Mini Cheesecakes with Cherry Sauce

🌼🐇 Now wouldn’t these Mini Cheesecakes with Cherry Sauce look pretty on your Easter table? 🐣🌸

I had such a hankering for cheesecake, but didn’t want to make a big one, knowing that the hubs doesn’t have a sweet tooth and that my kids have capricious tastes even when it comes to sweets. Would I have minded being stuck in a week three #coronaquarantine household with a giant cheesecake and a fork?

Why no, not at all. But tell that to my jeans, they’ve been complaining for days now!

Anyway, I needn’t have “worried”, as these were gone in a flash. So quickly in fact, that I’m feeling slightly deprived and will be making them again for my own Easter table.

See you soon, peeps!

xoxo Donata

Ingredients

For the Crust

16 Graham Crackers (62 g), more if you'd like a thicker crust (For European/German readers, you can substitute digestive biscuits or Leibniz Kekse, as I did)

1/2 cup pecans (35g), toasted

4 tbsp unsalted butter (56g), melted

1/4 cup (24g) sugar

1/2 tsp (1g) cinnamon

For the Cheesecake

1 pound (454g) cream cheese, room temperature

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup (200 g) sugar

1 tsp (5ml) vanilla extract

2 eggs large, room temperature

2 egg yolks

1/3 cup (82 g) sour cream

Instructions

For the Crust:

Preheat oven to 350F (180 C). Line cupcake tins with papers.

Add Graham crackers or other biscuits and toasted pecans to your food processor and pulse until broken into small pieces. Add sugar and cinnamon then pulse until mixed in completely. Pour in melted butter while pulsing processor. Remove blades and use a spatula to mix butter in completely. g & b note: If you don’t have a food processor, pulse the pecans with an immersion blender or a blender. Place the biscuits or crackers in a ziplock bag and bash them with a rolling pin until broken into crumbs. Place the crumbs in a bowl, add the pulsed pecans, sugar and cinnamon and mix well. Drizzle the melted butter on top of the crumbs and mix together well with a spatula.

Use a tablespoon to transfer the mixture to your cupcake tin. Use one tablespoon per cup. Press into a flat layer using a shot glass or small flat tool. Bake for about 8 minutes at 350 F (180 C), or until fragrant and a a slightly darker golden color. Remove from oven, set aside.

For the Filling:

Add ROOM TEMPERATURE cream cheese to stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or put in a large bowl with a hand mixer) and mix at medium speed to cream.

Add the sugar and the salt to the bowl and mix on medium until creamy. Scrape bowl down and mix until completely homogenous.

Add sour cream and vanilla extract, mix well, then add the eggs and yolks one at a time, allowing each to incorporate before adding the next. Scrape the bowl down and mix until completely smooth.

Use an ice cream scoop to transfer the cheesecake mixture to your cupcake tin. Fill about 3/4 the way up to the top (g&b note: I found a ladle worked very well and I also filled them almost all the way up).

Bake at 350 F (180 C) for 18-20 minutes. Turn oven off but leave door closed and allow cake to rest for an additional 20 minutes in the oven. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. You can enjoy them warm or chilled but just make sure you don't add whipped cream onto warm cheesecake as it will melt right away! The cupcake papers are best removed when the cheesecakes have been in the fridge for a while.

You can garnish the cake with dollops of whipped cream, berries, melted chocolate, pie filling, or enjoy plain.

Recipe by John Kanell of Preppy Kitchen https://preppykitchen.com/mini-cheesecakes/

Cherry Sauce

Ingredients

1 jar Dark Morello Cherries (24,7 oz, 680g)

3 tsp corn starch

2 tbsp (25g) sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 pinch cinnamon

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp vanilla whiskey (optional)

Instructions

Drain the jar of cherries into a sieve over a saucepan, so that the juice is in the saucepan. Set cherries aside. Dissolve sugar and cornstarch in the juice over a low heat, whisking as needed, until completely dissolved. Add the drained cherries and cinnamon and bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until syrupy. This should take about 20 minutes. Remove from heat when thick enough. Stir in lemon juice and vanilla whiskey if using.

Serve immediately or store refrigerated and reheat before using.