A New Twist to a Tried & True Recipe

Last week, I had the privelege of providing a meal for a young couple in my church that just had a new baby girl!  While I was there I even got to hold her...just a week old! Oh what sweetness!

One of the items that I brought was my tried & true no bake cheesecake recipe.  However, knowing that it was just the couple I didn't want to make a full recipe and take it and then it possibly get wasted from them not being able to eat all of it.

I decided to make a double batch of the cheesecake and make some mini cheesecakes. So I decided to pulled from my pantry a box of mini foil/paper liners and a bag of Nilla wafers.  I know you think I am crazy because I didn't want to make full recipe for fear of it going to waste so I make a double recipe instead?!?  Anyway, having never used Nilla wafers with my cheesecake recipe, I wasn't sure as to how it would turn out but I figured they would be less messy than making up homemade graham cracker crust to press into each mini cup. 

The fun part of this whole process was that the Nilla wafers were exactly the size I needed to cover the bottom of each of the mini cup liners, which I separated the paper and the foil liners so I had twice as many to work with.  I did learn that the cheesecake holds it form and doesn't soak through on the foil liners so next time I do this I will just use the foil liners and save the paper ones for baking muffins or brownies.


Once I had the cheesecake mixture made up I used my large scoop to put the mixture on the Nilla wafers.  As you can see from the picture, one scoop was plenty to fill each liner.  The other thing I did was put those liners on a cookie sheet rather than in my mini muffin pans because it was easier and less trouble than trying to pull out full cups out of the pans.  

Since I was running short on time the day I was making these little mini cheesecakes, I decided to speed up the process of "firming" the cheesecake up by sticking the cookie sheets with the mini cakes in the freezer for about an hour. In doing the "firming" in the freezer it kept the Nilla wafers from going mushy.  I ended up with a crisp crust.  A word of warning....if you stick them in the fridge afterwards you will find that the Nilla wafers will soften and you will have soft crust.  So it is your choice as to which type of crust you would like to have with your cheesecake. 

I left them plain and did not add any garnish to them. I placed eight of them on a paper plate and then into a ziploc bag(something disposable so I did not have to worry about getting a container back from them) to take with the meal for this couple.  

I will be making these again because they were quick and easy to put together. They are small enough for little hands to handle yet big enough for adults to get a couple bites of a sweet, delectable dessert.  Also having them as mini cheesecakes rather than one big one allows for several different garnishes to be put on them.  This dessert would be great to make up plain for gatherings and serve several garnishes on the side for guests to choose their favorite. 

Here is the recipe:

1 can sweetened condensed milk
8 oz. package cream cheese
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
1 can of pie filling (cherry, blueberry...)
1 graham cracker crumb pie crust or Nilla Wafers

Beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Gradually add sweetened condensed milk. Stir in lemon juice. Pour into pie crust. Refrigerate until firm and then add pie filling on top if desired. Can use fresh fruit(strawberries, blueberries are best) for garnish as well.

This post is linked at: 

• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam!
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday over at Blessed with Grace!
• Kitchen tip Tuesday, over at Tammy's Recipes!
  
• I am Blissfully Domestic at Blissfully Domestic!
  
• Fearless Fridays at Home Ec 101!
• Friday Feasts at Mom Trends!