Since being diagnosed as a glutard a few years ago I am very rarely able to enjoy my favourite dessert which is the cake of cheeses. My baking skills are pretty average but I thought I would give a recipe or two a go yesterday given the wonderful weather.
They worked a treat. I experimented with three bases and all three were good. Probably prefer the walnut base but the others are good too. The same basic cheesecake goo mix was used. Unfortunately I thought I would be clever and bake these in muffin tins to store them as a serving but the tins liked the cheesecakes so much they refused to release them. Next time I will either cook them in patty cake papers or just in ramekins.
These were two bases, the first a gf flour/walnut mix and the second almond flour. I made a third using crushed up gf shortbread and they were good too. These are the bases after cooking for 10 minutes.
The goo spooned in and ready for the oven.
And the outcome. As you can see the base and goo stuck solidly and had to be surgically extracted, the top left is an attempt to get it out and that busted it up. Still taste ok and I called it cheesecake destroyed with icecream. Maybe lifting the bases after the first bake will mean it can all come out. I managed to extract one out of the nine I made.
You could easily make a normal shaped cheesecake with a cake pan but these were for individual serves and a test.
To make 6 40mL ramekins you need:
1/4 cup of gf plain flour or normal plain flour if you are normal
1/4 cup of smashed walnuts (leave a few chunky bits)
1 to 2 tablespoons of melted butter to combine it all
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
or:
1/2 cup of almond flour
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons of melted butter
or:
1/2 cup of mashed up shortbread biscuits like Scottish fingers
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of melted butter
1 imperial pinch of salt
Mix all the base ingredients together until it looks like breadcrumbs, you might need to add a bit more butter or a bit more floury stuff depending on how you go and then pack it into the bottom of the ramekins. Bake at 175C for 10minutes.
Then make the goo:
1x 250g pack of cream cheese
50mL or a bit under 1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 pinch salt
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice
Agress upon the cream cheese in a mixer until it fluffs up then add sugar and salt and mix until combined. Add the egg and throw in the vanilla and lemon juice. You do this while the bases are baking so it doesn't start to harden before you need to pour it into the ramekins.
Bake at 150C for 20minutes. Cheesecake are done if they are firm on top but still jiggle like the things we all love. Refrigerate for one to two hours before eating.
Totally worth it.