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These Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes are a great dessert recipe for summer! I recently made these Mini Blueberry Bakewell Tarts which are also great as a summer dessert, but these cheesecakes are a lot easier to make and don´t require any baking!
The base is made with chocolate digestive biscuits and is a quick no-bake cheesecake filling. You could also opt for a little strawberry surprise hidden inside – see below for my different suggestions! These Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes take no time at all to make. Just layer them up, pop them in the fridge to chill for a few hours and dessert is served!
The Chocolate Biscuit Base
To make these mini strawberry cheesecakes, I opted for some dark chocolate-covered digestive biscuits for the base. You can of course use shop-bought biscuits, but I used some of my Homemade Chocolate Digestive Biscuits.
Because of the chocolate coating, the biscuit crumbs already start to stick together slightly after you have blitzed the chocolate digestives. You will need to add some melted butter to the mix, too, in order to create a base that will set firmly and not be too crumbly.
If you don´t want to use chocolate-covered biscuits, you could also use plain Digestives, Rich Tea or even Ginger Nut (Ginger Snap if you are in the US) biscuits instead! It´s completely up to you! If you use a plain biscuit, however, you may need to add a little bit more melted butter to bind the mixture together.
Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes – 3 Ways!
To give you a few different options to play around with this recipe, I made three slightly different variations of these mini strawberry cheesecakes, which you can see in the picture below.
The first is just a plain cheesecake that is only topped with the strawberry sauce and/or a chocolate-covered strawberry. The second variation involves putting some additional chopped strawberries in the centre of these cheesecakes (personally, my favourite option). And the last option involved putting a whole chocolate-covered strawberry in the centre of these mini cheesecakes. That way you get a lovely chocolate and strawberry surprise when you cut into the cheesecake!
You can choose whatever option you like, or just do a few different variations like I did. Not adding anything or just some chopped strawberries to the centre of the cheesecakes is obviously the easiest and fastest option. But if you are making chocolate-dipped strawberries for decoration anyway, then you might as well add one of those to the middle!
What “equipment” do you need?
First of all, I should tell you what “equipment” I used to make these Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes. I got some dessert rings (9 cm diameter) for Christmas and have been wanting to try them out for ages, but I just never got round to it! Now I finally had the chance, and the set is really good – I can highly recommend it. It´s this 6 piece set by VonChef, which contains four dessert rings, and two extra gadgets they call a “food press” and a “spatula”. The food press was excellent for pressing down the biscuit base tightly, as well as pushing out/unmoulding the finished cheesecakes at the end. And the spatula thing was really handy for moving the cheesecakes onto the serving plate.
I also covered the sides of the dessert rings with clingfilm. This made it a lot easier to unmould the cheesecakes later. Then I placed the four rings onto a piece of baking paper on a large chopping board.
If you don´t have any dessert rings, you could also assemble these cheesecakes in small ramekins or glass jars (that way you can still see the strawberries along the outside of the cheesecake). You won´t be able to unmould them, of course, but instead you can just spoon the cheesecake from the jar! This method does have the added bonus of being faster, as you don´t necessarily have to wait until the cheesecake mix has fully set before serving them!
The Assembly
The way in which I assembled these Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes reminds me of Mary Berry´s Fraisier Cake. I´ve explained in detail here how to assemble these cheesecakes, and there is also a picture guide included for you below!
To assemble, start by creating the biscuit base, making it about 0.5 cm thick. Add some of the biscuit crumble mixture and press it down firmly into the bottom of the dessert ring. You can either use the back of a teaspoon or the “food press” if you have such a tool.
Next, you want to choose some of the best-looking strawberries that are roughly the same height and slice them in half. Press the cut-side of the strawberry halves against the clingfilm lining the sides of the dessert ring, you should be able to fit about 6 strawberry halves around the edge of each cheesecake.
Check out the picture guide below….
Once you have made the cheesecake mix, spoon it into a large piping bag. It´s a lot easier to fill all the gaps with the cheesecake filling if you use a piping bag (you could also use a large freezer bag and cut off the end) rather that spooning the mixture in. Start by covering the middle of the cheesecake where the base is still exposed, then fill in the gaps in between the strawberry halves around the sides.
If you want to add some chopped strawberries or a chocolate-covered strawberry to the centre, do so now. Then fill up the remaining space in the dessert rings with more of the cheesecake mix, until they are filled right to the top. Use a palette knife to scrape any excess cheesecake filling off and flatten the tops.
Finally, refrigerate the mini strawberry cheesecakes for at least 4 hours until fully set before unmoulding.
How To Assemble The Cheesecakes – Picture Guide
Decorations
To finish these Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes, I made a quick strawberry jam/sauce to drizzle over the top, as well as some chocolate-dipped strawberries.
Making some homemade chocolate decorations to place on top of these cheesecakes would also look really good. If you want to find out more about how to make chocolate decorations, as well as some tips on how to melt the chocolate properly for the dipped-strawberries, check out this post here: How To Master Chocolate | Baking Basics #2.
