A Valentine's Day Dessert

Looking for a dessert to make for your Valentine? Try these mini heart shaped cheesecakes with homemade strawberry sauce. I made them over the weekend and they turned out pretty well. I was kind of making them up as I went, so they weren't absolutely perfect the first time, but I added a few tips at the end of this post for how I would make them even better next time.

Ingredients:
1 8oz. package cream cheese (I used fat-free)
1/2 cup sugar, divided
1/2 tsp vanilla extract, divided
2 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice, divided
1 egg
2 refrigerated pie crusts
10-12 large strawberries
1 tsp cornstarch
3 tbsp Creme de Cacao (optional)

Yields 20-24 mini cheesecakes

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Unroll pie crusts on a clean floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll out until smooth. Here's where your art skills come into play....Carefully cut out heart shaped sections of the pie crust (they should be about 3-4 inches wide). If you have a large heart shaped cookie cutter, you can definitely use that too (or anything heart-shaped that you can use as a template).

Press hearts into greased mini muffin cups.

Using an electric mixer, mix cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, and 1 tsp lemon juice until fluffy. Add in egg and mix until completely blended.

Fill each heart with the cream cheese mixture, about 3/4 full or so.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the crust turns golden.

To make the sauce, begin by cutting the strawberries into large chunks.

In a small bowl mix together remaining 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice with cornstarch. Combine strawberries, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, lemon juice/cornstarch mixture, and remaining 1/4 tsp vanilla in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Stir in Creme de Cacao, reduce heat, and cook about 5 more minutes until the mixture turns into a thick sauce.

When the cheesecakes are done, remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Once cheesecakes and strawberry sauce have cooled, top each heart with a spoonful of sauce, and enjoy! Store any leftovers in the refrigerator.

A few suggested changes:
- I think next time I would make them in regular size muffin cups. The crust to cheesecake ratio was a little heavy on the crust and there wasn't as much cheesecake flavor in each bite as I would have liked. (The cooking time would likely need to be increased for the larger size.)
- Also, if you want to add a little kick of sweetness and hint of sparkle, try sprinkling a little sugar on the crust before baking.

Let me know what you think!