Sometimes I see a recipe in a magazine and think 'What a fabulous idea! I should make that!'. Other times I see a recipe in a magazine and think 'That's okay, I bet I can make it better!'
That's exactly what I did with a recipe from this month's edition of Food Network Magazine. They had these great looking mini bacon cheesecakes on page 124 of the May edition. Now don't get me wrong, they look fabulous with their little pieces of bacon on top but I started thinking...
'A chocolate cookie based crust would just take over the bacon flavour'....then it was..
'Why use vanilla when you can use maple? Everyone knows maple and bacon were just meant to be together!'
'How can I get more bacon into the the crust?'
'Can it really be called a bacon cheese cake if the only bacon is actually just the garnish?'
Seriously folks, I almost hurt myself on this one! After making some adjustments to the original recipe, I came up with a fantastic little treat with a great bacony bite and a maple taste. This may seem like a lot of work for 24 mini cheese cakes, but come on now, it's bacon!
Maple Bacon Mini
Cheese cakes
Yield: 24 minis
Bacon
Place 10 strips of
your best bacon onto a baking sheet and slip it into the oven. Turn the oven on
to 350F and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. You want the bacon to be crisp, but not
too dark as some will cook more in the crust and some will cook more with the
maple glaze....mmmmm
Drain the bacon on
some paper towel. Save 4 for the crust and 6 for the maple application.
Maple glazed bacon
6 strips cooked bacon
¼ cup maple syrup (NOT
fake pancake syrup...the real deal people!!)
Cut each strip of
bacon into 4 or more pieces. As long as you have at least 24 you will be good.
Heat the maple syrup
in a pan and add the bacon strips. Let
the syrup get all bubbly and thick (boil it down, reduce....whatever word you
want to use).
Once the syrup is all
thick and the bacon pieces are each well coated in a nice coat, remove the
pieces to a sheet of parchment paper to cool. Save 24 pieces so you will have
one piece per mini cheese cake.
You will know you've boiled it enough because you will get sugary/maple strings like this:
You will know you've boiled it enough because you will get sugary/maple strings like this:
 |
| sweet, stringy, maple goodness! |
Line a mini muffin pan
with liners
The crust
½ cup panko
4 strips bacon, baked
until crisp
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp melted bacon
fat (or butter)
Whir everything in the
food processor or blender until mixed and the bacon is broken down into small
pieces.
Scoop 1 tsp of the
crust mixture into each liner and pack it down tightly with your finger tips.
Cheesecake
1 8oz pkg cream cheese
(at room temperature)
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp maple extract
2 tsp maple syrup
(optional)
1 egg
Heat the oven to 325F
Make sure your cream
cheese is at room temperature before starting. It will be easier to blend and
make a smoother cheese cake.
Cream together the
cream cheese and sugar until smooth. (I like to use the mixer for this but a
wooden spoon works the arm muscles).
Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add the maple extract
and syrup. Keep mixing until smooth and
blended.
Add the egg and blend just
until fully incorporated.
Scoop 2 tsp of filling
onto the crusts.
Bake for 15 minutes (at 325F),
until the cheese cakes are set in the middle.
Cool in the pan, then
transfer to an airtight container, top with a piece of maple glazed bacon and
store in the fridge!
Chill for at least 4
hours....or as long as you can wait....
Until next time, stay warm and eat well!
