Recipe: Mini-Strawberry Cheesecake Bites

It's no secret that my boyfriend's absolute favorite dessert is cheesecake. While I mix it up in the kitchen in terms of savory foods, cheesecake is always on our dessert menu. The thing I love about cheesecake is that it has a relatively long shelf-life in the fridge and it freezes well. For portion control, that's a wonderful thing. Most desserts are best fresh and eaten immediately.

When we were invited to a potluck, I immediately wanted to make dessert. I've learned from experience that not everyone will go for a cupcake at a potluck because no one wants to finish that entire thing by themselves. They normally just want a bite. It's part of the reason why I went on Amazon and ordered a mini-cupcake tray. I figured it would come in handy for other stuff too.

I love it when I'm right!

For this potluck, I decided to make mini-cheesecake bites. I read two recipes for it and the end result is what you see above.

The two recipes I consulted were Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Cupcakes from Annie Eats and Mini Cheesecake Bites from Bigoven.com.

Things I will do differently next time.

- Thicken the strawberry puree mixture or use good store-bought jam (It'll be prettier)

- Lighten the batter with 2 Tbsp Skim Milk 

- Bake the graham cracker crust 1 minute in the oven before filling with batter instead of baking with the batter.

Overall, it was a yummy bite (best eaten cold from the fridge)! My boyfriend and brother finished every bite that was leftover from the party so I know it passed the overall taste test. The notes to myself will just make this recipe even better!

Mini Strawberry Cheesecake Bites (~24 bites)

Ingredients

For the crust

1/2 cup Graham Cracker Crumbs

1/8 cup Butter (melted)

2 Tbsp Granulated Sugar

For the filling (best if all ingredients at room temperature)

1 8-oz package Low-Fat Cream Cheese (Neufchatel) 

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Egg

1/4 cup Sugar

For the topping

1/2 cup Fresh Strawberries

1 Tbsp Sugar

1. In a food processor, puree strawberries and sugar together. Set aside.

2. Line a mini-cupcake tray with paper liners so cheesecake will be easy to remove. (I found it easiest to press the liners down to make permanent folds in the paper lining before filling it with anything.)

3. In a mixing bowl, mix together graham cracker crumbs, butter and sugar together (easiest with a fork)

4. Using a small spoon, dole out 1 tsp of crust mixture into each baking cup (It's ok if you are a little generous!)

5. Use the back of a wooden spoon to press down the crumb mixture until it makes a fairly compressed crust on the bottom of the cups

6. Preheat an oven to 350°F 

7. In a mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy

8. Carefully incorporate egg and vanilla extract into the mixture with a mixer.

9. Using a mini ice cream scoop, portion out the cheesecake mixture in each cupcake liner (approximately 1 scoop per cupcake) until all of them are filled. Go back and add leftover batter until no batter is left and every liner is filled approximately 2/3's the way full.

10. Using a small spoon, dollop strawberry puree on each cupcake. Swirl with a toothpick to make a pretty design.

11. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.

12. Take the baked cheesecake out of the oven to rest at room temperature.

How they looked coming out of the oven.

13. After it cools down, refrigerate the cheesecake for at least 4 hours before serving (overnight is fine)!

I'm sure I'll be making these again sometime with the alterations I listed above. It's faster than the cheesecake I normally make (an hour in the oven) so this is great when I'm in a pinch!

Hope you are having a wonderful holiday break!