Mini Raspberry Cheesecakes for Passover
If there’s one thing that I know it’s that people love cheesecake! And these Mini Raspberry Cheesecakes for Passover are incredible! Creamy and dreamy, they are as delicious to eat as they are gorgeous to look at.
The crust for this cheesecake is a mock Graham Cracker Crust: a combination of matzah cake meal, potato starch, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter. This gives you a taste and texture that is very similar to a traditional graham cracker crust. If you aren’t observing the holiday, you can always substitute a traditional crust in the place of this one.
To make the crust, you will first combine the matzah cake meal, potato starch, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter in a food processor. Once blended, you pour it out onto a sheet pan and press small amounts together to form clumps. Bake those clumps until they become golden and crunchy. Pulse that in the food processor to make it into crumbs, add more brown sugar and melted butter until it comes together. Then, line your mini springform pans with the crust.
The batter for the Mini Raspberry Cheesecakes is a piece of cake (haha) if you’ve got a stand mixer. If not, it’ll take some elbow grease to get this batter smooth. First, I highly recommend that your cream cheese is at room temperature. If it’s too cold, you will get a lumpy batter. Mix the cream cheese along with the sugar, eggs, sour cream, whipping cream and vanilla and distribute the batter equally between the mini pans.
Bake the cheesecakes, turn the oven off and let them sit in the cooling oven. Then chill them overnight.
When you’re ready to serve them, place some raspberries on top in any pattern you choose, brush with the glaze and you are ready to go. You can even decorate them up to 4 hours in advance, which is perfect when you have lots of other things to think of, like the Seder!
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Mini Raspberry Cheesecakes for Passover
Makes: 4 individual mini cheesecakes
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour & 45 minutes plus overnight chill time
Ingredients
“Graham Cracker” Crust:
- 1 cup matzah cake meal
- 1 cup potato starch
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 10 tbsp unsalted butter or pareve Passover margarine, cold
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter or pareve Passover margarine, melted
Cheesecake:
- 3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp Kosher salt
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 6 tbsp whipping cream
- 1 & 1/2 tsp Passover Vanilla extract (see Chef’s Note)
- 1 pint raspberries
- 1/4 cup apricot preserves
- 1 tbsp brandy
Instructions
For Crust:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place the matzo cake meal, potato starch, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a processor bowl with the metal blade. Pulse on and off until ingredients are blended. Add the butter and pulse a few more times until the butter is incorporated into the dry ingredients. Turn out onto the parchment paper.
Press the mixture together to form small lumps. Place the baking sheets on the middle and lower racks in the oven. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until lightly browned, switching the positions of the two sheets after 6 minutes. Let cool.
Place the lumps in a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Add the brown sugar to the processor and pulse to blend. Add the melted butter and pulse until the dough starts to cling together.
Butter bottom and sides of 4 mini springform pans. Press the crust onto bottom and up sides of pans. Place the mini springform pans on a baking tray and bake until set, about 15 minutes. Cool on rack. Maintain oven temperature.
Filling:
Using a mixer, beat cream cheese in bowl until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Gradually add sugar, then salt; beat until smooth. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add sour cream, whipping cream and vanilla; beat until well blended. Pour into prepared pans.
Bake cakes until top begins to brown but center still moves lightly when pan is gently shaken, about 45-50 minutes. Open oven door slightly; turn oven off. Leave cakes in oven for 30 minutes. Chill overnight uncovered. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover; keep refrigerated.)
Run small knife between pan sides and cake. Release pan sides. Decorate cake tops with raspberries.
Stir preserves and brandy in heavy small saucepan over medium heat until mixture boils. Strain preserves. Brush glaze generously over raspberries, allow some glaze to drip between berries.
Can be made 4 hours ahead. Chill.
Chef’s Note:
Regular vanilla extract isn’t Kosher for Passover as it’s made from grain alcohol. It is possible to find Kosher for Passover vanilla extract (click this link). If you can’t find it, you can substitute vanilla sugar which is available online here.
If you prefer to make one cheesecake, instead of minis, use an 8-inch springform pan instead of the mini pans and follow the same instructions.
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