GREEK WEEK 2: A Stubborn Girl's Mini Yogurt Cheesecake Cups

I am surprised how fast the greek yogurt went.

Pre-baked -all liquid

Post-baked-slightly solid but not quite. Needs to be refrigerated 

As of today, I have about a 1/3 cup left of the stuff, and I was planning on making this cool yogurt pasta dish tonight but now don't have enough!  I'm now finding myself actually sad at the fact that I am running out of yogurt, and will probably go to the store today and get more. Weird. 

[muahahaha it is Greek Week FOREVER!!!!!! Jay-k, going to get a much smaller amount this time]

 It's like one of those dysfunctional relationships where you break up every few weeks but never really break up. That is me and greek yogurt- I hate you but I still want to keep cooking with you.

sooo cayoooot! but not cute enough to save you; NOMNOMNOMNOM

But anyways, most of the yogurt was used in these mini-cheesecake-yogurt cups which are oh-so-adorable that it's worth typing out the longasheck name.

Unfortunately though, I came across two problems:

1) Opting for mini cupcakes, aka: I don't want to buy a cupcake tray I want to use my muffin tray at home, I realized that I would need to make my own crust because nilla-wafers are too big to be used for mini-crusts.
2) Making your own crust requires butter, which I am out of.

But I am a stubborn girl. And I wanted to eat these adorable cheesecake cups like no tomorrow (especially since I started doing the Insanity work out, my appetite feels like it has grown tenfold- into an insatiable monster of nom-age. Das right fools, says my stomach, I eat what I want).

So I did a quick google search and found a crust recipe that uses maple syrup and oil instead of butter. And I somehow have Canadian maple syrup in my house, but no more butter.

Crust Inspiration: http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/dairyfreebasics/r/grahamcrust.htm

eh eh eh!

Anyway, the crust actually turned out very yummy tasting. A little bit harder than the butter-crust, but almost indistinguishable in taste. The Mom actually could taste the difference and says she prefers the syrup base. May keep using this method, though I am hesitant about wasting our authentic Canadian syrup.

The crust looked just like the one I made before, so I knew I was a-okay

Difficulty: 5-crust is always annoying, so is smooshing it into 12 individual mini cups as opposed to a giant pan
Willingness to make again: 8.5 -miniature sized things are fun and makes me feel less guilty about over consumption of sweets. These are also healthy because they are yogurt based! My only gripe is I hate how you can't reuse cupcake cups. #cheapcollegekidproblems
Over-all: 9 -these were really yummy. They're so itty bitty though that I feel like I could eat 5 of them in one sitting. Yay/crap??

Yogurt Cups Inspiration: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/05/lemon-cheesecake-yogurt-cups.html

The tedious sacrifices one makes to take the extra step para la cocinando

Notes:

1) I actually feel like I would invest in making these into cupcake size, because the ratio of crust to filling is so little due to over-all small size. Did that make sense? Also solves the annoying crust problem 

Substitutions: 
1) Egg Whites  Regular Eggs
2) Nilla Wafer Crust Homemade; see above
3) Lemon zest/juice; Lime Juice

The mini-cupcakes were able to stand alone without the wrapper after night/full day of refrigeration. Success!