Mini Mango Cheesecake Cups

Remember the Mini Choc Hazelnut Cheesecake Cups I made just before Christmas when I had a few girlfriends over? Well, these are the other flavour I made. A plain mango cheesecake cup topped with toasted coconut. It was hard to choose which was the nicer but it all depends if you are a chocoholic or love the fresh taste of mango. I can’t begin to tell you how easy these are and great for a crowd and just a little taste for everyone instead of a whole, big cheesecake but with the same flavour.

Begin by crushing some plain flavoured biscuits. These are called Butternut Snaps and are a crunchy, buttery biscuit.

Using fresh, tinned or frozen mango, blitz until you have about 1/2 to 1 cup of mango puree. (You could also use tinned mango puree.) It’s mango season here where I live in Brisbane and the mangoes are in abundance. Mix in one 250gram tub of spreadable cream cheese.

Spoon a tablespoon of biscuit crumbs into the bottom of a shot glass or small cup. (You can use bigger glasses if you like.) These plastic cups were about $2 for ten at my local dollar store. Spoon on the cheesecake mixture, top with a little finely diced fresh mango if you have it and sprinkle with a little toasted, shredded coconut. Pop in the fridge to set. That’s it!

No need to set with gelatine, they will firm up in the fridge just nicely and no need for a long list of ingredients. I can’t even begin to imagine all the different flavour combinations you could use. Just Google cheesecake and add those base ingredients to a tub of spreadable cream cheese. It really is that easy.

Mini Mango Cheesecake Cups

• 6 crunchy butter based biscuits, crushed
• 1 tub 250gm spreadable cream cheese
• 1/2 fresh mango, pureed (or tinned/frozen equivalent, depending on how many cups you are making)
• extra fresh diced mango for garnish
• shredded coconut, toasted for garnish

1. Spoon 1 tablespoon of crushed biscuits into the base of a shot glass or small plastic cup.
2. Mix mango puree with cream cheese and spoon on top of biscuit crumbs.
3. Top with a little diced fresh mango and toasted shredded coconut.
4. Chill until ready to serve.

Makes 10 small cups.

Mini Choc Hazelnut Cheesecake Cups

I had a couple girlfriends around for a party just before Christmas and I wanted to treat them to dessert instead of the usual savoury snacks. If I made a large, whole cheesecake, they’d probably only feel like eating that and nothing else. I got the idea from a recent blogging event that if I made mini cups of cheesecake, everyone would get a couple bites and enjoy the cheesecake dessert without filling up too much and get to try a few other things I had on offer.

These are ridiculously easy to make using the spreadable tub of cream cheese. No need to worry about setting it with gelatin or adding butter to the biscuit base to firm it up. Great for a large buffet too. My recipe made 10 but you could double or even triple the recipe if you were feeding a crowd.

I had a couple rows of chopped hazelnut milk chocolate, melted that and added about the same quantity of Nutella. Then just mix in a 250gm tub of cream cheese.

I then crushed a basic chocolate biscuit and put a spoonful into the bottom of these clear, plastic cups I bought from the dollar store.  I

http://kinfonet.org/profiles/3686-paulsen-brobby/

think it was about $2 for a pack of 10. You could use any small cup or glass, like a shot glass. They looked cute on the serving tray. You could make them in a larger glass or cup.

You could just spoon the cheesecake mixture straight onto the biscuit crumbs but I piped it on. I sprinkled the remaining chopped hazelnut milk chocolate on top for garnish and refrigerated. The cheesecake mixture set just enough to firm up. It looks a little soft in the photo because it was a hot day. Stay tuned for the other flavour mini cheesecake cups I made for the party.

