Skinny Mini Cherry-Topped Cheescakes

My husband loves cheesecake. I made this for Christmas for my next door neighbors and my husband decided that he wanted them and asked me to bake them something else. Needless to say once he has eaten them all he looked at me and asked if that was all we had. HELLO! You just eat dozen cheesecakes in a matter of two days! LOL!

What I like about this recipe is that you get that wonderful cheesecake flavor and each cheesecake is only 90 calories. How can you go wrong with that! Do you know how many calories are in a piece of cheesecake at the cheesecake factory?

All I am going to say is even if you had all 12 mini cheesecakes you would still have consumed less calories then you would in one slice from the cheesecake factory! You don't have to give up certain foods to maintain weight, you just have to use the right ingredients and of course everything in moderation.

Source "The most decadent diet cookbook"

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

Butter flavored cooking spray
10-12 reduced fat vanilla wafers
12oz of fat free cream cheese at room temp
1/3 cup of sugar (I use a little less because I find that that cherry topping makes them sweeter)
2 tablespoons fat free vanilla yogurt
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract (use the good stuff it makes them tastier)
1 teaspoon unbleached all purpose flour
2 large egg whites
10 tablespoons cherry pie filling (I like to get kind that says it has less sugar)

RECIPE STATES IT MAKES 10 MINI CHEESECAKES, HOWEVER i HAVE ALWAYS MADE 12!

WHAT TO DO:

Preheat oven to 300

line 10 cups of a standard muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Lightly mist them with cooking spray (This is what the cookbook recommends I have never done it, because I have never found it to stick.)

Place one vanilla wafer in the bottom center of each cup, flat side down.

Use mixer and beat cream cheese and sugar on medium until well combined. Add yogurt, vanilla, and flour and mix on low until just combined.

In another bowl whisk together egg whites until soft peeks form.

Use spatula and gently fold the eggs into the cream cheese until mixture is just combined. (You don't want to over mix)

Divide the mixture among the muffin tins.

(they will puff up and the tops will crack, but not worry because you will hide the cracks will the cherry pie filling)

Transfer cheesecakes to cooling rack and cool at room temp. Refrigerate for at least 5 hours.

Before serving top each cheesecake with 1 tablespoon cherry pie filling. (I usally top each with 2-3 cherries a little filling sauce.

I hope you enjoy this as much as my family does.

1 Cheesecake has 90 calories, 6g protein, 17g carbohydrates, 1g fat, trace fiber, 215mg sodium...which means that you save 51 calories, 7g fat, 5g saturated fat, and 100mg sodium if you had had a regular piece of cheesecake.