4th of July Mini Cheesecakes

In celebration of 4th of July coming up, I made these mini cheesecakes topped with fresh raspberries and blueberries (I so love summer berry season!) for a picnic under the fireworks I'm going to tomorrow.

REVIEW: Great for cheesecake freaks like me who can't control themselves when faced with an entire pie. :) These took me about an hour and a half to make start to finish. If I had more than one mini muffin tin it would've taken me less than an hour. There were a lot of recipes out there that said to use vanilla wafers as a crust, but I can be a cheesecake snob here (it's my blog, so there) and assert that nothing substitutes for graham cracker crust! The trickiest part was getting the crust onto the bottom of the liner, but I seem to remember having that problem when making a big pie too, so I guess that's the drawback to a deliciously wonderful graham cracker crust. Oh and make sure not to fill the liners too much or you can't fit the fruit on top (see pic above).

RECIPE:

2 8oz packages Neufchatel cheese, softened

2 eggs

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup butter, melted

fresh fruit topping

Heat oven to 325F. Line mini muffin tin with liners. Mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter until it sticks together. Flatten 1/4" layer of graham cracker mixture in bottom of each muffin tin liner. Mix cheese, sugar and vanilla with mixer until well-blended. Add eggs and blend well. Spoon in cheesecake filling on top of graham cracker layer almost to the top of the liner. Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes, top with fruit and refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving. Makes about 40 mini cheesecakes. (per serving: 95cals, 5gfat, 1g protein, 12g carbs)