More pink and red treats for you today! I wasn’t kidding when I said I liked Valentine’s Day, and I have another treat lined up for next week too, so get excited. Believe it or not I actually made these months ago for a friend’s bachelorette party, but I figured I would wait to share them until February when pink things were more en vogue. Plus I kinda, sorta forgot about them – but I don’t know why I let them fall into my Adobe Bridge abyss, they were soo good! And with the help of a mini cheesecake pan, they were very adorable too :)
As you can see from the picture, I went with a very high crust:cheesecake ratio. This is partially due to the fact that the graham cracker crust can be my favorite part of a cheesecake, and also because I ended up with a lot of crumbs after I mixed everything together. The thicker crust also helps give these little delicate treats some stability, and adds a nice crunchy texture. I don’t often invest in baking pans that serve very limited purposes, mainly because I simply don’t have enough storage space, but I made an exception for this mini cheesecake pan because I fell in love with all the mini cheesecakes on Bakers Royale’s site. She does such beautiful things layering flavors and decorating them to perfection – she’s inspired me to try more cheesecake recipes and make adorable little creations just like hers. I’ve already made cookies ‘n cream cheesecakes before, but hers make me want to recreate them ASAP!
Last time I combined strawberries and cream cheese I stuffed the cheese inside the strawberry, now I’ve stacked them on top of each other but one thing stays the same – the flavor combination is classic for a reason. The sweet strawberry and tart cream cheese play together really well, and with the salty graham cracker crust there’s just no going wrong here. It’s a simple combination that is just so, so good! So simple in fact that I didn’t bother taking many photos of these beauties to share with you. So instead I’m bombarding you with another shot of my Valentine and I from our engagement session last summer. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Mini Strawberry Chesecakes
Ingredients:
for the strawberry cheesecake:
2 cups strawberries, rinsed and hulled
3 tbsp + 1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp + 1 tbsp lemon juice
½ cup boiling water
1 tbsp plain gelatin
1-1/4 cups heavy cream
8 oz cream cheese
¼ tsp salt
for the graham cracker crust:
1-1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
7 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Directions:
for the strawberry cheesecake:
- Combine strawberries, 3 tbsp sugar, and 2 tsp lemon juice in a blender and blend until smooth. Push mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to remove seeds. Set aside.
- Mix gelatin and 1/3 cup sugar in a bowl. Add the boiling water and stir until gelatin completely dissolves, about 5 minutes.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fit with a whisk attachment, beat the heavy cream to form stiff peaks. Add the cream cheese, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and salt, and beat on medium-high speed until mixer is smooth and well incorporated, at least 3 minutes.
- Slowly add the gelatin mixture to the cream mixture and gently fold to blend. Add the strawberry puree and continue to slowly fold the mixture until well incorporated.
for the graham cracker crust
- Grease the bottoms and sides of a mini cheesecake pan with non-stick baking spray.
- Combine the graham cracker crumbs and sugar in a medium bowl.
- Add the melted butter and mix until well combined. Press a ~ ¼” thickness of graham cracker mixture into the bottom of each well. Use the bottom of a shot glass or small cup to flatten out each crust.
- Divide the strawberry cheesecake mixture evenly among the cheesecake wells and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. Release from the mini cheesecake pan and garnish with whipped cream and a strawberry slice if desired.
Yay!! I get to be the first to comment :D that just made my day! Although I had a quick question, how many mini cheesecakes does this recipe make?
Erica — February 8th, 2013 @ 6:03 pm
Oops left off the yield, 12 mini cheesecakes!
These look great, I love the size of them! Have a great weekend!
I made something very similar to post next week. Instead of a mini cheesecake pan, I put the cheesecakes in small 4oz. canning jars that I had on hand.
My son loved them! I love strawberries, but wasn’t too crazy. I think some lemon zest would have been delicious.
