Friday, January 25, 2008

Cheesecake Week Part II: Junior's Little Fella Chocolate Swirls

Welcome to Part II and the final entry for Cheesecake week.

I was wondering what to do with the final bit of cream cheese that my little Oompa Loompas were dancing around with and then came inspiration and a reason. The inspiration continued to come from Junior's Cheesecake Cookbook: 50 To-Die-For Recipes for New York-Style Cheesecake. The reason came from Fun and Food. Fun and Food hosts an event: Game Night Party Recipes. The idea here is to come up with simple and easy to make recipes that would make an at home game night easy and fun. Personally I did not grow up in a sports house. There were no football Sundays or Cricket Saturdays in my home so I guess that's why I never developed the need to rearrange a day around kick off. That being said, I still love game nights just with a different twist. My friends and I have board game nights or more recently added Wii nights. The tennis game on Wii has proven to bring out the competitive side in everyone!

So my contribution to Game Night are these delicious little chocolate cheesecakes once again brought to you buy Junior's. I am certain this is not the last you have heard from Junior's Cheesecake Cookbook. They are well written and although at times can be pretty complex; they are very easy to make. Please enjoy these 'little fellas'.

Junior's Little Fella Chocolate Swirls

Ingredients (makes 1 dozen):

2 8oz packages cream cheese (use only full fat), at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

2 extra-large eggs

1/2 cup heavy or whipping cream

1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 recipe Chocolate Curls

1 12oz jar hot fudge ice cream topping (optional) warm

Construction:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line 12 standard muffin cups with silicone, foil, parchment, or paper liners.
  2. Put one package of the cream cheese, 1/3 cup of the sugar, and the cornstarch in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low until creamy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl a few times. Blend in the remaining package of cream cheese. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat in the remaining 1/3 cup sugar, then the vanilla. Blend in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after adding each one. Beat in the cream just until it's completely blended. Be careful not to over mix! Remove 3/4 cup of the batter and stir in the cocoa.
  3. Divide the white batter among the 12 muffin cups. Drop a heaping teaspoon of chocolate batter in the center of each, pushing it down slightly. Using a small knife, cut through the batter just until dark swirls appear.
  4. Place the muffin tin in a large shallow pan and add hot water until it comes about 1 inch up the sides of the tin. Bake the cakes until set and slightly puffy, about 45 minutes. Remove the cakes from the water bath, transfer the tin to a wore rack, and let cool for 2 hours. Cover the cakes with plastic wrap (do not remove from the tin) and put in the freezer until cold, at least 1 hour.
  5. To remove the cakes, lift them out with your hands and peel off the liners. Place the cakes, top side up, on a serving platter or individual desserts plates. Top with the chocolate curls if you wish and refrigerate. Serve drizzled with the hot fudge sauce, if you wish. If there are any cakes left, cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator or wrap and freeze for up to 1 month.

Lewis Notes on Little Fella Chocolate Swirls:

  • I had to bend my foil roasting pan to fit my muffin pan. Just another reason why these foil pans are perfect for cheesecake baking.
  • This is a very easy recipe to make. Again though, as is common with Junior's recipes, you need to do a little pre-planning. Total time from idea to completion: 4 Hours. (give or take the distance from your chair to your mixer) So make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get these made before everyone shows up for the game!

These wonderfully delicious little fellas are served with a little chocolate sauce. I keep trying to give them away so they aren't staring at me, calling to me, "Eat me!!!"

Thanks again to Fun and Food for the Game Night party idea and I hope you all enjoy these wonderful little delights and to Junior's Cheesecake Cookbook for the recipe.

Ingredients:

Try not to cry when your sugar bowl slips from your hand:

Plain filling & Chocolate filling:

Filling the cups:


Coming out of the oven: (don't worry they go down)

Chocolate Shavings for the top:

Final Product:


My lovely, beautiful wife always gets the 'picture plate'. Her review: "OH MY GOD!!!" She described the textured as that of a typical cheesecake: very dense, creamy, and chocolaty.

20 comments:

slush said...

Now thats up my alley, baked right in a cupcake tin, with liners. Right on...

