Mini Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes

We are almost finished with the berry bakes for April. We started with blackberries, then blueberries and now we are baking with raspberries. I wanted to bake with strawberries this week but when I went to a few stores they just didn't look great. I saw raspberries and thought to myself I can work with these. I decided to bake mini cheesecakes because I did not want to make a huge 9 inch cheesecake. Also mini versions of desserts just look so much cuter. Oh another reason is I literally had all of the ingredients in my fridge so I didn't have to buy anything extra.

Mini Raspberry Cheesecakes

Mini Cheesecake Filling

• 2 – 8 ounce packages of cream cheese (softened to room temperature)
• 2 eggs (room temperature)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• pinch of salt

Graham Cracker Crust

• 1 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons melted butter
• pinch of salt

Raspberry Puree

• 1 pint raspberries
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 3 tablespoons of water

Place your raspberries, sugar, and water in a blender, or food processor and blend together until you have no berry pieces.

I poured the puree through a sieve to remove the seeds (if you are into seeds you can skip this step)

I hate raspberry seeds, just strain them out

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray the inside wells of the mini cheesecake pan and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cup of graham cracker crumbs, the sugar and the salt. 

Drizzle the melted butter over the crumb mixture and toss until the butter has coated all the crumbs.

 

Spoon the crumbs into each well of the pan and press the mixture flat into the bottom of each well. 

make sure to flatten the crust down

Bake the crusts for about 10 minutes then remove them from the oven and set them aside to cool completely.

Reduce your oven temperature to 300 degrees F.

 Place the 16 ounces of cream cheese into the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until the cream cheese is smooth, scraping down the bowl several times. 

Next, add the eggs one at a time and beat until each is incorporated.

I forgot to take picture of the egg, but you need to add them one at a time.

 Add the heavy cream and the vanilla and beat for about a minute. 

Cream Cream

 Add the sugar and salt and beat well making sure you scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl so that all the cream cheese is incorporated. 

 I transfer this batter to a pitcher style measuring cup as I find it easier to pour the batter this way into the wells of the pan.

Divide the batter evenly between the 12 wells filling to the top of each well. 

Using a spoon, add little dots of raspberry puree to the tops of your cheesecakes, then take a toothpick and swirl each top.

Bake for about 20 minutes until the cakes are set. Remove to a cooling rack.

The cheesecakes do puff up but once they cool they fall down a bit

 Once the cheesecakes have cooled, I place them back in the refrigerator to chill completely before removing them from the pan. I have made the cheesecakes a day in advance as long as they are kept  in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

I made a little ganache to top some of the cheesecakes and added a fresh raspberry on top of each mini cheesecake. I also added more of the raspberry puree to the the top of some cheesecakes and sprinkled some powdered sugar on top.

yummy raspberry

these mini cheesecakes were really yummy

 a little chocolate drizzle never hurt nobody

close up of the cheesecakes

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes For The Win!

So this is part one of my pumpkin recipes for the month of October. I thought it would be cool to focus on one ingredient for a month. I like pumpkin flavored things and I know a lot of people do as well. I choose to make mini pumpkin cheesecakes because I thought they are the perfect little fall dessert. I added spices like fresh cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and Chinese five spice. People really love my pumpkin cheesecake, I normally make a gingersnap crust but I switched it up and made a pretzel crust. I wanted to use my mini springform pans so I made three 4 inch cheesecakes and topped it with caramel, chocolate ganache, and a white chocolate glaze. I also made mini cheesecakes using my mini cheesecake pan and then sandwiched  them together and covered them in dark chocolate. Those were truly bite size.

Bite size pumpkin cheesecakes

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes

These tasted amazing, I really like making mini desserts because you can plate these beautifully and you don't have to worry about slicing a giant cheesecake. You can just set the mini's on a platter and let people grab them. Also these are something different that you could make this fall or for a Thanksgiving party to impress your friends.

Here's what you are going to need

Pretzel crust

• 1 cup crushed pretzels
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 stick melted butter

Pumpkin Cheesecake

• 2  8oz cream cheese (softened)
• 2 eggs (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 can of pumpkin puree (8oz)
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
• 1teaspoon of allspice
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon of cardamom
• 1 teaspoon of ginger
• 2 tablespoons of cinnamon

toppings (optional)

• chocolate ganache
• dulce de leche

First take your crushed pretzels and add brown sugar and melted butter and stir together

to make a cup of crushed pretzels I used about 2 cups of whole pretzels

It will have a wet sand texture

Place in a sprayed springform or muffin tin and back in 350F oven for 8 minutes

 Take out of the oven, but don't turn off oven and set aside.

Take your softened cream cheese and add your sugar, vanilla, and spices and blend until combined.

when you can make an indention with your finger the cheesecake is softened enough

I always add a ton of spices

Taste it here

This is where I like to taste to  make sure that the spices are prominent, remember when you bake that the spices will subside, so I like to make the spices a little stronger. I also like to taste this before I add the eggs.


Add in your pumpkin and mix until combined.

give it one last spice taste before you add in those eggs

Add in your eggs and mix one at a time

don't overmix your batter or you will have cracks when your cheesecake bakes

Place the cheesecake mix in the pans

I just love how small and cute these are

Place cheesecakes in a 325F for 1 hour
Then let them cool to room temperature before placing in the refrigerator for a few hours

these are good as is but you could add a little whipped cream, or chocolate drizzle and serve them right up

I added a little dulce de leche and sprinkled sea salt on top (totally optional)

Add a little dulce de leche

They look so yummy

Here are the tiny ones before they were sandwiched together

I used a mini cheese cake pan for these with the leftover cheesecake filling

Here was some chocolate ganache I had in the fridge, I just whipped it  up and pipped that on top of the bigger cheesecakes

There is no better thing than whipped chocolate ganache

I didn't take a picture but I placed the cheesecakes in the freezer for 1 hour and  once they were completely frozen I melted dark chocolate with a little cream and poured that over the bite size cheesecakes and crumbled pretzels on top. ( you have to work fast because the chocolate ganache sets really fast since they are frozen)

these were gobbled up so fast

Here's what the inside looks like, you get those wonderful fall spices with the pumpkin cheesecake layers, salty from the pretzel layers, buttery sweetness from the dulce de leche and then it's all incased in chocolate. It's the perfect two bite desert.

I love how the dulce de leche oozes out

 As for the 4 inch mini cheesecakes I colored white chocolate ganache and added gold dust and little chocolate pearls, These were so yummy and something different.

I love looking at the fall layers

This is an easy recipe that you could change, if you are wanting to bake a 9in or 10 inch cheesecake you can with this recipe it just needs to be doubled. The baking times remain the same.