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.
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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.
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Lemon and Berry Swirl Mini Cheesecakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup Walkers Lemon Thins crumbs (1 package)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 2 8 oz packages cream cheese softened
- ½ Cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 Tablespoons sour cream
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- 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.
- Lemon Curd
- 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.)
Sue
These are beautiful! I love cheesecake, so maybe these would help with portion control!
Megan
What a great use of the shortbread. Save me a raspberry one. 😉
Merry Christmas my friend. I hope the day is fabulous. 🙂
lisaiscooking
Mini cheesecakes area great idea for a crowd, and they look fantastic! The swirls on top are so cute.
Elle
LOVE these, Barbara! So simple, too! Who doesn’t love cheesecake?
faithy
Oh.and i forgot to add Merry Christmas to you & family! 😀
faithy
such a great idea to use the cookies as base! and your cheesecakes look to die for..i love those swirls too!
Rosa
So pretty! Cheesecakes are so delicious.
Happy holidays!
Cheers,
Rosa
Ann
These look so pretty and tasty. These will be on my list to make for the new year!
Bonnie
These look so good. I have to bring dessert as well. These individual servings are a great idea.
OohLookBel
I’ve been searching for a tasty (and good-looking) mini cheesecake recipe – thanks for sharing this. Love the step-by-step pics, too.
Margie
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.
Barbara
Thanks! They are just regular sized muffin liners and I actually just picked them up at Walmart.
Betty @ scrambled hen fruit
These look so good, and they’re perfect for party food! I think all of them sound fabulous. 🙂
foodwanderings
Love cheesecake Barbara and they are perfect portion too! As you know I love anything lemon so the lemon curd looks fabulous too! Yum!
JG
Mini Cheesecakes! I can never resist cheesecake. All three flavors looks so tempting.
~Judy
Chris
Love these! Using shortbread rounds are always perfect for minis, but I have never seen the Raspberry Thins…only the plain. Genius! 😛
Mags
Perfect Christmas dessert. Of course I’d eat cheesecake any day of the year!
Asha@FSK
what a fabulous idea to bake cheesecakes in cupcake liners!!!! individual and perfectly shaped!!
KalynsKitchen
The cheesecakes look delish! Merry Christmas to you.
tiffany ~food finery
what a pretty party treat! lemon would be my favorite too BUT they all sound tasty! love you!
Maria
These are so pretty and dainty! Love the swirl!