Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes with Chocolate Drizzle

I think mini things are just way cooler then full size. Really, tiny mice are so much cuter then huge ones. And small traffic tickets are much more appealing then large ones. Well, the same goes for cheesecakes. They're way too adorable when they're tiny! See?

So anyways, in making tiny things, here are some mini pumpkin cheesecakes. =) I started with my pie crust. Roll it out and use a biscuit cutter to make little circles. Press into greased mini muffin tins and make pumpkin cheesecake as follows

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites

4 oz cream cheese (home-made recipe to follow!)

1/4 cup evaporated cane juice

1/2 cup pureed pumpkin

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Fill each mini tin with 1 tablespoon mixture. Bake on 350 for about 12-15 minutes or until center comes out clean. Cool completely. Proceed to Chocolate Sauce Recipe for drizzle

Chocolate

1/2 cup dutched cocoa powder
1/2 cup rapadura or sucanat sugar
1 cup coconut oil
1 T. vanilla

Place everything in a quart mason canning jar. Put a medium size pot, half full of water, to simmer on stove. Place canning jar in water and warm slowly, stirring occasionally. The chocolate is done when the sugar is dissolved. Pour onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet and refrigerate until firm. Break into pieces and use however! I melted the chocolate and drizzled the cheesecake with it. It firmed back up in about 10 minutes!

Now. Wanna learn what rapadura and sucanat sugar is? 

Rapadura is dried sugar cane juice. It is completely unrefined and can be purchased organic!  

Sucanat is unrefined cane sugar that retains its molasses content. It is used in place of brown sugar. Most commercial brown sugar is simply refined white sugar with molasses added. Sucanat is the real deal.

So there you have it. My two new favorite additions to my pantry. 

You really can taste the difference between commercial and natural once you start switching over!!