Coconut Lime Mini Cheesecakes (Wheat-Free)

Seeing as my Millionaire's Cheesecake recipe is my blog's most popular post, accruing over 100 views as of this day, I kinda gathered that people like cheesecake. So, I thought I'd share with you another delicious, Caribbean inspired recipe, Coconut and Lime Mini Cheesecakes!

I've always loved the combination of coconut and lime, sometimes with ginger and sometimes with rum and brown sugar, but the richness of the coconut and the freshness of the lime go so well together. In fact, outside the world of sweets, it's a fabulous combination for flavouring white rice as a side dish for marinaded chicken recipes, such as jerk chicken or barbecue chicken.

But back to sweets, which is why you're all here. I have long experimented with different kinds of baked cheesecake recipes, but I think I've come across a method that makes cheesecakes with a fantastic texture. The idea came to me when I was watching a fellow YouTube cook's channel, Ania's Kitchen, where she makes a vanilla cheesecake (sernik waniliowy) by whipping the egg whites separately and folding into the rest of the mixture.

I tried this out in my go-to baked cheesecake recipe, which I've been using for ages now, and it worked amazingly! The resulting dessert was so light and fluffy, and in no way dense or heavy liked baked cheesecakes can sometimes be. I thought it was a massive improvement. However, it made the mixture much more voluminous and as such it made about 50% more cakes than I was expecting: my original batch made 18 mini cakes!

So, without further ado, let's get on with the recipe! This has been amended to make a more realistic batch of 12 mini cakes.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Dairy
☒ Eggs


 INGREDIMENTS

For the base:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) rolled oats
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) wholegrain spelt flour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) dessicated coconut
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) brown sugar
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) sunflower oil
• 2 tablespoon (30 millilitres) water
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) ground ginger
• Pinch of salt

For the cheesecake mixture:

• 10½ ounces (300 grammes) cream cheese, room temperature
• 5½ ounces (150 grammes) coconut cream (What's this? See notes below)
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
• Zest and juice of 1 lime
• 2 medium eggs
• Pinch of salt

HOW-TO
To make the biscuit base:

• Preheat your oven to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2, or very moderate). Line a 12 indent muffin tin with large cake cases (muffin cases).
• Mix all the ingredients for the base together in a mixing bowl very thoroughly until fully blended. It'll take a while, but you want a moist, loose and consistent mixture. It's sort of like a crumble.
• Put a rounded tablespoon (about 20 millilitres) of crumble into each case. Press it down with the spoon, spreading some up the sides a little.
• Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in the oven while you prepare your filling.

For the cheesecake:

• In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, set coconut milk and salt until light and smooth. Beat in the sugar until creamy. Fold in the lime juice and zest.
• Separate the eggs, putting the yolks in with the cream cheese mix and putting the whites in a separate mixing bowl. Beat in the yolks.
• Using clean beaters on an electric mixer, whip the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.
• Fold a third of the whipped whites into the cream cheese until half mixed. Add the remaining whipped whites and gently fold in until completely incorporated.
• Remove the bases from the oven and divide the mixture between the cases. Shake the tray lightly to smooth out the tops of the cakes, and give it two or three firm taps off the counter.
• Return to the oven and bake for 20 minutes. When the cooking time it elapsed, turn off the oven, crack the oven door, and allow the cakes to cool in the oven.
• Once cooled, chill for at least 4 hours; I find it's best to leave them overnight.

NOTE

What is coconut cream, I hear you ask (or imagine hearing you because this is a computer)? Sometimes when you leave a can of coconut milk sitting in the press for ages it separates into coconut cream and coconut water. When you open the can, the solid cream has risen to the top and set, and when you scoop it out, the water it sitting at the bottom. This separation usually happens when coconut milk hasn't been tampered with and pumped full of nasty preservatives or gums to lengthen its shelf life.

For this recipe, you'll need to scoop out the cream; you can discard the coconut water if you like, but it's good for your skin, hair and nails if you drink it.

And there you are! It's a little fiddly, and probably NOT a beginner's recipe, but my Lordy are they delicious. I brought some to a friend's house and they were demolished; her 2 year old ate about 3 of them...

There was no recipe this time last year.