Mini Choc Hazelnut Cheesecake Cups

• 250gm tub of cream cheese
• 2 rows of hazelnut chocolate, roughly chopped (or any plain chocolate with a few chopped hazelnuts)
• extra chopped hazelnut chocolate for garnish
• 1/4 cup Nutella
• 10 plain chocolate biscuits, made into crumbs

1. Melt chocolate. (I use the microwave in small bursts to melt chocolate.)
2. Add Nutella and mix well.
3. Allow to cool and add cream cheese and mix well.
4. Spoon a tablespoon of biscuit crumbs into the bottom of a small cup.
5. Pipe or spoon cream cheese mixture onto biscuit crumbs.
6. Garnish with extra chopped chocolate.
7. Refrigerate before serving.

Makes 10 small cups.

Double Choc Cookie Cups

Oh my goodness! It seems like forever ago since I made these. I’m so far behind on my blog posts. I was downloading photos from my phone when I stumbled across these then remembered I hadn’t blogged about them. I’ve also been having no end of trouble with phones and cameras and photos not being downloaded. It’s been one thing after another with technology for me lately.

Anyway, that’s enough of a rant from me. As you already know, I’m a Pinterest fan and love the recipes that come flooding through on my Pinterest feed. Another such recipe I’ve been seeing a lot of recently is for cookie cups. It’s all about baking your cookie in a muffin pan and filling it with all sorts of delicious things.

This was my first attempt so I didn’t want to get too adventurous with ingredients so used my basic biscuit recipe from my high school home economics cookbook, “Day to Day Cookery” and added a bit of cocoa to the recipe.

These delicious (and “devilishly” as it says on the packet) individually wrapped dark chocolate squares http://www.startupvalley.com/member/bensstiv were on sale so I picked up a few bags (quite a few – they were used in another recipe, honest).

It was just a matter of rolling balls of cookie dough and then pressing them into a well greased (excuse the excess use of oil spray in the above photo – I wanted to make sure they didn’t stick, and no, they didn’t) muffin pan. Then you just press the chocolate into the centre.

After this successful attempt I can’t wait to try different flavour combinations. The possibilities are endless. You can check out some recipes that I’ve pinned on my Pinterest feed here.

Double Choc Cookie Cups

(From “Day to Day Cookery”

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 cup Self Raising flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 150gm butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• dark chocolate squares

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C. 
2. Mix all dry ingredients together, melt butter and add to dry mixture. 
3. Add beaten egg. 
4. Mix together. Roll teaspoons of mixture into balls and pop into a well greased mini muffin pan.
5. Press chocolate squares into mixture until a ‘cup’ forms.
6. Bake for 10 to 12 mins, approx.
7. Makes approx 24 min cookie cups.

Asian beef & noodle lettuce cups {for kids}

I may have mentioned once or twice about my 7 year battle with my daughter’s fussy eating but its not really worth going on about. What I do want to say though is that my 6 year old son, who has always just eaten what she did because it was easier, has been eating whatever I eat. He always asks for tastes of my food so instead of making him and her the same, I make him and my meal the same.

Its nearly like a breath of fresh air has blown into the kitchen and I don’t know why I didn’t try it sooner. I feel like the rest of the population who can cook a ‘normal’ meal every night. I’m not saying my son is not picky at all but he’s such a delight to feed. He just loves food (like his Mumma). The lettuce was cheap, crispy and HUGE at the supermarket last week so I thought I’d try this simple Asian style beef and noodle filling to use some of it up. He just wrapped it up and ate the lot. I added a slurp of sweet chili to mine.

The flavours were simple and tasty and it was a quick meal to get on the table.

Asian Beef & Noodle Lettuce Cups {for kids}

• ground beef mince (or pork, chicken etc)
• brown onion, chopped finely
• grated carrot
• other vegetables, chopped finely
• vermicelli noodles
• 2 tbs tomato sauce
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• oil spray
• liquid beef or chicken stock
• small lettuce cups

1. (Adjust quantities to suit the number of serves.)
2. Brown onion and beef in a pan sprayed with oil spray until onions are soft and beef is brown.
3. Add vegetables, sauces and stock.
4. Simmer until most of the stock has evaporated.
5. Soak vermicelli noodles in a bowl covered with boiling water until softened then add to beef mixture.
6. Spoon into lettuce cups to serve.
7. Add sweet chili sauce to for a spicier version.