Hello, friends!
Let’s make a perfect gluten-free, fresh strawberry, ricotta dessert. It’s an easy dessert bar, a light and fluffy cheesecake, and a celebration of fresh strawberries all in one sweet bite!
In Louisiana, we’ve been showing off our spring strawberries for months now. We’ve got some nerve, but by the time summer rolls through the south we’ll be wiping our brows and missing strawberry season. As we hustle into May, I hope the beauty of strawberries has reached your neck of the woods.
Strawberry desserts are some of the most popular on my site (see: Strawberry Pie Bars) but they’re all baked. I wanted to throw in a fresh strawberry moment – all the bright, juicy strawberry flavor of eating strawberries straight from the basket.
Is it time? Let’s bake!
Here’s what you’ll need to make these gluten-free fresh strawberry bars:
โข almond flour and butter to create a tender cookie crust for our bars. You might recognize this crust from our Almond Flour Lemon Raspberry Bars – it’s easy and versatile!
โข whole milk ricotta cheese that we’ll flavor with a hint of lemon juice and zest for our cheesecake-like filling. You’re welcome to substitute the lemon flavoring for a dash of balsamic vinaigrette or a grind of black peppercorns if you prefer. I think both would compliment the strawberries very nicely.
โข granulated sugar for the crust, whipped ricotta, and strawberries. We’ll sweeten throughout.
โข cornstarch to add a crisp to the almond flour crust and to thicken our strawberry filling.
โข butter, salt, and vanilla extract, the pillars of every tasty baked good.
We’ll start by draining some of the water out of the ricotta cheese.
Place ricotta in a fine mesh strainer lined with a few paper towels. Gently press a few paper towels on top and let it sit at room temperature for at least 20 minutes. A bit of moisture will drain from the cheese into the bowl or soak into the paper towel. Don’t stress if moisture just soaks the paper towel and doesn’t drip into the bowl. It’s still working.
While the ricotta drains, assemble the crust.
In a medium bowl whisk together almond flour, granulated sugar, cornstarch and salt.
Add the cold butter cubes and use your fingers to break up the butter and create a mealy, butter-rich crumble crust. The mixture will feel wet – almond flour is, as flours go, very moist. Work the dough until some pea-sized butter pieces remain and the crust dough is just beginning to come together but is still very crumbly.
Transfer the dough crumbles to the bottom of a greased and parchment lined square baking pan and use your fingers to press into an even layer.
Bake the crust for 18 to 20 minutes until golden around the edges and lightly golden across the top.
While the crust bakes, whip the ricotta.
In the bowl of a food processor combine drained ricotta, sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest.
Whirl the mixture on low for a good 5 minutes, stopping the mixer every few minutes to scrape down the sides of the bowl. The goal here is to super smooth and aerate the ricotta. It’ll be absolutely delicious on the other side – don’t skimp on the 5 minutes.
Smooth and super spreadable. The mixture will feel light and loose but not soupy.
Refrigerate the ricotta while you bring the strawberry mixture together.
Crush or coarsely chop and smash about 1/2 cup of strawberries and add enough water for a scant cup in total.
In a small pot whisk together granulated sugar and cornstarch. Stir the strawberry water over the sugar and whisk over medium heat until the mixture thickens. Simmer for 2 minutes or so to thicken the mixture and let some of the water evaporate.
Remove from heat and add a pat of butter and a sprinkle of salt. Transfer the strawberry mixture to a small bowl and refrigerate to accelerate its cooling.
Allow everything to cool and assemble just before serving.
Once the strawberry sauce is cool, toss it over the fresh strawberries.
Smooth ricotta across the cooled crust.
Well… smooth the ricotta that you haven’t spooned into your mouth onto the crust.
Top with juicy strawberries and refrigerate until ready to serve.
The slices are juicy and that’s just was hoping for.
The almond crust is tender and chewy, the whipped ricotta is fluffy and sweet, the strawberries fresh, bright and juicy!
