Is bigger always better or good things come in small packages? Let’s make some tasty cheesecake bites to find it out!

Although cheesecakes were not there when the first pilgrims set foot on American shores neither it was promoted at the first Thanksgiving, still it is so engrained in modern American culture that it would be impossible to image the civilization without it.

Where are cheesecakes from?

Cheesecakes were made in Europe since the 15^th century but the any common thing between that and the modern variety is their name. The cheesecake, as we know it, today had started to evolve from its ancient yeast leavened form somewhere around the 18^th century. We had to wait for the American cream-cheese to be developed at the end of the 19^th to reach its modern form.

Interestingly, no one was looking for perfecting cheese cream recipe but rather trying to come up with a cheap alternative to the French Neufchatel cheese. Once the heavy, creamy, and more importantly cheap cheese was stumbled upon though, there was no question about what should be used for cheesecakes.

What kind of cheesecakes are there?

Since then, two main varieties have been evolved into their own domains apart, of course with various branches that use sour cream, ricotta, cottage cheese and so on, the no bake cheesecake and the baked cheesecake.

No bake cheesecakes are what they sound, cheesecakes that aren’t baked but once made into a cheesecake form, they are simply kept cool in the fridge. No bake cheesecakes are no hassle cheesecakes as they don’t require much care, heat, or eggs thus their rate of failing is little to none.

Baked cheesecakes, especially the ones that are made with sour cream, cottage cheese or ricotta, tend to be a bit pickier about the technique we use to bake them, and they need a bit of practice to achieve culinary perfection.

What cake to choose for bite sized cheesecake?

Luckily when making smaller cakes, like cheesecake bites, we don’t have to spend our spare time praying for the big 10” / 30cm cake to bake perfectly without burning the top almost black.

The bad news is that cheesecake bites aren’t really compatible with the no bake type cakes as getting them out of the muffin forms require some sort of firmness that no bake cheesecakes lack of. Sure, we can make it work by mixing in some sort of fixing agent, like gelatin or agar-agar but that will be far from the cheesecake we cheerily love.

So, if we are into cheesecakes on the go because carrying around a 10”/ 30 cm cake in our handbag is not practical, we must default on making the good old baked cheesecakes but in a muffin form.

Why bite sized cheesecake?

Yes, cheesecake bites are nothing more than cheesecake made in a muffin form or any other bite sized baking form. The best thing about them is, not just that we can easily carry them around, but we can flavor them individually right from the start.

Of course, we can do that with ordinary cheesecakes once we cut them up and serve them, so everybody can choose their favorite toppings, but if carrying around a regular sized cake hadn’t been a burden, keeping everyone’s favorites topping around would definitely be.

Ingredients

Old school

(12 pieces)

7 oz / 200g Crackers crumbs
7 tablespoon / 100g Butter (melted)
8 oz / 200g Cream cheese
1 piece / 50g Egg
Sweetener to taste (4 tablespoons Honey or 1 tablespoon Xylitol)
¼ cup / 60ml Sour cream
¼ teaspoon / 1.25ml Vanilla extract
Optional
- 8 teaspoons / 80g Jam

New school – keto

(12 pieces)

7 oz / 200g Almond flour
4 tablespoon / 100g Butter (melted)
8 oz / 200g Cream cheese
1 piece / 50g Egg
Sweetener to taste (4 tablespoons Honey or 1 tablespoon Xylitol)
¼ cup / 60ml Sour cream
¼ teaspoon / 1.25ml Vanilla extract
Optional
- 8 teaspoons / 80g Sugar free jam
- 12 tablespoons low carb fruits, berries

How to make Cheesecake bites

(12 pieces)

Mix the crackers or, in case of the keto version, the almond flour and the melted butter in a food processor.
Divide it into 12 parts and fill the muffin forms with the batter evenly.
Beat cream cheese, egg, sour cream, vanilla extract and the chosen sweetener until light and fluffy. Taste and adjust sweetener if necessary.
Divide the cream cheese into 12 and fill it evenly into the muffin cups.
Add the optional ½ teaspoon / 5g jam onto each cheese bites. Use a tablespoon of low carb fruit on keto or skip it entirely.
With a toothpick stir the jam into the cream cheese.
Place them onto the middle rack of 360°F / 180°C preheated oven until golden brown spots start to appear, 15 – 20 minutes.