Merry Christmas to all! It’s hard to believe it’s Christmas Eve already! Yesterday my mom and I made our favorite holiday family traditional dessert: mini strawberry cheesecakes. These cheesecakes are amazing and so simple to make. The prep time is only about 5-10 minutes tops, and the baking time is roughly 10 minutes. The result is everything a strawberry shortcake should be in a mini version. These delightful treats are totally guilt free since they are so small. Give them a try!

Here is the recipe which comes from  a coworker of my mom’s about 25 years ago.

Carol T’s Little Cheese Cakes
(makes 24 little cheese cakes)

cheesecake
2-8 oz packages light cream cheese
¾ cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 box vanilla wafers (or 24 home made vanilla wafers)
24 medium cupcake liners

Line 24 medium muffin tins with cupcake liners. Place one vanilla wafer in the bottom of each liner. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl combine all the ingredients. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth and well blended. Spoon over the vanilla wafers.
Bake for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool.

Strawberry Sauce
½ package or 300g whole frozen strawberries
¼ cup white sugar
2 tsp corn starch

Puree the whole frozen strawberries. In a saucepan combine ¼ cup of white sugar and 2 tsp corn starch, stir in strawberry puree. Cook on medium heat. Bring to boil. Boil for about 1 minute until thickened. Remove from heat and cool. Spoon about 1 tsp onto each cheese cake. Serve chilled.

The original recipe I used (and greatly morphed) came from this website: http://recipegal.com/pumpkincheesecake/Bon-Appetit-Pumpkin-Cheesecake.htm

The cheesecake turned out divine. The flavor is exquisite. Not too sweet, but sweet enough, and nice and smooth. The crust is also very flavorful. The only recommendation I would make would be to add more margarine to the crust (maybe double) because the crust was a bit crumbly. Other then that, this is a must try cheese cake recipe.

Here is my morphed version.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust

1 ½ cups graham crumbs

1 ½ cups ground pecan

¼ cup of brown sugar (not packed)

¼ cup olive oil margarine (melted)

Filling

13 oz light cream cheese

1 ¼ cup no fat cottage cheese

1 cup brown sugar

1 ½ cups pumpkin pieces

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground allspice

¼ tsp nutmeg

4 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

For the crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the graham crumbs, ground pecan, and brown sugar in a bowl. Mix well. Add the melted margarine. Press into baking pan. Bake for 5 minutes. Set aside. (makes one crust). Two crust recommended for this recipe.

For the filling:

In a blender place the pumpkin, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. Blend until smooth. In a large bowl add the cream cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg. Beat with an electric mixture until combined. Now add the pumpkin mixture to the cheese mixture and blend until smooth. Pour over crust. Bake in your preheated oven at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes to an hour (depending on your pan(s) and oven). Cool. Refrigerate overnight. Serve.