Meyer Lemon Cheesecake Bars with Lemon Curd Swirl

Creamy, dreamy, lemon-packed cheesecake bars with a crispy lemon cookie crust and a swirl of bright and tangy Meyer lemon curd… like a cross between a lemon bar and a classic cheesecake, it’s the perfect bite for springtime!

A cheesecake bar is a quicker, easier way to satisfy your cheesecake craving, without having to deal with the hassle of waterbaths or leaky springform pans. Instead, bake a thinner layer of cheesecake (swirled with Meyer lemon curd) in a standard square baking pan and then cut them into perfectly layered squares.

I’ve had a lemon cheesecake on my to-make list for some time now, and when a box of Meyer lemons showed up in the mail from my aunt in California (thanks, Sally!) I knew it was the first thing I wanted to make. (I still have a whole bunch left even after testing this one multiple times so… send your recipe ideas and requests, please!)

Anyway. Cheesecake! I knew I wanted lemon cheesecake, and I also wanted to do easier cheesecake bars rather than a full sized cheesecake.

I debated back and forth how best to make a mashup of cheesecake and lemon bars. I tested both this swirly version (loosely based on my peach cheesecake bar recipe), and a version that was basically like my favorite Meyer lemon bars with an extra layer of cheesecake in between, with a shortbread crust and a solid layer of lemon curd on top.

And while the lemon bar version was good, ultimately the lemony swirls were just too pretty to pass up (yes, I fully admit to judging a dessert by its cover, but in this case the taste certainly measured up to the appearance). With a perfectly proportioned layer of creamy cheesecake, a swirl of Meyer-lemon curd, and a crisp lemon-scented cookie crust, the final recipe is definitely one you’ll want to save and share.

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30 Minute Stovetop Applesauce (Small Batch)

This quick and easy stovetop applesauce comes together in under 30 minutes (including the time it takes to peel and dice the apples!) It’s a small batch recipe perfect for when you just need a few servings, and don’t have time to sit around watching a pot simmer for hours.

Lightly spiced and subtly sweetened (but also very flexible if you want to adjust the sugar and spices to taste), this applesauce is perfect by the spoonful, and also as a topping for your next batch of latkes, dolloped on french toast or waffles, or as an accompaniment to a juicy seared sirloin or pork chop.

Homemade applesauce in under 30 minutes? Sign me up!

I love just how superbly simple this recipe is. And it’s not one of those tricky recipes that claims to be 30 minutes but in reality requires 25 minutes of prep time before you even start cooking.

No, this recipe is truly a 30 minute recipe. In fact, even accounting for the time to snap photos of the process along the way (which always slows me down), my applesauce was done in exactly 27 minutes (yes, I timed it!) That includes peeling and dicing the apples, cooking them, and running it all through a food mill.

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Pistachio Butter Blossom Cookies

A classic cookie gets a pistachio twist, made with a triple dose of nutty pistachio flavor. The dark chocolate kisses pressed into the centers are melty and molten right out of the oven (my favorite way to enjoy them), but firm up again after an hour or so, making these cookies perfect for shipping or sharing.

These wickedly green cookies are buttery and tender, with a kiss of luxurious dark chocolate in the middle that would please even the grinch. I’ve packed as much pistachio flavor as I possibly can into these two-bite cookies, with pistachios in three forms: pistachio butter, pistachio flour, and pistachio extract.

The classic peanut butter blossom, now with 100% more pistachio (green is the new beige, after all).

These cookies are a result of having a glut of homemade pistachio butter leftover from my recipe testing experimentation last year. It felt too indulgent to use for something as menial as an afternoon snack (although apple slices + pistachio butter is sublime), so I was saving it for a special occasion (and by special occasion I mean a recipe as fabulous as this one).

Mission: accomplished! I just know you’ll love these cookies as much as I do.

Pistachio is such a nuanced flavor, much less in your face than peanut butter or even hazelnut, and even using pistachios in three forms (butter, flour, and extract) these cookies are still not in-your-face pistachio like, say, pistachio gelato; rather, they are more like a soft and buttery sugar cookie with an undertone of earthy, nutty pistachio and a hint of fragrant almond.

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Flourless Hazelnut Cake with Whipped Chocolate & Nutella Ganache

Nutty, fluffy, and fully flourless (and by flourless I mean there’s no wheat flour; it’s made with naturally gluten-free hazelnut flour), this tender and flavorful hazelnut cake has a soft, supple and satisfying texture and a swirl of fluffy whipped Nutella ganache on top, with candied hazelnut spikes for a showstopping finish.

Hazelnuts have a distinctive, earthy and nutty flavor compared to other nuts, and this cake showcases a triple dose of it, with a tender cake base made with hazelnut flour (or very finely ground hazelnuts), a cloud of whipped milk chocolate and Nutella ganache, and a sprinkle of candied hazelnuts on top for a little extra crunch and pinache.

Finally, my flourless cake trifecta is complete: pistachio, almond, and now hazelnut!

I topped this stunner with a swirl of fluffy whipped Nutella ganache and a sprinkle of candied hazelnuts for added texture and crunch (and also a few hazelnut spikes because, why not?)

There’s a reason I keep returning to to this kind of cake, where the magic of nut flour (in this case, hazelnut) combines with eggs, sugar, and butter and miraculously bakes up into a fluffy, tender cake with a texture unlike anything you’ve ever had before (unless you’ve made one of my other flourless cake recipes, of course!)

I feel like most other flourless hazelnut cake recipes out there are heavy on the chocolate, more a flourless chocolate cake with an undertone of hazelnut. This recipe, on the other hand, while it does bring in some chocolate in the topping (hazelnuts and chocolate do go oh so well together after all), it is, first and foremost, a hazelnut cake, and that’s the flavor that shines.

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