In June, we will be attending a 50th anniversary party. The couple are special friends of ours. They have every thing they need and or want. I had the pleasure of making the save the date cards for them, but they insisted on paying for them. That said, here is my idea:

DS has a recipe for New York style cheesecake that he learned to make in highschool that is great. I was thinking about making this in mini muffin tins instead of in the usual 9" springform pan, and contributing them to the party.

Here is my question:

Will this work and how long would I bake them? As written, the recipe calls for a water bath, which he sometimes uses, sometimes not. The last time I made it, I just put a pan of water in the oven, instead of the cake pan in the water as he did in school. It does have a graham cracker crust on the bottom, but not up the sides. I was thinking of using muffin papers, also. I thought it would be great bite size pieces to nibble and carry around. It will be an outside party.

Your thoughts and ideas, please?

Tami

I would probably invest in some mini-cheesecake pans with push up bottoms, instead of using liners. (I think the cheesecake sticking to the liner could be quite a mess to eat.) If you baked the cheesecakes and served them in loose muffin papers instead, that could work as part of the service/presentation. I know there is a recipe included with the Norpro pan which would give you accurate baking times.

Skip the bain marie (water bath) and just bake them without and if I were going to use muffin pan liners, I think I'd go with the foil/metal type, they seem to release the cheesecake batter more easily.

Good luck, what a nice thing to do. And congratulations to the couple, 50 years is quite an accomplishment.

Annie

He was afraid of the cone shape of the mini muffin tins. He took two years of baking and pastry in high school but has only done a little since graduation, as he couldn't get a job doing it. Needless to say, he's out of practice and unsure of changing things so drastically.

These are pretty special people to us. I first met him when I was working for a car dealership. He was our district rep. He would come to the area and about mid week would be our turn for his visit. He would say "Wanna go out tonight?" Answer was always "You bet!" DH, who was my BF at the time, worked afternoon shift. We would go meet him for his lunch, our supper, have a few drinks together after DH went back to work, go back to the motel & call his wife. I only knew her by phone for 3 years! The first time I met her in person, it was like meeting my mother and best friend all in one. We have all been "family" since I first met him at work. They will do anything for anyone. We have a parking spot for the motor home in thier driveway, with an electric outlet, anytime we want to go to Michigan. We will take it up for the weekend when we go for the party in June. There isn't anything I can think of to buy them, but I can contribute to their special day. And of course, there will be willing hands available to help them set up and tear down!

Thanks for the advice. I will certainly be experimenting before June! Besides, making them this size will MAYBE keep me from eating too much of it. I can put most of them in the freezer and nibble as the craving hits without having to over eat such a rich cheesecake. If we make one the usual way, I eat until I almost get sick on it, because it makes so much. I have cut the recipe in half, and if I don't want to make the crust, I can cheat and buy an extral large ready made graham crust, which will just hold a half recipe.

Tami

1 package vanilla wafers
2 - 8 oz packages cream cheese
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 can cherry pie filling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line miniature muffin tins with miniature paper liners.

Crush the vanilla wafers, and place 1/2 teaspoon of the crushed vanilla wafers into each paper cup.

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Fill each miniature muffin liner with this mixture, almost to the top.

Bake for 15 minutes. Cool. Top with a teaspoonful of cherry pie filling.

makes 48 mini’s

Use the parchment muffin liners.......they don't stick to anything!! In fact, they almost fall off cupcakes before you want them to!

Have you thought about hiring a local photographer as a gift to them? Probably something they wouldn't do for themselves, but it would be nice to commemorate the occasion.

Deanna

Deanna, thanks for the recommendation on Linda's cheese cake. As to the local photographer, that is already covered, as my daughter will be going, and she IS a photograher! I'm sure that will be her gift.

Tami