Savory Cheesecakes

During the weekends, Brian and I love to watch the cooking shows on PBS. This past Saturday, Brian was watching a Jacques Pepin show when he called me over to the TV. "These look awesome. I want to try these," he said. Pepin and his daughter were making mini cheesecakes with blue cheese. They looked delicious, so last night I whipped up a batch for us. Turns out, they are beyond yummy. BTW, the recipe can be found here.

Here are the cheesecakes ready to go into the oven. The recipe calls for a slice of bread processed into bread crumbs, but I actually used a baguette for the crumbs. I also substituted parmesan cheese in one of the cups, since blue cheese in on the do-not-eat list for preggos.

Fresh out of the oven, they look great...but will they stick to the cups? Pepin used 3/4 C souffle molds for his cheesecakes. I used 1C ramekins, so even though mine puffed nicely, they didn't puff over the top of the cups like his did.

Voila! It unmolded perfectly. This is a blue cheese one. In the 10 minutes of cool-down time, the cheesecakes pulled away from the sides of the ramekins completely. I didn't even need to loosen the sides with a butter knife. I simply inverted the cups and the cheesecakes came right out.

My parm cheesecake was delish, though I can't wait to devour one made with my favorite blue cheese.

Added bonus:

leftover baguette + leftover cream cheese + jam = scrumptious breakfast today