Cheesecake Bites

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

We were allowed to express our creative side with this challenge
and I couldn't resist but to make mini cheesecakes in several different flavors.
A few flavor combos I've been wanting to try for awhile now
and a few I know the family would love to try.

I had much success but a few disappointments.

This is my cheesecake journey! :)

I made the original recipe using a vanilla bean scraped and omitting the lemon and booze. I then divided the batter into five different bowls and added my flavors.

I decided to make the following flavors.

Lemon Thyme

Rose with Dark Chocolate Chunks

Peanut Butter Cup

Chocolate Hazelnut

Snickers

Lemon Thyme.
I wanted to top it with a lemon curd but it was a lemon marmalade that I had in the pantry. I han go with the pantry stock but next time I'll do it with a curd. I would also add a little more thyme to my batter. I was very conservative because I didn't know how much to add and I only made a few of these. It's topped with a pretty Thyme flower.

Rose Dark Chocolate Chunk.

My changes for next time?
I would a a little more rose water.
(it was hard to determine amounts when making just a few)
I would also top it off with a chocolate ganach instead of just melted chocolate.
And I'm thinking a chocolate rose petal would work great here!

Peanut Butter Cup!
Just chop up some Reese's PB cups and add to the batter.
Drizzle with chocolate.

Chocolate Hazelnut.
Add Nutella to the batter.

Next time?
Frost with Nutella!
Hazelnut on top

Snickers Cheesecake Bits!
Perfect!
Add chopped up Snickers.
Top with a pool of Carmel and drizzle with chocolate!

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs

1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream

1 tbsp. lemon juice I didn't use
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)I used vanilla bean innards!
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake-I didn't use
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath. I didn't bake in a water bath either. But I made mini cheesecakes!
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.
5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.
Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.
Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!