Mini “Rustic” Cheesecakes

Note: I did this before being diagnosed with celiac disease. It is gluten-rific so you’ve been warned.

Lately we’ve been bombarded with “togetherness” at work. Tis the season for bombardments after all. The office Christmas party was not enough. Share Friday was not enough (seriously, we do show and tell on Fridays). Now we are having an office potluck too. So… here’s the thing. I’m mentally checked out for the holidays. I’d be physically checked out too if it were at all possible. Things were going pretty good until two weeks ago when I was subjected to unwanted (aka: bad) Christmas music at work and was reminded why my holiday cheer never makes it to the actual holiday. My holiday = crafting, pretty seasonal patterns, snow, Over the Rhine music, getting time off work, and whatever else I enjoy. I don’t have anything against the “traditional” side of things besides my general dislike of preggers stories and how everyone seems to turn into middle-aged-women with the forwarded-email-version-of-Christianity this time of year. Yuck. I’m an OT girl. And when I’m not I am a Sermon on the Mount fan. And I don’t think that is heretical. I think over the last hundred years or so it has gotten out of control. Blah blah blah. Bombardment. Enough.

All that said, I had to sign up for a potluck thing to share. I decided to do mini cheesecake things. Pie crust, cheesecake filling, blackberries…mmm. I’ve never done this before, but it seemed simple enough. And the bunnies? Well, the star cookie cutter I had was slightly too big so it was between a rabbit and a dog bone shape. There was a lamb by the manger. And what is cuter than a lamb? A bunny. A little baby Jesus, a little Noah, whatevers.

I got some little foil cups (foil stands on its own so in this case you can’t sub in paper ones) and cut circles of pie dough. I used a fork to poke some holes in them so they wouldn’t bubble up. It either worked or it was unnecessary. Either way I didn’t have any problems with this step. I baked them for 2-3 minutes at 450F. Keep an eye on them. They cook fast and keep cooking a little even after you pull them out.

I didn’t have one of those frosting bags (not buying a 10 pack when I just needed one) so I used some wax paper made into a similar shape and held together with packing tape (yeah yeah…I’m lazy) and it worked well. Not so well when I took a half hour break and tried to use the same bag later. The paper had gotten soft during that time and I had a blowout. It worked fine when used within ten minutes though.

They are kinda special, aren’t they? I added the “rustic” to them part way through when I realized the rabbits wouldn’t just lay flat on top and I’d have to stage all of them. Now they look less part of the cheesecake and more like a statement. Statement bunnies!

I ate a few and they tasted great. I wanted to use more blackberries but I was afraid it would go soggy on me. If you are serving them quickly I’d say use more than one berry and maybe some juice even. The foil pealed off easily and I was able to shove all of one in my mouth in an almost ladylike fashion so it wasn’t really messy.

Yes, there is a “creep factor” to the bunnies. My coworkers already think I’m a weirdo though so this doesn’t ding my street-cred as much as you’d think.