Lemon Cheesecake Bars

There was only one thing wrong with these bars - their size! The finished traybake was less than 1cm deep - so each bar was not much thicker than a digestive biscuit. The idea was great - a lemon cheesecake filling between two layers of biscuit crumb - and the flavour was fine, but the thin layers meant that the crispness of the biscuit and the softness of the cheesecake blended into one, with not enough differentiation of textures.

I followed this recipe, which was also in one of my cookery books (The Ultimate Cookie Book). The only difference was that I used hazelnuts instead of pecans. The recipe says it makes 18-24 bars, depending on size. It says a lot for portion sizes that I cut the bar into 8 pieces, and still thought them stingy! Smaller bars would be a dainty addition to a tea table, where people want to try a little of everything, but as a dessert I want a decent sized portion!

We're off to Japan for a touring holiday in a few days time, so I'm unlikely to have time to take part in any of my usual baking challenges this month. Hopefully things will get back to normal next month. Last time we were in Japan, we actually lost weight - unheard of when holidaying, usually, but I think the portion sizes in restaurants reflect the fact that the Japanese tend to be much smaller than the average British person. If things go the same this time, at least I won't be worrying about losing the extra weight when I get back!