Spool and Spoon: Frozen Strawberry & Lemon Creamy Delight Bars

Oh how I love summertime get togethers -- they sure are fabulous ways to relieve day-to-day stress. We had a belated Independence Day celebration with two of our favorite people and their beautiful baby girl on Saturday. They gave me free reign on apps and I just knew I couldn't leave the house without a dessert in tow as well. I scoured my desserts and appetizer boards on Pinterest and chose a few I thought would please us all. I kind of hit the jackpot with The Recipe Critic's Frozen Strawberries and Cream Dessert.

I ever so slightly adjusted Alyssa's recipe (while I'm 110% sure it would have been excellent on its own) - giving the lemon factor a bit more umph and cutting down on the sugar content as well.

Strawberry & Lemon Creamy Delight Bars - Adapted from The Recipe Critic

Ingredients:

4 graham cracker sheets

1 handful of rolled oats

3/4 cup pecans

8 tablespoons butter

1 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 egg whites

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup heavy whipping cream

Juice from 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon

5 ounce cream cheese, softened

2.5lbs sliced strawberries (I bought a bulk 3lb container and after tossing the not so perfect berries, I ended up with 2.5lbs)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper

In your handy dandy food processor, combine graham crackers and pecans until finely ground.

Melt butter in 15 second increments in a microwave safe container

Using a fork, combine the butter with the ground crumbs, rolled oats, flour, and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl.

Spread mixture in the bottom of the parchment lined sheet pan and cook for 20 minutes, stirring every 5-7 minutes.

Remove the sheet pan from the oven and let cool.

With a stand mixer, beat the egg whites and sugar on medium for 3 minutes. Gently pour in the heavy cream and mix for 6 minutes.

Add juice from one lemon (careful to leave out the seeds!)

Then mix in the cream cheese until creamy.

Gently fold in sliced strawberries and lemon zest.

Sprinkle half of the crumble into the bottom of a square baking pan. Pour the strawberries and lemon mixture on top and sprinkle the rest of your crumbs on the top

Cover with saran wrap and freeze overnight.

When you're ready to serve, take it out about 30 minutes beforehand and dig in!

I won't lie, this baby was not as quick to throw together as I had originally imagined. It's kind of a pain taking out so many different appliances and pans and mixing bowls and then waiting overnight to dig in... but wooo-weee! It was totally worth it.