I would like to know how many mini cheesecakes this makes and what size they were. I would like to make this as a birthday cake and if I can make it in a larger springform pan what size would I use. Pretty Please :)
BTW… These look absolutely delicious and they are exactly what my daughter is looking for as a birthday cake. Oops I see they make 12 minis.
Erica — February 13th, 2013 @ 5:31 pm
I’m sorry I don’t have a recipe for a whole cheesecake, the recipe I adapted these off of was for minis as well. But I’m sure if you do some googling you can find a good one! Good luck :)
Such a cute treat!
These look awesome! I am a very big fan of this crust to cheesecake ratio, as the graham cracker crust is my favorite part of cheesecake!
If only you knew how badly I want these right now… They look not just adorable but totally amazing. I love cheesecake!
I love mini desserts, maybe because I can eat five without feeling too guilty. I’m thinking other berries will be adorable as well! :)
would these freeze well?
Erica — February 20th, 2013 @ 9:45 pm
Yes I think so, but I can’t speak from experience sorry. If you give it a try, let me know how they turn out!
These look awesome! I’ve been wanting to get one of those mini cheesecake pans forever. I always use a muffin tin, but they turn out so much prettier this way!
These look so cute!! I would love to give it a try! Would they work without the gelatin? Thanks!
Could you just use a boxed Cheescake or do you have to do it this way and then just ass starwberries? Just curious
Erica — March 10th, 2013 @ 6:58 pm
I’m really not sure how that would work out. I assume it would work, if you just added the cheesecake to a mixer and added some strawberry puree, but I’m not definite as to what the consistency would be like in the end. If you try it please let me know and good luck!
I am just asking do you have any great cookie recipes that would be great for seniors at a nursing home,alot of them like soft cookies since them have few teeth or none. Could you send me a few if so ? Thank You !
This post just makes me so happy. I love strawberries, and I love cheesecake. This sounds like the perfect dessert for me! I definitely want to try making it sometime!
I made these last night and I love this recipe! I would just add that I did the 1/4 in crust and it is too thin, not like the picture…1/2 or 3/4 would be better. Also I used muffin pans and yield was 17 (with a thin 1/4″ crust). They came out of muffin pans fine after refrigerating overnight. Thank you for the recipe!
Wow,
I love these mini cheesecakes. They look stunning! Your photos are gorgeous too!
Just wanted to let you know that there is a page on Facebook sharing your full recipe: https://www.facebook.com/ILikeBeingAtHomeAndCooking
I bet you get this all of the time with your gorgeous pictures and recipes :)
I love pink! I saw your picture of strawberry cheesecake from the Pinterest so I came to check with your recipe. So I would like to try this :). I’ve pinned yours. Thank you for sharing.
Love the look of these! Wondering where you find mini cheesecake pans?
Erica — June 22nd, 2015 @ 7:19 pm
This is the one I have – http://www.amazon.com/Metallic-Cheesecake-13-90-Inch-10-60-Inch-1-6-Inch/dp/B0006SJZJ8
These looked so beautiful on Pinterest. I made these this week-end as practice for making them for an upcoming baby shower. They are delicious and so pretty! I ended up making them in the mini cupcake pans and ended up with about 80 of them! My only question is: do you think adding twice the gelatin would have an adverse effect? I am going to try to make them a little firmer next time.
What the fuc*? This recipe was absolutely from my ass.
The amount of gelatin was way too little. I put those “lovely” cheesecakes to my fridge overnight and them was like a cheesecake soup after 24 h. What the hel* are you thinking about?? I tried to save them but nothing helped this disaster.
My party went spoiled and i had friends visiting us from abroad.
Thank you very very much.
Hey,
These are absolutely delicious!
This has now become a family favorite, they are alwasy always asking me to make them. Whenever friends come over thats the first thing they look in the fridge for! I havent had a problem with it not setting properly as long as i beat the cream enougth its perfect and smooth. Thanks for the recepie!