I think I’m definitely going through an ongoing obsession with cheesecake! I just love it! How can you not?! It’s not only delicious but you can do SO much with it. Different flavors, fillings, crusts, shapes, forms, oh the possibilities are unlimited! Can you tell i’m excited…lol. I had originally made these a year or two ago for an Oscar party, and recently my friends keep talking about them and they kept saying “Remember those cheesecake square thingys, when are you gonna make them again?”. I think I’ve been hearing that since i made them for said Oscar party lol. So finally i had some extra cream cheese in the fridge so i gave in and thought hey why not let’s do them again! Last time i just made plain cheesecake ones, but this time i thought i’d get festive…hehehe.
We have 3 different flavors of cheesecake this time – Plain vanilla bean, Coconut, and Peanut butter, all coated in both white and milk chocolate and then decorated accordingly.
The VANILLA BEAN CHEESECAKE has a graham cracker crust and is coated in either milk or white chocolate, and then spattered with edible gold luster dust. I love the sparkle!
The COCONUT CHEESECAKE is my new favorite! I made the crust by combining graham crackers with some desiccated coconut (really finely ground coconut, the kind you use for macaroons) i had around, and a little bit of sugar, and butter. I added coconut milk to the cheesecake batter, and then added some toasted coconut up on top for even more coconut goodness! I have to say when i started the crust was a total experiment, but happily it turned out really great, and i think really made the coconut cheesecake bites! It gave it that extra crunch and real coconut kick, without being too much.
And last but definitely not least, my old favorite, PEANUT BUTTER CHEESECAKE. These have an Oreo crust and simple peanut butter cheesecake. Once covered in chocolate, they were drizzled with melted peanut butter chips. Simple but delicious.
They are actually pretty simple to make. It’s a little time consuming and I have to say it’s much easier in the winter when NYC isn’t 90+ degrees out…lol. But I assure you it’s totally worth it! Bake your favorite kind of cheesecake with the crust in a square or rectangular pan, just like you normally would. Once it has cooled and come to room temperature, wrap it very well in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer overnight. The next day, remove the cheesecake from the pan. You can do this by rubbing a hot kitchen towel on the outside bottom and sides of the pan, and running your knife around the insides. It may take a few tries and a few minutes. Sometimes you have to bang it upside down, but not to worry it will be solid as a rock! Then use a knife dipped in hot water to cut into squares. You could also use a cookie cutter of various shapes (the simple the better and more effective). Then cover in chocolate or your topping of choice. As they thaw they do tend to soften so just be careful handling them. A small offset spatula tends to help.
So even in the hot weather here in NYC at least in the end we got to have a little bit of cold delicious creamy goodness. And yes, my friends were completely thrilled with the return of the cheesecake bites! 
