Mini Cheesecake Bites

Here, I garnished with gold-colored sugar.

I previously posted a savory use for these little shells, and a sweet-spiced one. Now, here's a citrusy-sweet one.

I've got to admit I'm particularly fond of this version. And better yet, these one-bite desserts are simple to make and impressive to serve. You can have the cheese filling made well ahead of time – just keep it refrigerated until you’re ready to fill the shells and serve.

For a festive touch, you can garnish these with colored sugar, sprinkles, or cookie crumbs. For a more decadent dessert, you can top them with a bit of whipped cream.

The interesting thing is that the lemon curd doesn’t make the cheese filling taste like a lemon dessert. Instead, it adds just the right amount of sweetness and a hint of lemon that makes is taste like cheesecake filling rather than a savory bit of cheese.

Adding more lemon curd to the top gives it more of a lemony zip, but you could opt for other toppings, like caramel sauce, blueberry jam, or fruit preserves.

Mini Cheesecake Bites

15 pre-baked mini fillo (or phyllo) shells
4 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
2 tablespoons lemon curd
Additional lemon curd for topping

In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese and lemon curd, and blend until smooth. If you’d like the mixture to be a little thinner, you can add a bit of milk, yogurt, sour cream – or more lemon curd.

Fill each shell with a spoon full of the mixture, then top with a small dollop of additional lemon curd.

Garnish as desired.

Note: If you have leftover pie crust from pie-making, you can use the scraps to make your own small cups. Bake them in mini-muffin tins using a few pie weights to keep them from puffing. Let them cool completely before filling.

If you can't find pre-baked shells, you might find them frozen. Or use puff pastry shells.

If you have a lot of shells to fill, a pastry bag or a small scoop might be easier and faster than using spoons.

Yum