easy baked lemon & berry cheesecakes

I've always loved baked cheesecake but often don't make it as I feel it takes soooo long to make.

However I've discovered a quick and easy way to make this delicious treat........with the help of your trusty food processor, or blender, and a muffin pan you too can create these.

Being little individual cakes they're the perfect size for a work morning tea, to take to a friends place, for a picnic or even pop in the kids lunchbox....though for me it's the perfect sneaky afternoon treat....the only hard part is stopping at one!

easy baked lemon & berry cheesecakes
Makes 12

12 butternut snap cookie biscuits*

125g sour cream
½ cup (110g) caster sugar
2 ½ teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 eggs
375g cream cheese, softened, cut into cubes
Fresh blueberries, raspberries and sliced strawberries, to garnish
Icing sugar, to garnish
 

• Preheat oven to 160°C or 140°C fan-forced. Line each hole of a 12-hole ½ cup (125ml) muffin pan with paper cases. Place a biscuit into the base of each paper case, pressing down slightly.
• Place sour cream, sugar, lemon rind, lemon juice and eggs into food processor bowl, or blender jug and secure lid.  Process for 10 - 15 seconds until just combined.    Add cream cheese to food processor bowl and secure lid. Process for 15 seconds or until mixture is smooth and combined. (if your doing this in blender you may need to do this in two batches, adding half the cream cheese at a time).
• Pour cream cheese mixture into cases. Bake for 20 minutes or until just set. Turn off the oven. Leave the cheesecakes in the oven with the door ajar for about 1 hour to cool slightly. 
• Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until well chilled. Remove and discard the paper cases. Transfer the cheesecakes to a serving plate. Top with berries and dust with icing sugar. Serve.

*for my non-Australian readers you can use any plain round sweet biscuit  just make sure it fits into the base of your muffin pan. 

A few delicious twists:

lime & passionfruit : Use lime rind in place of lemon and passionfruit pulp instead of lemon juice.

choc orange: Use choc ripple biscuits instead of butternut snap. Use orange rind and juice instead of lemon. Before baking place 2 teaspoons choc chips on top of the biscuits then pour over cheesecake mixture.

cherry & vanilla: Omit lemon zest and juice, add 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste with the eggs. Before baking top the cream cheese mixture with a few pitted fresh or frozen cherries.