mini peach cheesecake with graham cracker + almond crust

This recipe was created for Chrissy, because Chrissy loves peaches. The peaches end up being very a very sweet and delicate addition.

I have made a variation of this recipe for years because my husband asks for it every year for his birthday. He prefers the tart cranberry as the jam with a finish of cranberry on top.

graham cracker and almond crust

To be honest, this happened on accident. I had just gone to the grocery store, and I thought I had all of the ingredients. Turns out I had less than half of the graham cracker needed to make a graham cracker crust. Face palm. Click here for Epicurious if you want the original recipe that I was supposed to follow.

This recipe makes extra crust. It makes so much extra, because it is formatted for mini cheesecakes with an extra thick base. You can easily make 5-6 mini cheesecakes.

ingredients

• 1/2 cup of ground graham crackers

• 2 cups of almond flour

• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

steps

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Combine and pulse. Add graham crackers, almond flour, sugar, salt, vanilla, and half the butter to the food processor. Pulse. Add remaining butter 1 tablespoon at a time until well blended.

   Tip: If you prefer a stronger almond flavor, exchange the vanilla extract for almond extract.

3. Press into spring form pans. I made these to be extra thick. 1/2” crust.

4. Bake for 12 minutes. Crust should be golden brown. 12 minutes is for a thicker crust. If you are doing a more traditional thickness ~ 1/8”, the crust will only take about 7-8 minutes.

5. let cool

roasted maple peach jam recipe

I make a variation of this recipe for almost all my really ripe fruit. I use the essence of this recipe for any fruit in the kitchen that isn’t pretty to plate, but hasn’t officially gone bad. We have a constant rotation of different jams in the house because of this. LOVE.

ingredients

• 4 ripe peaches

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 2 tablespoon maple syrup

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• optional spicy undertone: 1 teaspoon cayenne

steps

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Thinly slice peaches. I prefer thin slices because peaches will be layered into a cheesecake. This helps to create a nice even layer of peaches. However, this means that I need to watch them a bit more in the oven when they are roasting. If you leave your peaches into chunks, you do not have to watch them as closely. But, it will be harder to create that even layer.

   pro tip: If you are not using the jam inside a cheesecake, let it be chunky! I prefer the chunky when it comes to

3. Combine all ingredients. Toss together: peaches, vanilla, maple syrup, and cinnamon (and optional cayenne). Add to a quarter sheet pan. I prefer a quarter sheet pan due to the quantity of ingredients. If I was doubling or tripling the recipe, I would expand to a half sheet pan.

4. Roast for 25-30 minutes. Stir half way through bake. After bake, remove from oven and let cool. Can be stored in the fridge up to 5 days, or a couple months in the freezer.

cheesecake recipe

This recipe has been adapted from the “Three Cities of Spain Cheesecake” by epicurious.

I love a solid cheesecake base. From here you can go so many different directions: add the roasted jam as a layer, top it with whipped cream, top it with jam, or even just make the basic recipe. I love to just look in my fridge to see how I can change it up. Adding the middle layer of jam makes your cheesecake look extra fancy.

ingredients

• 1 graham cracker and almond crust

• 2 cups of roasted maple peach jam

• cheesecake base

  • 3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened

  • 4 eggs

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

  • 1 cup sugar

• sour cream topping

  • 16 oz sour cream

  • 1 tablespoon sugar

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

steps

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. This might be the most important step. I have found that going through this step too quickly leads to a cheesecake that is either chunky, or very heavy. Put your mixer on medium for 4-5 minutes. Every 1-2 minutes, pause and scrape down the sides of the bowl. I know how much of a pain in the butt this is, but it makes all the difference.

3. Add eggs one at a time. Eggs should be pretty well incorporated before you add the next one. Do two more bowl scrapes. I like to do it after the second and fourth egg. I find that it helps to make a really smooth cheesecake.

4. Add vanilla and sugar. Mix until combine.

5. Add cheesecake mixture onto of crust. The key here is to look at the height remaining in your your pan and divide by about 3. Add the cheesecake mixture up to about the third marker. There will be lots left over. Don’t worry we will use it in later steps.

6. Add roasted maple peach jam. Because they were slices, it will be easy to add by just picking them up and placing them around. Don’t worry, they won’t sink too far into the cheesecake mixture. I usually try to coat the entire surface, with one or two layers of peaches.

   tip: the jam is not required or it could easily be replaced by another jam.

7. Top with cheesecake mixture. The key here is to fully cover the peach jam.

8. Bake for 45 minutes.

9. While baking, make sour cream mixture. Whisk together sour cream,

10. Remove from oven. Let stand a minimum of 5 minutes before adding sour cream mixture.

11. Bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Run knife around edge.

12. Chill cake 6 hours minimum.

    Optional: top with whipped cream. I chose to pipe whipped cream, but you could easily serve each slice with a nice dollop. No one will complain about that.

    Optional: top with roasted jalapeño plum jam. I just love the striking color of this jam against the white of the cheesecake.

    Optional: top with remaining maple peach jam

    Enjoy!