Cream Cheese Cheese Cake

So I've been meaning to try make a cheese cake and had a few easy ones booked marked on foodgawker. But what really brought this attempt on was Ryan picked kiwi as a fruit that I should try and bake with, and since basically only tarts have kiwi's on top of them, I had to find something else as my last experience with a tart didn't come out very well.

Luckily, thankfully I follow the wonderful blog My Baking Addicition. I think its wonderful because I find great easy recipes and plus, the author is a teacher.

Here it is...Cream Cheese Cheese Cake

The Crust
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter -- (1 1/2 sticks) at very cool room temperature, cut into1-inch pieces

The Filling
16 ounces of cream cheese; softened to room temperature
1 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used clear extract)

Directions
For the crust:
1. Spray (4) 4 inch springform pans with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Pulse flour, confectioners’ sugar, cornstarch, and salt in food processor workbowl fitted with steel blade. Add butter and process to blend, 8 to 10 seconds, then pulse until mixture is pale yellow and resembles coarse meal, about three 1-second bursts. (To do this by hand, mix flour, confectioners’ sugar, cornstarch, and salt in medium bowl. Freeze butter and grate it on large holes of box grater into flour mixture. Toss butter pieces to coat. Rub pieces between your fingers for a minute, until flour turns pale yellow and coarse.) Sprinkle mixture into pans and press firmly with fingers into even, 1/4-inch layer over entire pan bottom and about 1 inch up sides.
3. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Bake about 15 minutes.

For the filling:
1. Beat the cream cheese until smooth and creamy.
2. Gradually add in the confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth, blend in the vanilla extract; mixing well.

To Assemble
1. Pipe or spread the filling into the cooled crusts and top with fresh fruit of your choice.


Yes, I still had real butter on hand, so I used butter, and luckily had confectionery sugar on hand from when I made lemon bars from a while back. Didn't have corn starch, and didn't feel like buying cornstarch so I used the substitute rule of 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour for 1 tablespoon of cornstarch.

Also, thankfully Jeanie had muffin pans on hand. I still need to buy mine, and therefore owe her a few of these when she gets back to Durham. Didn't have a piping bag so just use a small sandwich bag, cut a corner, and used that as a pipping bag.

I sort of screwed up when baking the crust. I either didn't roll them out thin enough for didn't press them down enough into the muffin pans so they sort of puffed up like muffins. I had to scoop out some of the crust so there was a hole big enough to put the cream cheese frosting into, which I didn't. So they sort of turned out like cupcakes.

Finally, sliced some kiwi's and put them on top. Also put some chocolate chips on top since I had them on hand.

All in all, they came out ok I think. I didn't have one, but tried the cream cheese frosting and think it was ok. Again, no complaints from my guinea pigs, and Jenny seemd to really like it. Will definately keep this recipe and try it again in the Fall for people.