No Bake Mini Key Lime Cheesecakes

We go through a lot of cream cheese in our house.  Seriously, a lot.  If I can't get the 9 year old to eat anything else, he will at least eat a whole wheat tortilla with cream cheese or refried beans on it.  Plus I also cook with cream cheese.  So every week I pick up a brick of it.  If cream cheese is on sale, I pick up two or three.

This past weekend I realized I had 6 bricks of cream cheese in the house.  Six.  Even for us, that's really too many.  I also discovered a can of sweetened condensed milk in the pantry I think was purchased for fudge that obviously was never going to happen.  We hadn't had a special dessert in a while so I decided it was time to make something nice, but fairly light.

I went back to the easy cheesecake tarts I made a couple years ago with ice cream cone bowls as the tart shell.  I was also thinking about how nice it would be to have key lime pie.  Combining the flavors of both recipes seemed like the logical thing to do.

These no bake mini key lime cheesecakes would be perfect for the upcoming Memorial Day holiday weekend.  I loved the tiny portions in a shot glass (top photo) but they would transport great in a 4 ounce jelly jar (above) with the lids screwed on.  Just garnish when you get to your destination.  You could even get fancy and serve these in a martini or sherry glass.

Because we're such a small family, I've been filling our desired serving dish as we've been eating these little cheesecakes with a table spoon, but if you're filling several at a time, a pastry bag with a large tip would make fast work at serving these.

We loved these with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and strawberry jam.  I think the blueberry was my favorite, but my husband liked the strawberry as a garnish.  The strawberry jam was lovely, although a bit too sweet for my taste.  I used gluten free graham cracker type crumbs as the crust.  Chocolate cookie, vanilla wafer, or ginger snap crumbs would all be yummy too.

No Bake Mini Key Lime Cheesecakes

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup key lime juice

4-6 graham crackers

blueberries, strawberries, jam or other topping of your choice

With a hand or stand mixer, cream together cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk.  Pour in key lime juice and blend well.  Chill for at least 30 minutes.

In a food processor crush graham crackers (or other cookies of your choice) to crumbs.  You should have a scant cup of crumbs.  

To serve in 4 ounce containers, sprinkle 2 teaspoons of cookie crumbs in the bottom of a 4 ounce jelly jar.  Spoon or pipe in cheesecake mixture.  Top with blueberries, strawberries, jam or other toppings.

Serves 8.