Mini Baileys Cheesecakes

There was a stall at the Good Food and Wine Show celebrating the new Baileys with Coffee. They weren't selling anything, they were just handing out little sample glasses. I have never had anything against Baileys, but up until now it hasn't really been anything that I wanted to drink. I did enjoy the new Baileys though and I bought a bottle in the leadup to Christmas.

I told my mother that I had bought a bottle and mentioned that I was looking for something to make for our work Christmas Breakup (delayed posting, I know, but I really am writing this in December because I have so much to tell you all) and she said I should make mini Baileys cheesecakes with my Baileys. Mum's internet hasn't been working for months because she hasn't gotten around to calling their helpdesk, so the best she could do was vaguely point me in the direction of Taste.com.au. A quick search found this recipe which Mum said was the one.

It was really easy, almost guiltily so. I doubled the recipe because I had a 250g tub of cream cheese and because I was intending to feed a crowd, but doubling the amount of Baileys made it very very strong. Not strong alcohol-wise, but strong in Baileys smell. Next time I would cut down on the amount of Baileys. I used crushed chocolate ripple biscuits mixed with some melted butter for the base rather than the chocolate cake recommended. I liked the contrasting textures of the creamy cheesecake and the crumbly biscuit base, but I think the base was a little too crumbly with the two tablespoons of butter I used and next time I will use more butter.

I made these in mini-cupcake pans so they were bite-sized, but this made getting the right ratio of biscuit to cheesecake quite difficult. Ideally I would have liked one third biscuit to two thirds cheesecake, if not a quarter biscuit to three quarters cheesecake but it was just too difficult with the tiny pans. They ended up being about half-half. I also found that they needed longer than the 10 minutes in the oven to set. The first pan was in the oven for 15 minutes and they couldn't be unmoulded cleanly once they were cooled in the fridge because they were still quite runny. The second tray I left in the oven for 20 minutes and they worked much better. This could be because my oven is terrible, but still keep an eye on them even if your oven isn't cantankerous.

Despite the strong Baileys smell, they were very tasty. D only got to try two at home because they all went in to work, so he has asked me to make them again so he can have some more. I'll be happy to try again, because I think they can be much more refined than they turned out this time.


Mini Baileys Cheesecakes
adapted from Good Taste Magazine as posted on Taste.com.au

1 packet Arnotts Choc Ripple Biscuits
2 tbs butter, melted
250g cream cheese, at room temperature
4 tbs brown sugar
2 eggs
4 tbs Baileys with a hint of Coffee Irish Cream liqueur
Cocoa powder, to serve

Preheat oven to 150°C. Grease a mini-cupcake or mini-muffin pan lightly. I got 48 mini-cupcake sized cheesecakes from this recipe, or 24 mini-muffin sized ones.

Process the cookies in a food processor until they resemble fine crumbs. Mix with melted butter and press into the base of the pans.

Use an electric beater to beat cream cheese and sugar until combined. Add the egg and beat until combined. Use a metal spoon to fold in the Baileys. Spoon the cream-cheese mixture among pans.

Bake in oven for 10 minutes or until just set. Remove from oven and set aside for 30 minutes to cool and set completely. Dust with cocoa powder to serve.

Thanks to a huge backlog of posts, the posting of this recipe has been a little delayed. It was originally made in December 2009.