These little treats are made with my own personal dietary requirements in mind and I like to have a sweet treat that doesn’t give me some kind of reaction. My diet is very unique to me but everyone seems to like these!
I made them with the ingredients, all without any nasties, but it was actually hard to find even Ricotta that didn’t have some kind of thickener or artificial ingredient in there. Others that are non-artificial I have trouble with even come down to rice malt, agave, stevia, maple syrup, coconut cream, certain fruits, but this is all down to years and years of careful monitoring and mindful eating, being a food detective! Dairy I can tolerate a limited amount on a daily basis, and is one of my faves, but not the lite versions weirdly, but happily for me!
OK, so, what I sourced for these is the following:
– Totally delicious all natural lemon curd from Barkers New Zealand
– Ricotta cheese by Perfect Italiano, had the least amount of nasties in it
– Light sour cream Coles version
– Gluten free Ginger Snaps – but you can make your own, I just didn’t do that this time
– A fresh lemonade (lemon/orange), the rind and juice or you could use a lime
– 80% dark chocolate, find a good quality one
– Fresh mint leaves, 24 to coat with chocolate and 24 leave fresh
Mini cupcake tray – 24 total or just mini cup cake papers
Method
Melt enough chocolate to make 1/2 cup of melted chocolate, say half a large bar.
When it’s melted, add a very tiny dash of olive oil to keep it in a smooth consistency
Grab a clean little paintbrush or a pastry brush and paint about 24 leaves with a thick layer of chocolate, then put them in the fridge or freezer.
Take the large container of Ricotta cheese and add to a bowl with 3 tablespoons of sour cream, and the zest of one or two of the lemons/lime then quickly pour in the rest of the melted chocolate. This will then create some shards of chocolate in the mix, giving it a bit of texture. Add in the the juice of a lemonade (or lime/lemon), mix. It doesn’t need any sugar or sweeter.
Crush up your ginger snaps by putting them in a bag and smashing them with a rolling pin, but keep them rough, not a totally smooth mixture.
Grease your mini cupcake tin with either a bit of oil or butter, add your ginger biscuit mix to the bottom of each tin.
Lemon Curd Centres
Add 1/4 teaspoon of lemon curd to each mini cheesecake.
Pour in the cheesecake mix so it’s full. Top with zest.
Take the leaves out of the freezer and carefully remove the mint leaf. This process needs to be done quickly because your hands will melt the chocolate fairly quickly.
Use the fresh mint leaves to decorate next to the chocolate ones.
Put the finished cheesecakes in the freezer to set.
When you take them out they will keep their shape, just pop them into the fridge.
You may have some leftover cheesecake mixture, you can make additional ones or try a different flavour.
Keep them in the freezer as treats for when you need one later.
Enjoy!
Angie 🙂
