These Cherry Cream Cheese Crescent Roll Bars. A.K.A Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars are an incredibly quick, easy fruit dessert recipe with cream cheese and cherries sandwiched between layers of sweet, crispy flaky buttery golden pastry.

Cherry Crescent Roll Cheesecake Bars are so easy to make and are perfect if you're looking for an easy simple dessert recipe, with little prep time.

This delicious recipe is always popular, and crowd-pleasing, and perfect for a party or potluck. This recipe is a twist on the popular Mexican Sopapilla cheesecake.

I've just made it very easy and simple, and the ingredients will be available to anyone all over the world. Many recipes call for Pillsbury crescent rolls to make a cheesecake bar recipe. What if you wanted to make this sopapilla cheesecake recipe without crescent rolls? No problem!

In this recipe, we have used a ready-rolled puff pastry. I actually prefer using puff pastry because it gives you a very buttery, golden, flaky crust with a crunchy sweet sugar topping. 

These cherry cheesecake bars have a thick layer of creamy cheesecake between 2 sheets of flaky pastry.

Then they're topped with buttery sugar to give a crunchy crisp topping and baked in the oven until golden and crisp on the outside and rich and creamy in the middle.

The cream cheese filling is a lovely rich and smooth, creamy texture, and when it's set, it becomes very cheesecake-like.

So if you like cheesecakes and pastry, you will enjoy these cream cheese-filled crescent roll pastries.

After making these crescent roll bars, I am sure this will become your favorite dessert! It's so quick and simple to put together, and the ingredients are likely to be staples in your house.

Using ready-rolled, frozen or fresh pastry makes for speed and simplicity too. I always advise keeping a supply of this or crescent dough in your freezer or fridge.

You know that time when unexpected visitors come over and you want to give them something delicious with a cup of tea? You can certainly make this sopapilla recipe in no time at all and just keep in the fridge until they arrive. They'll think you spent ages making it!

For the cherries, I have used frozen, sweetened cherries. (The bag below was from Aldi)

You can also buy them canned or in jars, in their own juice or syrup. You can use any, just make sure you fully drain the cherries, remove the stones if they still have them, and dab dry with kitchen paper before using them. I suggest you also taste one for sweetness.

If, for example, they have been stored in syrup, you may want to adjust the sweetness in the cream cheese filling to your taste. 

I would not advise using fresh cherries as they are seldom juicy and sweet, plus you will need a lot of prep time to pit the cherries. If you haven't ever pitted cherries before it is incredibly time-consuming! 

Alternatively, you can swap the cherries for another fruit, such as raspberries, blackberries, peaches or use lemon juice and zest to flavor the cream cheese. I would suggest if using another fruit, to make sure you drain the fruit so the pastry doesn't get soggy.

I can most definitely say this sopapilla cheesecake bar recipe is the BEST! It's quick, simple, easy to make, inexpensive and so delicious for breakfast, brunch, snack time or dessert. 

So let's get straight to the recipe and see how we make these simple and delicious cherry sopapilla cheesecake bars. Please enjoy!

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Pre heat oven to 350 F or 180 C.

Unroll and spread the crescent rolls or puff pastry sheets flat then cut in half. Then with one-half of the pastry, line the bottom of a greased 8 x 8 baking pan. I also line the pan with foil first so it is easier to lift out after baking.

2. In a mixing bowl, add the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the butter and regular sugar. Mix well with a spoon or whisk.

3. Spread the mixture evenly over the crescent roll/puff pastry layer.

Then add the cherries all over, and add the 1 Tablespoon of regular sugar over the cherries.

4. Carefully place the other layer of pastry on top of the cream cheese mixture, 

then using a brush, spread the melted butter on the pastry 

and then a sprinkling of sugar.

5. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes until golden brown.

Allow to cool for at least 1 hour, keeping it in the baking pan, in the refrigerator before trying to slice, so it can firm up a little.

I prefer to let cool at room temperature then pop in the refrigerator overnight, still in the pan so it can really firm up before you slice. 

When you're ready to slice, I would suggest slicing into bars or squares as you can see in the photos below. First, take the sides of the foil and lift out of the pan and place on to a chopping board. Then slice 3 slices using a sharp knife all the way down. 

Then rotate the board 90 degrees and make one slice halfway across so you end up with 6 slices.

If you want to make squares instead of rectangular shapes, make 2 slices across here and you will end up with 9 squares. 

Serve as it is or with a nice blob of whipped cream!

We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our Cherry Cream Cheese Crescent Roll Bars recipe. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

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