mini walnut and cinnamon cheesecakes (a)

guess what...

I CAN EAT CAKE!!!

yep...i survived lent :) no cake, no chocolate, no pies, no tarts, no biscuits and no muffins. tonight, i am celebrating with dinner at my rents, and i all i have a craving for is something nutty, chocolatey, and rich.
i was going to make a mass brownie mudcake type thing, but decided that mini cheesecakes would be much better. mostly because they are individual, so i could store them in the freezer, and share them out with friends rather than trying to eat a whole cake in 1-2 days (def do-able)
i was originally going to make hazelnut chocolate cheesecakes, but a lack of nutella and being to poor to buy some i changed the recipe a bit. plus i had a stash of walnuts.
so, get the muffin tray out, go buy some philly, and surprise loved ones with a sinkful of dishes and make....



Mini walnut and cinnamon cheesecakes

15 cream filled chocolate biscuits
25 g butter softened
2 handfulls of walnuts
250 g philly
1/2 c light sour cream
2 eggs
3 tbspn castor sugar
1 handfull of walnuts
1 tspn cinnamon
1 tspn vanilla essence

preheat oven to 180 celcius. line a muffin tray with muffin papers and spray lightly with oil. to make the base, place cookies, butter and walnuts into a food processor and process to very fine crumbs (add the walnuts after everything else is processed and only lightly chop them if you want chunks in the base) add about 3 tbspns of the base to each muffin case. use a glass to compact the base. place in oven for 5 minutes.

pre flattened on the left :)

meanwhile, clean out processor and place remaining ingredients in it. process well to a smooth mixture. use a spatula to get the stuff off the side (and under the blades) of the processor so you can mix everything in.
spoon 2 tbspns of mix ontop of each base. crumble 1-2 whole walnuts into each case. spoon an extra tbspn of mix into the cases.



bake in oven for 20 minutes, or until cheesecakes have risen and the top is cracking (unfortunately, mine sunk again, hopefully yours wont)


serve on a plate with a dollop of cream/icecream and a garnish of cinnamon

Tips
cheesecakes can be kept in the fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for a month or so
if you wanna try something different, use hazelnuts in the base instead of walnuts, and add 1/2 c of nutella and 2 tspns of castor sugar instead of the sugar, cinnamon and vanilla
if the mix is too runny (ie: like milk) add a bit more philly to get it thicker