Lemon & Lime Cheesecakes Recipe

After making Heston’s Macaroni Cheese last week (seriously try it, it’s amazing!) I was left with most of a packet of cream cheese. Here it’s the kind of ingredient that can languish at the back of the fridge until we remember about it and it’s beginning to grow a fine layer of slimy mold. Ignoring the fact I had other things to test bake for business I decided to make a mini version of the cheesecake I made back in December that went down very well.

When baking cheesecakes I always get the best results if I cook them in a water bath. The science behind it being that water only reaches 100°c so helps to cook the cheesecakes more evenly and reduces the chance of cracking when cooling. To make these mini ones in a water bath I cooked the cheesecakes in a deep muffin tin that was sitting in a bigger, deeper roasting tin. It seemed to do the trick. As I didn’t have any cupcake/muffin liners in I fashioned some out of 5 inch squares of baking parchment. Now when I make mini versions of things in my head I always think that they are smaller so they’ll last us longer. More often than not it doesn’t end up that way. We end up eating more of them because due to their size we think we can eat more.

Mixture of cream cheese and sour cream gives a lighter texture and tarter taste to the cheesecake while the ginger biscuit base compliments it well.

Serves: 12Ingredients:

• 125g ginger biscuits, broken into crumbs
• 50g butter, melted
• 200g cream cheese
• 142ml soured cream
• 1 tbsp. plain flour
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 90g caster sugar
• zest of 1 lemon and 1 lime
• juice of ½ lemon and 1 lime

Instructions:

1. Line a deep muffin tin with cake liners or baking parchment.
2. Mix the crumbed ginger biscuits and melted butter until well combined then share between the 12 holes in the muffin tray and press down on the biscuits base until firm. Place in the fridge to cool while you make the topping.
3. Beat together the remaining ingredients until you have a smooth mixture.
4. Pour this mixture on top of the ginger biscuit base.
5. Place the muffin tin inside a larger tin and fill the larger tin with boiling water until the water is half the way up the muffin tin. Try not to get any of this water on the cheesecakes.
6. Put the cheesecakes in the oven and bake for 15 min at 160°c until they are just set and still have a slight wobble in the middle. Switch the oven off and allow the cheesecakes to cool in the oven.
7. Once cooled put in the fridge and allow to chill and set for 4 hours.