These heart shaped mini strawberry cheesecakes are super cute. Perfect for Valentines day or any other day you want to treat the one you love.
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These no bake strawberry cheesecakes are just the cutest and taste fresh and delicious. There are a few tricks that help give these mini cheesecakes a fresh strawberry taste and smooth creamy texture.
Tips and tricks
Concentrate the strawberry flavor. Strawberries contain lots of water, which can reduce the creaminess of your cheesecake. Cooking down the strawberries concentrates the strawberry flavor and reducing the amount of water.
Skip the gelatin. I wanted to make a no-bake cheesecake without gelatin and keep these as vegetarian cheesecakes. To achieve this I used xanthan gum instead of gelatin. Xanthan gum is a natural product commonly used in gluten-free baking. Is vegan and doesn't have to be bloomed like gelatin or heated up like agar agar, it works great a room temperature. It can make the mix lumpy when added in as it can start to work straight away so you may need to blitz with an immersion/stick blender to ensure it's smooth and fully mixed.
Shape it right: For the shape I found these super cute silicone heart-shaped molds. You could use round molds too. They also work well in regular metal muffin tins, however if you are going to use these I highly recommend lining them with patty pans or the mini cheesecakes will be impossible to get out.
Looking for my delicious Valentine's Day desserts? Why not try making my strawberry crunch cheesecake, raspberry chocolate mousse or strawberry rhubarb tartlets. Delicious!
Ingredients
Strawberries: this recipe uses beautiful fresh strawberries. Its best made with really ripe strawberries that are full of flavor. You can sometimes get 'jamming' strawberries which are cheaper and a little less pretty but will work perfectly fine in this recipe. You could try with frozen strawberries but you will need to defrost them first, and check how sweet they are and add more sugar if needed.
Cream cheese: full fat cream cheese is best for this recipe for that classic creamy cheesecake taste.
Cream: I use thickened cream which as a fat content of about 34%. You could also use heavy cream or heavy whipping cream which is similar.
Sugar: white sugar is best in this recipe. You could use castor sugar if you prefer. I don't recommend using other types of sugar, they will be hard to dissolve and will compete with the flavors in this no bake cheesecake.
Lemon juice: fresh lemon juice is best for this recipe. You will need ½ a table spoon or approximatly the juice from half a lemon, depending how big and juicy your lemon is.
Vanilla extract: sometimes also called vanilla essence, depending on where you live. You can use either, or imitation vanilla essence, depending on your preference and budget.
Xanthan gum – sometimes called vegetable gum, is a fermented by product. It’s used in gluten free baking and a huge variety of other products to thicken food and is naturally vegan. It is available from some supermarkets, health food stores and online. If you can't get xanthan gum and you don't mind your cheesecake not being vegetarian you could trying using half a sachet of Knox gelatin instead.
Butter: because butter makes most things taste better. In this recipe it binds and sets the base.
Digestive biscuits: are a type of sweet whole meal cookie sold in Australia. If you can't get digestives you can use the same amount of Graham crackers or Graham cracker crumbs.
How to make mini strawberry cheesecake
First check your molds to see if they need to be greased or lined. I used these super cute silicon heart shaped molds which did not need greasing.
Make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature. This can take any where from thirty minutes to one hour depending on where you live.
To make the base
Crush up your biscuits into fine crumbs, either by breaking up and blitzing in a food processor. Or if you don't have one you can put them in a plastic bag on a chopping board, cover with a tea towel and carefully bash with a rolling pin. At a pinch a heavy small heavy based saucepan works to! Or use a mortal and pestle if you have one, just make sure its clean of any previous food first.
Melt the butter in a microwave in or in a pan on the stove top. Add the butter to the crumbs and mix well. Divide the mix evenly between twelve containers. Press down firmly with the back of a spoon and chill for one hour or longer before filling.
To make the filling
Hull the strawberries and cut into quarters. Blitz in a food processor or the chopping bowl of an immersion/stick blender. Strain to remove some of the seeds, pressing down with a spatula to get all the strawberry flesh through.
Add the strained strawberry to a small pot on the stove. Cook on low for about twenty minutes, stirring frequently, or until the strawberries have reduced to half a cup. This will help reduce the amount of water in your cheesecakes, making for a creamier flavor, and intensify the strawberry flavor, both are good things!
Once the strawberry mix has reduced to about half a cup transfer to a heat proof container, cover and chill until cold. You do not want to add hot or warm strawberries to the rest of your ingredients or they will not mix together properly.
Once cold remove from fridge. Sprinkle with xanthan and mix well. The mix will become very thick.
Hot tip: if you find your strawberry mix has lumps of xanthan gum try blitzing it briefly with a stick/immersion blender until well incorporated.
