Easy Mini Cheesecakes
All the amazing flavors in a cheesecake but minimal work.
I’m a sucker for cheesecake, but I don’t always have the time to commit to making them. Nor in the summer do I want to run my oven for over and hour. Theses are still baked, but only for 15-20 minutes. Very doable even in a heatwave.
I made something like these YEARS ago for my sister’s bridal shower. With that inspiration in mind, I wanted to make them again but now gluten free and with better ingredients.
For the crust, I just put a simple mills pecan shortbread cookie right in and called it a day! You could make your own, but I wasn’t looking to put that level of effort in today. I used coconut sugar instead of regular sugar in my cheesecake filling. Because it is more coarse, I put it in my blender/food processor to get it finer. Since I was right there with the blender, I opted to put everything in the blender to mix it! When I learned to make cheesecake, over mixing was a big “no no.” But because they’re mini cheesecakes, it’s really not that serious. And remember, we’re going for EASY. You can use homemade cream cheese or store bought! Whatever works! I did make a chia seed, coconut sugar strawberry jam to stir into this, but you could use whatever you had on hand. Make it easier by using store bought or pre canned jam. You do you!
You can skip the jam too and make these plain or top them however you wanted to! I think a turtle cheesecake would be BOMB! Or switch up the jam to you liking or whatever is in season! Make it yours!
Easy Mini Cheesecakes
Ingredients:
16-20 shortbread cookies (I used simple mills crunchy almond flour toasted pecan cookies)
1 cup coconut sugar
3 cups (3 8 ounce bricks) cream cheese, softened
3 eggs, room tempature
1/4 cup cream
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract
about 1 cup strawberry jam
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a muffin tin, line 20 cups with liners. Place 1 cookie in the bottom of each. It will make 16-20 mini cheesecakes pending on how full you fill them.
To make the filling, start by blending the coconut sugar in your blender until it’s more fine like granulated sugar. Add in the cream cheese, eggs, cream, lemon juice, and vanilla. Blend for 20-30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the blender. Blend for another 10-20 seconds or until well combined.
Pour the cheesecake batter into the muffin liners with the cookies. Leave a little room on top. Once you fill the liners with the batter, add in 1 ish tablespoons (give or take this amount pending on your taste) to the top of each cheesecake. Swirl the jam in with a knife.
Bake the cheesecakes for 15-20 minutes or until almost set. It’s okay for it to be a little jiggly in the middle. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature. Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving. Enjoy!
