In honor of Labor Day weekend, here is a quick and easy dessert — that’s no work at all and perfect for any barbeque or get-together.
I’ve seen some variations of cheesecake treats online that use no-bake cheesecake mix, but most of them are pretty big, or involve little cups and spoons that I’d rather not deal with. I’ve found that the no-bake cheesecake mix is pretty sweet and rich, so I wanted to make a variation that was smaller and easier to handle.
These cheesecake bites are sooooo easy and quick to make – they literally take about 15 minutes to put together – and they’re a hit at parties, barbeques, etc.
Ingredients:
- One box of no-bake cheesecake mix
- Graham crackers (I recommend the Honeymaid brand because the generic kind can be hard to cleanly break apart)
- Assorted fruit
- 1 1/2 cups milk (non-fat CAN be used to lighten it up a bit, but feel free to use any kind)
Start by mixing up the cheesecake filling with the milk (the kind I used called for 1 1/2 cups of milk but check the box just to make sure). Stick the filling in the freezer, and while you’re waiting for it to set, break the graham crackers into quarters and lay them out on the plate or platter you’ll be using.
I also use this time to chop up the fruit I’ll be using as decoration. This is pretty much the most time-consuming part of making the dessert, and it really only takes about 10 minutes!
Once the cheesecake filling has set (give or take 10 minutes in the freezer), I put it in a sandwich bag and cut one corner off the bag to make a “pastry bag” of sorts. I then pipe the filling onto each cracker.
Last but not least, I top the cheesecake bites with fruit. For Labor Day I made a festive flag design using strawberries and blueberries. On the plain pieces without fruit I sprinkled a bit of graham cracker crumbs from the cheesecake mix just so they weren’t completely plain. This dessert is so fun and versatile, you could make it and decorate it for pretty much any event or holiday.
Just a few tips:
This DOES contain milk, so if you’re bringing it to a barbecue on a hot day, I would try to keep it refrigerated as long as possible.
The graham crackers can get soft if they stay too long in the refrigerator, so make these as close to consumption as possible (AKA this is not a make-the-night-before dessert).