This year for my family Christmas party I was asked to make dessert – my favorite thing to make for any party! There were about 40 people coming to the party, so I had to make a lot of dessert.
I love serving mini cheesecakes. Everyone gets their own personal cheesecake, it’s easy to serve, and by baking a fruit swirl into the cheesecake, it’s already decorated and ready to eat.
Walkers sent me a collection of their delicious, buttery shortbread cookies and I decided they would make a fabulous cheesecake crust. So I made 4 dozen mini cheesecakes; 1 dozen mini lemon cheesecakes with a Walkers Lemon Thins crust, 2 dozen mini raspberry swirl cheesecakes with a Walkers Raspberry Thins crust, and 1 dozen blackberry swirl mini cheesecakes with a graham cracker crust.
All the flavors were rich, creamy and fabulous, but the lemon swirl mini cheesecakes were my favorite.
The berry/lemon swirl is easy to do. I just warm some jam/lemon curd in a baggie in the microwave. Trim one corner of the baggie and swirl the jam/curd on top of the cheessecake.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Walkers Lemon Thins crumbs, (1 package)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 2 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 Cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 Tablespoons sour cream
- Pinch of salt
- MarthaStewart.com
- 3 large egg yolks
- Zest of 1/2 lemon
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, (2 lemons)
- 6 tablespoons sugar
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces (I only used 2 tablespoons butter for the cheesecake swirls)
- Combine yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar in a small saucepan. Whisk to combine. Set over medium heat, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure to stir sides and bottom of pan. Cook until mixture is thick enough to coat back of wooden spoon, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Remove saucepan from heat. Add the butter, one piece at a time, stirring with the wooden spoon until consistency is smooth.
- Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd to avoid a skin from forming; wrap tightly. Let cool; refrigerate until firm and chilled, at least 1 hour. Store, refrigerated in an airtight container, up to 2 days. (This lemon curd recipe makes more than is necessary for for one batch of mini cheesecakes.)
Berry Swirl Cheesecake
- Use Walkers Raspberry Thins instead of Walkers Lemon Thins and substitute approximately 1/3 cup of seedless berry jam for the swirl on top instead of lemon curd.
Directions
- Preheat oven to 300º. In a medium bowl, combined cookie crumbs, 2 tablespoons sugar and melted butter. Divide crumbs evenly into 12 mini cheesecake or muffin cups. With fingers or round end of a wooden spoon, press crust down evenly.
- In a stand or electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until well combined. Add in eggs one at a time following with the vanilla, sour cream, pinch of salt. Mix until just combined.
- Fill each crust almost to the top with cheesecake batter. Pipe about a teaspoon of lemon curd on top of each mini cheesecake and swirl curd into batter with a knife or toothpick to make a pretty design on top.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until cheesecake is set. Remove from oven and let sit in pan at room temperature for 30 minutes before removing. Transfer mini cheesecakes to a cooling rack to cool completely, another 30 minutes or so.
- Refrigerate until serving.
- Combine yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar in a small saucepan. Whisk to combine. Set over medium heat, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure to stir sides and bottom of pan. Cook until mixture is thick enough to coat back of wooden spoon, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Remove saucepan from heat. Add the butter, one piece at a time, stirring with the wooden spoon until consistency is smooth.
- Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd to avoid a skin from forming; wrap tightly. Let cool; refrigerate until firm and chilled, at least 1 hour. Store, refrigerated in an airtight container, up to 2 days. (This lemon curd recipe makes more than is necessary for for one batch of mini cheesecakes.)
Notes
!Berry Swirl Cheesecake Use Walkers Raspberry Thins instead of Walkers Lemon Thins and substitute approximately 1/3 cup of seedless berry jam for the swirl on top instead of lemon curd.
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I love to bake, especially cookies, cakes, and pies. I’ll post my adventures in the kitchen, my favorite new recipes, as well as our family favorites.
These are so pretty and dainty! Love the swirl!
what a pretty party treat! lemon would be my favorite too BUT they all sound tasty! love you!
The cheesecakes look delish! Merry Christmas to you.
what a fabulous idea to bake cheesecakes in cupcake liners!!!! individual and perfectly shaped!!
