Cheesecake Gems

These little morsels are absolutely delicious and very easy to make. My daughters request these every Christmas. You can be creative and top with chocolate, pie filling or preserves. You can make them ahead and store in the freezer until ready to serve.

Crust
1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
4 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons butter/margarine


Filling
2 packages (250 gram or 8 oz) cream cheese
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

• Crust: Heat oven to 325 degrees
• Mix crumbs, sugar and margarine/butter. Firmly press rounded tablespoons of crumb mixture into 50-60 mini muffin cups or 12 large muffin cups. Bake 5 minutes,
• Filling: Beat cream cheese, sugar, juice, peel and vanilla at medium speed with electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Pour over crusts filling each ¾ full and then follow the below instructions for toppings.

• Peppermint: Instead of using graham cracker crumbs replace with chocolate cookie crumbs. Place 6 candy canes in a ziplock bag and crush candy canes using a meat pounder/hammer. Sprinkle finely crushed candy canes over the gems.
• Raspberry Swirl: To make the raspberry puree, combine raspberries and sugar to a food processor, and pulse until completely smooth. Pour puree through a fine mesh sieve to get rid of the seeds. To assemble, Dot ½ teaspoon of the raspberry puree in a few dots over the cheesecake filling. Use a toothpick or a wooden skewer to lightly swirl and create a marbled effect.
• Cherry/Blueberry: After cheesecakes have cooled spoon a teaspoon of canned cherry pie filling over each gem.
• Chocolate Swirl: Melt 1 cup of chocolate chips and dot 1/2 teaspoon of the melted chocolate in a few dots over the cheesecake filling. Use a toothpick or wooden skewer to lightly swirl and create a marbled effect.
• Bake 20-25 minutes. Cool before removing from pan.
• Freezing: you can freeze the gems for up to 2 weeks. To serve let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes and serve.

Link to Recipe:Cheesecake Gems

Beat cream cheese, sugar, juice, peel and vanilla at medium speed with electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Mix crumbs, sugar and margarine/butter.

You can use chocolate cookie crumbs or ginger snap cookie crumbs also.

Press into mini cupcake shells or standard large. These are the mini cupcake shells.

Graham cracker crumbs are used in this picture.

Dot either raspberry puree or melted chocolate over the cheesecake filling. 

Using a toothpick or wooden skewer lightly swirl to create the marbled effect.

Remove from paper shell just before serving.

These gems have a chocolate cookie crust with crushed candy canes sprinkled on top of the cheesecake filling.