Cherry Cheesecake Shooters (Ree Drummond)

What on earth are shooters (besides being persons with a gun in their hand who shoot?). I knew they were some kind of drink and I eventually found out that a shooter is basically an alcoholic mixed drink. And a shooter is generally drunk quickly rather than slowly sipped. Hmmmm....But these Cherry Cheesecake Shooters aren't the kind of shooters that we speak of. They are cherry cheesecake in a glass, scooped and not sipped :)

I couldn't help being very attracted to this dessert when I saw them on Ree's homepage. Ree made them in wine glasses and they looked so elegant. I did not execute these shooters very well because I made some mistakes with the cherry topping. I used canned dark pitted cherries and sort of fused Ree's method (she used frozen cherries in her second version of the recipe) and the method I found at Joy of Baking. My cherry topping was not thick enough and was a little too sweet. And because it was quite fluid, it bled into the cream cheese.

As for the cream cheese part, I did not follow Ree's recipe as she used cream cheese and condensed milk. I am not very keen on condensed milk and decided to use Su Chan's recipe, the one for Tiramisu Cake.

After chilling these shooters for a few hours, I had a taste and it was very good. Other that the slightly too sweet filling, it was delicious. And because the crushed digestive biscuits are not mixed with butter, they are loose and crumbly and you have to be careful not to spill them when you eat. I had a mini disaster on my couch and had digestive biscuits all over my tee shirt and sarong.

Overall, this is a very easy dessert to put together. It looks elegant and it tastes great. Something that could be made a day ahead and one that will certainly impress your guests. And by the way, I had the last one for breakfast this morning, a terribly naughty thing to do tsk..tsk..tsk...

Cherry Cheesecake Shooters
Recipe source : Ree Drummond
(My notes and adaptations in red)

Ingredients :

-12 whole Graham Crackers (the 4-section rectangles) 

- 2 packages 8 ounce cream cheese 

- 1 can sweetened condensed milk 

- 1 can cherry pie filling 

- 1/4 cup slivered Almonds 

Method :

1. Put the graham crackers into a ziplock bag and smash them with a rolling pin until they're fine crumbs.

2. Spoon graham crackers into the bottom of mini wine glasses.

3. Add cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk to bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whip them together until fluffy.

4. Fill a pastry bag or zipper bag with the filling. Snip off the end and pipe a big helping over the crumbs in each of the glasses.

5. Top with a big spoonful of cheery pie filling.

6. Top with chopped almond flakes.

Ree's notes :

- Mix 2 tablespoons melted butter into the crumbs if you'd like them to be a little more moist

- Use whatever kind of pie filling you'd like.

- 1 package pf cream cheese makes for a mode udding-like texture; 2 packages makes for a thicker texture.

For my cherry filling :

Ingredients :

- 1 can 439g dark pitted cherries in syrup

- 2 tablespoons honey

- 1 tablespoon sugar (I will omit in future as my filling was a bit too sweet)

- 1 teaspoon cornstarch

- juice from half a lemon

- 1 tablespoon butter (in future I would omit this)

Method :

1. Drain cherries to separate the fruit from the syrup.

2. Use spoon to cut the cherries in half.

3. Pour the syrup into a saucepan and add honey and sugar. Bring to a boil and add butter. Simmer until slightly reduced and syrup becomes thicker.

4. Pour the cherries into the syrup mixture.

5. In a small bowl, add lemon juice and cornstarch. Pour into the simmering cherry mixture and stir until thickened.

For my cheesecake filling (Adapted from Su Chan's Tiramisu Cake):

Ingredients :

- 250g cream cheese
- 100g castor (superfine) sugar
- 3 eggs yolks (please use pasteurized eggs for your safety)
- 1 tbsp rum
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 250ml whipping cream, whipped

Method :
1. Beat cream cheese and sugar in a mixing bowl until light.
2. Add egg yolks one by one.
3.  Add rum and fold in whipped heavy cream.

I'm linking this post to Cook Like a Star, an event co-hosted by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out and Mich of Piece of Cake. The featured chef for the month is Ree Drummond.