol. BUT, I think they’d freeze just fine.
Marsha Mellott says
Can you make these a couple of days in advance? How do you store them?
Stefanie says
Yes, these bars stay good for a few days. Bake. Leave in the pan. Wrap well with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator. I wouldn’t go more than 1-2 days for maximum freshness.