Thursday, June 25, 2009

Mini Cherry Cheesecakes

My baking fever continues! I wanted to branch out from cupcakes, and especially challenge myself to make something that didn't come from a mix. So I made ... mini cherry cheesecakes!

Let's take a second to review, friends. Two months ago, I had never made a cupcake by myself. I had barely cooked, period! But look at me now!

So what goes into cheesecake? Cream cheese, obviously. Sugar, duh. Eggs and vanilla extract, of course. And...sour cream. I didn't see that one coming!

One of the most interesting things about learning to cook has been finding out how ingredients work together to reach the end result. When I was blending the cream cheese, and it was sticking to everything but the bowl, I thought I'd already messed up. But lo and behold, add the eggs and you've got cheesecake consistency!


Lookie there! I'm getting somewhere.


I didn't just make cheesecake from (mostly) scratch. I also made crusts out of crushed teddy grahams, sugar and butter. And this crust is particularly delicious, which I attribute 100 percent to the smiles on the Teddy Grahams' faces.


I popped them in the oven at 275 for a little over 20 minutes and then took them out. I was concerned because they didn't have that browned edge that you usually see...was I supposed to bake them even longer? But they were just fine.


I left them on the cooling racks and when I was ready to refrigerate, wrapped the entire muffin tin in plastic wrap.


And this morning, I spooned on the cherry topping (which I did not make...seriously, I have no idea how one would make that).

Guess what? It was delicious. Sweet, but with that bite from the sour cream. The crust was amazing, too ... buttery, chocolatey, crumbly goodness. I'm not sure I've ever been so proud of myself, and it really didn't take much longer than making cake from a mix. You should all try it, seriously.

6 comments:

Amber said...

Very cool, Amber.

Also good in cheesecake: cottage cheese.

Teddy Grahams are a great thing to use for the crust, I'll have to remember that.

We should have a cheesecake-making party; I can make an white-chocolate, raspberry swirl oreo-crust cheesecake. and it's not even hard. you'd enjoy swirling, i bet.

Amanda said...

mmm... nice work, Amber! My grandmother used to make these mini cheesecakes all the time but she used a Nilla Wafer for the crust. With that substitution, the whole thing probably took her about 15 minutes. :)

I'm still trying to talk myself into birthday cheesecake, by the way. Ugh.

Bret said...

ooooh cinnamon teddy grahams would be good with an apple topping.

Aliya said...

YUM!!! I make mini chocolate chip cheesecakes every Christmas... maybe I'll try this this year! They look divine!

Chanelle said...

speaking of baking fever...

did you see all the amazing fruit desserts in the magazine this month?! I need tart pans ASAP. and new canning jars, since I threw all the tops away to use them as drinking glasses.

So.. wanna get together and try to make those yummy jams?

Your cherry treats look delicious, p.s.

Unknown said...

In our family, we always took the cheesecake out, put a layer of sour cream mixed with sugar on top and baked it for 5 more minutes. Awesome.