Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes

Tim and I made these cheesecakes for our friend Wistaria's birthday dinner, and let me tell you - they were amazing!  They start off with a chocolate cookie crust - we were at a sort of strange grocery store that didn't have regular chocolate wafer cookies, so we ended up getting Oreos and scraping out the insides.  Sort of an annoying task, but it worked.  However, I definitely recommend just getting normal cookies if you can.  :)  In any case, the crust turned out to be delicious, especially topped with chocolate cheesecake!

The cheesecake filling is your typical chocolate cheesecake, extra rich and delicious with a wonderful smooth texture.  Because the cheesecakes are baked in muffin tins, they're small enough that you don't really have to worry about cracking.  Additionally, the cupcake papers shrink in with the cheesecakes as they cool, rather than bits of cheesecake sticking to the sides and creating cracks.  Finally, once the cheesecakes are cool, they're topped with a mascarpone-sour cream topping that's absolutely delicious.  If you don't want to purchase both, I'm pretty sure you could get away with using all of one or the other, but the combination certainly was delicious!  Raspberries made a great topper, but another berry (maybe strawberries?) or a fruit sauce would also be delicious.  Something a little on the tart side is nice just because the cheesecake is so rich.  Overall, this was a delicious and festive birthday dessert - definitely a winner!

Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes (adapted from strawberries in paris, original recipe here)
Makes about 18 mini cheesecakes

For the crust:
8 oz chocolate wafers (or Oreos with the cream scraped out), ground to crumbs with a food processor
5 T butter, melted
2 T granulated sugar

For the cheesecake
16 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup granulated sugar
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
3 large eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, inside scraped out

For the topping:
1/2 cup creme fraiche
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Raspberries

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degree.  Pour some water in a shallow pan that will fit your muffin tins, and place in the oven.  Fill 18 (or so) muffin cups with cupcake papers.
2. Mix together all of the crust ingredients and spoon 1 T or so into each cupcake paper, pressing down with the back of a spoon.
3. Beat together the cream cheese and marscarpone at high speed for 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Beat in the melted chocolate, sugar, and vanilla bean innards until thoroughly blended. Continue beating until the mixture is very smooth, for about 4 minutes.
4. Set the mixer on low speed and add the eggs one at a time, beating until just incorporated but taking care not to overbeat. Add the heavy cream and beat just until incorporated, for about 30 seconds.
5. Divide the batter among the muffin cups, filling them almost to the top of the papers.  Place the tins on the sheet filled with water in the oven (working in two batches if needed).
6. Bake until the mini cheesecakes are set on top but still a bit jiggly in the center, about 20 minutes - check them often.  Remove from the oven, cool, and then chill until firm. 
7. Mix topping ingredients together and spoon over the cheesecakes.  Top each one with a raspberry!

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Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Edgeware.

Christmas Peppermint Candy Cheesecake

My boyfriend's dad makes this cheesecake every Christmas, so we decided to try it out a couple of weeks ago to get into the Christmas spirit.  It is sooooo good - definitely a great Christmas tradition!  The cheesecake is fantastically creamy and a little tart from the sour cream.  The texture was perfect even though we had to jury-rig a water bath with a cast iron skillet that didn't quite fit the springform pan we had.  The crushed candy (either candy canes or Starlight mints) totally melts into the cheesecake, adding just the right amount of peppermint flavor.  I also like that this cheesecake isn't insanely thick...some cheesecakes are so rich and tall that they're almost hard to eat - I've seen some recipes with upwards of 2 pounds of cream cheese!  This one is certainly rich - it's cheesecake, after all - but not so much that you can't easily put away a couple of slices.

Christmas Peppermint Candy Cheesecake (recipe from Tim's dad)

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3/4 cup sugar, divided
1/4 cup butter, melted
1-1/2 cups sour cream
2 eggs
1 T flour
2 tsp vanilla
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
2 T butter, melted and slightly cooled
1/2 cup coarsely crushed peppermint candies
Whipped cream, grated chocolate or chocolate curls, and chopped peppermint candy for garnish, optional

1. Place a large pan full of water onto the lowest shelf of the oven.  Preheat to 325 degrees.
2. Blend together the graham cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup of the sugar, and 1/4 cup melted butter.  Press evenly into the bottom of an ungreased 8-inch round springform pan.
3. In a food processor, combine the sour cream, remaining 1/2 cup sugar, eggs, flour, and vanilla until smooth.  Add the cream cheese and blend, being careful not to over-blend.  Blend in the 2 T melted butter until smooth.  Stir in the crushed candy by hand.  Pour the mixture onto the crust.
4. Bake the cheesecake 45 minutes until set.  Turn off the oven and open the oven door.  Leave the cheesecake in the oven to cool, which will minimize cracks.
5. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and loosen the side of the pan. Retighten the pan, cool completely, and then chill at least 4 hours or overnight.  Decorate with whipped cream, chocolate curls, and chopped candy canes.

