Birthday Cheesecake

This past weekend marked the birthday of one of my husband's law school friends. We found out through his girlfriend that his favorite dessert was cheesecake and his favorite flavor was blueberry. So, I set off in search of a good cheesecake recipe because despite my husband's boasts that I make "a great cheesecake", I have never in fact made real cheesecake. Normally I make a healthy version that we call "fake cheesecake". When I don't have any recipes in my cookbooks, my go-to recipe site is Annie's Eats. Everything of hers that I've made has turned out really well and this cheesecake recipe was no exception. I figured that individual sized cheesecakes would be best since having an entire cheesecake sitting around is just too much of a temptation.

Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the crust:
1½ cups graham cracker crumbs
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
3 tbsp. sugar

For the topping:
6 oz. fresh organic blueberries
2 tbsp. sugar

For the filling:
3 8 oz. packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 8 oz package reduced fat cream cheese, at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325˚ F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In a small bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar until all ingredients are moistened. Press 1 tablespoon of the mixture into the bottom of each cupcake liner and press down with the bottom of a glass or small measuring cup. Bake 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack while you prepare the blueberry puree and filling.

Combine the blueberries and sugar in a blender or food processor. Process until smooth, then pour through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds. Use a spatula to press the juice through.

To make the cheesecake, beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy. Slowly blend in the sugar until smooth. Mix in the salt and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

To assemble, spoon 3 heaping tablespoons of the cheesecake batter over the crust in each cupcake liner. Dot a ½ teaspoon of the blueberry puree in a few dots over the cheesecake filling. Use a toothpick or a wooden skewer to lightly swirl.

Bake until the filling is set, about 22 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and let cool to room temperature. Transfer to the refrigerator and let chill for at least 4 hours before serving.


Please excuse the poor photo quality. The cheesecakes were a hit and all of them were consumed within a couple hours!



*Source: adapted from Annie's Eats