Cardamom Cheesecake
Cheesecake is a very unique dessert. The TANG and sour notes of the cream cheese are offset by the SWEETNESS of the sugar and crust. Being a true New Yorker, NY style cheesecake is available everywhere and I have tried some amazing flavors over the years. I often go for the classic raspberry swirl which is why I didn’t try to make that myself. I wanted to create a recipe which was out of the box, yet had a sense of familiarity to me, which is how I ended up playing with cardamom for this recipe. Cardamom is very fragrant and the CITRUSY, MINTY and HERBAL notes worked great with this classic NY dessert. I hope you enjoy my twist on this classic dessert!
PREP TIME: 10 minutes l COOK TIME: 20-40 minutes l COOL TIME: 2 hours 30 minutes l TOTAL TIME: 3 hours 20 minutes
Ingredients
12 oz of cream cheese; room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
3/4 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 nine inch (9”) pre-made graham cracker crust or 6 mini pre-made crusts
Directions
Serves: 6 people
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a mixer, whip the cream cheese for 2 minutes on medium speed.
Add in the eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, salt and continue whipping until well combined and fluffy; this should take 3 minutes on high speed.
cheesecake batter
mini cheesecakes
4. Mini Cheesecakes
Scoop the cheesecake mix into the crust; each mini crust will hold about 1/3 cup of the mix depending on the size.
Large Cheesecake
Cover the edges of the crust with aluminum foil to prevent it from burning.
Scoop the entire cheesecake mix into the crust.
5. Place the cheesecake in the middle of the oven and bake until the top is barely brown.
Bake the mini cheesecakes for 20minutes
Bake the large cheesecake for 40minutes
6. Once the cheesecake has baked, turn the oven off and allow it to cool in the oven for at least 30minutes.
7. Chill the cheesecake for 2 hours in the fridge before serving.
Serve the cheesecake topped with whip cream and your favorite berries!
