Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Mini Cheesecakes

I love making cheesecakes. They're usually a crowd pleaser and are relatively quick to make. For years I've been using my go-to recipe that has a few simple ingredients. Though there are debates about NY style cheesecakes with a thick sour cream topping, cream cheese cheesecakes, and no-bake cheesecakes, I tend to stick to my simple recipe, and experiment with adding cocoa powder, fruit, caramel, etc.






I generally bake cheesecakes for birthday parties, or large family dinner functions. However, I often do get requests from work colleagues for cheesecake, and thus have resorted to making bite-sized ones. True, they are a bit more work, but at least I don't have to individually serve out each slice.



Over the years, one thing I've learned with cheesecake, is that if you want to avoid have a crater, massive fissure, or otherwise large crack in the middle of your cheesecake, you need to pay careful attention to temperature. Cheesecakes rely on eggs to set and if you cook your cheesecake in a hot oven, and then throw it in the fridge, the eggs will puff, overcook, then get grainy and constrict when cooled, which causes the cracking.




A lot of recipes suggest placing the pan in a water bath to help regulate the temperature around the cheesecake. But seriously, who really wants to pull a pan of hot sloshing water out of the oven? I don't. Slow is the way to go. I cook my cheesecakes at a very low temperature for a long time, then let them cool slowly before putting them in the fridge. No cracks. And if you happen to have a crack in your cake? It's still just as tasty and you can cover it up with whipped cream or fruit!




Cheesecake crust:
1 1/2c graham cracker crumbs
1/3c sugar
1/3c melted butter

Cheesecake filing:
3 (8oz) packages of cream cheese
1 (14oz) can of condensed milk
3 eggs
1tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix the graham crack crumbs, sugar, and butter. Press mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Alternately, you can line a muffin pan or mini muffin pan and press the mixture into the bottom of each liner.

Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sweetened condensed milk and beat until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla. Pour mixture into prepared crust and bake at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn of the oven and leave the cheesecake in the oven to cool for an hour. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and cool completely before refrigerating. Note that cooking times will be significantly less for muffin or mini muffin sized cheesecakes.

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