Lemon Cheesecake Cupcakes
September 01st, 2009 | Category: Cheesecake, Muffins and Cupcakes
Why haven’t I thought of this before? Individual servings of creamy and tangy lemon cheesecake. But most importantly, why haven’t I seen these before? Someone must have discovered cheesecake cupcakes decades ago, right? So, even though I have zillion cookbooks, flip through jillion food magazines and read gazillion food blogs, why don’t I remember seeing cheesecake cupcakes before?
Has the time come? Am I so over saturated with images of food that I don’t really see what I’m looking at anymore?
Or is it just about turning the right page (or clicking the right link) at the right time?
When I saw the individual cheesecakes recipe in delicious. magazine’s June 2009 issue, I didn’t just mark the page and continued reading. I opened the fridge door and checked if I had cream cheese. Luckily, I did. I also had fresh mulberries from my father’s garden. Perfect!
The beauty of this recipe is that you don’t need to go through the process of a water bath, which is quite scary especially for cheesecake virgins.
Believe me, it is very hard to screw up with this recipe. And even if you do, don’t forget: Combination of berries and powdered sugar is the best concealer known to the home baker.
I love it when I get to salvage leftovers from a previous baking adventure. Once in a while, I bake more cookies than I can eat.
OK, all the time. Since I am against trashing anything edible, I always freeze them and wait for a recipe to come by.
Thanks to this lemon cheesecake cupcakes, there opened some space to be filled in my freezer. Maybe a batch of pomegranate frozen yogurt? Oh yeah.
If you liked this recipe, then you’ll definitely like these, too:
Lemon Cheesecake Cupcakes Recipe
Recipe adapted from delicious. magazine’s June 2009 issue
Makes 12 lemon cheesecake cupcakes
Ingredients
Cookie base:
- 3+1/2 oz (100 gr) gingersnap (or shortbread) cookies
- 2 oz (55 gr) ground almonds
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 3 tbsp butter, melted
Filling:
Important: For a creamy consistency, make sure that all the ingredients below are at room temperature.
- 1 lb. cream cheese
- 3+1/2 oz heavy cream (or sour cream)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 5 oz mulberries (or any kind of berry)
- 2 tbsp powdered sugar
Method
- Preheat your oven to 325F.
- Line a 12-hole muffin tin with muffin cases and set aside.
- Crush the cookies to fine crumbs and mix with ground almonds, sugar and melted butter.
- Press 1 heaped tablespoon of mixture into the base of each muffin case and place in the refrigerator to chill.
- Beat the cream cheese, heavy cream and sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract, lemon juice and lemon zest, beating well after each addition.
- Rap the mixer bowl hard on your counter to knock out the air bubbles trapped inside the filling.
- Spoon the mixture over the cookie bases 3/4 full.
- Press three mulberries into the filling and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cheesecakes are puffed and starting to color.
- Cool, then chill until ready to eat.
- Decorate each cheesecake with more mulberries and dust with powdered sugar to serve.
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Cheesecake is something very hard for me to share. And to add to that, home grown mulberries? That just makes this so much more endearing.
they look wonderful, Cenk! I make similar tiny cheesecakes flavored with orange zest & orange liquor on a chocolate cookie crust and freeze them for an ice cream-like dessert.
btw, I’m already starting to see pomegranates in the markets around here – I can’t wait to see what you make with them this year!
Oh. My. Goodness.
This is brilliant. And there’s something to be said for a well-stocked larder. Cheesecake on demand? Yes, please!
+Jessie
The combination of lemons and ginger cookies has me swooning! This looks divine.
Dang, that IS a good idea. I guess the rest of us are sleeping on the job
I want to try this, if for anything because it doesn’t call for a graham cracker crust which is difficult to come by in Italy! I love mini!
It’s genius! I’m totally drooling. I want one (two… five…) right now! This looks gorgeous for a dessert table.
Nicely done! I’ve found this is the best way to do cheesecakes as a whole one is messy to serve sometimes.
I use a small glass spice jar to press the crust into the cupcake papers!
i’ve made cheesecake a lot, but never tried cheesecake cupcake.
it might sound a bit too much for breakfast, but i’d definitely hv 1 maybe 2 for my breakfast!
