Champagne Baby Cheesecakes - Happy New Year!

I could make tons of excuses about why I've been away, but the real reason is that I lost my inspiration.  I hit a cooking brick wall, so to say.  BUT I'm back and it feels so good to play around in my kitchen again!  I thought I would ease back in the swing of the things with a Toasty classic: baby cheesecakes!

New Years is going to be a low key affair this year after two years of expensive shenanigans where we had the most fun hanging out in the room with everyone before.  Champagne, appetizers, and games await me in Glover Park, so I thought I would contribute to the night with my signature dessert with a New Years twist!  (And also a candied bacon caramel host gift, look out for that!)

I use my typical cheesecake base of 8 oz of cream cheese, 2 eggs, and about 1/4 - 1/2 cups of sugar and added champagne that I reduced to one quarter of its volume to concentrate the festive flavor.  The cheesecakes are topped with champagne macerated strawberries and then a strawberry champagne whipped cream, using some of the macerating juice and fresh champagne for a bubbly topper!

So what's your favorite kind of cheesecake?  What do you guys want to see me put in one next?

Funfetti Cheesecake Bites - (Secretly) Two Years Old!

Two years ago, I was at the end of the first year of grad school while also ending a long term relationship.  I had so much nervous energy without an outlet and knew I needed to throw myself into projects.  I joined a kickball league and a bocce team.  I started spending every weekend night on my girlfriends' couch to stay busy and not sit at home overanalyzing everything.  And most pertinent to this particular post, I started to write this blog.

For the first few months, I wrote in secret.  I was confident in my passion for food and could talk about it for hours, but I hadn't written anything other than design reports and immunology exams since high school.  I didn't feel proficient enough to add to the conversation, neither as an amateur cook nor a photographer.  I wanted to find myself and my style of cooking before I shared anything.

It was just me and my dinky point and shoot camera, terrible rental half-galley kitchen with no dishwasher, and low popcorn ceilings that let in absolutely no natural light.  I would write everything down in this little green notebook while I let every utensil, bowl, plate, and pan I owned soak in the sink.  The pictures were horrible and I had no idea what I was doing, but god I loved it!  Eventually, I saved up enough money to buy a "big girl camera" and decided to take myself public.  I am so happy that I did.  It was so fun to pour myself into this project, to really research food and try new things.  I love having a creative outlet and sharing my food and couldn't imagine a better way to de-stress at the end of the day!

So in celebration, yet another Toasty cheesecake!  I decided to go full-on birthday and rock the funfetti.  I couldn't use the box mix (on principle) so I turned to Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar for tips on how to recreate the flavor.  The secret to box cake fake out is cake flour, imitation vanilla extract (still not happy about it, but it does the trick!), and a whole bunch of rainbow sprinkles.  I used Tosi's recipe for funfetti cake crumbs, buzzed them up in the food processor, and approximated a funfetti version of the graham cracker crust!  I will definitely be using this trick for future cheesecake adaptations, it was so easy and a great way to impart more flavor!  A little bit of sour cream, a heaping half cup of sprinkles, and a healthy dose of imitation vanilla brought the birthday flavor to the cheesecake base.  When cooled, I topped the baby cheesecakes with a few more cake crumbs for a fun and festive finish!

One move, three broken bones, and two years later I think I'm finally getting the hang of this!  Thanks to my friends, family, and readers for supporting me in this ridiculous endeavor.  (And of course for eating my leftovers so I don't get fat... Most appreciated!)

Mocha Baby Cheesecakes

For the first time in a long time, I feel excited to be in the kitchen.  It was something I regarded with dread because I knew I would need an aspirin and 2 bags of peas by the time I was done.  But you know what, screw it.  Instead of focusing on what I can't do, I need to just do.  I need to create things.  I need to have projects.  I need to make messes!

I decided to step back into the kitchen full force by creating one of my signature baby cheesecakes.  This was an idea born from my coworkers during a fat kid discussion, probably one of my favorite things to talk about.  I brought in some pumpkin baby cheesecake leftover from Little Toasty's birthday that went over pretty well and was getting requests to bring in more.  So, I thought I would play to my audience and ask what they wanted in a baby cheesecake.  What we brainstormed was an indulgent coffee and chocolate fantasy that needed to become reality!

