Question regarding my celebrated cheesecake recipe

Cafe Society
1

I have had a great deal of success making this cheesecake recipe for friends and family. It’s very basic and actually very easy if you follow instructions, and hard to mess up- even a cracked surface in the main part of the cake won’t show with the sour cream layer on top, and it has to be really overcooked to get noticably dry (or grainy). Dressed up with care and imagination and paired with a nice contrasting sauce, it has a real wow factor. I can post the recipe (or upload pics!) if anyone is interested. The specifics shouldn’t matter, I don’t think, for my question here.

I need some advice regarding scaling down the recipe to single serving amounts. Specifically with baking times, but any other things I ought to have a heads-up on in advance are more than welcome.

I need to mass produce the recipe in tiny single sized springform pans, I’m guessing they will be between 3-5" across. (I haven’t seen them yet)The recipe works perfectly for a “normal” sized springform, between 9 and 11 inches across.

What do I need to know to scale down?

Does the baking time change?

How many little ones can I expect from a single recipe?

Any unforseen hazards to consider?

I could learn all this hit or miss experimentation, but I thought I’d ask here first, as it could potentially save me a deal of effort (not to mention money!) Also, any novel decorating ideas are welcome.

The thing is- I’m quite green but have been taken for a pro and am afraid of bungling it and the resulting humiliation.
Thanks in advance,

BB

2

Could you pour water into the pan you normally bake it in to measure the volume and then distribute the water among your small pans to see how many it will fill? I would also guess that the baking time will reduce significantly.

3

I make little cheesecakes in muffin tins sometimes. The baking time is shorter (about 20 minutes), but the batter is about the same as I generally use for cheesecake (just cream cheese, eggs, vanilla, sugar). I don’t think they’ve ever cracked, smaller ones seem to be even more forgiving than a regular cheesecake.

ETA:This is the recipe I use.

4

You might lower the oven temperature a bit since they will cook faster than a whole cake and this will give you a little more of a safety margin with catching them as soon as they’re done.

5

I’m afraid I don’t have any useful advice, but your description makes me very interested in the recipe. Please do post the recipe and pics. :slight_smile:

6

Thanks for the input, everyone! It’s past 2 AM here and I need to workout how the pic thing works on here before I upload. But I’m off to bed. But I would be happy to work that out and upload them- will get to it asap!

The recipe, however, is just cut and paste-

filling
454 g (1 lb) softened cream cheese
1/3 C sugar
4 eggs
1.5 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest

topping
1.5 C (.354 L) sour cream
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

crust
2 C graham cracker crumbs
62 g butter
combine and press into springform pan.

  1. Preheat oven (375F/191C)
  2. Blend all filling ingredients until smooth.
  3. Pour into crust.
  4. bake 25 minutes or until set.
  5. Cool to room temperature. Either leave oven on or deal with reheating it shortly.
  6. Pour topping mixture onto completely cooled cake.
  7. Bake 8-10 minutes.
  8. Chill for 12 hours.
    The only thing I change is that I bake the crust alone first for about…10-15 minutes, I’d say, until it’s sizzling and smells slightly “fried”. If you know what I mean. This improves the final crust texture and taste, IMHO.

The recipe itself a walk in the park. Very forgiving, as I said in the OP.

Oh and sauce- any fruit sauce, you can buy one or make one, I usually make one with frozen berries pureed, lemon juice (or balsamic vinegar) and some sugar. Frozen berries are economical and the resulting color of the sauce is always beautiful against the white cheesecake.

Decorate creatively with fresh fruits, piped chocolate/white chocolate/whatever else, scattered chopped nuts, grated chocolate, candied ginger (I’m thinking of making a chocolate cheesecake with a coffee or dark choc. topping garnished with candied ginger), mint (adds a great splash of green), edible flowers, whatever you can think of- in Cheesecakeland, if you can dream it, you can live it!

I normally arrange some fruit in the middle with some green (mint, etc) in a tight ring around it, like a little patch of cornucopia-like bounty. Looks great, but the best way to cut and serve is anyone’s guess.

This is what I like about making this- the cake part is easy (as in won’t fail) and the decorating is fun and very open ended. OTOH, if you DON"T adorn it at all, it kind of looks like a springform pan full of baked Elmer’s glue.

Bed bed bed bed bed.

-BB

7

Forgot to add- if anyone out there DOES make this recipe, please do report back (pics would be a ginormous thrill) and let us (me) know how it went! I can only imagine success with this recipe. And I’m not bragging or anything- I got this recipe from a friend decades ago. People think cheesecake is a bear to make, but it’s not. At least this recipe isn’t.

From the top! Ahem. Bed bed bed bed bed bed bed.

-BB

8

Where are the pictures?? Don’t go to bed without posting them!

9

Being flattered that someone was interested, I worked out how to upload the pics. It wasn’t difficult at all, actually.

These are two different cheesecakes, the first one with the plated cakes, I meant to make some kind of relish with the diced strawberries but never got around to it, so it was just strawberry chunks in a pretty line next to a squiggle of chocolate sauce.

The second is uncut and whole.

Thanks for the interest, any feedback/criticism/friendly (or unfriendly!) suggestions
more than welcome!

Ok this time for real! No more Mr Nice Guy, I’m going to bed with a vengeance! Everybody! Bed bed bed bed bed bed bed bed bed…

-BB

10

Very pretty!

11

Thanks! :slight_smile:

I just now realized that that picture of the plated cakes is kind of…backwards, isn’t it? Not sure what I was thinking when I took that picture.

12

A friend of mine used to be in the pie business. He did just this, lowering the termperature for the mini-pies.

13

Good to know, thanks. Even though I suspected as much, confirmation puts my mind at ease.

-BB

14

Ex-pastry chef here - double professional confirmation.

15

Huzzah!:slight_smile: