Baby Lemon Cheesecakes

This week’s Heavenly Cake Bakers selection is the baby lemon cheesecakes. Since this is a cheesecake recipe, I have no choice but to make it, and I’m not allowed to take leftovers into work, either. 😉

This recipe begins by making a biscuit, which acts as the crust for the cake. It amused me that in this case, the biscuit name is actually literal — bis (meaning twice) and cuit (meaning cooked). It’s baked once on its own, then goes into the oven again as the base of the cheesecake. I’m easily amused.

For the biscuit, you basically beat egg yolks and sugar until very light and fluffy, mix in flour and vanilla, beat egg whites into a meringue, then fold the two together, spread into a sheet pan, and bake.

Let that cool, which doesn’t take long because it’s so thin, then cut into rounds, about the size of the bottom of whatever you’re baking this in. I had leftovers, which I stashed in the freezer. Hopefully the texture won’t suffer too much.

Once you’ve lined the bottoms of your molds, get the cheesecake batter ready: sour cream, cream cheese, lemon juice, and eggs. I halved the recipe, because my silicone cupcake liners are about half the size called for in the recipe. In retrospect, this is probably why they baked up much quicker than the recipe called for.

Pour the batter into the molds, then fill the outer pan with hot water for a water bath.

After baking, and when the cakes have had a chance to chill in the fridge, make the lemon curd. I didn’t take any good pictures of this process, so you’ll just have to use your imagination. 🙂 Spread the lemon curd as evenly as you can on the cakes, then chill again for a couple of hours before attempting to unmold.

Jay really enjoyed these, and as I said above — anything that hints of cheesecake isn’t allowed to leave the house, so his was the only feedback I got. He thought they might be better with a more solid crust, but I think that’s because the temptation with anything ‘cupcake’ size is to want to eat it with your fingers. These are just a bit messy for that. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing wrong with these, but they weren’t my favourite dessert ever or anything. They don’t contain nearly enough chocolate for that. 😉