I feel pretty confident with what works and doesn't work in a cheesecake at this point, so I thought I would just wing it.  Instead of normal graham crackers, I used some chocolate teddy grahams and toned down the sugar in my normal crust to accommodate for the slightly sweeter product.  I overloaded my french press with fresh ground coffee beans to create a super concentrated coffee base to add to the cheesecake batter.  Brown sugar instead of regular sugar echoed the richness of the coffee and unsweetened cocoa powder.  I used only one egg to create a denser final product.  I made a whipped cream with a dash of the concentrated coffee and then finished with a shaving of chocolate.

Rich and decadent, these little cheesecakes are sure to please any coffee lover.  Hope I did my fellow fat kids proud!  (And yes, I wrote this with my ankle sandwiched between two bags of frozen peas!)

Key Lime Baby Cheesecakes

It is a well known fact that I am a cheesecake enthusiast.  From nutella to blueberry yogurt to goat cheese variations, it has popped up quite a bit on the blog.  My party signature is to bring my 2-bite baby cheesecakes, a tradition started at my friend's 21st in college.  A few weeks ago before the complete kitchen shut out, I got an email request from my old roommate Kate (who writes a super cute nail blog) about a key lime baby cheesecake I had made when we lived together.  I could not for the life of me remember where I got the recipe, which is pretty much the reason why I started blogging in the first place, so I decided to improv a new version.

Citrus desserts are my favorite in the summer, so I really couldn't imagine anything more perfect than a cold key lime cheesecake during another spell of 100+ degree days.  I picked up some Nellie and Joe's concentrated key lime juice only because juicing those little buggers is a pain in the ass, plus it's the original so I gave myself a pass on my no premade products rule.  A little bit of sweetened condensed milk will bring in the flavors of the traditional key lime pie while fresh key lime zest is a must for zingy fresh taste.

Normally I make my baby cheesecakes "naked" but I finally tried out the mini muffin pan paper liners and I will never go back!  You can still use the two pan method to evenly pack down the graham cracker crust without crushing the liners.

Just 5 minutes for the crust and 12 minutes for the filling, this is a fast bake that would be perfect when you remember the night before an event you need to bring something!  I chilled the cheesecakes overnight and then topped the tantalizingly tart baby cheesecakes with a lime scented whipped cream dollop.

Goodness, I missed baking . . .

Blueberry Yogurt Cheesecakes

Oh hayyyy memorial day!  Summer is officially here!  Barbecues, white jeans, crabs, and beach weekends!  Can you tell this is my favorite season?  This whole weekend I will be showing off some festive and lighter options to bring to barbecues.  Today's pick is a muffin sized blueberry yogurt-based cheesecake with an orange blueberry sauce to top the baby cheesecakes.  Plus it doesn't hurt that blueberries have been on sale for use in patriotic desserts . . .

So the cheesecake base is 0% greek yogurt and cheesecake.  The base was flavored with orange zest, blueberries, and a little vanilla.  I used my food processor to blend up the filling because I wanted to be able to blend up the blueberries.  More blueberries were used with orange zest and juice to create a quick orange blueberry topper.

It is a festive and light dessert, perfect for any patriotic picnic!  And according to Foodista it is National Blueberry Cheesecake day?  Serendipity!

Goat Cheese Cheesecakes with Grapefruit Curd Topping

When I set out to make grapefruit curd, I really wanted it to be pink.  Not vibrantly electric pink, just a tinge.  So I was super disappointed when it turned out the color of a lemon curd, just with a slightly bitter bite at the end.  Delectable, but not pink.  To make up for my yellow disappointment I decided to pair the curd with a cheesecake.  But not just any cheesecake, goat cheese cheesecake to complement the grapefruit bitterness.  And it was an Easter miracle because the cheesecakes topped with the curd looked like a fried egg!

I used Ina's curd method: pulse the sugar with the zest in a food processor, creaming the butter and sugar, adding the eggs and juice, and heating for 10 minutes to thicken, and running through a sieve for a creamy curd.  Easy 20 minute process with a few hours of setting up in the fridge and no slow butter addition.  You can do the double boiler (pot with boiling water and the curd in a bowl on top) but I just cook it on very low heat with my gas stove because I feel like I can control the heat.  I've never had any scrambled eggs come out in the sieve this way, just an embarrassing egg shell piece (oops).

