As anyone who has attempted making cheesecakes before (or at least considered it enough to peruse a recipe or two) they actually take quite some time to bake and then even longer to settle in the fridge. So when I chanced upon this recipe on Joy of Baking last month, it was perfect! They don't take long to make and I love that you get a whole mini cake to yourself inside of a slice. To me that makes this a perfect little treat. And better yet, even though it was my first time ever making cheesecakes, this recipe was so simple that my cakes turned out amazing. Nic loved them too and since he's been working super hard lately, I made these for dessert for him today.
To start off, preheat your oven to 150 degrees celsius. Joy of Baking says to line your muffin tray with paper liners but I'd seen in another recipe once about making the digestive cookie base the muffin cup itself so I did that instead. Though it does make it harder to lift the cakes out of their muffin moulds later on but we'll deal with that later. Also, when making cheesecakes, you should work with ingredients that are at room temperature so its good idea to put the rest of your ingredients out too before you start.
First, make the crusts. Melt down about 1/4 cup of butter. I usually put a bowl over another bowl of boiling water.
Next you need about a cup of digestive biscuit crumbs. Since my base was the muffin cup, I used a bit more than that, about a cup and a half. Be careful not to overdo it though, too much and the base won't set properly and will crumble when you take it out of the muffin pan.
You could probably put it all in a blender for a quick blitz but where's the fun in that? Get in there with your hands I say!
After crumbing the biscuits, pour on the melted butter.
Get back in there with your hands. Add in a tablespoon of granulated sugar and mix well. It should look and feel a bit like wet sand (but smell a lot yummier).
Next spoon heaped tablespoons of the drums mixture into your muffin pan (Since I wasn't using paper cups, I also took a moment to spray some non-stick spray over the pan).
Divide the mixture equally between the cups.
Then using your fingers, press down on the crumbs to pack them together at the base of the muffin cup. Since I was also using these as cups, I pressed it up the side a little as well.
Once you're done, cover the crusts and pop it in the fridge while making the filling.
For the filling, start with about 500grams of cream cheese (which should be at room temperature) and beat on low speed to soften it.
Add in 2/3 cups of sugar and 1/8 teaspoon of salt then 2 eggs.
Next add in a teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1/2 cup of sour cream. The recipe also calls for 1/2 a teaspoon of lemon zest for that New York Style flavor but I didn't have any so I used a 1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice instead (the kind from a bottle). Mix it well! The batter is quite runny after that.
Take the crusts out of the fridge. Using my trusty ice-cream scoop, I scooped the batter into the cups (though I'm sure you'll fare just as well with a spoon).
Divide the batter equally between the cups. I also give it a slight shake to even out any batter mountains.
Pop them in the oven.
They should bake for about 18-22 mins and just until the cakes have set but are still wobbly in the center.
Let the cakes cool on a rack for a while before putting it in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight.
And when they're done, ease them out of the muffin pan and serve! They do quite well with a bit of chocolate drizzled over it or with some fresh fruit but I didn't have either. Quite honestly, it tasted pretty good on its own.
You can see from the side view here that the crust looks really thick but its actually because I had pushed the crumbs up the sides of the cup earlier. When you cut into it you'll see that the base is actually about half of what you see here.
Enjoy!
Make your own!! The full recipe can be found here.
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