Mini Cheesecakes

What is better than cheesecake? Mini cheesecakes! I have been searching and searching for a recipe that recreated the texture and taste of a New York cheesecake and have experimented with a lot of different varieties, much to my dismay as none of them quite fit the bill. They were either too soft in consistency or too bland in taste. I have even tweaked to my heart’s content but could not quite get the recipe right.

Finally I found what I was looking for and further tweaked this recipe by cutting it in half (it makes two perfect 4-1/2 inch spring-form mini cheesecakes this way) and using the variation for New York cheesecake. However, as luck would have it, I did not have graham crackers as I forgot that I sent them home with my son in his care package! Since it was Christmas Eve and the stores were closed, necessity became the mother of invention yet again and I tweaked the crust.

The original recipe actually suggests making 4 of these and you could mix and match them with the various additions or toppings suggested for a lovely variety and presentation.

I also decided since I was tweaking to go all the way and threw in some white chocolate chips to add to the New York variation. The result I think was absolutely wonderful. There was not a morsel left so that must be a good sign.

Photo Credit: WikiCommons MindMatrix on flickr

Mini Cheesecake Recipe (New York White Chocolate)

This recipe makes two 4-1/2 inch spring-form cheesecakes – New York style with white chocolate chips

CRUST INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup ground granola crumbs mixed with ground hazelnuts (note below)
1-1/2 tablespoons sugar
1-1/2 tablespoons butter or margarine melted

CHEESECAKE INGREDIENTS

1-1/2 packages (8 ounces each) of non-fat (Neufchatel) cream cheese, softened
6 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons egg (or 6 tablespoons of egg substitute)
1/8 cup (2 tablespoons) sour cream (I used nonfat)
1-1/2 teaspoons flour
2-3 tablespoons of white chocolate chips

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PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Mix together the crust ingredients.
Divide between two 4-1/2-inch spring-form cheesecake pans and press the crumbs onto the bottom of the spring-form pans.
Bake in 300 degree oven for 7 minutes. Cool.
Combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in mixer or use a hand mixer to beat. Beat on medium speed until well combined.
Add eggs or egg substitute in parts, mixing on low speed until blended.
Stir in the sour cream, flour and white chocolate chips to combine.
Divide the batter in half – should be about 1 cup per cheesecake of batter. Pour over the 2 crusts.
Place the cheesecake pans onto a cookie sheet.
Bake
at 300 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until center of cheesecake is
almost set. I let them sit in the oven after I turned it off for another
10-15 minutes.
Use a knife or metal spatula to run around the sides of pan to loosen.
Pop the spring-form rims once cakes are cooled.
Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

NOTE:
The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs,
chocolate graham cracker crumbs or chocolate wafer cookies but you can
basically substitute bread crumbs, vanilla wafer crumbs, etc. I had
absolutely none of the above so I decided to just be creative and
thought hazelnuts sounded like a great substitute as well as ground up
dry granola. I put them in my mini-food processor and the resultant
ground crumbs were just perfect in consistency for the recipe.

Suggested Variations

I found the original recipe at dianasdesserts.com and as above, modified the recipe to make less and changed the ingredients to fit what I have/how I cook, etc. She had a lot of great suggestions for toppings, additions though and here are some of them and some I threw in as well.

Her recipe (see link) makes 4 and her suggestion is to make 4 different ones which would be a great idea as well. You would just use about 1 cup of batter for each cheesecake.

STIR-IN AND TOPPING IDEAS

Apple Pie Mini Cheesecake- Stir in ground cinnamon to batter; bake as directed. Top cheesecake with warmed apple pie filling and brown sugar
Chocolate Chunk Mini Cheesecake – Stir milk chocolate chunks into batter and bake as directed
Citrus Mini Cheesecake – Stir in lemon, orange or lime juice in batter along with flour and grated citrus peel; bake as directed
S’mores Mini Cheesecake – Stir in milk chocolate chunks; bake as directed. Top with miniature marshmallows and broken graham crackers
Cookies and Cream Mini Cheesecake- Stir in chopped cookies like Oreos, Nutter Butter or Chips Ahoy/other cookies; bake as directed
Chocolate Royale Mini Cheesecake – Stir in semi-sweet baking chocolate melted; bake as directed
Peanut Butter Mini Cheesecake – Stir in peanut butter and milk; bake as directed
Mocha Mini Cheesecake – Stir in instant coffee granules, hot water and semi-sweet baking chocolate melted; bake as directed
Fresh fruit makes a simple yet delicious topping – any kind – just washed and dried
Pie filling also makes an excellent topping for cheesecakes – just make sure you drain off some of the liquid
Poached pears or other poached fruit also makes an excellent topping – easy on the liquid if you want to preserve the New York cheesecake texture
Spread a thin layer of sour cream atop the cheesecakes and then top
Chocolate sauce or any nut sauce
Vanilla sauce or caramel sauce
Fruit sauces of any kind
Lemon curd in small amounts can also be very delicious on cheesecake – would probably be excellent on the citrus variation above
Sprinkle with nuts of any kind for a very simple topping
Sprinkle with shaved chocolate
Drizzle melted chocolate of any kind for a dramatic presentation
Drizzle any sauce for the same kind of presentation

 

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Cheesecake and Topping Ideas

Cake and Cheesecake Topping Ideas
Cooks.com – Recipes – Mini Cheesecake
Mix ‘n Match Mini Cheesecakes | DianasDesserts.com
Cheesecake – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia