cute kitchen

I‘m not sure my sister remembers this, but I made her mini cheesecakes one year for her birthday celebration with friends and she absolutely loved them. Given my family is great at complementing pretty much anything that any one of us cooks (most likely because of our shared love for food and understanding of the time and effort it takes) but I particularly remember my sister especially loving those cheesecakes!

I have tried many times to recreate the mini cheesecakes but it was over 20 years ago and I seem to have forgotten what exactly was in them..! So you’ll understand my frustration when my son told me he was going to my sister‘s house for dinner, asked if there was a special dessert he could take with him and once again (!) I couldn’t recall my exact cheesecake recipe…

I have however tried very hard to make what I think might have been at least similar to the then mini cheesecakes. I’ve added vanilla bean to match her name (I‘ve always called her Beans ☺️) and have tried to make the middle extra creamy because unlike our mother, my sisters and I loooove anything creamy. That was also the reason I added the sour cream layer on top. Her husband loves shortbread and so I used chocolate shortbread for the base. Normal shortbread would also be absolutely fine, but I wanted to go for the added chocolatey colour to mix it up. And I haven’t made them „mini“ this time around.

I hope this recipe works for you! It is divinely delicious and should hopefully not be too sweet. Please start baking the day before it needs to be served! 😍

(Note: You can of course use other fruit, depending on what is in season. I find berries best. Fruit is however not a necessity! You could also melt 200g dark or milk chocolate with 100ml cream, add a pinch of salt and serve the sauce over the cheesecake. Or else serve the cheesecake naked – I don’t think anyone would complain 😊).

Ingredients

300g chocolate shortbread

60g melted butter

150g cream doublé

750g cream cheese

2 eggs, plus 8 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla essence

120g sugar + 40g sugar

600g sour cream (mix the sour cream with the 40g sugar and leave until needed)

300g red currants

65g sugar

(Boil the red currants plus 65g sugar in a pot until bubbling nicely. Drain through a fine sieve and put to the side until serving time 😊)

• Process biscuits in a food processor until you get fine crumbs.

• Mix in the melted butter

• Line a 24cm square cake tin with baking paper, grease the sides of the tin.

• Push the biscuit base into the base of the cake tin. Bake at 175 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes.

• Remove from oven and cool completely.

• Process the cream doublé, cream cheese, all eggs, vanilla essence and 120g sugar in a cake mixer or with electric beaters until smooth.

• Pour over the cooled base. Bake at 110 degrees Celsius for 75-80 minutes (check around 75 minutes. You want the cheesecake to have a slight wobble to it).

• Remove the cheesecake from the oven. Straight away: pour the sour cream/sugar mixture over the still warm cheesecake. Spread out into an even layer.

• Bake for a further 15-20 mins (the cheesecake should still have a slight wobble at the end of the baking time).

• Turn the oven off, leave the door ajar and let the cheesecake cool completely in the oven.

• Once cool: Run a hot knife around the edge of the cheesecake to stop it from sticking to the sides.

• Place in the fridge to cool and set completely overnight.

• Slice and serve with fruit sauce and fresh fruit. Delicious! ❤️