Mini Coffee Cheesecake

Do you know what stresses me up when I make cheesecake? It's not the fear of the cake cracking or water seeping into the pan.

It's the slicing of the cake. To get neat cuts, I need to heat up the knife. I do that by submerging my knife in a jug of hot water. Then I have to wipe the knife after every cut. Dip, wipe, cut, dip, wipe, cut. Arrrghh....

Not only that, I can't get equal sizes. Some slices are bigger (OK, deliberate when I slice my portion) and some smaller. The solution? Bake them in individual servings as in mini cheesecakes. 

So I dug out my muffin pans and lined them with cupcake liners, double layers for extra strength since cheesecakes are dense and heavy unlike cupcakes.

Then came the next headache. How much cream cheese should I use? 250g or 500g? 250g may not be enough and 500g may be too much. Arrrghh....

I referred to Joy Baking's Individual Cheesecake recipe and 454g of cream cheese was used. So OK, I used 500g. And it turned out that I had excess cheesecake filling. Arrrghh....

So I ended up with another cheesecake, a full sized one. Which means slicing. Arrrghh.....

These mini cheesecakes took only 25 minutes to bake and did not require the use of a waterbath. There were air bubbles in my batter (though I tapped my pan a few time before baking) which resulted in pockmarks on some of the cakes.

Since I had some extra ganache from another cake, I used it to decorate the mini cakes. But I did a sloppy job as you can see. Had I piped the topping, it would have come out a lot nicer. But I was running out of time. I had 3 cakes going (one unplanned) and I was like arrrghh......

I had to get dinner going and I wanted to watch CSI. Arrghh... So I cooked a quick one, this..

Roasted chicken drumsticks and potatoes.

...and I was all good. And now, my problem is how to share the recipe? How much cream cheese should I tell you to use? Arrghh....

Never mind, I will just make calibrations in my head and reduce the biscuit base that I used (180g which is too much) so as to accommodate more cheesecake filling. Hopefully it works out.

Mini Coffee Cheesecake

Recipe source : Phong Hong

Makes only 12, hopefully

Ingredients :

For base :

- 120g chocolate biscuits, finely crushed

- 50g butter, melted

For filling :

- 500g cream cheese, at room temperature

- 120g caster sugar

- 2 eggs

- 200ml whipping cream

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 1 tablespoon plain flour

- 2 sachets Nescafe 3-in-1

- 1 tbsp rum (I forgot to put, but I think this will rock)

Method :

1. Line a 12 hole muffin pan with paper liners (if the liner is thin, recommended to use double layer)

2. Mix the finely crushed biscuits with the melted butter until well combined.

3. Distribute the crushed biscuits evenly between the 12 liners. Use your finger to press the biscuits onto the base of the liners. Set aside.

4. Beat cream cheese and sugar until well combined.

5. Add the Nescafe 3-in-1 and vanilla and beat till combined.

6. Add egg, one at a time and beat until well combined.

7. Add whipping cream, rum and lastly the plain flour. Mix everything to combine.

8. Distribute the cheesecake filling evenly among the liners.

9. Bake at 140C for about 25 minutes or until the filling is no longer jiggly.

10. Remove from oven and cool on cooling rack.

11. Once cool enough to handle, remove from the pan and cool further.

12. Once completely cooled, chill before serving.