Mini Cheesecakes

I wanted to bake something for my most recent wine tasting party. It was still a little warmer than I like it and I really didn't want to heat up the house too much.

Since Mini Cheesecakes bake in a cooler oven than lots of baked goods and they're mini, so they don't bake very long, I baked them!

I tweaked this recipe a little, that I found at About.com:Southern Food.

I don't really know what's southern about it. But it looked ok and it was wicked easy.

This is the doubled recipe.



Easy Mini Cheesecakes
2 dozen vanilla wafers
4 pkgs (8 oz each) cream cheese
1 C granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla (I used almond extract)
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 325F

Line two muffin trays with paper liners. Place one vanilla wafer in each muffin cup and set aside.
Beat cream cheese, sugar and almond extract until well blended. Beat in eggs.
When well blended, pour cream cheese mixture over vanilla wafers, evenly between the 24 muffin cups.
Bake for 25 minutes.

Cool completely and add your favorite toppings.

I left some plain, topped some with Lemon Curd and some with Chocolate Ganache.

These really couldn't be easier to make.

Line muffin cups with paper liners and place a vanilla wafer in each one.


Spoon cream cheese mixture into cups and bake at 325F for 25 minutes.


Cool completely.

They all sank in the middle after coming out of the oven. Not really a big deal. The plain ones looked a little funky. But the ones I topped had a built in cup for toppings!

I left 8 of these plain and just sprinkled them with powdered sugar.



I topped 8 of them with Lemon Curd.




I topped the remaining 8 with Chocolate Ganache.




Personally... I thought that both the Lemon Curd & Chocolate Ganache really overpowered the flavor of the cheesecake. But opinions were split. Some people agreed and others thought both worked really well.

I think over all, this isn't a really flavorful cheesecake.

Definitely not bad and so quick and easy I'll definitely use it again. Maybe more extract... or extract plus vanilla... or some sour cream. I'll keep playing around with it.

They were good... and everyone liked them. I just don't think they were 'great'.

Casandra's Mum's Cheesecake!

I'm finally getting caught up and can blog about some of the cooking that's been going on since Thanksgiving.

This is my nephew with his beautiful girlfriend Casandra (who I consider my niece)


This Thanksgiving, she made her first cheesecake using her mom's recipe.

Casandra's Mum's Cheesecake
5 pkgs cream cheese
5 eggs
2 yolks
1 C sugar
1/4 C heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon extract
1 TBLS flour

Crust:
2 pkgs graham crackers
1/2 - 3/4 C sugar
1 stick margarine

Preheat oven to 450F
Cream 1 egg & 1 cream cheese together at a time, until all are blended.
Then add 2 yolks and beat well.
Add sugar, heavy cream, vanilla, lemon and flour and beat well.

Crush graham crackers, mix with sugar & melted margarine... press into bottom of spring form pan.

Pour cheese mixture into crust.

Bake in preheated oven 10 minutes
Do not open oven.
Turn oven temp down to 200F and bake 1 hour.
Turn off oven... leave cheesecake in oven 3 hours.

Cool completely and top with your favorite fruit.



This was soooo good!!