Well, Hello June! I think it’s time to get light, fresh and summery!
Everyone in this house loves cheesecakes and they’re probably my most asked for pudding. I tend to either use Tofutti ‘Better than cream cheese’ or occasionally tofu when making a chocolate cheesecake. However it’s all about soaked cashews in vegan cheesecakes these days and since little S can have cashews these days, I thought I’d try one out. All I can say is no no no, cashews do not make a nice ‘cheesecake’ – maybe it’s because I don’t have a high speed blender or maybe I didn’t soak the cashews for long enough, but the resulting mixture was a sweet, grainy, nutty paste which tasted just that. I knew there was no way that was going to be popular in this household! If anyone has tips, please let me know, everyone is so positive about cashew cheesecake that i must have been making some fatal mistakes…
So back to my popular tofutti based cheesecake and my, am I pleased I did. I changed up my usual recipe to make mini blueberry swirl cheesecakes on a plain biscuit base.
Don’t they look cute, popped out of muffin trays to look like proper mini versions of a family sized dessert? Well it’s as easy as anything, simply lie two strips of baking parchment in a cross at the base of each cake dip and assemble the cheesecake on top. After a quick half hour in the freezer they’re ready to pop out and devour!
Mini Blueberry Cheesecakes
(dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, sesame-free, vegetarian and vegan) NB Contains soya
makes 8 mini cheesecakes
small handful blueberries
1 tbsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp cornflour
100g plain biscuits, crushed
1 tbsp dairy-free spread, melted
1 pack soya cream cheese
2-3 tbsps soya yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tbsps icing sugar
- In a small saucepan, combine the blueberries, caster sugar and cornflour. Simmer until the blueberries pop and the mixture becomes ‘jammy’. Sieve or leave as a more chunky texture. Set aside to cool.
- Mix the crushed biscuits with the melted spread. Press into the bottom of the cupcake pan. Place in the fridge to set.
- Whisk together the other ingredients until they are smooth. Taste and add more vanilla or icing sugar according to own taste.
- Spoon onto the biscuit base, and level off the top.
- Swirl a dollop of blueberry puree onto the top of each cheesecake.
- Place in the freezer to set for at least a half an hour. Then transfer to the fridge.
- Remove the cheesecakes for the tin prior to serving and garnish with any left over puree on the plate.