Mini No Bake Cheesecakes

I love to make cheesecake - It was one of the things I really missed when I first moved here 15 years ago. For the Super Bowl this year, I gave a try to an idea I had knocking around about how I could use a no bake cheesecake mix and make something wonderful that wouldn't take hours of prep time and could be eaten at halftime on the couch -(2am locally) on a Monday morning.

In the last few years, a lot of places sell cheesecake, a couple even call it New York cheesecake...but rarely it is what I call cheesecake. for me there are two types of cheesecake to have in your repertoire:

1) no bake cheesecakes - either from scratch, or if I am going to use it as a basis for my own toppings or creations, I find that Jello makes a good no bake cheese cake. Mon Chou or "Kwarktaart" is NOT the same! :-)

2) A good baked cheesecake. My favourite variation of this has got to be Pumpkin Cheesecake (that recipe is a whole separate post) but it's time intensive, and you need to be able to cook the cheesecake in a water/steam bath to prevent cracking. And please, only use Philadelphia or cream cheese - nothing else matches the taste and texture!  Follow these tips for a perfect baked cheesecake:

For the crust, I either buy graham crackers from places that sell American food items and make the crust myself if I'm going completely homemade, or I use a ready made crust (usually Keebler) that you can find on www.usfoodz.nl

To make the cheesecakes in the photo below: I used the following:

No Bake Cheesecake:

• 1 pkg. Jello no bake cheesecake mix
• 2 tbsp. sugar (fijnesuiker)
• 1/3 cup (80 grams) butter, melted
• 1 1/2  (350 ml) c. cold milk

Sauce

• 1 package (150 grams) fresh raspberries
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) water

Decorations

• 100 grams white chocolate, suitable for melting
• 6-10 large fresh raspberries selected from the package above
• 1-2 tsp Sunflower oil

First, I got out the cupcake liners and put those in my muffin pan. Then, I put a spoonful of the crust mixture into the liners and used my smallest measuring cup to press the mixture down into a even layer to form the base.

By doing this in the muffin pans, the liners don't ''stretch'' - and since you don't bake these cheesecakes, you need the liners to stay as stiff as possible.

Next, I followed the direction for making the filling - using the enclosed mix together with the cold milk - you'll need a hand/electric mixer for this step.

Then, I spooned the filling over the crust into the muffin liners and placed in the fridge for 2 hours. You want these to be firm before you top them with the raspberries.

Creativity 101
Now, we were in recipe no-mans land.....I had a vague idea how I wanted to make the raspberry sauce based on a how I make homemade cranberry sauce (compote) every year, and white chocolate covered raspberries cut in half to show red and white layers seemed like they would be the perfect finishing touch. With that idea as my basis, I did the following:

• Equal amounts (in measuring cup terms) sugar and water dissolved together and bring it to a boil.
• At the boil, add the fresh raspberries and boil together, stirring regularly for about 10 minutes.
• Remove from heat and allow to cool approx 30 mins. Sauce will be warm and not yet too thick to sieve. 
• Before the sauce cools completely, run it through a sieve to take out most of the seeds.
• The pulp that was left over, I then used about half to spoon back into the mixture - too many seeds do not make for a pleasant experience, but you need some of the seeds and jam-like thickness of the cooked fruit to make the sauce thick enough.
• The sauce/jam will thicken as it cools - you can do this for about 2 hours to come to room temperature or about 1 hour in the fridge.

While the sauce and the cakes were cooling in the fridge, I set about making the chocolate covered raspberries. I held back 10 of the nicest shaped raspberries to use for the dipping.

• You can melt chocolate on the stove in a double boiler method or in the microwave. I used the double boiler (au bain marie) method, melting the chocolate in a glass bowl over a put of (just) boiling water.
• To get the shine and consistency I wanted, I added between 1-2 teaspoons of oil as the chocolate melted, until it coated the back of a spoon smoothly when dipped.
• Then, I dropped the raspberries one at a time into the chocolate, gave them a good coating before picking them out of the mixture with a fork and placing them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or bakpapier.
• Once all the raspberries were done, I set the timer for 15 mins and then redipped them, following the same process. Once the second dip was done, I set them in the fridge to harden completely

Assembly:
Taking the completed mini cakes out of the muffin tins, I then put a generous teaspoon of sauce on each cake.

Once the raspberries were set, I took a sharp knife (like a potato knife) and cut each raspberry in half.

I needed 12 halves (6 whole) but made 10 just in case. The whole leftover berries I offered as "bonbons" to the hostess - they were very well received that way as well!

For transport, I used a cupcake carrier and left them in the fridge until about 1 hour before serving time.

They peeled away from the cupcake liners easily, held firm and were not too cold to eat, so all the flavors came through!

Enjoy!