Muffin-Cup Cheesecakes

I was very late in becoming a cheesecake-maker. I could make a whole Thanksgiving dinner without a written recipe when I was 18 years old. I started creating my own bread recipes when I was in my early 20's.

But it took me quite a while to jump on the cheesecake bandwagon.

It's not that I don't like cheesecake. I like them a lot. but we used to live just a few miles from a cheesecake factory (not the restaurant chain - an actual factory) that would sell cracked or lopsided cheesecakes at discounted prices. So I didn't really need to make them.

Once I started making cheesecakes, one problem I ran into with published recipes was that they made huge cheesecakes. Which is fine if I'm taking them to a party. But for just the two of us ... well, we really don't need to have a giant cheesecake sitting around.

When I saw a cheesecake recipe in The Hello Kitty Baking Book, I figured I'd give it a try. I had just gotten the book, and while I was totally amused by the concept, I was more interested in recipes.

Need I say that the book was very ... pink? Yup, very very pink. And cute. And adorable. And then I started looking for recipes to try. Besides the little cheesecakes, I had also bookmarked brownies and cupcakes and cookies and pie.

What prompted me to make the cheesecakes first was that, well, I had a new muffin pan I wanted to baptize.

I made some changes to the recipe. First, I used a vanilla cookie crust instead of a chocolate graham cracker crust. And I didn't add the strawberry jam topping. Instead, I added a sour cream topping. And then I cut the recipe neatly by one-third - it was pretty simple since the original called for 3 packages of cream cheese and three eggs.

The one oddity about this recipe was that at the beginning, it called for one muffin pan, but didn't specify the size or the number of muffin cups that needed to be lined with cupcake liners. At the very end of the recipe, it said that it made 24 mini muffin cupcakes.

But ... I decided to use my brand-new jumbo muffin pan that a friend had sent to me. And instead of using paper liners, I used silicone muffin cups. I ended up making six cheesecakes.

Even with all those changes, the important part of a cheesecake is the cheesy part, and I left that part mostly intact. Okay, I might have upped the vanilla a little. But I do that by reflex. I love vanilla.

Mini Cheesecakes
Adapted from The Hello Kitty Baking Book by Michele Chen Chock

For the crust:
1 cup cookie crumbs
2 tablespoons melted butter

For the cheesecakes:
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
Small pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg at room temperature

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line 6 jumbo muffin cups with paper or silicone liners. Find a pan that you can put the muffin pan into so that the muffin cups can be submerged about halfway into water in the larger pan. A roasting pan is probably a good choice.

I didn't feel like digging out my roasting pan, so I used my favorite 9x13 baking pan. The muffin pan didn't quite fit the way I wanted it to, so I put a small rack into the bottom of the baking pan to lift it a bit, and it was perfect.

Large silicone muffin cups from Casabella.

Combine the cookie crumbs and butter. Divide into the six muffin cups. Press the mixture into the bottom to create a firm crust. Since I was using silicone muffin molds, I pressed the crumbs up the sides a little. That would probably make paper cups looks not-so-pretty, but if you're going to unmold to serve, that's not going to matter.

Bake the formed crusts at 350 degrees until the crust is lightly browned and is firm - about 5 minutes.

Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees.

Beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer in a bowl until it is soft and fluffy. Add the sugar and salt, and beat until well combined and the mixture is creamy. Add the vanilla and beat until combined. Add the egg and beat until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl, if needed.

Divide the mixture into the six prepared muffin cups, and smooth the top of the mixture.

Add very hot or near-boiling water to the bottom pan (roasting pan or anything similar) so that when you put the muffin pan into the outer pan, the water comes about halfway up the sides of the muffin cups.

Bake at 325 degrees until the cheesecake mixture is mostly set but still slightly jiggly. about 20-25 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and place the muffin pan on a rack to cool, then refrigerate the cheesecakes for at least 3 hours before serving.

Note: If the muffin pan and hot water are too risky to handle, you can let the pan cool in the water until it's cool enough to safely remove the pan from the water.

Optional: The original recipe called for adding a thin layer of warm jam to the tops of the finished cheesecakes, and then using a Hello Kitty template to add a powdered sugar image to the top of the cheesecake.

Instead, I opted for a sweetened sour cream topping. I didn't measure, but just added sugar and a small splash of vanilla to about a cup of sour cream, to taste. I added that to the tops of the cheesecakes about 5 minutes before they were done. At that point, the tops had a bit of a skin and had firmed up enough to support the addition without having it sink completely into the cheesecakes.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher.

It's my birthday and I'll post silly stuff if I want to

My husband says that one of his goals every day is to make me laugh.

Most days he succeeds. Sometimes it a chuckle or a giggle. Sometimes it's a groaning eye roll.