Cheesecake cupcakes are a fantastic idea. Desserts that come in small sizes always seem to taste even better! The mulberries sound absolutely delicious.
I’ve seen them before, but couldn’t tell you where! Fabulous way to enjoy cheesecake. This recipe looks doable no matter your baking experience.
I’m surprised that you haven’t seen individual cheesecakes before. Paula Deen, Pampered Chef & others have recipes in cupcake & mini-muffin sizes. Try putting a whole vanilla wafer in the bottom for your crust – so easy! Happy baking.
Cenk, these are fantastic. Nothing gets my attention like lemon, and if it’s paired with berries, I’m in heaven.
I belong to that uncommon group who is not fond of cheese cakes. But I haven’t seen anything as pretty as these before. Love the cookie base & the berries.
These are beautiful and remind me of one of my favorite treats to bake when I was about 10…early 1980’s. I used Nilla wafers for the crust, made cheesecake base with almond extract and topped them with (Gasp!) canned cherry pie filling! They were so red and glossy and utterly beautiful-oh delicious too! I think my adult palatte would much prefer the taste of yours. Especially the mulberries.
Yes, individual cheesecakes were incredibly popular (at least in the US) in the late 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s. they were everywhere! I think the trend got so huge, then burnt itself out, and that’s why you don’t see them in your current crop of books, or in the blogosphere.
But that doesn’t change the fact that they are tasty and practical (they were popular for a reason!) and I have never tried them with mulberries!
wow these look fab I love your site
These are gorgeous!
one of the most beautiful individual cheesecakes that I’ve seen lately
These look delightful!
first time visitor here and will surely return……..we do a lot of brunches for lazy Sundays so individual anything is perfect and these jewels will be making a Sunday appearance soon……thanks
If only I had cream cheese in the fridge!! Individual cheesecakes certainly seem to be having a resurgence in Sydney cafes of late but I love your home baked variety – and especially your way with left over biscuits! Ginger and lemon, together at last!
Georgia
Ahhh, lemon cheesecake, swoon. These are gorgeous!!!
Another winner. Thanks Cafe “F”.
These were delicious !
I already had 3 going for another =)
Great recipe !
Thanks!
Great photo! Hey, do you guys in Turkey make mulberry syrup?
I sure wish I had brought mine from Lebanon this summer!
I’m with Soma…I don’t usually like cheesecake at all–far too heavy for my taste. But I LOVE lemon and I LOVE berries, so I feel that despite my anti-cheesecake stance, these look lovely!
These are the most attractive little cheesecakes I’ve ever seen! Wow!
Oh my these look beautiful! What pretty little treats – plus I love the simplicity of the recipe
Oh these look just perfect Cenk! I can never have a whole big slice of cheesecake and these cupcakes (with the fresh berries!) are calling my name!
Great idea! They look so cute!
I don’t know if I did it right exactly (I’m pretty amateur in the kitchen, but I’m working on it!) but I had twice as much filling as I did crust… I was able to make almost 2 dozen with the filling this recipe calls for… any tips?
Roxbury23 – I really don’t know why that happened. Maybe your muffin cases were smaller?
These are absolutely adorable!
Is it a Turkish thing about not trashing anything edible? Cuz my husband is exactly the same!
Mrs. Ergül – I’m not so sure. I have seen many Turkish people trashing lots of edible things
What an amazing recipe! This is the first recipe I tried and it turned out perfectly. Great blog.
My mom used to make cheesecake cupcakes when I was little. I think it was in some Pillsbury cookbook in the early eighties. This makes me nostalgic just looking at it… I’ll have to make these for sure!
oh my goodness, these were bliss. I made them with crumbled scotch finger biscuits and fresh raspberries. The berries swirled beautifully into the cheesecake and made them look and taste so divine that no one guessed how simple they were to make! Perfect for impressing company at short notice.
kez – So happy to hear you liked them. Bon appetit!
hi I want to make cheesecake cupcakes for my daugthers wedding this August ,Any ideas?