Homeschool Cooking With Kids Series: Gluten-Free Mini Cheesecake Recipe
What happens when mom is craving cheesecake.
As a newbie to the gluten-free world, the hardest question to answer can be, “Honey, what do you want on the way home for a treat?”
Oh, no worries, I can give you a list. It will be really long and super yummy! But nothing on that list will be anything I can actually eat.
I miss my favorite foods.
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My daughter decided one night she was going to make me cheesecake. She told me to find a recipe but every one I found we either
a) were missing half the ingredients or
b) the recipe took 2 hours to chill and it was 7 pm already.
I gave up.
But she didn’t.
She told me she was going to take two recipes and blend them together to make me mini cheesecakes. AND she was going to have to ¼ the recipes since we were limited in supplies.
IF that wasn’t shocking enough, she tasked me to help her.
Um. Did we forget I don’t bake?? Anyone remember these fails?? Lol!
What could I say? Let’s do this!
Here are the two original recipes, be sure to check them out 🙂
Gluten Free Mini Cheesecake Recipe:
First, she set up our kitchen table and gathered all the ingredients. You can see she has both recipes printed off and ready to blend and divide.
We ended up with 3 individual mini cheesecakes at the end. Adjust the recipe as you need 😉
Also, please double check all the items are gluten-free. I am learning gluten likes to hide everywhere!
Ingredients for the crust:
- 3 tablespoons Almond Meal<–We use Rob Mills gluten-free brand.(and a little more, you’ll see)
- 1 tablespoon of melted butter
- ¼ tsp of sugar
Ingredients for the filling:
- 4 oz of cream cheese (½ of a package) Softened
- 3 tbsp of sugar
- Half an egg
- ¼ vanilla
Ingredients for the topping
- Powdered sugar or icing sugar. Check the label for the starch for gluten-free. Domino’s is sugar and cornstarch.
- 3 cherries/berries of your choice
Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees C bake for 15-20 minutes.
Getting Fired…Ooops!
To make the crust we mixed the Almond Meal, melted butter and sugar in a bowl.
It was a little runny so she said, “Mom add some more almond meal…about a ½ tablespoon.”
Um…oops!
“I was supposed to measure??”
“MOM!”
I’ll take that as a yes…so you might need to add a shake and half to your mixture.
The texture you are looking for is just enough to stick together. If it is too dry, add more melted butter. Too wet and sticky, add more Almond Meal.
Needless to say, I got instantly fired and demoted to “dishwasher” and “fetcher” ha!
Set that aside and move to the filling.
How To “Half” One Egg
She put the cream cheese in and added the sugar. We needed to figure out the “half an egg” problem.
I said, “What if you cracked the egg and then beat it and then split it?”
She said, “That is crazy enough to work!”
We measured one egg and it was 50 ml. So we split it. (Also known as divide…math! 😉 )
She knew we needed 25 ml. Tada, how to use half an egg.
Dora the Explorer Songs
Next problem was the cream cheese was too hard to beat. Oops, should have softened it.
She grabbed a knife and cut it into smaller pieces.
We tried using the Kitchen Aid mixer, which I love and adore, but it turned into cottage cheese texture. ICK!
So I offered to hand whisk it. I don’t suggest this, lol! It took over 10 minutes and my arms felt like they were going to fall off! Plus side, a GREAT workout!
Use a hand mixer. I have decided I am getting one. I just have no idea what kind I want, ideas?
I whisked for 10 minutes then she took a turn and it smoothed right out. Also, I kept hearing Dora The Explorers Bate Bate Chocolate Song in my head, lol!
Next, we preheated the oven because we always forget to do it at the beginning.
Running Out Of Crust
Add muffin liners to your muffin tins. Then put in enough crust to cover the bottom, at least a half of a tablespoon depending on the size of your muffin tin.
We realized we needed one more crust so we quickly in a ramekin melted 1 tsp of butter, 1/2 tbsp of Almond Meal and skipped the vanilla. It was just enough to fill one muffin liner.
Divide your topping and fill each muffin liner almost to the top!
Bake for 15-20 minutes, at 350 degrees C.
We cooked ours for 15. I thought it was perfect but she thought it needed more time. It was “a little mushy”.
Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes before removing them from the muffin tins to a plate.
Let cool completely, or chill in the fridge for 10 minutes, until cool.
Top with sifted powdered sugar and cherries or berries of your choice.
Eat for breakfast with coffee.
Bring It ON!
If you had asked me if my kiddo that second guesses herself at every turn would be the one hunting down recipes, taking on the challenges of gluten-free baking, and blending recipes…I would have thought you were crazy.
It is incredible to me to see how saying YES more to messes, giving her the freedom and tools to support her baking, and being willing to take advantage of her creativity has changed her confidence and our FUN in our home.
I laughed so hard I cried. She took charge and made great decisions. I danced while mixing and she rolled her eyes. Ah, what more can you ask for? ;
Does she still struggle? Yes. BUT. These little victories are slowly building her up enough to believe she can take a chance on something totally new and scary and succeed.
She is always baking! Did you check out her Sugar Cookie Pinwheels? They were so pretty! *Were* because nothing sweet lasts long in this house!
It’s still a work in progress but I want to encourage you if you have a kiddo that is struggling with something, be it math or self-worth, or history…keep looking!
Find what works and DO THAT until it doesn’t! You can do it. ♥ Bring it on!
Take care,
Jen.
PS. Another great tool I am using to help us BOTH overcome our tendency to tear ourselves down instead of building ourselves up is a Big Life Journal. This is a growth mindset journal for kids and is absolutely beautiful. Check it out here or watch the unboxing video here.
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Hi, I’m Jen. I help working moms juggle their career and homeschool their kids by providing support, systems and tools. You are warmly invited to Join the Online Community Here!