Perfect Christmas dessert. Of course I’d eat cheesecake any day of the year!
Love these! Using shortbread rounds are always perfect for minis, but I have never seen the Raspberry Thins…only the plain. Genius!
Mini Cheesecakes! I can never resist cheesecake. All three flavors looks so tempting.
~Judy
Love cheesecake Barbara and they are perfect portion too! As you know I love anything lemon so the lemon curd looks fabulous too! Yum!
These look so good, and they’re perfect for party food! I think all of them sound fabulous.
Your mini cheesecakes are gorgeous… oh I wish I had time to crank out a batch for Christmas. And I’d love to know where you found those adorable mini muffin liners.
Thanks! They are just regular sized muffin liners and I actually just picked them up at Walmart.
I’ve been searching for a tasty (and good-looking) mini cheesecake recipe – thanks for sharing this. Love the step-by-step pics, too.
These look so good. I have to bring dessert as well. These individual servings are a great idea.
These look so pretty and tasty. These will be on my list to make for the new year!
So pretty! Cheesecakes are so delicious.
Happy holidays!
Cheers,
Rosa
such a great idea to use the cookies as base! and your cheesecakes look to die for..i love those swirls too!
Oh.and i forgot to add Merry Christmas to you & family!
LOVE these, Barbara! So simple, too! Who doesn’t love cheesecake?
Mini cheesecakes area great idea for a crowd, and they look fantastic! The swirls on top are so cute.
What a great use of the shortbread. Save me a raspberry one.
Merry Christmas my friend. I hope the day is fabulous.
These are beautiful! I love cheesecake, so maybe these would help with portion control!
Oh Barbara, these mini cheesecakes are great…so festive the colors, absolutely perfect to celebrate the holidays
Barbara these are totally inspired! I *LOVE* the idea of a shortbread crust! You are a genius!
How perfect do these little cheesecakes look, I love mini’s too but one is never enough. Best wishes for Christmas and I will be checking up to see what your baking in the new year.
Yum! These look so delicious mum and I’m not surprised that they asked you to make dessert-but of course! You are the dessert queen
I hope you and your family (hehe my adopted family 
) have a wonderful Christmas with lots of love and laughter 
xxx
Wow, what a great idea making individual little cheesecakes, brilliant. Have a wonderful Christmas Barbara. Stay safe, eat lots & laugh even more & enjoy!
Mini cheesecakes area great idea for a crowd, and they look fantastic! The swirls on top are so cute.
One can never go wrong in offering mini-treats like these. Great dessert ;o)
Barbara, here’s wishing you the very best during this difficult holiday period and hoping that the New year will bring on only good things for you and your loved ones ;o)
Ciao for now,
Claudia
your mini cheesecakes look so scrumptious and adorable!
These are gorgeous Barbara! Merry Christmas!
wow..They lookk awesome…Merry x’mas to you dear!!:)
Oh, Barbara, these are so beautiful – and really festive. I love this idea of different flavored mini treats. Perfect! Wishing you and your loved ones a truly joyous and merry holiday season, my dear friend! xo
Merry Christmas Barbara!! These mini cheesecakes would be the hit of any party! XO
They were DELICIOUS!!!
I have made these mini-cheesecakes in the past and you are right to make them here; they are always a big hit, easy to make, can be frozen, bite-size calories so not too bad, what is there not to like? plus yours offer a choice of flavor accents. Perfect!
wow. each of ur cheesecake is so well marbled! they look very pretty!
this are just wonderful! i love how cute they look. thank you for sharing this.
I absolutely love this idea, Barbara! Not only do they make a beautiful presentation, but I am sure that they taste fantastic.
I love these. They are adorable and great idea. So colorful too. I hope you had a great holiday! Happy New Year! I can’t belive the year is almost over!
I really adore individual serving size puddings – they rock! Happy holidays!
I love the idea of mini cheesecakes — perfect for portion control! These look fantastic, Barbara!
I’m with you, Barbara. I love individual desserts. And your cheesecakes look a delight!
What gorgeous little treats! I love how easy they are to customize, too!!
Delish!
They look lovely. I’d have a hard time chosing a favorite.
~ingrid