Yes. It’s another recipe from Giada. I’m obsessed with the woman and her skill to italianize anything she cooks up. This time it was cheesecake.
Work had a little office shindig today and each of us were responsible for bringing in a treat. Normally, I stick to either a) bringing the cutlery or b) bringing nothing. My baking skills are not worth making note of, but this time I thought about giving it a go.
Since watching an episode of Everyday Italian at the gym a few weeks back, I’ve been talking about making these cute little cheesecakes but didn’t have anything or one to make them for. Well today was my day!
After buying a couple of those colourful, flexible mini muffin tins at Zehrs yesterday, I raced home and began to bake. I try to use organic products wherever I can, so in this recipe the sugar was organic along with the eggs. Cheesecakes normally only use cream cheese but the ricotta added here makes the cheesecake denser and gives it a richer flavour.
They were easy to make and perfect for a finger food kind of event. Plus the combination of orange and chocolate makes them hard to resist. Not to mention they looked so cute!
Individual Orange and Chocolate Cheesecakes
Recipe by Giada DeLaurentiis, Foodtv.com
1/3 cup finely crushed chocolate wafers (oreo cookie crumbs works too)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup ricotta cheese
2 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons (I used organic sugar)
1 orange, zested
1 egg
Mini muffin tins
I also added the juice of 1/2 an orange
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the crushed chocolate wafers and the melted butter (I found that I didn’t need all the butter she asks for here). Place a tightly packed teaspoon of the wafer mixture into each mini-muffin cup and press down firmly. In a food processor combine the ricotta cheese, cream cheese, 1/4 cup of the sugar, half of the orange zest, and the egg. Blend until smooth.
Lightly grease the sides of the mini muffin tin with butter. Fill the cups with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the cheesecake mixture. Place the mini muffin tin in a baking dish and pour enough hot water in the baking dish to come halfway up the sides of the mini muffin tin. Bake for 25 minutes. Transfer the mini muffin tin to a wire rack and let cool for 30 minutes. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Use a small knife to gently pop the cheesecakes out of the cups.Just before serving, combine the remaining orange zest with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Top each individual cheesecake with about 1/4 teaspoon of the orange zest mixture and serve.
