Heart Shaped Mini Cheesecakes

Happy Lunar New Year! I made these heart shaped mini cheesecakes for a potluck :)

When I received my mini cheesecake pan, I made a batch of cheesecakes to test it out, and then I decided to get creative and tried making another batch of heart shaped ones! The pan’s individual cup size is actually quite small already, so the heart shaped ones were a bit difficult to make. Still, they were fun to make because of its cute shape.

If you’d like to try a simpler version of this, try this other recipe out: mini cheesecakes.

Ingredients:

Baking pan set-up

• parchment paper

Base crust portion

• 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 1/4 tablespoon brown sugar (I used Trader Joe’s Organic Brown Sugar)
• 1 1/4 tablespoon butter, melted

Cheesecake portion

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1/4 cup white sugar (I used a little less than 1/4 cup)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg

Directions:

Part 1: Baking pan set-up

Cut 4 inch wide parchment paper. Fold in half. Cut 12 ~3 inches length-wise of the folded paper.

Place a parchment paper piece in each individual cup.

Place marbles in between the metal and parchment paper so that the paper is a little more stable.

Part 2: Base crust

I crumbled the graham crackers with the side of the rolling pin (used it like a pestle and mortar. pestle=>rolling pin, mortar=>cutting board)

Preheat oven to 325F.

In a mixing bowl, first mix the graham crumbs and sugar well with a fork. Then add the melted butter in and mix very thoroughly.

Evenly distribute the mixture into each cup. Press the graham crumbs down as firmly as you can. Bake in the preheated oven for 5 mins, then remove from oven and let it cool. Keep the oven on.

Part 3: Cheesecake

Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla on low speed (speed 1/2 with stand mixer) until fluffy. Be careful not to over-mix. Once it is mixed well, Add the egg in and mix on low speed (speed 1). It’ll look weird and gooey at first. But after a few minutes of mixing, it will become smooth.

Use a spoon to place the cream cheese mixture into the cups. Smooth out the tops of mixture in the cups as much as you can. Bake for 17-19 minutes. Cool completely in pan before removing (about 1 hour). Then refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

Kind of looks like pac-man or fortune cookies.

This was a fun little experiment. I noticed that it didn’t bake very evenly with the parchment paper/metal combination–the parchment paper section didn’t bake as much as the section that had contact with the metal. Although this happened, the cheesecake still tasted great.

I topped them with sliced strawberries and chopped walnuts.

Tags: cream cheese