Individual Cheesecakes in a Muffin Tin-To Be or Not To Be (sinful?)
To celebrate Bryan’s visit, I decided to bake–what else–cheesecake! I love individual cheesecakes because the presentation looks adorable and it bakes so much faster. I decided to really let everything sit at room temperature to see whether it would make it creamier/smoother.
I deliberated whether to sub half the cream cheese with Greek yogurt (on top of sour cream being subbed already), but decided sinful it is! The yogurt was pretty tangy and I didn’t want to mess up when baking for someone else (my one attempt prior with cottage cheese had been an epic fail). Recipe from Joy of Baking, with my modifications.
Sorry, B, you’re gonna have to work harder for your 6 pack! 🙂
Individual Cheesecakes
Ingredients
Crust:
1 cup graham wafer crumbs
1 tablespoon granulated white sugar
4 tablespoons butter, melted
Filling:
2 8 oz packages of light cream cheese, room temp
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 lemon grated zest
1/2 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
Topping: berries…berries…berries…
Directions
Cheesecakes: Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) and place oven rack in the center of the oven. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
For Crust: Combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter. Press onto the bottoms of the 12 muffin cups. Cover and refrigerate while you make the filling.
For Filling: In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the cream cheese on low speed until creamy and smooth. Add the sugar and salt and beat until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated. Add the vanilla extract, lemon zest, and sour cream and beat until incorporated. Remove the crusts from the refrigerator and evenly divide the filling among the 12 muffin cups.
Bake for about 18 – 22 minutes or until firm but the centers of the cheesecakes still wobble a little. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack. Let cool and then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate/freeze.
Makes 12 individual cheesecakes.
