Recipe: Cheesecake Tassies

This recipe is from Rose Levy Beranbaum's
book Rose's Christmas Cookies. It makes 24
mini-cheesecake Tassies that keep for a week in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Mini-Cheesecakes

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 8-ounce package cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

In med bowl, stir together graham cracker
crumbs and butter until evenly mixed. Spoon
two rounded teaspoons into the mini-muffin
tin depressions that have been sprayed with
Pam or buttered. Press into the bottoms and
up the sides.

Softem the cream cheese. In mixing bowl,
beat cream cheese and sugar about 3 minutes
until very smooth, preferably with the whisk
beater. Beat in the egg, scraping the sides
of the bowl. Add vanilla and lemon juice and
beat until incorporated. Add sour cream and
beat just until the mixture is blended.

Fill each graham cracker cup almost to the
top with the batter, using a spoon or a
reclosable quart-size freezer bag with a
corner cut off.

Set the mini muffing pans on baking sheets
in the oven. Bake for ten minutes. For even
baking, rotate the pans from top to bottom
and front to back halfway through the baking
period. The cakes will puff up but deflate
on cooling, leaving shallow hollows perfect
for filling with toppings.

Cool completely in the pans on wire racks.
Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

To unmold, fill the sink with a few inches
of hot tap water. Carefully dip each pan
into the water for about 30 seconds, being
careful to not let the water get to the top
of the pan.

Use a small metal spatula to slip in between
the sides of the cakes and the pan to pop
out the cakes. There is no need to run the
spatula around the sides; the hot water
makes unmolding easy.Top with lemon curd or cranberry topping.