Mini cheesecakes with strawberries

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Strawberry season is in full swing, so we'll use them today to make another simple yet delicious dessert. This time we'll prepare single serve vanilla cheesecakes that we'll enrich with fresh fruits and thick strawberry sauce. 

Pleasantly buttery biscuit bases are the perfect foundation for smooth, lightly vanilla cheesecakes. Their texture is broken up by pieces of fresh strawberries. All of it is covered by thick strawberry sauce that makes our cheesecakes even prettier while bringing fresh, citrusy notes. A very simple dessert that will sweeten any summer afternoon.

You'll find the list of ingredients, method and approximate nutritional value below.

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List of ingredients

Bases

  • 200 g biscuits
  • 80 g cool melted butter

Cheesecakes

  • 120 ml hot water
  • 12 g gelatine
  • 200 g whipping cream (36%)
  • 70 g icing sugar
  • 500 g cream cheese
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste
  • 150 g strawberries

Decoration

  • 300 g strawberries
  • 30 g sugar
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 50 ml water
  • 10 g cornstarch

Method

  1. Prepare strawberry sauce. Put 300 g fresh quartered strawberries into a medium pot. Add 30 g fine white sugar and 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice. Stir through the contents of the pot shortly, only until sugar dissolves, and heat up its contents until you bring them to a boil. Cook strawberries over medium-low heat until they break down and start resembling a jam. Remember to stir them from time to time to ensure they don't burn.
  2. After 10-15 minutes bring heat down to low and, stirring constantly, add a slurry made out of 10 g cornstarch and 50 ml water. Bring heat back up to medium and cook sauce for around 2 minutes, until it thickens up. If your strawberries have a lot of noticeable seeds, you can pass them through a fine sieve before adding cornstarch. Once you've got the right texture set the pot aside for sauce to cool completely.
  3. Meanwhile, prepare cheesecake bases. Put 200 g biscuits into a large ziplock bag. I'm using Digestive biscuits, but regular biscuits or oatcakes will work well, too. Close the bag almost completely, leaving 1 cm gap for air to escape. Crush biscuits to crumbles with a rolling pin.
  4. Once you've got the right texture add 80 g cool melted butter to biscuits. Massage the bag shortly to distribute fat evenly in the crumbs. It won't take long; around a minute or two should be enough for biscuits to look like wet sand.
  5. Divide biscuits between 8 small cake rings and press them down to create even, compact bases. My cake rings are 8 cm in diameter and 5 cm high. Line cake rings with acetate foil, and place a small disc of baking paper in the bottom of each ring. That will make it easier to move cheesecakes once they're done. If you don't have small cake rings, you can prepare cheesecakes in cups. Put cheesecake bases into a fridge as you work on cheesecake layer.
  6. Pour 120 ml freshly boiled water into a medium jug and add 12 g gelatine. Stir through the contents shortly, until gelatine crystals dissolve, and set it aside for a few minutes to cool.
  7. Meanwhile prepare cream that will make our cheesecakes light and fluffy. Pour 200 g cold whipping cream (36%) into a medium bowl and add 70 g icing sugar. Beat cream until it visibly thickens and doubles in volume, but is not stiff yet. It's best to start beating at low speed and increase it as cream grows in volume. Once you've got the right texture, stop mixing and put cream into a fridge.Put 500 g cream cheese at room temperature into a separate, large bowl and add a generous tsp of vanilla paste. Stir through the contents of the bowl shortly with an electric mixer, only until vanilla gets evenly distributed.
  8. Add 1 tsp cheese to cool gelatine and stir until smooth. Add tempered gelatine to cheese. Do it slowly, in a slow trickle, constantly mixing the contents of the bowl at medium mixer speed. This way you won't have any issues distributing gelatine in cheese and you'll avoid unpleasant lumps. Once you've added all gelatine continue mixing for another 30 seconds and set the mixer aside. We won't need it anymore.
  9. Add whipped cream to cheese and mix it in carefully with a silicone spatula. Try to do it gently not to remove air you've incorporated while whipping. Finally, add 150 g fresh, finely diced strawberries and distribute them with a spatula, too. Do it quite carefully yet quickly, because cold cream may cause cheese to start thickening.
  10. Divide cheese evenly between prepared cake rings and even out the tops. Put the cheesecakes into a fridge for about one hour for their tops to firm up.
  11. Take cheesecakes out of the fridge after this time. Pour cool strawberry sauce on top of each cheesecake and spread it evenly. Sauce should be quite thick at this stage, but still fluid enough. Return cheesecakes into a fridge for a few hours, or best overnight, for cheese and sauce to set.
  12. Enjoy!

Approximate nutritional value 

100 g 

  • 286 kcal 
  • Carbs: 21 g
  • Fat: 22 g
  • Protein: 4 g
  • Fibre: 2 g

1 cheesecake (recipe makes 8 cheesecakes) 

  • 487 kcal 
  • Carbs: 35 g
  • Fat: 37 g
  • Protein: 6 g
  • Fibre: 3 g

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