Please enjoy this gluten-free spring recipe! It’s a delight!
This recipe is inspired by a fresh strawberry pie in Farmhouse Weekends by Melissa Bahen.
Photographs with Jon Melendez.
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Almond Flour Whipped Ricotta Fresh Strawberry Bars
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 2 cups (220 grams) almond flour
- 1/3 cup (67 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (28 grams) cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick, 113 grams) unsalted butter, cold and diced
For the Whipped Ricotta:
- 15 ounce whole milk ricotta cheese
- 1/3 cup (67 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
For Fresh Strawberry Topping:
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 1/2 pounds fresh strawberries (about 4 1/2 cups chopped strawberries), divided
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon of butter
Instructions
- Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9ร9-inch square baking pan. Line with parchment paper so the flaps hang over two sides (making the bars easier to remove) and lightly grease the parchment.
- First, prep the ricotta. Line a fine-meshed strainer with a paper towel and place it over a bowl. Dump the ricotta into the strainer and lightly press the surface with more paper towels to soak up as much water as possible. Let the ricotta drain for about 20 minutes.
- Next, make the crust. In a medium bowl whisk together almond flour, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add the cold butter pieces and a tiny splash of almond extract if youโre using it. Use your fingers to work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is crumbly and the butter bits are about the size of oat flakes.
- Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and Use your fingers to press into as even a layer as possible. Bake for 16-18 minutes until just golden brown around the edges. Remove once taken to golden and set aside to cool completely. (You can speed this process up in the refrigerator.)
- While the crust bakes, make the whipped ricotta. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment, blend the drained ricotta, sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and bit of zest until very smooth and aerated, about 5 minutes. Stop the processor once or twice during blending to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure the whipped ricotta is evenly silken. I know five minutes feels like a long time but youโll really need this amount of time to smooth the cheese the a whipped consistency. Stop the food processor and transfer ricotta to a bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to assemble.
- To make the strawberries, in a small pan whisk together sugar and cornstarch. Mash 1/2 cup of fresh strawberries and add enough water to make 1 cup of strawberry mash liquid. Cook over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in salt and a small pat of butter. Set aside to cool to a warm room temperature, about 30 minutes. (You can also refrigerate the syrup and microwave for a few seconds so soften if youโre assembling the next day.
- To assemble, in a medium bowl toss the strawberry pieces with the strawberry glaze. Top the cooled almond crust with whipped ricotta. Spoon the berries on top of the whipped ricotta. Chill before serving, slice and enjoy. I think these bars are best enjoyed the day they are assembled.
29 Responses
Canโt wait to make this! Has anyone tried making the crust with 1/4 c butter & 1/4 c coconut oil? Iโm trying to healthily this a little. Iโm going to sub coconut sugar for gran sugar too.
My brother loves strawberry soo much! Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe, Joy! :)
I am going to make this again soon, if I can get some help with the ricotta. So my strawberries turned out perfect, except they look much more pink than red in the syrup. Arizona strawberries??
The crust is perfect, but took closer to 25 minutes to become golden. I substituted monk fruit ,and I could sit down and devour the crust like it was one big cookie!
The ricotta was too loose to sit on the crust. I let it sit under and over paper towels and it did drain into a bowl below. But maybe I need to toss the water and let it sit longer to see if more is coming? Would love someone’s advice because this was delicious, but couldn’t be removed from the pan without the strawberries and ricotta sliding off.
Help! thanks
I assembled mine on the plate instead of in the pan – this was mostly because I was only serving 2 of us so knew I wanted to save the rest for later & everything would keep best separate. But would address your issue! Also it looks from the photos like Joy removed the whole crust from the pan first & then added the toppings on a flat surface, which might be easier to slice & serve than trying to lift up from a pan?
this looks soooooooo good!
