Mini Coffee Cheesecakes

I made these cheesecakes as a gift for my sister to keep her awake during her law school finals.  The crust is an adaptation from Doris Greenspan’s awesome book Baking that my amazing friend Julia gave us as an unsolicited wedding present.   With the aid of a food processor, it whizzes together in no time and is flaky and delicious.

After all of the lemons and limes from the wedding, I was trying to find ways to use them and I decided to make a key lime pie/cheesecake hybrid using cream cheese and condensed milk.  What resulted was a very creamy cake, which baked evenly and didn’t crack--a cheesecake miracle.  I tried the concept again with coffee and with great result.   This is pretty much no fail cheesecake so for those of you that are scared, go ahead and try it.

This recipe makes about 36 mini cheesecakes or enough to make bars in a large baking pan (I only made 24 and had a ton of leftovers).  Make sure to use non-stick cupcake pans with lots of Pam, a little faith, and a sharp knife to extract them.

Mini Coffee Cheesecakes with Chocolate Crust

For the crust (adapted from Doris Greenspan’s Desserts)

3 cups flour

1 cup powdered sugar

½ tsp salt

2/3 cup cocoa powder

2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons very cold butter

3 egg yolks

For the filling

2 8-oz packages cream cheese

2 14 oz cans condensed milk

1 cup freshly brewed coffee—cooled to room temp

1 tsp vanilla

6 eggs plus one yolk

Chocolate covered espresso beans to top

Per Doris Greenspan’s instructions:

Put the flour, sugar, cocoa and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine.   Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in.  Stir the yolks and add a little at a time (you probably will only need 2 yolks and a bit from the 3^rd so don’t add it all too quickly).  When the egg is in, process in long pulses until there are clumps and curds.  Press the dough into very well greased muffin tins and freeze the crust for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375.  Cover the muffin trays and prebake the crusts for 10 minutes.  Turn the oven down to 350. 

With a mixer, whip the cream cheese until fluffy, slowly adding the condensed milk until well combined.  Add the coffee, vanilla and eggs until well combined.  Fill the crusts, cover and bake for 15 minutes or until the filling is set.  Remove and while still warm add an espresso bean to each one.  Chill.  Once cakes are cooled, carefully remove each with a sharp knife.  

It isn’t always as it looks—the case of the savory cheesecake

In medical school we are always taught the classic presentation, the triad of symptoms, and the pentad of problems when we try and diagnose a disease. To uncover pathology is simply pattern recognition. For example when a patient presents with appendicitis, we expect to find pain in the lower right part of the abdomen, a fever, no appetite, nausea, and vomiting.

Unfortunately, medicine is not so simple. As it turns out, the classic presentation is probably less common than the atypical presentation. Many of the physical exam signs that we rely on to make a diagnosis are not reliable. In the excellent series “The Rational Clinical Exam” published in the 90’s and early 2000’s by JAMA, the authors reviewed literature focusing on the utility of different physical exam signs.

When a patient thinks they have strep throat, for example, the only signs or symptoms that help rule in strep throat are presence of exudates in the throat and recent exposure to somebody with strep throat [1]. Having a sore throat or fevers, the “classic presentation” is not predictive of strep infection, although fever can help secondarily guide the diagnosis in the absence of other signs.

Conversely, oftentimes what appears to be a classic presentation of one disease turns out to be something else, or is labeled idiopathic (another way of saying that “We have no idea!”) One of the hardest things I had to cope with in the clinical years of medical school was how many times there was simply no explanation for why somebody was sick. After watching so many episodes of House, I had assumed that everything would culminate in the diagnostic climax of a happenstance realization: “Did you say cheese? Hmmmm, as the resident pensively braces her chin. It must be Kawasaki’s disease!”

What’s true in the hospital can also be true in the kitchen. Things are not always as they seem. This recipe is for a savory cheesecake. Perhaps upon initial examination it appears to be dessert. But look closer. That green layer isn’t pistachios or mint. It’s spinach and chard. On top is a layer of red peppers and tomato, on top of that a layer of roasted yellow pepper, carrot and saffron. It isn’t dessert, but dinner! The beauty of the savory cheesecake is that it can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner, hot or cold. It can be served as an appetizer or a main course. To warn you though, this is not light on calories, time, or dishes. It is however, rich, filling, and extremely appealing.

It isn't always as it looks--the three layer savory cheesecake (recipe cont...)