Merry Christmas!

April Daring Bakers: Meyer Lemon-Coconut Cheesecake

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. We were given total freedom over playing around with flavors, and so I went with Meyer lemon and coconut. These seemed like the perfect flavors for Easter, plus our lemon tree was overflowing with lemons.

Let me tell you, this was one amazing cheesecake! I used crispy lemon cookies in the crust, lemon juice and lemon zest in the filling, and lemon curd spread on top, so the lemon flavor came through really well. The coconut flavor was much more subtle, although I used toasted coconut in the crust and coconut milk in the filling. Nonetheless, I did think that the coconut milk mellowed things out and balanced the filling. I'd like to try an all-coconut cheesecake sometime, as I think all the lemon may have just overpowered the coconut.

Meyer Lemon-Coconut Cheesecake

Crust:
90 g crispy lemon cookies (about 1 cup crumbs)
1 cup toasted unsweetened coconut
1/2 stick butter, melted
2 T sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped

Filling:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup coconut milk (shake well before measuring)
3 T Meyer lemon juice
2 T Meyer lemon zest
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped

Topping:
Store-bought or homemade lemon curd

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan (I used a 9-inch springform pan). You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add coconut milk, vanilla, lemon juice, and zest and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour hot water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, top with lemon curd and serve.

Please make sure to check out all the other fantastic cheesecakes at The Daring Kitchen. You can find the original recipe for the cheesecake at Jenny Bakes. Here are a few of my favorites:

Raspberry Chocolate Mini Cheesecakes
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cheesecake (plus two others)
Cheesecake with Coconut Crust
Pineapple Upside Down Cheesecake
White Chocolate and Blackberry Cheesecake
Fresh Mango Cheesecake
Pear Cardamom Cheesecake
Margarita Cheesecake with Pretzel Crust (plus three others)
Cheesecake made in the food processor
Bulls Eye Cheesecake
Peanut Butter-Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake
Pina Colada Cheesecake
Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
Savory Camembert and Blue Cheese Cheesecakes

Double Chocolate Cheesecake

I made this cheesecake for my friend Anthony's birthday, and it was definitely a big hit. I'd never made a cheesecake before, but I had some new springform pans and wanted to give them a whirl. Because Anthony said chocolate cheesecake was his favorite, I went on a recipe search. A lot of them had about a pound of cream cheese, which I thought was a little excessive. (Of course, in the recipe I ended up using, the cream cheese was replaced by heavy cream and sour cream, so it didn't exactly end up healthier in the end!)

The final cheesecake was really tasty. The chocolate flavor came through really well and it was creamy and delicious without being overly rich. The graham cracker crust got a bit soggy, so next time I'll make sure to wrap the pan a little better! The cheesecake was excellent on its own, but also tasty with some caramel sauce that Anthony made (after I horribly burned the first batch).

Double Chocolate Cheesecake (recipe adapted from Epicurious)

For the crust:
9 ounces chocolate graham crackers
1 stick (8 T) unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

1 1/2 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
12 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 8-ounce packages full fat cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup full fat sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs
Make the crust:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Wrap outside of 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides with double thickness of foil. Spray bottom of pan with vegetable oil spray. Finely grind the graham crackers in a food processor. Add the butter and process until blended. Press mixture onto the bottom (not sides) of prepared pan. Refrigerate while preparing the filling.
Make the filling:
Combine the cream and espresso powder in medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until th espresso powder is dissolved. Reduce heat to low and add the chocolate; whisk until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth. Cool 10 minutes while preparing the rest of the filling.
Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until well blended. Beat in cornstarch. Add sour cream and vanilla; beat well. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Whisk 1 cup of the cream cheese mixture into the chocolate mixture. Return chocolate mixture to remaining cream cheese mixture; whisk until smooth.
Pour batter into crust. Place springform pan in large baking pan. Add enough hot water to baking pan to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake cheesecake until softly set and slightly puffed around edges, about 1 hour. Turn off oven. Let cake stand in the oven with the door closed for 45 minutes. Transfer springform pan to a rack and cool. Cover; chill cake overnight.

Easy Caramel Sauce (adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebowitz)
Makes 1 1/2 cups
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1. In a large, deep saucepan or Dutch oven, spread the sugar in an even layer. Cok over low heat, without stirring, until the caramel is a deep caramel color. Swirl the pan occasionally to make sure everything is evenly distributed.

2. Once the caramel begins to smoke and turns a deep amber color, immediately remove from the heat and very carefully whisk in half of the cream. Carefully stir until the sugar is dissolved, and then gradually whisk in the remaining cream, the salt, and the vanilla. If the sugar hardens, just whisk the mixture over low heat until all the bits of sugar dissolve.
3. The sauce keeps well in the fridge for up to two weeks. Just warm it in the microwave before using.

I'm sending this recipe off to Blogger Secret Ingredient: Cream Cheese!