And then some days, it's a serious guffaw or a side-splitting howl.

Last week, a friend of mine (let's call her Carla) send me a ceramic sculpture that she had made for me. There was a tray, a saucer, a giant mug, and some decorative items. There was was a light gray mouse perched on the edge of the mug, then another light gray mouse and a dark gray mouse attached to the tray.

And then there was food. Three cookies: chocolate chip, oatmeal, and peanut butter; and two little loaves of bread.

Well, some of the pieces broke loose in shipping, so I asked my husband if he had any glue. He took the whole thing into the garage and put things back in order.

I came home from errands last Saturday, put down my bags, and saw that the sculpture was sitting on the dining room table. "Oh, he finished gluing it," I thought. I took a closer look.

This is what I saw:

And I laughed myself silly. Hearty guffaws.

See, he put dark glasses on the mice ... three blind mice.

They're paper glasses and they're taped on so they're easily removable. But for right now, they're staying in place, because I think it's hysterical.

And Bob says he hopes Carla thinks it's funny, too.

Pickled Carrots (Among other things)

Once again, I have a book in my grubby hands from the Cook My Book group.

With every book I try, there are tons of recipes that I bookmark, and then time slips away and I'm rushing to make a few things before I get the book mailed to the next person.

While we aren't totally obligated to cook from every book that we get, that's kind of the point of mailing them around. You make a recipe (or more) write some notes in the book, and by the time the book gets back to the original owner, it's filled with notes, comments, drawings, food stains, jokes ...

This time around, I'm looking at the Pike's Place Market Recipes cookbook by Jess Thompson. I paged through the book and had bookmarks in just about every section. They were all strong "maybes" until I got to the Bloody Mary recipe.

That one piqued my interest, for sure.

But it wasn't the cocktail I was really interested in. I wanted to make the pickled carrots.

I love anything pickled, and there was something about this pickled carrot recipe that tickled my fancy. Hehe. Get it? Pickled, tickled...

Well, anyway, I bought carrots at the farmers market and I was pretty sure I had everything else I needed. I always have vinegar and salt, and I have more spices than the average grocery store.

And then it all went a little sideways. For some reason I thought I needed one pound of carrots instead of two. Which wasn't a terrible problem except that I had an awful lot of pickling liquid in process by the time I realized I didn't have enough carrots.

And then ... I needed a shallot. I was pretty sure I had a few left, but no. Shall-nots, not shall-lots, So I decided to add a red onion to the mix. I love pickled onions, and I figured it would make up for both the lack of shallot and for the paucity of carrots.

And then ... I went looking for the coriander seeds. They weren't there. Or there. Or anywhere. I substituted ground coriander seeds, which I knew was likely to make my liquid a little cloudy, but at that point I wasn't about to run to the store for coriander seeds.

And then ... on a whim I decided to add a green pepper to the pickling mix as well. I love pickled green peppers, and it was just about what I needed to fill the container I had chosen to house this adventure.

I thought these were just slightly too salty to be eaten on their own, but who does that? Well, I guess I do. But they were nice when munched with a meal or added to a salad.

So here we go with the recipe ...

Pickled Carrots (and other things)
Adapted from Pikes Place Market Recipes by Jess Thompson

2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups water
2 tablespoons mustard seeds
4 teaspoons whole coriander seed (I used 1 tablespoon ground, but suggest using whole seeds)
4 teaspoons* whole black peppercorns
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 red onion, sliced
1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and sliced
1 pound carrots, peeled

Combine the vinegar, water, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, salt, and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Let it simmer for 20 minutes, then let it cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, cook the carrots for about 5 minutes, so they're partially cooked, but still a little crunchy - how long it will take depends on how thick the carrots are, so check the after three minutes and cook as long as you need to.

When the carrots are cooked, rinse them in cold water to stop the cooking.

Place the carrots, onion, and green pepper in a jar. When the pickling liquid has cooled to room temperature, pour it over the vegetables, making sure they're covered with liquid. If you're a little short, you can add a little bit of water.

Seal the container, and refrigerate for at least two days, or up to two weeks. The pickling will become stronger over time.


Rather than just putting the vegetables into a jar, I used a Vacu Vin Instant Pickler. It's an interesting device. By putting the pickles in a sealed container and then pumping out as much air as possible, the vegetables have no choice but suck in the marinade faster.

The same concept works for meat in a vacuum-sealed bag, but a container is more practical for pickles.

There is a more complete review over on my review blog here.

*Four teaspoons is the same as 1 tablespoon plus one teaspoon, but you only need one measuring spoon if you measure in teaspoons. Or, you can eyeball it by using a heaping tablespoon.