'Merican as cheesecake.

 Ah 4th of July--let us celebrate our independence from those stuffy tea drinkers whilst blowing things up and pigging out. I loved Independence Day until we adopted a dog terrified of loud noises; my holiday now consists less of sparklers and more of sedatives (for the dog, not me, although...). While fireworks may not be in the cards for me any longer, the food still stands. It's been several years since I made a 4th of July dessert since we're typically still picking away at my husband's birthday cake. While I'm totally fine with the idea having multiple cakes laying about the house for me to eat, Derek's not big into dessert, so I would take it as a personal challenge to eat everything before it went stale. By the time July 4th rolled around, I would be red, white, and barfy. Luckily, I've concocted a dessert that while small, still packs a big bang of flavor, and well, freedom.

Red, white, and beautiful!

I may have out-Americaned myself here with these red, white, and blue mini cheesecakes. Each layer is bold and bright, and they taste like little cups of freedom...okay, so maybe freedom doesn't really have a taste. Some would say it'd be American as apple pie, but I've yet to see anyone make a red, white, and blue apple pie, so just go with me here. These are cute little vanilla cheesecakes with buttery crusts, and they are absolutely guilt-free at only 145 calories per cup (recipe makes a dozen mini cheesecakes). I'm pretty sure you burn more than 145 calories when you twirl around with sparklers for a hot minute, or during your mad-dash sprint away from the cadre of fireworks you just set off. And people say Americans are lazy.

We're just fans of working smarter, not harder.

This recipe comes together super fast, so if you've got 2 hours before your backyard BBQ, you've got time to whip up a dessert that will make the Karen next door bow down to your baking dominance. All you need for the crust is:

• 1 cup (120 g) of gluten free Graham cracker crumbs (regular works if you're not GF)
• 2 TBS (28 g) light butter, melted
• 2 TBS (24 g) Lakanto monkfruit sweetener or regular sugar

Mix ingredients together in a medium bowl until everything is wet. Then line a muffin tin with cupcake wrappers and preheat your oven to 325. Dump a heaping tablespoon of crust into each liner, then use the back of the tablespoon to smooth out and smush down. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack. Turn your oven temp down to 300.

Man, even my ingredient packaging was red, white, and blue. This is so American it almost hurts.

This is a really simple vanilla cheesecake recipe, but you could always up the ante and make it super American by adding some Jack Daniels or other boozy goodness to the base recipe. I used:

• 8 ounces of 1/3 the fat cream cheese at room temp
• 1/2 cup (96 g) Lakanto monkfruit sweetener or sugar
  
• 3 TBS of King Arthur gluten free measure for measure flour (regular all purpose works if you aren't GF)
• 8 ounces (226 g) Dannon light + fit vanilla Greek yogurt, strained overnight
• 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs at room temp
• Red and blue gel dye
• Toppings: Cool Whip (I used sugar free), red, white, and blue sprinkles or stars
  

Start by mixing the cream cheese, sugar, and flour together on medium for 2 minutes in your stand mixer. Then add in the yogurt and vanilla extract, mixing on medium for another minute. Turn the speed to low, and add the eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl after each addition. Now, divide the batter into three separate bowls. I placed 212 grams of batter into each bowl. I left one alone, dyed one red, and dyed the last blue.

Now grab those crusts!

Get your tablespoon, and plop a little under a tablespoon of the red-dyed batter on top of the crusts. I used the back of a teaspoon to smooth things out so the red batter was completely covering the crust.

Like so. Kinda want to go to Target after looking at this photo.

You can also gently tap the pan on the counter in order to even out your batter at this point.

I was sure things would start going wrong at precisely this moment.

Now, clean that tablespoon and dry it off before plopping a little less than a tablespoon of the white batter on top of the red batter.

My teaspoon became the real MVP. Like the George Washington of baking accessories--the Founding Father of making this cheesecake possible.

I VERY GENTLY, like I was pressing on an eggshell while trying not to break it, used the back of the teaspoon in circular motions to smooth out the batter without causing it to blend into the red layer. This was 98% successful...looking at you, bottom right cheesecake.

Thank God our flag only has 3 colors in it.

I was getting pretty stressed that since my red and white layers worked out, I would surely get too cocky and move too quickly with the blue layer and mess everything up. I used a level of patience and slooowwwwwness I didn't even know I possessed to finish the last layer with the help of George the teaspoon.

Red, white, and *whew.*

Now, bake at 300 for 20 minutes. Then, because all cheesecakes, even the small ones, are demanding divas (how properly American of them), turn off the oven, leave the door shut, and set a timer for 10 minutes to let these needy little beauties finish cooking. After this time has passed, crack the oven door and wait another 10 minutes before removing the pan from the oven and putting it straight in the fridge. These will cool off extremely quickly this way, so you can be ready to stuff your face once the deviled egg tray runs dry and there's nary a hot dog left in sight.

Oh look, sprinkles!

If you've only ever read one of my blog posts, you know sprinkles are not optional in my book. Once my cheesecakes were cool to the touch, I unwrapped them (c'mon, gotta show off those layers), and I used a total of 50 grams of Cool Whip free to pipe little mounds on top of each cheesecake using a 2D tip.

Peep that layer action. 'Merica.

The mounds kinda look like little stars, and I'm here for that.

Then, I added red and blue sprinkles and silver stars to finish things off.

I don't even care if you're Canadian--you have to appreciate how straight up American these little cheesecakes look. Sure, America is kind of a hot mess, but where else is it socially acceptable to eat meat in tube form all day, crack open countless watery beers, take in a NASCAR race, and still have time to blow stuff up at night? While these may not have been the things the Founding Fathers were concerned with, I think cheesecake existed back then, so they probably would've enjoyed the heck out of these little patriotic treats.

Next to exploding things, this is about as American as it gets.

While these look absolutely adorable, they taste 1,000 times better. A plain vanilla cheesecake is a reminder that sometimes simple is best, and this is a prime example of a classic outshining whatever the new flavor trends are, which, again, is pretty darn American. I also feel being able to eat them two at a time also meets American food expectations, so I'm just gonna out-freedom myself and go eat like six of them. I hope everyone has an amazing 4th of July. May your sparklers be bright and may you still have all 10 fingers tomorrow. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Cue the sparklers sprinkles!