Citrus Rhubarb Cheesecake Bars

with homemade rhubarb rosé jam

I had great hopes of getting this recipe out to you before the end of last week, but unfortunately I was thwarted at every turn. The circuit breaker hooked up to our dryer decided to stop working, Marco had his 4 month vaccines and needed lots of extra snuggles, and both Martin and I got sick. We ended up celebrating our 10th anniversary, both with fevers, over a very fancy dinner of jarred tikka masala sauce and rotisserie chicken.

But alas, I am getting this recipe to your inboxes finally and it’s a good one! We went to the farmer’s market a few weeks back so I could browse the in-season produce and it turns out that the only fruit in season in Minnesota in early summer is rhubarb, which I wasn’t mad about. I also picked up some pastries—one of which was a rosé, rhubarb, and pistachio danish—and met Heidi at the Serious Jam table where I snagged a copy of her self-published magazine on rhubarb.

I started brainstorming on the way home and discovered a few things: 1) I really loved the rosé rhubarb flavor combo and 2) I wanted to make some sort of jam. That afternoon, these bars were born.

about the recipe

There are three components to these cheesecake bars: a nutty, hazelnut and graham cracker crust, creamy citrus cheesecake, and rosé rhubarb jam.