delicious mini lemon cheesecakes!

(Note: I can't figure out how to make the pictures bigger.. you can click on them for a close up view though).

RATING: 5 out of 4 stars! THIS WAS FANTASTIC!! I had made the cheesecakes before (and really liked them) but I used cinnamon to flavor them instead of lemon. Tonight I just happened to notice lemon juice in the fridge and wondered what they would be like lemon flavored, so I made three of them this way. The only problem was that they were so good, I really wanted to eat another one and it was hard to stop myself. The cinnamon ones are still really good too and I'd recommend making them, I think it's just a matter of preference.

INGREDIENTS:

8 oz. low fat cream cheese

3 eggs

Splenda

Butter (optional)

Almond Meal (optional)

Lemon juice or Cinnamon to flavor

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Put 12 muffin liners in a regular sized muffin pan.

3. If you want a crust (I'd recommend it), mix almond meal with melted butter and splenda to taste. This is not an exact science. I melted two tbsp butter and just put enough meal inside until it became thick (a pasty consistency) and added enough splenda to make it sweet.

4. Spoon the crust into each muffin liner. Press down into each one so that an even "crust" is formed.

5. Use a hand mixer to mix the cream cheese, eggs, and 1/2 cup splenda (Note: I have noticed that not all sugar substitutes are the same. You substitute 1/ cup splenda for one cup sugar, but other substitutes are cup for cup, so you would need a full cup in this recipe. Basically, you want the equivalent of a cup of sugar). Mix until it is a liquidy consistency.

6. Spoon the liquid into each muffin liner.

7. If you want cinnamon cheesecakes, sprinkle cinnamon on top (generously) and swirl with a fork. If you want lemon cheesecakes, squirt lemon juice (generously) into each cheesecake and swirl with a fork.

8. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

9. When 30 minutes is up, turn oven off and open it a few inches. Leave cheesecakes in the oven for an hour so they can cool this way. Otherwise, they will crack as they cool.

10. Remove and refrigerate. I store them in ziplock bags and put four cakes in each bag. They last about a week in the refrigerator and who knows how long in the freezer. I froze about half of them and when I had finished the refrigerated ones, I moved the frozen ones to the refrigerator to defrost.