Raspberry cheesecake bars are the perfect springtime treat

After many long winter months featuring comfort food and rich desserts, it’s time to lighten up! And these sweet, bright White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Bars are the perfect way to spring into the season.

This dessert is Instagram-worthy thanks to the pretty raspberry swirl mixed in with the creamy white chocolate filling — but don’t be fooled by the final product’s polished, bakery-like appearance. It’s actually deceptively simple to prepare and requires no fancy or hard-to-find ingredients.

The first step in this recipe is the preparation of the raspberry sauce. This is the most challenging part of this recipe, as it requires you to simmer your raspberries on the stove and then carefully strain them to remove the seeds when you are finished.

If you don’t have the time or patience for this step, you can swap out the fresh raspberry coulis for a store-bought raspberry jam. But, although it takes a bit of extra time, creating a from-scratch raspberry sauce really makes this dessert into something extra special and it’s truly not too complicated!

The crust is a no-brainer. It’s easily prepared with a mixture of butter and crushed Oreo cookies. You can use plain Oreos, or even get fancy and use Double Stuf or your favorite flavor of Oreos (lemon Oreos would be yummy with these fresh, fruity bars!).

You can melt the white chocolate in the microwave or by using the double-boiler method on the stove. However, Sally at Sally’s Baking Addiction advises that you do NOT use white chocolate chips in this recipe.

She explains that this is because white chocolate chips (as well as white chocolate wafers and candy melts) all have added stabilizers and additives that will make it much more difficult for you to melt the chocolate evenly.

So, make sure to use white chocolate bars, such as Baker’s Chocolate Premium White Chocolate baking bar.

You won’t want to rush this recipe, because the raspberry sauce and the white chocolate will require cooling before you mix them together.

The recipe also requires adding ingredients to a pre-baked crust, swirling the filling together with a toothpick to create that lovely design, baking and cooling. Find the full recipe and helpful tips at  Sally’s Baking Addiction.

Inspired? Consider some other raspberry-themed desserts that will also help you get in the mood for spring. For example, how about a Lemon Poppy Seed Raspberry Layer Cake from Style Sweet? Or a Chocolate-Raspberry Cheese Pie?

Pair these with some spiked raspberry rosé seltzer and you are ready for the warmth and sunshine of the upcoming season!