Dessert of the Week: Mini Cheesecakes

Apparently I haven't done anything blogworthy in over a week. How sad! We haven't had any great meals, and I haven't worked on my March craft project yet. But it's coupon week at Jo-Ann's, so this next weekend I'll be buying fabric and getting started! However, I have picked what I'm doing: This skirt!

So we'll have to see how that goes. Last week I didn't have a dessert of the week, but I did make dessert I promise! (How could I go a week without dessert? Never!) My sisters were in town for one of their birthdays, and she requested this cake: Chocolate Ganache Custard Cake from DroolFactor (However, my husband thinks "ganache" sounds disgusting, so it has been renamed "Chocolate Delish Custard Cake" in our family :D). This is my new favorite cake- it was moist and it fell perfectly out of the pan after baking! The custard was also to die for- I will certainly make that again. The ganache was a total failure but that's my fault- I only had half and half on hand, instead of cream. But eventually it did all work out, and I think the cake was a success!

On to this week's dessert! We went to my sister's house for dinner last night, and she was kind enough to let me bring dessert! I decided on cheesecake, because I had plenty on hand and we had wanted to do it last week instead of the chocolate ganache cake, but it didn't happen. So after looking at quite a few cheesecake recipes (seriously, a lot), I ended up using this recipe from Baking Bites. I doubled it, but I only had about 12 ounces of cream cheese instead of 16. But it still made 18 cheesecakes instead of just 16! I decided on doing a basic cherry cheesecake, and a heath bar cheesecake with caramel and fudge sauce. 

 I meant to do one graham cracker crust, and the other chocolate graham cracker crust (sadly, we don't keep oreos on hand at my house. They wouldn't last long!) But I forgot, so they were both graham cracker crusts. Half way through baking, I dropped some chocolate chips into the heath bar ones, so they would have chocolate inside as well.

They baked up perfectly! I was incredibly impressed, because I know regular cheesecakes are so difficult. But these mini cheesecakes were simple. I let them sit at room temperature for about two hours, then put them in the fridge for another hour (I shouldn't have let them sit out so long, but I was away from home, so I guess it worked!)

Aaaah, the delightful tray of cheesecakes! They looked so pretty all together, if I do say so myself. :D The cherry ones were simple- I just put some cherry topping on top. The heath ones were a challenge...and they didn't turn out quite like I had hoped. I made some caramel sauce by melting some caramels, a little half and half, and a tiny bit of butter in the microwave. It melted wonderfully, but it soon hardened into a sticky, get-stuck-in-your-teeth sauce. The hot fudge sauce was even worse! I had some homemade chocolate syrup in my fridge (also didn't turn out great, I need a lot of work on sauces!) so I added some corn syrup, more half and half, and a bit of butter to that and let it boil for about 10 minutes on the stove. It too was fudge-y when it was warm, but hardened into a stuck-in-your-teeth mess. Everyone was kind to eat them, but I could have done better on the sauce for sure!

Overall, I was super happy with these. Apart from the sticky sauces, the cheesecakes themselves were perfect, and the mini size was exactly right. I think cheesecakes are my new favorite dessert. I have a whole list of new cheesecake ideas to try: lemon cheesecake, white chocolate raspberry, twix cheesecake, and I want to try a real regular-sized cheesecake next! I just need to get through the next few weeks of dessert: my birthday pies, St. Patrick's day (I'm thinking mint oreo brownies....Yes!), my husband's birthday cake, General Conference cinnamon rolls, and then maaaybe we can get around to more cheesecake. I can't wait!