Mini Cheese Cakes! (With Cookie Crust and Blueberry Sauce)

Cheese Cake

Ingredients:

• About 40-50 Mr. Christie Nilla Cookies
• 3+ Tablespoons melted Butter
• 2 (8 Ounce) Packs of cream cheese
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 2 Large Eggs
• 2 Tablespoons Flour
• 1/2 Cup Sour Cream
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla extract

Blueberry Sauce:

• 1 Pint Box of Blueberries
• 1/4-1/2 Cup Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Almond extract
• 3+ Tablespoons water

Butter or butter flavored cooking spray to grease the ramekins or spring form pan.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. 
2. Allow cheesecake, sour cream, and eggs to come to room temperature, about 30 minutes on the counter should do it.
3. In a food processor ideally, crush the Nilla Cookies to smithereens until they are an even fine crumb. 
4. Pour the melted butter into the food processor and pulse a few times quickly to mix the butter in. 
5. If you don't have a food processor smash the cookies as best you can, and pour the melted butter over the crumbs and mix quickly.
6. Grease or butter the ramekins or spring form pan. 
7. Divide the crumb mixture between the ramekins, or pour it all into the spring form pan. Press the crumbs into the bottom and create a nice smooth crust for the cheese cake.
8. Bake crusts in preheated oven for about 10 minutes.
9. While the crusts are lightly baking, Prepare the cheese cake filling.
10. Cream the cream cheese with an electric mixer or stand mixer, until smooth. 
11. Add the sugar and cream well. 
12. Add the eggs one at a time and mix after each one. 
13. Add the flour and vanilla and blend. Slowly add the sour cream and blend together until smooth.
14. Once crusts have finished baking, raise oven temperature to 450°F.
15. Allow the crusts to cool for a few minutes before adding the filling. This also gives our oven a chance to preheat for round two.
16. Divide the filling mixture between the ramekins or just pour it into the spring form pan.
17. Bake the cheese cakes at 450°F for about 10 minutes. Then reduce oven temperature to 250°F, do not open the oven and continue to bake for about 1 hour or until the filling has set. Which means it doesn't jiggle when you touch the middle. Be gentle, you don't want to leave a mark in the top.
18. While the cheese cakes are baking Let's start that berry sauce.
19. In a small sauce pan over medium-lowish heat, add all the blueberries and mash until they are all at least mashed a little bit. 
20. Add the water and sugar and continue to stir and mash until the blueberries are nearly all broken down. 
21. Add the almond extract and reduce heat. 
22. Continue to simmer until the sauce is starting to thicken and become syrupy. 
23. If you like you can use an immersion blender to really make the sauce smooth and even. 
24. By now t he cheese cakes should be almost done. Pour the Blueberry sauce into a bowl and set aside for now.
25. Once the cheese cakes have finished baking remove from oven and chill on wire racks for at least 15 minutes.
26. Once they aren't scalding hot anymore chill the cheese cakes in the fridge for at least two hours before serving them.
27. To prepare, quickly heat the sauce up in the microwave for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Pour over the top of the cheese cake and serve.

Enjoy! 

Notes:

There are few things more disappointing for a chef than to spend the day making something lovely and layered like a cheese cake, and then not having your guests eat it, or only having tiny little tastes of it. If I've made it, then I want it to be eaten! Which meant I had to rethink of I serve some things to fool my guests into doing what I want. The trick with cheesecake is to make it in 3 inch ramekins, and then serve one to each person! Tried it during my fancy Monday night dinner party and everyone finally ate a portion of cheese cake! Best part being that I didn't have to change my recipe at all.

Which means you can either be cool and make 6, three inch ramekin cheese cakes, or be traditional and use a 6-8 inch spring form pan. Either way the instructions are the same and easy!

1. Also this is a New York style cheese cake, but I make the bottom the same way as my mother so its a special surprise. No graham cracker crumbs in this recipe. Served with fresh prepared blueberry sauce, because fresh blueberries were scandalously cheap this week at the grocery store. You can use whatever topping you want, or make you own alternative fruit/berry sauce.