Mini Cheese Cakes

I haven't been baking in a while: it has been too hot.














But I wanted to use up these containers of cream cheese and Greek yogurt - left over from a birthday breakfast of bagels and cream cheese. So I turned to an old favorite: a recipe for mini cheese cakes.














I used to make this recipe a lot, especially for pot-luck lunches at work.














Paper cups make them easy to handle, and they are the right size if someone wants to taste a selection of desserts.














The recipe is found in the Philadelphia Cream Cheese Kraft Cookbook. (p. 182)

(I have more cream cheese than the recipe calls for, so I'll make one and a half times what the recipe calls for. The recipe is very flexible.)














I also have two bases for the cakes. Instead of the crumb base in the recipe, I'll simply use arrowroot biscuits (broken to size) and some round wafers I happen to have. (I have my cousin Elizabeth to thank for this trick.)














Here's the original recipe:

Base:

• Mix together 1/3 cup of graham wafer crumbs, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon soft or melted margarine.
• Press a tablespoon of the crumb mixture into each of 6 paper-lined muffin cups.
• Bake for 5 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Set aside.
  

Cream Cheese Filling:

• With an electric beater, mix together an 8 ounce packIage of cream cheese (softened), 1/4 cup of sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice and 1 egg.

• When well blended, spoon mixture into paper cups until they are three-quarters full.
• Bake for 25 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

• Cool and serve as is or with a bit of jam or cooked fruit on top, to add color and taste.
  

The recipe is supposed to be for 6 servings, but I always end up making more than that. Perhaps mine are smaller. (Which is why using little cookies or bits of wafers as the base works well for me. I can always add a few more if necessary.) This time my one and a half times the recipe made 17 mini cheese cakes.

Chilled for a while in the fridge, the mini cheesecakes were delicious! I wonder how they would taste with a ginger snap, chocolate wafer or even Oreo cookie base...

I should add that these freeze wonderfully. They can be taken out and thawed quickly for an easy dessert.