Baking a good New York cheesecake is no easy feat, but this recipe makes baking 18 mini cheesecakes as easy as it can get! Amazingly, we were able to get each of these rich and creamy cheesecakes down to only 100 calories without sacrificing flavor or texture. While these do sacrifice a crust, true New York cheesecakes are never made inside a crust.

Makes 18 Cheesecake Minis (100 calories each)

Prep Time: 10 minutes Bake Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Nonstick cooking spray

2 (8-ounce) packages reduced-fat cream cheese, softened

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup sour cream

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300°F and line muffin tins with 18 paper or aluminum (recommended) liners. Lightly spray the insides of the liners with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth.
3. Add all remaining ingredients to the cream cheese in the mixer and beat until fully combined.
4. Fill each prepared liner with the cheesecake batter until about 1/2 of the way full.
5. Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until the sides of the cheesecakes are beginning to rise, but center is still soft.
6. Let cool on counter for 30 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for an additional 2 hours before removing paper liners to serve.

Helpful Tip: Make a fresh raspberry sauce topping by lightly mashing 1 cup of raspberries with 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey. Topping each Cheesecake Mini with 2 rounded teaspoons of the sauce will only add 10 calories to the full dessert.

Mona Dolgov

Nutritionist, cookbook author, publisher and health and wellness entrepreneur Mona Dolgov lives her lifelong mission of creating healthier food products, recipes and inventing simple culinary tricks to easily create practical and healthier lifestyles. She is President of You Live Right, LLC, where she has authored and published over 20 cookbooks for top-selling kitchen appliances, health and wellness products and grocery retailers, focused on simplicity and using nutritious ingredients. She also is a private nutritional coach, offers educational and fun dinner classes at Mona’s Kitchen,  and is a speaker on nutritional well-being. Plus, she is very excited about launching Cook U. Follow Mona on Facebook or Instagram @monadolgov

She recently co-authored The Perfect Portion Cookbook, a 5-star rated cookbook (with Hollywood star Anson Willams) that makes American classics healthier and guides consumers to healthier portion control. This book (and Mona) was featured on the Today Show, The Doctors, and The Huffington Post. Learn more at www.theperfectportion.com

She is completing her second cookbook, Satisfy,  that will be launched in 2020, focused on simple nutritionally balanced meals all 500 calories or less with real ingredients and real portions. All of the recipes are gluten-free.