American Flag Cheesecake Bars

 A great make-ahead dessert for summer entertaining. Thank you My Recipes

Crust:
1/2 cup whole almonds
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
3 8-oz. packages cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
80 fresh ripe blueberries (about 1 cup
1 cup seedless raspberry jelly

• Preheat oven to 325°F. 
• Line a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on 2 sides. 
• Mist foil with cooking spray.
• Make crust: Pulse almonds in a food processor until finely chopped. 
• Add flour, brown sugar and salt, and process until well combined. 
• Add butter and pulse just until mixture begins to come together; it should not form a ball. 
• Press mixture evenly over bottom of prepared pan. 
• Bake for 25 minutes, or until set. 
• Let cool on a wire rack.
• Make filling: With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. 
• Scrape down sides of bowl. 
• Reduce speed to medium-low and add eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined. 
• Beat in lemon juice, vanilla and salt.
• Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over crust. 
• Tap pan on counter top 3 or 4 times to burst air bubbles in filling. 
• Place pan on a large roasting pan and put in oven. 
• Pour hot tap water into roasting pan until it comes up about an inch around baking pan. 
• Bake for 40 minutes, or until filling is just set. 
• Cool completely on a wire rack, then cover with foil 
• Refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.
• Use foil overhang to transfer bars to a serving platter. 
• Decorate each bar with 5 blueberries in upper left corner to resemble stars on the American flag. 
• Place jelly in a ziplock bag, seal bag and snip off about 1/6 inch at one bottom corner. 
• Pipe jelly in thin lines on each bar to resemble stripes on flag.
• Lift cheesecake out of pan and onto cutting board. 
• Heat a large sharp knife under hot water; dry knife. 
• Trim off edges of cheesecake. 
• Carefully cut into 16 bars, rinsing knife under hot water and drying thoroughly between each cut.