Mini Cheese­cakes

Mini Cheese­cakes

(makes about two dozen)

10 oz/280g gra­ham crack­ers, or diges­tive bis­cuits, crushed fine

1 stick/114g but­ter, melted

2 packages/500g Philadel­phia cream cheese, room temperature

3 eggs, room temperature

3/4 c/95g unre­fined sugar

sprin­kle vanil­la extract

zest of 1 lime and 1 lemon

16 oz/454g light/half-fat sour cream

2 cups mini choco­late chips

1 cup blackberries

1 cup strawberries

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup unre­fined sugar

Heat oven to 350F/180C.

Mix the cook­ie crumbs with the melt­ed but­ter with a fork, fluff­ing light­ly.  Line a muf­fin tin with muf­fin papers, then place a heap­ing table­spoon of the cook­ie mix­ture in each and press down with your fin­gers.  Place in the fridge and chill while you pre­pare the oth­er ingredients.

With an elec­tric hand  mix­er, beat the cream cheese for a minute or so to make sure there aren’t lumps.  Add the eggs one at a time, beat­ing at a low speed between each and scrap­ing the sides of the bowl.  Add the sug­ar, vanil­la and zests and beat for 1 minute more.  Add the half-fat sour cream and beat for anoth­er minute.  Do not let it get frothy.

Using a small soup ladle, fill each muf­fin cup near­ly to the top and sprin­kle mini choco­late chips on half.  Place in the cen­ter of the oven and bake for about 20–25 min­utes, until the cheese­cakes are stiff but still jig­gly.  Care­ful­ly remove the paper sleeves from the muf­fin tray and place on a cook­ie sheet.  Place in fridge for at least four hours.

As you bake suc­ces­sive batch­es of cheese­cakes, place the berries, water and sug­ar in a saucepan and cook over medi­um heat, mash­ing with a pota­to mash­er, until a jam­my con­sis­ten­cy is achieved.  Pass this mix­ture through a c0arse-ish sieve into a bowl.

When the cheese­cakes are all cooked and cooled, driz­zle or glaze the non-choco­latey cheese­cakes with the berry coulis.