More No-Bake Desserts
I absolutely love baking, but sometimes it can be really nice to make a no-bake dessert, too. They may require a few hours in the fridge to set but they are often a lot faster to make. So, the hands-on time is greatly reduced, you just need to plan ahead to make sure they have enough time to chill!
- No-Bake Lemon Cheesecake with a Ginger Nut Base
- Classic British Trifle
- Bailey´s Chocolate Truffles
- Italian Tiramisu
- Loaded Rocky Road Fridge Cake
- “Lighter” Lemon and Quark Cheesecake
- No-bake Chocolate Orange Trifle with Bailey´s Irish Cream
- Mini Cherry Trifles
Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes – No-Bake Summer Dessert
Recipe
Ingredients:
FOR THE MINI STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKES
- 400-500g fresh strawberries, washed, stalks removed and halved
- 6 (~150g) dark chocolate digestives (shop-bought or homemade), or a different biscuit of your choosing
- 40g unsalted butter, melted
- 200g full-fat soft cheese
- 200g double cream, well chilled
- 50g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
FOR THE STRAWBERRY SAUCE:
- 100g fresh strawberries, chopped
- 1 tbsp jam sugar
TO DECORATE:
- 100g fresh strawberries
- 100g dark chocolate
YOU WILL ALSO NEED:
- 4x 9cm-diameter dessert rings (or ramekins or jars of a similar size)
- Clingfilm
- Mini food processor
- piping bag
- Small palette knife
- Electric hand whisk and glass bowl, chilled
Method:
- If you want to make chocolate decorations or chocolate-dipped strawberries, I´d recommend starting with them. Break the dark chocolate into pieces and place into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water (make sure the bowl isn´t touching the water). Gently heat the chocolate, stirring occasionally, until fully melted (more tips for melting chocolate here).
For the chocolate-dipped strawberries, wash and pat dry (it´s important not to get any water into the melted chocolate) a few of the fresh strawberries and leave on the stalks. Dip the strawberries into the chocolate (about half-way), then place onto a piece of baking paper and leave until the chocolate has set. For fully covered strawberries for the centre of the cheesecake, slice off the top of the strawberry to create a flat surface, then dip fully in the chocolate and leave to set on the baking paper.
To make chocolate decorations, spoon the remaining melted chocolate into a piping or small freezer bag and snip off the end. Drizzle the chocolate onto the baking paper to make a pattern of your choice (more tips here) and leave to set at room temperature. - Next, prepare your dessert rings by lining the sides with clingfilm and placing them on a sheet of baking paper on a large chopping board.
- To make the biscuit base, roughly break up the chocolate digestives and place them into a small food processor and blitz until you have fine crumbs (alternatively, put them in a freezer bag and bash with a rolling pin). Stir in the melted butter to help the crumbs stick together. Put about a quarter of the biscuit mix into each dessert ring, then press down firmly with the back of a spoon or a “food press” (see above) to make sure it is tightly packed. Refrigerate whilst you make the filling.
- Next, prepare the cheesecake filling. Start by whisking the double cream, stopping as soon as it forms stiff peaks (don´t over-whisk!). When whisking cream, I find you get the best results if the bowl, electric whisks (as well as the cream) are well-chilled, so I like to place the bowl and whisk into the fridge at least 30 minutes before using.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together (no need to clean the whisk) the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla until smooth. Then use a large metal spoon or spatula to carefully fold in the still cream. Then fill the cheesecake mix into a large piping bag and cut off the end. It´s a lot easier to fill all the gaps with the cheesecake filling if you use a piping bag (you could also use a large freezer bag and cut off the end) rather that spooning the mixture in.
- To assemble the cheesecakes (see picture guide above), choose some of the best-looking strawberries that are roughly the same height, and slice them in half. Remove the dessert rings from the fridge and press the cut-side of the strawberry halves against the clingfilm lining the sides of the rings. You should be able to fit about 6 strawberry halves around the edge of each cheesecake.
- Next, start piping in your cheesecake mix. First, cover the middle of the cheesecake where the base is still exposed. Then fill in the gaps between the strawberry halves around the sides.
- If you want to add a filling, roughly chop some of the remaining strawberries or press a chocolate-covered strawberry into the centre of the cake. Then fill up the remaining space in the dessert rings with more of the cheesecake mix, until they are filled right to the top. Use a palette knife to scrape any excess cheesecake filling off and flatten the tops.
- Put the mini strawberry cheesecake into the fridge and chill for at least 4 hours until the cheesecake mix has fully set.
- Prepare the strawberry sauce just before serving. Place 100g of chopped strawberries into a small pot alongside 1 tbsp of jam sugar. Gently heat until the sugar has dissolved, then boil for a few minutes until the strawberry pieces start to break down and the juices start to thicken. Remove from the heat and leave to cool whilst you unmould the cheesecakes.
- To serve, take the cheesecakes out of the fridge and gently push the cheesecakes out of their moulds from below, using the “food press”, a small glass, or just your hand. Carefully peel the clingfilm away from the edges and place the mini strawberry cheesecakes on a plate.
- Decorate the cheesecakes with some of the strawberry sauce and additional chocolate decorations or chocolate-covered strawberries.
