We hope you all had a great Easter! We know we sure did! We know we posted on the what we made for Easter but here is one last recipe! While Lisa was busy making the Lemon Blueberry Cheesecakes for our family, I was going to make something to bring over to my in-laws. Yes, I got to have dessert twice! =)

We made a lot of homemade goodies to put in our nieces and nephews Easter baskets so, my energy was running low.  I came across this cheesecake recipe over at  Annie’s Eats, we love her btw,  and knew it would be perfect! The only changes I made were that I doubled the crust recipe and added a sour cream frosting on top. I wanted the crust to cover the sides of the cheesecake.

Lisa and I aren’t really crazy about cheesecake. We like it a lot, but it’s not something we make often. Let me tell you now, this was so creamy and velvety I couldn’t believe how good it was.I  got MANY rave reviews! Lisa got the leftovers (which weren’t much), but she’s not complaining! She thought it was VERY good!

For years, our go to cheesecake recipe was our Mom’s recipe, which is great, but sorry Mom, this one tops the list! We should probably mention what our brother said about the cake. Lets see how we can keep this PG….

I brought the cake to our sister’s house so I could keep it in the fridge until I left to go by my in laws.  Well, our poor brother saw it in the fridge and assumed he would be eating it for dessert. Once Maria told him that he couldn’t eat it his response was, “WHAT?! I just got an ahem, cough…how do I say this, “excited”  just smelling it and now I can’t eat it?!”  I felt really bad, but told him not to worry since the mini cheesecakes Lisa made were the same thing just with the blueberry compote. This made him feel better but I will be baking this again so others can try it!

Seriously look how creamy that looks!

New York Cheesecake

Adapted from Annie’s Eats.

Ingredients:
For the crust:
10 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted, plus 1 additional tbsp., melted for greasing the pan
8 oz. (approx. 16 whole) graham crackers, broken into rough pieces and processed into fine, even crumbs*
1 tbsp. sugar
For the cheesecake:
2 1/2 lb. (5 8-oz. pkgs.) cream cheese, cut into rough 1-inch chunks, at room temperature
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks plus 6 large eggs, at room temperature

Directions:
To make the crust, adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Brush the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan with 1/2 tablespoon of the melted butter.  In a medium bowl combine the graham cracker crumbs, 5 tablespoons melted butter, and sugar.  Toss with a fork until the crumbs are evenly moistened.  Transfer the crumbs to the springform pan and  press the crumbs evenly into the pan bottom and up the sides.  Bake until fragrant and beginning to brown around the edges, about 13 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack while preparing the filling.

Increase the oven temperature to 500 degrees F.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese at medium-low speed to break up and soften it slightly, about 1 minute.  Scrape the beater and the bottom and sides of the bowl well with a rubber spatula; add the salt and about half of the sugar and beat at medium-low speed until combined, about 1 minute.  Scrape the bowl; beat in the remaining sugar until combined, about 1 minute.  Scrape the bowl; add the sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla.  Beat at low speed until combined, about 1 minute.  Scrape the bowl; add the egg yolks and beat at medium-low speed until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute.  Scrape the bowl; add the remaining eggs 2 at a time, beating until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute, scraping the bowl between additions. (Note: with all this scraping of the sides, a side swipe beater blade is incredibly helpful.  I still used a spatula just to be extra careful, but the side swipe was a big help.)

Brush the sides of the springform pan with the remaining 1/2 tablespoon melted butter.  Set the pan on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any spills in case the pan leaks.  Pour the filling into the cooled crust and bake 10 minutes; without opening the oven door, reduce the oven temperature to 200 degrees and continue to bake until the cheesecake reads about 150 degrees on an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center, about 1 1/2 hours.  Transfer the cake to a wire rack and cool until barely warm, 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  Run a paring knife between the cake and the springform pan sides.  Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, at least 3 hours.

To unmold the cheesecake, removed the sides of the pan.  Slide a thin metal spatula between the crust and the bottom of the pan to loosen, then slide the cake onto a serving plate.  Let the cheesecake stand at room temperature about 30 minutes, then cut into wedges and serve.  (Use a long, thin, sharp knife that has been run under hot water and then dried for slicing.  Wipe the blade clean and rewarm between slices.)

**For the sour cream frosting all you need to do is combine 1 1/3 cup of sour cream and 1/3 of a cup of sugar.  Some recipes say to spread it on top then bake it for 5-10 minutes, but I just spreaded it on top after the cake was completely cooled and then refrigerated it.  That’s they way they do it at the cheesecake factory, so I knew it would work. This will definitely be our new go to cheesecake recipe!

 Happy Easter everyone! We hope you all have a great day full of family, friends and FOOD! Another holiday, and another excuse for us to bake! Like always, we’re in charge of the dessert. We’ll be celebrating Easter at our sister Stefania’s house and we told her we’d bring the dessert. We knew we wanted something fruity since spring is finally here!  After much debate we decided on this: Cheesecake, lemon, blueberries and gingersnap crusts. Then we were off to creating just what we wanted.

We made these lemon blueberry cheesecakes cups that have an almond gingersnap crust. We found several different recipes and put them together to come up with these! We love a cheesecake with a gingersnap crust. As for the blueberries, we didn’t want to mix in fresh blueberries in the cheesecake. Instead, we wanted to make a blueberry compote that would concentrate the flavors more.

These little cheesecakes turned out wonderful! They are perfect for large parties. Simple to make and can serve a crowd. Sometimes, when having cheesecake for dessert after a big meal, people tend to pass on it. We think by having these little cheesecakes, people feel less guilty and will go for them! They are just perfect.

Feel free to play with the flavors and try other fruits!

Almond Gingersnap Crust

• 7 oz gingersnap cookies
• 4oz ground almonds
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 6 tbsp butter, melted

Line a 36 muffin tins 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.

Blueberry Compote

Recipe adapted from Annie’s Eats.

• 2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 ½ tsp. cornstarch
• 1 tbsp. cold water
• 1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

In a medium, nonreactive saucepan, heat the blueberries and sugar until the blueberries begin to release their juices.  Mix the cornstarch with the cold water and lemon juice until lump free, then stir the slurry into the blueberries.Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 1 minute.  Remove from the heat.  Cool to room temperature and set aside.

Cheesecake Filling

 Recipe adapted from Annie’s Eats.

• 2 1/2 lb. (5 8-oz. pkgs.) cream cheese, cut into rough 1-inch chunks, at room temperature
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 2 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 large egg yolks plus 6 large eggs, at room temperature 

Preheat oven to 325F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese at medium-low speed to break up and soften it slightly, about 1 minute.  Scrape the beater and the bottom and sides of the bowl well with a rubber spatula; add the salt and about half of the sugar and beat at medium-low speed until combined, about 1 minute.  Scrape the bowl; beat in the remaining sugar until combined, about 1 minute.  

Scrape the bowl; add the sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla.  Beat at low speed until combined, about 1 minute.  Scrape the bowl; add the egg yolks and beat at medium-low speed until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute.  Scrape the bowl; add the remaining eggs 2 at a time, beating until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute, scraping the bowl between additions.

Spoon the mixture over the cookie bases 3/4 full. Using a teaspoon, top each cheesecake cup with the blueberry compote. (You might find it easier to use another teaspoon to push off the compote on top of the cheesecake filling.)

Bake for 25 minutes or until the cheesecakes are puffed and starting to color. Cool, then chill until ready to eat.

Dust each cheesecake with powdered sugar and serve.