Mini strawberry cheesecake
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.
Servings: 12 individual mini cheesecakes
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 ⅔ 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
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 and stabilize food. It is available from some supermarkets, health food stores and online.