Mini Cheesecakes with a Chocolate Crust and Raspberry Swirl
A very special young man is getting married in two weeks, and I was asked to bring dessert for the rehearsal dinner.
While I like to cook, I don’t do a lot of desserts, so after much thought, and some googling and Pinterest searches, I decided to do mini-cheesecakes in cupcake liners. No utensils, no plates, and if I made five different kinds, one batch each, I figured that would be plenty for a group of 40 people (that would make 60 cheesecakes). It’s a fairly casual dinner, so I don’t really have to worry about plating. I also knew I could make a batch a night in the preceding week, and not have to do it all the night before.
I decided to do a trial run today, see how well they keep, how much time it took, and so on. So here is one of the types I will make.
First up was the crust. The recipe I followed for that part of it said to use Oreos, scraping out the middle. I actually don’t think that makes much sense, and will just buy chocolate wafers next time!
While 6 tablespoons of butter melted I ran the chocolate part of the Oreos through the food processor.
The resulting mixture was pressed evenly into the bottom of cupcake liners, about 1 tablespoon in each cup.
Those went into the oven for 5 minutes while I made the raspberry sauce. Just raspberries and a small amount of sugar, using a mini-food processor.
30 seconds to 1 minute will do it.
Then I pressed it through a fine mesh strainer
And got a beautiful sauce in the end.
Next up was to make the cheesecake itself. Sugar and just a small amount of flour whisked together to start.
Then I used my handy dandy micro plane to get a tsp of lemon zest.
And added two package of cream cheese plus the lemon zest to the dry mixture.
While that slowly mixed, I got the eggs, vanilla, and sour cream ready.
Then added the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla and sour cream, until it was all a smooth mixture.
About one third of a cup of the cheesecake mixture went into each cup. I was experimenting with different liners, which is why you see all the variety!
I followed a hint to tap the cupcake tin several times to even out the batter.
I then followed the instructions to put several drops of raspberry sauce on top of each cake.
Then run a toothpick through to swirl it. I need to work on my skills here!
And this is out of the oven 23 minutes later.
After cooling and chilling for 3 hours, here is the final result.
Since this was an experiment, I will adjust a few things. I had far too many crumbs and batter for just 12 cupcakes, so I either need to make more, or cut back somewhere. Also, I didn’t feel like I got as much raspberry flavor as I would like, so I am thinking of putting a thin layer on top of the crust before putting the batter in, then still doing the swirl on top.
Raspberry Swirl Mini-Cheesecakes with Chocolate Crust
Preheat the oven to 325 Fahrenheit
Place cupcake liners into the wells of a 12-cup cupcake tin.
1 box Chocolate wafer cookies
6 Tablespoons Butter
Process chocolate wafers to obtain 1 1/2 cups crumbs. Melt butter and using a fork, mix with the chocolate crumbs. Press 1 Tablespoon of the crumbs in the bottom of the cupcake wells, and bake for 5 minutes.
4 oz Raspberries
2 Tablespoons sugar
Blend together 30 seconds to 1 minute. Press through a fine mesh strainer, leaving behind only seeds. Set aside.
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 (8 oz) pkgs cream cheese, softened well but not melted
1 tsp lemon zest
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup sour cream
Whisk the sugar and flour together in a large mixing bowl. Add 2 8 oz packages of cream cheese and 1 tsp lemon zest, and mix slowly until well blended. Add two eggs, one at a time, letting the mixer run. Add the vanilla and the sour cream, just until mixed.
Add a thin layer of raspberry sauce to each cup, and add about 1/3 cup cheesecake filling on top of that. Dot the top of each cup with raspberry sauce, then run a toothpick through to create swirl designs.
Back 22-25 minutes, until puffed, but not too dry. Let cool completely before putting in the refrigerator, and then chill for at least 3 hours before serving.
Labels: Dessert