In a separate bowl add the room temperature cream cheese, lemon juice, vanilla and sugar. Mix well with electric hand beaters or in a stand mixer on a low speed until fully mixed. Add the strawberry and mix well, ensuring they are evenly mixed together. You can use a spatula for this but it will need some elbow grease!
In a separate bowl ad the cream and whip until soft peaks form. Fold the cream into the rest of the cheesecake mix until fully incorporated.
Spoon into molds on top of the bases, pressing down to remove all the air bubbles and smoothing over the top. An offset spatula is useful for this. Chill in fridge for four hours and upto overnight.
Once set remove from molds. If using silicon molds you can gently pull them back from the edges of the mold, then push up from the bottom until you can hold onto the biscuit base.
How to serve
To serve pop into a plate and garnish with some whipped cream and fresh strawberry. Perfect for Valentine's Day, date night or any other day!
How to store
These mini cheesecakes can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two days.
Have you made this recipe? Tell me how it went in the comments below and tag me on instagram so I can see your delicious creations! @keep_calm_and_eat_icecream
Looking for more yummy Valentine's day dessert recipes?
Why not try making
- No Bake Mini Cheesecakes
- Mini Burnt Cheesecake
- Strawberry sundae
- Strawberry popsicles
- Passion fruit cheesecake
- Biscoff Cheesecake
Follow me on Facebook or Pinterest for many more delicious recipes.
📋 Recipe
Mini strawberry cheesecake
Equipment
- Heart shaped silicon or round molds or muffin tins
- Electric hand beaters or stand mixer
- Immersion/stick blender
- Food processor or chopping attachment for immersion/stick blender
Ingredients
Base
- 1 and â…” cups (175gms) graham crackers or digestive biscuits
- ¾ of a stick plus one tea spoon (90gms) butter
Filling
- ½ lb (250gms) fresh ripe strawberries
- 2 x 8 oz packs, 16 oz in total (450gms) cream cheese at room temperature
- ½ cup (110gms) white sugar
- ½ tablespoon (7.5mls) lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
- ¾ cup (185mls) thickened cream
Garnish
- ¼ cup (62mls) whipped cream
- 6 medium fresh strawberries
Instructions
Base
- Depending on which molds you are using you may need to line them. Some silicon molds do not need to be lined or greased. If you are using regular metal muffin tins and I recommend you line them with patty pans.
- Crumb the biscuits into fine crumbs. You can break them up and pulse them in a food processor. Or you can put them in a plastic bag, cover with a tea towel and bash with a rolling pin.
- Melt the butter. You can do this on the stove top in a microwave.
- Add the melted butter to biscuit crumbs and mix well.
- Divine the biscuit and butter mix evenly between the molds. Press down firmly with the back of a spoon, taking care to firm down the edges.
- Refrigerate for one hour before filling.
Cheesecake filling
- Hull the strawberries and cut into quarters.
- Blitz in a food processor until smooth.
- Strain and add to a small pot. Simmer for about twenty minutes or until to total volume has reduced to ½ a cup.
- Refrigerate until cold.
- Remove from fridge. Sprinkle with xanthan gum. Mix very well. If the mix is lumpy and not combining well you may need to blitz it briefly with a stand/immersion blender. The mix will become very thick.
- Add the room temperature cream cheese, sugar, vanilla essence and lemon juice to a bowl. Beat with a electric hand held beaters or stand mixer until combined.
- Add the strawberry mix to the cream cheese mix and mix well. The mix will be very thick and may take come elbow grease to combine.
- In a separate bowl whip the cream until soft peaks form. Fold the cream into the strawberry cream cheese mix until well combined. Again the mix will be very thick.
- Spoon the mix into the molds. Press down to ensure all the air pockets are out and smooth the top.
- Refrigerate for at least four hours, preferably over night.
To serve
- Gently remove from molds. If you are using silicon molds you can gently pull them back from the edges, then push from underneath to make the cheese cakes easier to remove.
- Put onto a plate and decorate with whipped cream and a cut in half strawberry.
- Eat and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate based on an online database. The nutritional content of ingredients may vary by brand. If you require accurate nutritional information, you should calculate this based on the specific brands and products you are using.
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Sylvie says
Such cute little treats for Valentine's Day - and oh so delicious too! Love that it does not use gelatine as well so it's vegetarian!
Sarah Brooks says
Thanks Sylvie. Yes I wanted to find a away to avoid using gelatin for these, the xanthan gum works really well!
Emmett Taylor says
This worked spectacularly though I used vanilla extract instead of a vanilla pod. I also used dark chocolate and homemade salted caramel to top it.
Sarah Brooks says
Thanks Emmett, I'm so glad you loved it. Dark chocolate and salted caramel would work wonderfully with this strawberry cheesecake 🙂