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Merry Christmas! Green Tea Mini-Cheesecakes coming your way :)


Merry Christmas everyone!! In lieu of this special occasion, I decided to make these festive-looking Green Tea Mini-Cheesecakes. Garnished with fresh raspberries, they fit the Christmas color scheme. (Apologies for the ugly pictures by the way. I left my DSLR in Philadelphia.)

In case you’re not familiar with Matcha powder, its simply finely milled young green tea, and it can be purchased online or in most Asian supermarkets. There’s really no good substitute for it. I’ve tried steeping lots of tea bags in warm cream and grinding up my own tea before…. trust me, just invest in some Matcha.

I also decided to make these gluten-free so that Gary, my mom’s fiancé, could also enjoy these treats. He recently discovered that he has a gluten intolerance so a lot desserts are now off-limits for him. It was pretty simple. I just used gluten-free chocolate sandwich cookies (aka Oreo knock-offs) instead of normal cookies. These can probably be found in most grocery stores; I bought a package from Walmart.

There’s two ways to crush the cookies: the fun way and the boring way. The fun way involves banging a rolling pin and taking out all of your frustrations in life. :P Here is my helper Diyu, doing just that:

The crust needs to be pre-baked and cooled before filling. This just ensures that it comes out crisp and toasted, not soggy. Here’s Diyu again, killing that filling game:

These cheesecakes are sweet, but not too sweet. The bitterness of the green tea is a surprisingly good complement with the crunchy and sweet chocolate cookie crust. The juicy, slightly tart raspberry also adds to the combo; I’d definitely recommend garnishing with a few fresh ones.

I hope that wherever you are and whatever religion you are, you’re eating good food and spending lots of time with the people that love this holiday season! Happy munching!

Green Tea Mini-Cheesecakes

Makes 1 dozen

Ingredients:

  • 10 gluten-free chocolate sandwich cookies or Oreos

  • 2 tbsps. unsalted butter, melted

  • ¼ cup heavy cream

  • 2 tsps. Matcha powder

  • 8 oz. cream cheese, softened

  • ½ cup powdered sugar, packed

  • 1 tbsp. honey

  • 1 large egg, room temperature

Preparation:

  1. Preheat oven to 325˚ F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with muffin liners.

  2. Crush the chocolate cookies. Place the cookies in a Ziploc bag, squeeze out excess air, seal, and break into crumbs using a rolling pin. Alternatively, place in a food processor and pulse to fine crumbs. You should have about 1 ¼ cups of cookie crumbs.

  3. Transfer crumbs to medium bowl. Mix in melted butter. Divide mixture among muffin cups and press down to make a crust.

  4. Bake crust for 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow to cool to room temperature.

  5. Warm heavy cream to about 100 degrees F. I microwaved at 50% power with 15 second intervals, about 45 seconds total.

  6. Whisk Matcha powder into the cream. There will be some lumps. Don’t panic. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature.

  7. Pass the Matcha mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl if you’re using a hand mixer or the stand mixer bowl if you’re using that.

  8. Add cream cheese and beat until smooth. Add powdered sugar and honey and beat until well combined. Add egg and beat again. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go during this step.

  9. Pass the cream cheese mixture through a fine mesh strainer. It’s okay to use the same one that you used for the Matcha mixture. Just make sure to mix it again after straining.

  10. Divide cream cheese mixture over the cooled crusts. Smooth out the tops.

  11. Bake in preheated oven for 11-13 minutes until mostly set but center still jiggles when you move the pan.

  12. Allow to cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Then chill in refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days. Before serving, garnish with fresh berries if desired.

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