For the cheesecake, I wanted to try something different.  On a whim, I googled goat cheese cheesecake and came upon Anne Burrell's recipe.  Intrigued, I made a half batch to see the effect of goat cheese and sour cream.  As a person who has long used mayo in her cheesecakes (Baby Nutella Cheesecakes), I don't know why I was nervous!  But the end product was SO GOOD, tangy from the goat cheese, fluffy, and only a little sweet, my favorite kind of dessert.

Be sure to bring the ingredients to room temperature before beginning to ensure the fluffy texture.  Made in my recently replaced cupcake pans, it makes about 16 cupcake sized cheesecakes perfect for spring and summer parties!

Baby Nutella Cheesecakes

In my family, cheesecake means celebration.  Thanksgiving, birthdays, crab feasts, you name it and it was on the table with a can of whipped cream.  Even though I've never really been a chocolate person, I've never been able to resist my Dad's chocolate cheesecake.  When one of my close friends turned 21, I took his recipe and shrunk it to mini-muffin size to bring to the birthday party.  They were a hit!  I made plain ones for my 21st, pumpkin spice for my housewarming last year, and won a bake off at my old job with another batch of the classic chocolate.  Today, I'm going to a jewelry party with a bunch of my girlfriends and I thought I would try something new.  Enter baby Nutella cheesecakes!

I finally joined pinterest a couple of weeks ago and all of the delicious looking Nutella recipes inspired me to experiment with my baby cheesecake technique.  I basically replaced the semi-sweet chocolate chips in my Dad's recipe for the same amount of Nutella.  

The other surprise is the tang and texture that comes from the addition of mayonaise to the cream cheese base, one that you wouldn't think would work but now I can't imagine it any other way.  A dollop of vanilla flavored sour cream replaces the traditional whipped cream (and I think makes them look even more adorable).  A drizzle of Nutella finishes the baby cheesecakes, utilizing a plastic zip top bag snipped in the corner as a makeshift pastry bag.

Baby Nutella Cheesecakes

Crust:

1 package (about 8 full squares) of graham crackers

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 a stick of butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Using the food processor, grind up the graham crackers into crumbs.  Add the sugar and salt, pulse 3 times, then add the melted butter.  Pulse a few more times and transfer to a small bowl, being sure to scrape any butter trapped under the blade.

Add 1 teaspoon of graham cracker crumbs to each well of the 24-mini muffin pan.

From trial and error, I figured out the best way to make a perfect crust for the baby cheesecakes.  Using a second pan, I press down on the first pan to create a compact and even crust.  Bonus points if some of the crumbs come up the sides.  Repeat with the second pan.

Bake for 5 minutes at 350 F.  Let cool while you prepare the cheesecake.

Cheesecake:

1 8oz package of cream cheese

1/2 cup of mayonaise (Hellman's preferred, if only for nostalgia's sake)

1/2 cup of sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

6 oz of Nutella

Let the cream cheese, mayonaise, eggs, and nutella come to room temperature.  For best results, let cream cheese sit overnight and the mayo and eggs brought out 1 hour before you want to bake, just to come to room temperature.  Combine the cream cheese and mayonaise with a hand mixer.  Add the sugar then add the eggs one at a time.  Add the vanilla extract and 6 oz of nutella.

Pour the cheesecake mixture into a large zip top bag in order to even distribute the batter.

Cut a small hole in the corner of the bag.  Fill the wells almost to the top.  Lightly tap the pans to get rid of any bubbles.

Bake for 12 minutes at 350 F.  The tops will be puffed.  Let cool while you prepare the sour cream topper.

Sour Cream Topper:

1 cup of sour cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients and spoon into a sandwich sized zip top bag

Cut a small hole in the bag and fill the divets in the cheesecakes created from cooling.  Bake for 2 more minutes, let come to room temperature, then refrigerate for 2 hours.  To remove, use a butter knife slightly warmed with hot water to most cleanly retrieve your baby cheesecakes

Serve chilled to your party guests.  I added a little drizzle of nutella to the top to echo the flavor in the cheesecake (okay, because it was cute).  These are adorable, festive, and delicious!