It’s a good thing these gluten free Lemon White Chocolate Cheesecakes have built in portion control. But will you be able to stop after just one?
I absolutely love cheesecake. I’ve actually had pretty good success with my cheesecakes. The Pumpkin Cheesecake made me the winner of a trip for two to Toronto to the Baking & Sweets Show (I took my Mom), and my Maple Butter Tart Cheesecake put me in the top 5 for Philadelphia Cream Cheese’s “Cheesecake of the Year” contest in 2014, which resulted in another trip to Toronto.
I will admit, after the 2014 contest, we were all suffering from “OC” – Over Cheesecaked. Oh, it can happen, trust me. The family got a little leery when they saw boxes of cream cheese in the fridge again. This time it was all good though. These Lemon White Chocolate Cheesecakes were rich, creamy, but since it was lemon, it wasn’t overly sweet either. And the smaller size was perfect for an indulgence, but not an OVER indulgence. The first few bites are always the best anyway, right?
I topped these little Lemon White Chocolate Cheesecakes with a dollop of tangy Lemon Curd, which helped to cut any sweetness there was back even further. Either way though, they were so good! I think they would be great topped with some fresh berries too.
Gluten Free Lemon White Chocolate Cheesecakes
Gluten Free Lemon White Chocolate Cheesecakes
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May 6, 2016 By Jeanine 8 Comments (Edit)
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It’s a good thing these gluten free Lemon White Chocolate Cheesecakes have built in portion control. But will you be able to stop after just one?
Ingredients
Crust:
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) butter, melted
- 6 ounces (170 g) gluten free Graham Animal Crackers, crushed (see Note)
Lemon White Chocolate Cheesecakes:
- 2-8 oz (250 g) packages cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup (100g ) granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) sour cream
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) lemon zest
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 8 oz (225 g) gluten free white chocolate, melted
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (163 degrees C). Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper or foil liners. Set aside.
Crust:
- Mix the melted butter and crushed cookies until they resemble wet sand. Divide the crumbs between the 12 muffin cups. Use a small cup to press the crumbs evenly across the bottom of the cupcake liner.
Lemon White Chocolate Cheesecakes:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, scraping down the sides as necessary.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, lemon juice, lemon zest, cream, and vanilla extract.
- With the mixer running on low, slowly add the sour cream mixture to the cream cheese. You only want to mix until it is fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure you don't have any lumps of cream cheese.
- With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at time, mixing until the first one is incorporated before adding the second. Mix on low speed just until the batter is smooth.
- Fold in the melted white chocolate with a rubber spatula. This will help ensure you don't over mix the batter.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin. I use my large cookie scoop to make this easier.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, or until the cheesecakes are mostly set.
- Allow the cheesecakes to cool on a wire cooling rack for 15 minutes, before refrigerating for 1-2 hours. You want them to be completely cool before removing the cupcake liner. Top with Lemon Curd or fresh berries immediately before serving.
Notes
I used a new Graham animal cracker from Glutino Foods (available in the US only at the time of writing), but any gluten free "graham" cracker or vanilla cookie will work.
If you liked these Lemon White Chocolate Cheesecakes, you may also like:
- Gluten Free Brownie Cheesecake Bites
- Gluten Free Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars
- Pina Colada Cheesecake from Only Taste Matters
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Mini Cheesecakes from What the Fork Food Blog
L Buttner says
See note? I don’t see the note designated after the GF animal crackers.
Jeanine says
All fixed now, sorry for the oversight on my part.
Debbie says
Where do you incorporate the melted white chocolate?
Jeanine says
Sorry, Debbie. My oversight. I added it to the recipe now. Thanks for pointing it out!
Jeanne says
This looks really yummy, Jeanine! I haven’t seen the Glutino animal crackers yet, but I’ll look for them.
Scarlette says
Can I replace the whipping cream with half and half? Or maybe even some vanilla Greek yogurt? I’d like to make this recipe, but cut a few calories. (Also, remainder of whipping cream always goes to waste for me).
Second, could I replace the 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1/2 cup granulated Baking Splenda, OR 1/4 cup Baking Stevia?? (Unfortunately, the baking Stevia exchange requires you use half of it compared to the quantity of sugar originally required in the recipe.)
Thanks! Love your website!
Shelby Brown says
Does this recipe hold up if I make a whole cheesecake rather than individual cheesecakes in a muffin tin? Thanks!
Elizabeth says
Thank you for this recipe! I made it for my son’s GF preschool teacher, and they are delicious! I’m not normally crazy about white chocolate, but it really rounds out the tartness nicely.
I didn’t have GF cookies on hand, so I used a GF sugar cookie mix, put 1T dough at the bottom of each cupcake liner, and parbaked for 12 minutes before filling with cheesecake batter. Thanks again; these were lovely.