Blueberry Cheesecake Cups

Posted by Judy | Bebe Love Okazu on May 3, 2010 in Blog, Cheesecake, Family Favorites | 6 comments

Blueberry cheesecake cups were my favorite childhood dessert.  It seems like my mom made this regularly for us, and when I asked her about this, she said it was because she made this often for parties, as well as refreshments for a number of activities: basketball, church, poker night, Japanese school, boy scouts, girl scouts, her flower arrangement group, chorus, so on and so forth!

Am I ever glad my mom had all these activities to make refreshments for… so we could enjoy these too!  :)

Now the tides have turned… Last week, I mentioned to my mom that I wanted to make blueberry cheesecake cups and she asked me in Japanese if I could make extra for her and her friends because she had a lunch party Friday at so-and-so’s house.  She said 10 would suffice.  My pleasure, mom!

For a retired woman, my mom is very difficult to get in touch with because of her busy social calendar.  This puts a damper on my cooking plans at times because she’s not easily accessible to answer my questions (selfish, I know).  :)  When I call her during the day, my dad answers most of the time (which means mom is out) and laughs when he hears my voice because he has to tell me once again, that she’s out with her friends, A-GAIN!  What’s worse is that my mom is notorious for forgetting her cell, not hearing the ringer, and worse yet, she doesn’t know how to check her voicemail.  So during times of cooking crisis or recipe requests… I must be very patient.

Fortunately, I asked my mom for her blueberry cheesecake cup recipe many years ago, but it’s been FOREVER since I made these.

So last week I decided to make these while I was visiting my parents.  We went grocery shopping and searched high and low for canned blueberry pie filling, but no one had any!  (Maybe it’s off – season?)  Instead, I bought cherry pie filling (because it was on sale), but I also bought a bag of frozen organic blueberries (also on sale).  I figured it couldn’t be that difficult to make blueberry filling – I was right.  :)  I modified a blueberry pie recipe found on the Food TV website from Emeril’s Pie Contest episode: “Polly’s Perfect Pie“, recipe compliments of Kathryn Beall.

What’s interesting about this blueberry cheesecake cup recipe, is that practically every mom of the friends I grew-up with, and even those in our community, made one version or another of this dessert. I’m not sure where this recipe originated, but I’m thankful to whomever created it.  THANK  YOU!

Mom’s Blueberry Cheesecake Cups

(Makes 24)

for cheesecake cups when you have canned pie filling:

• 1 -2 cans blueberry or cherry pie filling
• 2 8-ounce cream cheese
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 24 vanilla wafers
• Paper cupcake cups

for blueberry filling when you can’t find it canned:

• 1 10 ounce frozen package organic blueberries
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch diluted with 2 tablespoons water
• Lemon juice

1)  Preheat oven to 375.

2)  Cream together cream cheese and sugar until smooth.  I substituted the cream cheese with lower fat neufchatel cheese.

Yes, I Googled neufchatel cheese, and apparently Americans are confused about “Neufchatel” cheese because cheese producers in the states use this term to describe low-fat cream cheese, but it’s very different from true, French Neufchatel cheese which is produced in Northern France and sold in specialty and fine cheese shops.  Seriously, why not just call it low-fat cream cheese because that’s really what it is.  I used to see “low-fat cream cheese” in the supermarket all the time.  Anyway…

3)  Add eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and mix well.  I used a fresh lemon from my parent’s backyard.  :)  These lemons are also great for lemon squares!

4)  Place one vanilla wafer in each cup.  Oh, how I missed these little wafers from my childhood.  No wonder my mom always kept these in the house…  it was for our blueberry cheesecake cups!  :)  To think I used to gawk at my childhood paper bag lunch when I found these little wafers in my lunch AGAIN!  I am ashamed of myself…  and was I truly this clueless as a kid?  The answer is likely, YES!

5)  Fill each cup about ¾ full with the cream cheese mixture.

6)  Bake for 15-20 min at 375.  Let cool completely.  The cheesecake cups will rise and look puffy when they first come out of the oven, and then they’ll sink a little.  I’m not experienced with cheesecake so I didn’t know if this was “normal” for the cheesecake cups and worried that they weren’t cooked through, but they were OK, and the bottoms were a golden brown.  So beautiful!  :)

7)  While the cheesecake cups are baking and cooling, make the blueberry filling.  I highly recommend making it.  It’s so much better than canned!  Combine water, frozen blueberries, a squeeze of lemon and sugar.  Cook for 10 – 15 minutes on medium high heat while stirring until blueberries are tender.  Dissolve cornstarch in cold water and pour into the pan.  Stir the blueberry mix until it thickens.  Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

8)  Gently spoon blueberry filling on top of each cheesecake cup, spread, and then refrigerate.

I ran out of blueberry filling so I opened a can of the cherry pie filling and made a few cherry cups.  These weren’t as good as the blueberry cups, but they’re not bad.  ;)

This was the first time I made these for bebe dada and big onechan.  Wow… this means I haven’t made this dessert in over 6 years.  I definitely need to make these more often.  Big onechan’s response when she took her first bite, “Mmmmmmm!  This is SO good!”  Bebe dada was more quiet, and just said it was good, but he’s already eaten 3 of them so that means he likes it.  :)

If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to leave me a comment.  I would enjoy hearing from you!

Cheers,

Judy | bebe mama