Paisley Cheesecakes

Last year my dad’s side of the family decided that rather than the typical overfed smorgasboard of a christmas dinner, we’d each prepare a really nice course as part of a delicious multicourse meal. I’m in charge of desert. Last year, it was souffles. This year, I decided to make paisley-shaped cheesecakes with fruit reductions. They worked out pretty well.

The most time consuming part is the molds. I got disposable aluminum pans (the stiffest kind you can find is impoortant — thinner ones will bend during cooking), cut off the sides, rolled them flat with a rolling pin (most come with various indentations), cut them into 11” X 2″ strips, stapled the ends together, and shaped them like paisley patterns.

The cheesecakes themselves are relatively easy. I used the incredibly well reviewed recipe from Allrecipes.com, Chantal’s New York Cheesecake, but modified to use goat cheese in lieu of cream cheese. The recipe is below. You just need to grease and then pack the molds carefully with a good crust (since unlike a typical springform pan they obviously lack a bottom), bake that for 10 minutes, let it cool, then pour the mix in to spec, then let the cheesecakes cool and refrigerate them until firmly chilled.

You’ll note that a few of the cheesecakes in these pictures are shorter than others. I had extra mix, so I also made a regular cheesecake in a springform pan, and then cut out paisley shapes using a mold like a cookie cutter. This works quite well and simplifies the process, although it winds up wasting a good deal of cheesecake.

Ingredients (makes one standard cheesecake — multiply or divide for your molds)

large disposable aluminum pans

15 graham crackers, or graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons butter, melted

32 oz goat cheese (you can sub cream cheese for some or all of this to save $)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Prep

Cut the sides off your aluminum pans, then roll them perfectly flat with a rolling pin. You may be able to use the sides as well depending on your shapes and pans. Cut into strips (I used 11”X2”; I would go shorter next time; 2” is a tall cheesecake), then staple the ends together and shape like paisley, or whatever shape you want. Grease them well. Also grease a flat baking sheet. Pre-heat your oven to 350°. Crush graham crackers.

Process

Mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter. Press firmly into molds, compacting with a spoon and/or fingers. Make sure crusts are thick enough everywhere to keep mix from spilling out the bottom. Bake for 10 minutes; don’t let them burn. Let them stand to cool.

In a large bowl, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Blend in milk, and then mix in the eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in sour cream, vanilla and flour until smooth.

Pour filling into your molds, holding the edges down to prevent warping and make sure they don’t leak from the bottom (much — they probably will a little). Fill close but not right to the tops.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. If they start to brown or crack turn oven off immediately. Let them cool for a while and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours to make sure they’re quite firm. With a butter knife, carefully separate edges from molds, and ease molds up carefully to remove.

Decorate however you want; I made two different fruit reductions and used squeeze bottles to apply. Alternatively, you could make a jelly and pour it on top before removing the molds, or chocolate, or whatever.

The reductions are quite simple; I made one using just frozen blueberries, mashed and strained, and one using Red Monster Naked Juice (mango also works well, but I’ve tried a few other flavors and I don’t think they’re as good for this); just simmer the juice until thick, let it cool, and load it into a squeeze bottle and refrigerate before applying. It keeps for months when refrigerated.