I love to feed people.  In particular, I love to feed the people I love.  So, whenever I visit my hometown, I like to bring my mom and sisters something sweet.  They struggled through every batch of alternately burnt and mushy chocolate chip cookies when I was ten and eleven; it’s only fair that I pay them back with something presentable now.

Key lime cheesecake is my mom’s favorite, and so this week’s recipe is dedicated to the most wonderful kick-ass mother on the planet.  These feisty little cakes had a powerful kick of tartness, but were also sweet and smooth and oh, soooo addictive.  If you’re from a loud family, you know that the highest honor for a delicious dish is when everyone is silent while eating it.  Let’s just say that when I brought these guys out, you could hear cars on the street…a quarter mile away.

Mini Lime Cheesecakes

Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking

For the Crust

1 box crushed Teddy Grahams

5 or 6 tablespoons melted butter (enough to dampen all the cookies)

1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar

splash of vanilla (optional)

For the Filling

24 ounces (3 packages) cream cheese, at room temperature

1 scant cup granulated sugar

dash of salt

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon extract

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1 generous tablespoon lime zest

2/3 cup sour cream

a few drops of green food coloring (optional; I did one batch with, one batch without)

For the Crust

Mix together your cookie crumbs, butter, sugar, and vanilla (again, optional).  For a smoother, more professional looking crust, blend your ingredients in a food processor.

 Firmly press a tablespoon of the mixture into prepared muffin cups.  Refrigerate while you fix the filling.

For the Filling

Beat the cream cheese until it is light and fluffy.

Beat in sugar and salt until just combined.

Add your eggs one at a time, and beat until incorporated.  I recently read in Joanna Chang’s Flour cookbook that you should crack each egg into a bowl and break it up before adding it to your batter.  And what Joanna says goes, in my kitchen.

Add vanilla and lemon extracts, lime juice and zest, food coloring (again, optional), and sour cream.  Mix until just incorporated, scraping the sides of your bowl.  Over-mixing will make your cheesecake stiff.

Take your chilled crusts out of the refrigerator and fill a little more than 3/4 full.  Bake at 350 degrees for eighteen to twenty minutes.  I put my muffin tin on a cookie sheet and filled the cookie sheet with water, to act as a water bath.

Enjoy!