No Bake Mini Cheesecakes Recipe + Homemade Cherry Topping

If you love the flavor of cheesecake, you will love this Easy-Peasy No-Bake Cheesecake, and wait until you see the topping. It is so good, and I'm craving cheesecake, so let's get started. We'll start with the Easy No-Bake Crust. You can use a blender or a food processor for this, and I love this new high-powered blender that we got. I will link to it in the recipe notes. Add your crackers to the blender jar and pulse until you see fine crumbs form. Check to make sure all of the big chunks are broken up. You can buy already-made graham cracker crumbs, but this takes seconds and it's much less expensive, so why not? Transfer those to a measuring cup or a mixing bowl, add some sugar, then add melted butter. Stir that together until it's well-moistened. A lot of no-bake cheesecake recipes recommend pre-baking the little cheesecake crust, but in this recipe, it's totally not necessary because the butter is the glue that holds the crust together. This recipe makes 14 mini cheesecakes. Make sure you line your muffin tin with cupcake liners. Otherwise, they'll be impossible to remove from the tin. Divide the crumb mixture evenly between the liners. You'll need about two tablespoons in each one. Now use the back of your spoon to press the crumbs into each liner. If you don't have an extra cupcake tin to make the last two, you can also serve this in ramekins. If you do use ramekins, you don't need to line them, but make sure when you add the crumbs, you just sprinkle them in without pushing them down. Now our crusts are made, set those aside, and we're gonna work on the delicious creamy filling. In a large mixing bowl, combine two blocks of softened cream cheese. Add sugar, then beat those together on medium-high speed for about three minutes or until the mixture is super creamy and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl as needed to make sure you don't have any globs of cream cheese. Then add in your sour cream and freshly squeezed lemon juice. The lemon juice adds flavor and cuts the sweetness of the cheesecake. Make sure you use fresh-squeezed and not concentrate lemon juice. And I love using this citrus reamer for when the lemons are a little too big to fit in my citrus squeezer. I'll link to this and all the tools I used to make this recipe in the recipe notes. Beat those together for another minute just until everything is really well combined. Scrape down your bowl as needed to ensure your mixture is completely smooth. Set the cream cheese mixture aside and now we're gonna beat the whipped cream. Wash and dry your egg beater attachments and in another large mixing bowl, add your heavy whipping cream. For a more stabilized whipped cream, start beating that on medium speed until it starts to look a little bit thickened, then increase to medium-high speed and beat until stiff peaks form. Now use a spatula to fold the whipped cream into your cream cheese mixture. Fold gently so you don't lose any volume and scrape from the bottom of the bowl as you fold to make sure everything is really well combined. You should end up with a thick and rich cheesecake filling. And this is very important, make sure you don't use any low-fat substitutions here, otherwise the mixture won't stiffen up properly. Now here is my favorite tool for making these mini cheesecakes and it is a trigger-release ice cream scoop. It makes the portioning more even and faster. Now flatten out the tops with the back of a spoon. They should be filled about to the level of the cupcake liner. And it's the same process for portioning into ramekins, just scoop the mixture in and level off the top. There are so many fun ways you can serve this up for a party, you can use disposable cups, dishes, bowls, you could even put them into fancy little wine glasses. Now you'll wanna cover and refrigerate those until they're fully set. It usually takes about six hours. If you don't have a cupcake cover like this, you wanna refrigerate them for a couple hours then cover the top with plastic wrap. This will keep the plastic wrap from sticking badly to the tops. Now to work on the cherry topping. Because we have fresh cherries, of course I'm gonna make this from scratch and it's so simple to make. Start by pitting your cherries and if you are a fan of cherries, this is a tool that will make your life so much easier. I will link to it in the notes. Now in a medium saucepan, combine cold water, cornstarch, lemon juice and sugar. Stir that together until it's combined. Now set the saucepan over medium heat and continue to whisk constantly until the mixture starts to thicken. Next, add your cherries. And if you don't have access to fresh cherries, you can absolutely use frozen pitted cherries here. Cook that, stirring occasionally until the sauce is thickened and bubbly. This usually takes 10 to 12 minutes. Then take it off the heat and transfer it to a serving dish to let it cool. Ideally, you'll wanna let that cherry sauce cool completely to room temperature and even refrigerate before adding it to your cheesecakes. I do have another batch of mini cheesecakes that I prepared yesterday and they're fully chilled and ready to go so we can jump right into this taste test. All right, do you know what time it is? That's what my husband and I always say to each other in the morning. And then the other one will say, coffee time. It's a thing in our house. Now the kids copy us. Anyway, it is taste test time and I cannot wait because all these are so delicious. What I like to do when I'm serving these, because they do soften up a little bit as they stand out at room temperature, I like to take off the wrapper right away and it does not stick, which is lovely. Should come off pretty easy. So if you want to serve these, put them out on a platter without their little wrappers. All right, and now we're gonna add the cherry topping. What I love about this recipe is it's a make-ahead dessert. No bake and make-ahead, winning at life. This cherry topping also make-ahead. You do wanna let it cool down to at least room temperature but because it's taste test time and we cannot wait any longer, we're just gonna dive right in. I mean, if you don't have fresh cherries or can't find frozen cherries, you can totally use store-bought cherry pie filling. That's okay, I'm not gonna judge because it also tastes good, right? But it is so worth it to make your own homemade cherry topping. All right, and we'll just add a few beautiful cherries with some of that sauciness over the top. Oh man, look how cute that is. Look how cute, it's so cute. I think that's good, otherwise I won't be able to bite into it neatly. All that's left to do is to do the taste test. It's about time, here we go. Also notice how I can hold it and the crust isn't falling apart. You don't have to pre-bake these either. It's the butter, okay? The butter holds it together so well. It is calling my name. Eh, oh my goodness. This is what cheesecake dreams are made of. It is so airy and whipped and absolutely amazing. And then that buttery crust is such a treat. And I didn't have to fire up the oven when it's hot outside. And that cherry topping is next level amazing. You can also use strawberry sauce. We have a great recipe for that too. If you prefer to use strawberries, also let me know where you spotted Sharky in the video. And if you love cheesecake, make sure, make sure you check out that recipe right over there. And we'll see you on the next episode of Natasha's Kitchen. All right, I'm gonna go eat this because it's so good, so bye.