When I saw Giada (I know, I’m a bit of an Italian fanatic) make these adorable individual cheesecakes the other day, I knew I had to try it. However, I’m not a big fan of citrus in desserts (after all, she’s the Italian one, not me (everything in Italy is lemon-flavoured. Seriously.)) I opted to, naturally, alter things to be more to my liking. Thus came about vanilla cheesecakes, witha honey graham crust rather than chocolate, piled high with strawberry chunks.
Mini Vanilla Cheesecakes with Strawberry Topping
Adapted from Giada de Laurentiis’ Individual Orange and Chocolate Cheesecakes
I mostly followed the recipe as it was, with these modifications:
- As the “6 servings” seemed to imply “6 mini cheesecakes”, I doubled the batter recipe… little did I know this actually made for 24 cheesecakes as opposed to my target of 12. No worries- I’m making a second batch with other alterations later this evening :).
- Used honey Teddy Graham crackers for the crust rather than chocolate wafers. I also used a heaping cup to have a slightly thicker crust. The comments suggested using a 1/2 cup instead of 1/3 but keeping the butter proportion the same, and adding some sugar. I ended up doing a heaping cup of crushed crackers (with the doubling), a little under 4 tblspn of butter, and 1 tblspn of sugar.
- Also as per the suggestions in the recipe’s comments, I first laid in mini muffin liners, then brushed those with butter, then put in the suggested 1.3 teaspoon-ish of crust material per cup, and used a shot glass-sized candle (gift from the boyfriend… it smells like chocolate. Yum!) to push down the crust into the cups. I then baked them (at 350) for 3 minutes- this is supposedly meant to help it firm more.
- As far as the batter, I added the proportions exactly as suggested as the thought of cheesecake rather terrified me (it just sounds difficult), but did use low-fat ricotta, low-fat whipped cream cheese, and substituted half the cream cheese for mascarpone. I also added in a 1/2 tablespoon of vanilla extract.
- After cooling (still in the tin) on a wire rack for 20 minutes, I then put the entire tin in the freezer- and haven’t taken it out since. The cheesecakes are best eaten after being taken out of the freezer for 10-15 minutes.
- I then topped each cheesecake with some small pieces of chopped strawberry and a very light sprinkling of sugar.
They’re delicious, absolutely adorable, and would be cute for a party. Next time, I’m incorporating crushed strawberries into the batter to make them strawberry cheesecakes :). But for now, these little guys are yummy!
Want some of these mini cheesecakes? Go become a fan of Fruippe on facebook for a chance to win the cheesecake raffle!
