Project Ramekin - Lemon Cheesecake.

Like before, this is yet another experiment. We wanted to try a cheesecake in a regular baking dish, a ramekin, a cake pan etc. Our springform pan leaks and is flawed. So, A, one night, in one of his usual baking endeavors decided to bake a lemon cheesecake. The next night, I broke my diet regimen of 2 weeks and ate the cheesecake. It was THAT good. I'm not going to talk much now, but will just let the man give you the recipe!

Ingredients:

4 ounces of Neufachtel cheese, at room temperature
4 ounces of Mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
1.5 tbsp butter (room temperature)
1/3 cup sugar cookies, broken into small pieces
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 large egg
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp lemon juice




1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. In a food processor, pulse the cookies, cocoa powder and butter to form a coarse powder (like grated Parmesan Cheese).

3. In a 4"X1 2/3 " deep circular ramekin, apply cooking spray generously. Don't worry, none of this will go inside you ;) This is to line the ramekin with a piece of parchment paper, cut just enough to cover the bottom and rise a little above all around to form a little 'cup'.

4. Press the coarse powder to cover the parchment paper. Pack thoroughly to form a nice, thick crust.

5. Bake for 12-15 mins. until nice and brown. Remove and let the crust cool to room temperature.

6. Reduce the oven temperature to 350F. Get an oven safe saucepan slightly larger than the ramekin and fill it 1/2 way with water. Place it in the oven 5 mins prior to placing the batter filled ramekin.

7. In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, lemon juice, lemon zest and the sugar at medium speed, for about 2 minutes.

8. Add the egg and beat at high speed for a minute.

9. Pour this on top of the cooled crust.

10. Place the ramekin inside the saucepan in the oven. The water should rise to cover about 1/3-1/2 the level of the ramekin. If not, adjust the amount of water accordingly.

11. Bake until the center is slightly jiggly, about 1 hour. Make sure that the top doesnt have cracks. If so, that means the cheesecake has overcooked. Use a thin knife and run around the edges, taking care not to break the cheesecake.

12. Take it out of the oven and let it cool down to room temperature, about 1 hour. Then refrigerate it overnight or 4-5 hours. Use the same knife to pry the cheesecake apart at several places. Then gently invert it on a plate and invert again to get the sunny side up :)



Trust me, its worth the wait and the effort :) The lemony flavor went very well with the chocolatey crust. The consistency was perfect and as usual, it was gobbled up in no time ;) As evident from the pics, we had ours with some blackberry Coulis(a fancy word for blackberry preserve thinned out with water and warmed a little bit ;) ).