Followed recipe to the T. Came out very good. Next time will cut down on sugar though. It was a bit too sweet to my taste. Also it took longer to get that nice golden color – 32 minutes to be exact. The thermometer inside my oven was showing 350F, not sure why it took much longer than it noted by the author. I was very surprised by how hint of lemon in ricotta mix goes so very well with strawberries. Great recipe! Definitely a keeper. Thank you for sharing! Keep them coming! :)
This was so easy to put together and my family gave it 4 thumbs up. I will be making this all summer long.
I’m so glad!!
So perfectly scrumptious!!
I made these! I always read comments before I make a recipe, so Iโm offering my thoughts in case they help anyone else. The crust came out really well – I donโt usually love GF baking, but this was an objectively delicious crust. The ricotta layer was also incredible. I thought about adding more lemon zest than was called for, but in the end I thought the recommended amount was just right. The strawberry layer tasted good, but was too wet to sit assembled for too long. I made/assembled this in the morning and by the time I set it out for dessert, it was a wet mess. Still delicious, just unattractive. Next time, Iโd wait to add the strawberries until just before serving. Still a really tasty recipe – Iโll make it again! Thank you Joy!
I made these today and they were absolutely delicious!! For anyone that wants to try a non-dairy form of of ricotta, I used this recipe (without the salt, garlic, yeast flakes) https://lovingitvegan.com/vegan-ricotta/. And it worked perfectly for these yummy bars. Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe, Joy!
love these with whipped ricotta, nice way to contrast the sweetness! Also with almond flour yay!
YUMMY!
I wish this had more structure. I just made it and the crust is falling apart, not really holding together as a solid base. Did I do something wrong? Would appreciate any tips/advice
I also found my crust to be pretty crumbly – definitely fork food not finger food. Still delicious though
This recipe sounds amazing. I plan on making this soon. Thank you.
WOW, this looks/sounds amazing! I’m going to print this out and try making it with Monk Fruit Sweetener granules instead of real sugar, since I’m trying to cook and bake healthier.
Thank you for sharing this fantastic recipe!
Wow, the recipe looks amazing. I look forward to making this soon. Thanks a lot for sharing the recipe.
Strawberry season isn’t until July where I’m from in Canada but this will be so good once it’s time. Thank you!
These looks SO AMAZING! Iโve noticed some recipes out there call for almond flour and others for almond meal. I have TJs almond meal on hand (I never seem to see almond flour in stores)…anyone know if that would work?
Christy, I also think these look yummy and canโt wait to try them. Re: your question. Almond meal and almond flour are essentially the same product with almond flour being ground finer. Iโve used both in baking with good results. If you want a finer grind you can give the almond meal a whirl in the blender or food processor to make a finer grind. Hope that helps!
You should be able to substitute almond meal in this recipe with no problem. You will most likely end up with a more crumbly crust because Almond Meal is more coarsely ground with skins on than Almond flour.
Also, I don’t know where you are from, but in my area I can find Almond Flour at WalMart, Sam’s Club, Costco and most local grocery stores.
Thanks so much Mary and Patti!! Iโm in Houston, so almond flour is probably available somewhere, but I would love to use up my almond meal if possible :)
Ricotta is like freshly whipped cream. A spoon for the chef, a spoon for the dessert.
Yum!
I was into making yogurt cheese, ages ago. You just drain yogurt the same way to get a thicker consistency. I might sub out some of the ricotta for Greek Yogurt as I seem to keep that around. And it might add some tang.
But your recipe looks fab and I’ll give it a whirl (HA! see what I did there?).
Love your food Joy.
Thanks!
Oh Yum! This looks so delicious and beautiful! I don’t have any almond flour on hand but I do have a ton of regular flour..can I use that instead and yes, it won’t be gluten free but gluten doesn’t bother me!
I am excited to try this recipe that is so tempting and beautifully made. It is
a great way to use ricotta, fresh strawberries and non traditional flour.
Thank you for sharing.
Think I just found my Sunday dinner dessert! Thanks so much for sharing.