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Ricotta & Evalon Cheesecake

our ingredients

Crust:

  • 18 large rectangles (that is, 36 squares, or 2 full pouches, or just under 10 oz) of graham crackers
  • a good pinch of kosher salt
  • 10 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 c jam

Filling:

  • 1/4 c flour
  • 1 c sugar
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 c shredded evalon
  • 30 oz whole milk ricotta
  • zest of one lemon
  • juice of 1/2 lemon (or of a whole lemon, if you like it extra lemony)
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • 4 large eggs

the instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375F. Line 22 cupcake tins with paper liners, grease them, and set them aside.
  2. In a food processor, process the living daylights out of your graham crackers. Add the salt and process a little more. We want a nice fine crumb.
  3. With the processor running, drizzle in the melted butter and process for a few seconds until the mixture clumps together.
  4. Spoon the mixture into your cupcake tins (roughly two tablespoons of the mixture per tin) and then use a glass or spoon to press it down firmly and evenly. If the mixture is sticking to your glass or spoon, spray it with a little cooking spray.
  5. Set the cupcake tins in the fridge while you make the filling.

Filling:

  1. To make the filling, you’re gonna use your food processor again. (Don’t worry about cleaning it out, it just has butter and graham cracker residue in it and that is ok).
  2. Add the flour, sugar, salt, and parmesan, and pulse it a few times to combine everything and break up the parmesan. Add the ricotta, lemon zest, lemon juice, and extracts, and process it until smooth. Two minutes-ish.
  3. With the processor running, add the eggs one at a time, processing a bit after each one.
  4. Spoon the mixture into your cupcake tins. It can come up pretty high, up to about 1/4-inch from the top of the tin.
  5. Bake for 20 minutes, until the outer edges are set but the centers are still a little jiggly.
  6. Turn the oven off, open it about halfway, and let them be for about 45 minutes.
  7. Remove them from the oven and let them cool completely at room temperature. Chill them for an hour or two, or overnight.
  8. Spoon on your jam.

These will keep in the fridge for up to a week.