These Margarita Cheesecake Bars are creamy, made with a touch of tequila and sit on a buttery graham cracker crust.
Cheesecake bars made with actual tequila?! Yes, please!
These Margarita Cheesecake Bars are the perfect little dessert to help you ring in the New Year, Cinco de Mayo, 4th of July, your birthday, and pretty much any day of celebration.
If you’re not looking to get saucy, no need to worry – the entire recipe only has about 1.3 tablespoons of tequila and triple sec, so even if you eat the entire batch (which would be super impressive), you wouldn’t even notice the alcohol.
The cheesecake bars feature an easy to make graham cracker crust that comes together in only 10 minutes. All you need are 2 cups of graham cracker crumbs (about 13 sheets), butter, sugar, cinnamon and a pinch of salt.
The crust is so simple and flavorful, I don’t think I’ll ever try to make a different crust for cheesecake again.
To serve, I garnished the chilled Margarita Cheesecake Bars with lime zest, some lime slices and a tiny bit of coarse sea salt for the ultimate margarita experience.
Whipped cream is also a good option. 🙂
I hope you like this recipe as much as I do! Have a wonderful New Year and see you in 2018!
Ingredients
For the crust
- 2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 13 cracker sheets)
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch salt
For the filling
- 16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 tablespoon tequila
- 1 teaspoon triple sec
- zest of 1 lime
Instructions
For the crust
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- In a large bowl, add graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Mix together with a fork and press into the bottom of a 9x9 square baking pan.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the crust is firm and has set. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
For the filling
- In a large bowl, add the cream cheese and sugar. Mix together with a mixer until well combined.
- Add the Greek yogurt, eggs, lime juice, tequila, triple sec and lime zest. Mix together until well combined.
- Pour the filling into the crust and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the filling is set. It will be a little jiggly, but firm.
- Remove from the oven and set aside for 30 minutes to cool. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.
- Enjoy with whipped cream and more lime zest if desired.
Nutrition Information
Can this be doubled and made in a 9×13 pan?
Hi Renee! Yes, you can!
Can I make these the day before I plan to serve them at a dinner party?
Hi Janet. Yes, you can!
Hey, I am making these for this wkend. I am looking at adding strawberries. Just wondering if you think I should just puree and add to the cream cheese?
Hi Gail! Yes that sounds like it would be delicious! Let us know how it turns out!
I love this recipe, it has become one of my favorites. I add a little more lime juice, tequila and triple sec to give it a little more margarita flavor. It’s always a hit!
Hey, new reader here. I just made the recipe and the result is stunning!
I didn’t have both triple sec and tequila on hand, so I did without by adding a little more lime juice. I could definitely have added more though, the end result tasted just a tiny bit too much like cream cheese to my taste. The zest and juice of one or two more limes would probably be a good fix. It’s just me though, I really like limes!
Oh and I made the crust with the only crackers I had on hand, very lightly salted soda crackers. Still did a great job overall!
Yay! I’m so happy you liked them! Aren’t they just addicting?
I just want to say wow, these cheesecake bars are so freaking good. They didn’t make it through the weekend lol Thanks for the recipe
Aww, thank you so much Denise! I brought a batch of them to my friend’s bachelorette party a while ago and everyone destroyed them haha