Individual Fruit Cheesecakes

Hey all! I know, it's been awhile... but I've bored and have nothing better to do at the moment. So a couple weeks ago, for a Thanksgiving dinner party, I made some strawberry cheesecakes. This recipe came from 'Le Cordon Bleu - Dessert Techniques' book my awesome friends got me <3 (though I used my own sponge cake recipe)

 

I know it's not the prettiest picture I have, but it was taken in a bit of a rush and it's the only one I have too T_T" Basically this dessert has 3 layers: 

1. Sponge cake

2. Strawberries

3. Cheesecake

For the sponge cake, I used the same one I used for my mango mousse swiss roll recipe. For the sake of convenience, I'll just re-post the recipe, with the imperial measurements this time, since that's what I used.

Meringue: 120g Egg White (about 4 eggs), 60g Granulated Sugar

Sponge: 80g Egg Yolk (about 4 eggs), 20g Granulated Sugar, 60g Vegetable Oil, 60g Milk, 80g Flour, 1/2 tsp Baking Powder, 1/4tsp baking soda

1. To make meringue, whisk egg white at medium speed until foamy. Then gradually add in granulated sugar and continue beating until soft peaks form. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks with electric mixer for about 2 minutes before gradually adding in granulated sugar and beating until pale yellow and leaving ribbon trails when lifted.
3. Pour in milk and vegetable oil and mix.
4. Sift in flour, baking powder and baking soda. Mix until just combined.
5. Carefully fold in 1/3 of the meringue into the sponge mixture to lighten it.
6. Fold the sponge mixture into the leftover meringue bowl and fold well.
7. Pour the mixture into a parchment paper lined baking pan and make sure it is level.
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius.
9. When the cake is cool, use a circle cookie cutter that has been brushed with a light coating of almond extract to cut out circles from the cake, and set aside.

Lemon Cheesecake - the recipe for the cheesecake is good for normal sized fruit filled cheesecakes as well, since it's a simple lemon cheesecake.


You'll need to make a syrup. Dissolve 3/4cup of sugar in 1/3 cup of water in a saucepan, and boil until it reads 240-245 degreesw Farenheit on a candy thermometer.

In a separate heatproof bowl, whisk 6 egg yolks, then pour in the syrup in a thin stream, whisking continuously until the yok and syrup mixture is pale and creamy. Continue whisking until cool.

Next, dissolve 4.5 tsp of gelatin in 1/6 cup of water (about 3 tbsp) in a small bowl. In a bigger bowl, beat together 1lb. of cream cheese with the grated rind and juice of 1 lemon, then stir in the dissolved gelatin. Stir the yolk and syrup mixture in gradually afterwards. In a separate bowl, whip 1-2/3 cup of whipping cream until it stands in soft peaks, and fold this into the cream cheese mixture. Et voila! You're finished the cheesecake, so now for the assembly....

Assembly:

This recipe really works well if you have small cake rings, which unfortunately I didn't have, which is the main reason why some of my cheesecakes were looking a little less circular than I wanted. Anywho, what I did was wrap each sponge cut-out circle with parchment paper, and it has a rather similar effect. I also used my four cookie cutters as rings as well. So after wrapping the paper or cookie cutter/cake ring around the cake circle, moisten the cake with spoonfuls of kirsch or another liqueur (I used Cointreau).

Next, add a layer of thinly sliced fresh fruit over the cake. I used strawberries, as I mentioned above. Then fill each ring with the lemon cheesecake mixture, unsuring that the fruit is concealed, and then chill for a couple hours. Loosen the cheesecakes from the rings with a thin-bladed knife, then lift off the rings, and transfer the cheesecakes to plates with a metal spatula. And you're done!!

I also decorated my cheesecakes with strawberries dipped in melted strawberry jam, and threw a handful of orange zest on top. =] Enjoy <3 ~