They look adorable and the perfect dessert for game night, for sure. Love the pics too. I normally spill the flour.

Cant wait for the next Juniors recipe.

Mansi said...

wow!! could these get any prettier!!:) nice one TB:) thanks for joining in the fun!

BumbleVee said...

Look at you,.... getting all Gucci on us Lewis with the beautiful "picture plate" and all... but seriously.... these look wonderful ... a very impressive dessert to serve anytime!

Tablebread said...

slush - They are wonderful for a family game night. First off they're in individual serving size form so grab and go and they're a dessert. So often when you try to bring a finger food dessert it's cupcakes because there aren't many other choices. Now you have another choice :)

Mansi - thanks for hosting this cool event. I try not to get too wrapped up into online bake-offs but yours had a practical approach and I thought that was neat. I hope you do another one :)

bumblevee - despite the 'Gucci' ;) look of these they are pretty easy to make. It took me longer to get all the ingredients together (and then spill them all over the place) then it did to make them! Thanks for the compliment :) ....now about the Daring Bakers challenge I've been putting off....

Anonymous said...

this mini-cheesecakes are so elegant, beautiful!

Lewis, I am happy I found your blog too, your posts are always great.

--manuela

Deeba PAB said...

Hey Lewis...these little fellas are downright 'precious'!! Wish we got a 10 for 10 offer in our part of the world!!But then again...if wishes were horses...

Tablebread said...

Baking History - thanks for the compliment and thanks for stopping in :)

Passionate Baker - those 10 for 10 sells really help out sometimes. The grocery stores in the U.S. do this a lot to get people to shop there so I take advantage of it when I can. Thanks for stopping in :)

Anonymous said...

fantastic pictures..and ..yum those looks good.

Anonymous said...

Forget various charred meats and beer, these should be served at everyone's Super Bowl party.

Big Boys Oven said...

Oh gosh! the end product look so gorgeous and adorable.... feel like pinching it away! lol~

Cakelaw said...

These look gorgeous and sound delicious! Your wife is a lucky lady.

Melanie said...

Oh my, is it possible to continue "cheesecake week" indefinitely?? These look too good to be true. I love the step-by-step photos!

Tablebread said...

marye - thanks! I just recently learned how to take still photos, I'm still playing with the process but loving the results

red icculus - these would make you the hero! Best of all you can make them now and freeze them and they still taste like you baked them that day!

big boys oven - thanks for the compliment :)

cakelaw - yes she is! but she constantly tells me I'm her waists worst nightmare :)

melanie - I agree it was fun :) but then I would have to change the name to TableCheese and well, that doesn't sound very appealing does it ;)

Eva said...

Great photo - your plating is perfect!

Unknown said...

Table Bread,

I read your post on thursday evening and by late morning Friday I was in the kitchen making these for my sister's engagement party that night. And I only have one thing to describe how these tasted and looked: "Heavenly". Please keep posting more cheesecake recipes, these were so awesome and your description was topnotch. Take care and have a wonderful weekend :)

Tablebread said...

Eva - Thanks so much! Coming from such a talented photographer is an honor!

sadiya - I am so glad this recipe worked out for your sister's engagement party :) I still have some cheesecake left so you may still see some more cheesecake :)

Julie said...

I had a piece of Junior's cheesecake during Thanksgiving when a cousin flew back from the East Coast with it. It was so delicious! I like your version of game nights, since I'm not a sports freak, either, unless I can go to a live game with friends who'll make it fun. Board game nights just rock awesomely. Lastly, I love your photos as of late, and your plated shots have been gorgeous! PS: The Oompa Loompa Lewis song in the previous post cracked me up!

Anonymous said...

We would like to feature this recipe on our blog. Please email sophiekiblogger@gmail.com if interested. Thanks :)

Anna said...

I think I might make these today. Thanks for posting the recipe and your review! I actually have the Junior's Cheesecake book, but I wanted to get someone's opinion on the recipe. My only issue is I can't decide whether to make chocolate or to make red, white and blue.

Unknown said...

very amazing post, I like It, Thank you for presenting a wide variety of information that is very interesting to see in this artikle, good job adnd succes For you

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