Butter tart cheesecakes, the whole dishButter tart cheesecakes, close up

Butter tart cheesecakes

60 min · 8 g protein · 150 cals / serving

A butter tart and a cheesecake in one muffin tin: a buttery graham base, a sticky spoonful of brown sugar, maple, raisins and pecans with the flavour of a butter tart, and a smooth vanilla cheesecake on top, made from blended cottage cheese and light cream cheese.

Servings12

Ingredients

Crust

  • 4 full sheets graham crackers, finely crushed
  • 2 1/2 tbsp butter, melted; 1 1/2 tbsp for the crust, 1 tbsp for the butter tart layer

Butter tart layer

Cheesecake

Steps

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F and line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper or silicone liners. Mix the crumbs with 1 1/2 tbsp of the melted butter until they clump like wet sand, press a level tablespoon firmly into each liner and bake 5 minutes. Lower the oven to 300°F.
  2. Bring the brown sugar, maple syrup and the remaining 1 tbsp butter to a boil in a small pan, stirring, and let it bubble 1 minute until syrupy. Off the heat, stir in the raisins and pecans and spoon a little onto each crust.Step 2, what it should look like
  3. Blend the cottage cheese and cream cheese for a full minute, until completely smooth with no curds left. Add the eggs, stevia, cornstarch and vanilla and blend just until even; more blending whips in air that makes them puff and crack. Pour gently over the butter tart layer, almost to the top of each liner.
  4. Bake 22–25 minutes, until the edges are set and the centres still jiggle slightly. Turn off the oven and leave them inside with the door ajar for 15 minutes.Step 4, what it should look like
  5. Cool on a rack, then chill at least 3 hours, until firm. Peel off the liners and serve cold; a few extra chopped pecans on top are nice.

Good to know

Cottage cheese in a cheesecake?

Blended for a full minute it turns completely smooth, and baked low it sets creamy and tangy, much like a New York cheesecake. Do not skip the blending: unblended curds stay grainy.

Can I use sugar instead of stevia?

Yes: beat 1/2 cup sugar into the cheese mixture instead. The cheesecakes taste the same and come out a little softer, at about 12 instead of 19.

Raisins or no raisins?

The great butter tart argument. Leave them out and use a few more pecans if your family is on the plain side; the sticky layer works either way.

Alternatives

Per

Calories
208
Protein
(21%)
11 g
Fat
(43%)
10 g
Carbohydrates
(36%)
19 g
of which sugar
13 g
Fiber
<1 g
Sodium
377 mg

More desserts

Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How

As written, 1795 kcal goes into the pot and 937 g of ingredients comes out as about 865 g of food: 208 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.