Individual Cheesecakes Cute as Can Be

These perfect little individual cheesecakes were made to serve at a special dinner for some friends. Every, single thing about them was perfect: flavors, appearance, texture, and the bonus was that they came out of the little ramekins just perfectly. Better results could not be hoped for. 

Black Sesame Matcha Individual Cheesecakes

While they were perfect, and have stayed in my mind ever since, I haven't returned to them. Why? Well, there is really no huge valid excuse at all really. The biggest thing was that I ran out of Matcha Green Tea powder and haven't replaced it. 

Even longer ago, I had made Matcha and Black Sesame Muffins, and they were delightful. It was this combination, the green and the black flecks together are quite striking, that made me want to do something else with it. 

Using Matcha Green Tea

Matcha Green Tea Powder

Using Matcha green tea powder can be tricky, only in the sense that depending on the quality, the color may be the brightest of lime green (higher quality, more flavor, higher price), or a very dull green, or even a very pale green (lower quality, less flavor, lower price). The dull green was what was used in both the muffins and the cheesecakes.

With less flavor and color, more is needed to achieve even the least bit of color in a baked good. This alters the dry ingredient contents upwards, with the possibility of a dry outcome, whether dry muffins or a very stiff and dry cheesecake. 

Using higher quality Matcha will give a lot of color, but when it comes down to the facts, Matcha is very bitter. Too many people will not automatically love this bitterness, so a fine line is walked when making something like these recipes. Too much of a good thing and they may not be at all well-received. 

Some of this bitterness in a baked item can be mitigated by using more sugar, yet breakfast muffins are not meant to be sweet as a cupcake (though far too many are), and too much sugar will alter a cheesecake's consistency as well. 

An idea on that score is to dissolve the green tea powder in just enough hot water to make a smooth paste. In this way, the texture of either recipe would not be significantly altered. It also would afford the ability of actually seeing how much color is being added. The final baked goods will never be that same color, but it at least gives a clue. 

Aside from the issue of Matcha, having some in the first place, and then all these other considerations, these little cheesecakes are no difficulty to make. The mixture is a straightforward style, black sesame is available in many stores nowadays. While black sesame is not much different in flavor than the white, they do give visual interest. So, on with the recipe:

Black Sesame Matcha Individual Cheesecakes

Makes about 6 (6-ounce) 

or 8 (4-ounce) servings

Black Sesame Matcha Individual Cheesecakes

12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon lime zest, finely grated
½ cup white sugar
2-3 tablespoons Matcha Green Tea powder
1 pinch salt
1 cup sour cream
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds

- Extra sugar, for dusting
- Butter for greasing

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease six (6-ounce) or eight (4-ounce) ramekins with butter. Dust them with sugar, tapping out excess. Set the ramekins into a roaster pan that can hold water halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Heat a large kettle of water and keep hot.

In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar and green tea powder. In a separate mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth, then add in the sugar mixture and lime zest and beat gently, just to combine. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating gently until incorporated, then add in the sour cream and fold in the black sesame seeds.

Fill the ramekins of choice with the mixture. Set the roaster pan into the oven and carefully pour in the hot water around the ramekins to about halfway up their sides. Bake the cheesecakes 20 minutes for the smaller ones or 25 minutes for the larger ones. The centers should be a bit jiggly. Remove the pan from the oven and set the ramekins aside to cool. Chill the cheesecakes completely, refrigerated, before unmolding.

To unmold the cheesecakes, run a knife around the edges. They should start to spin a bit in their molds. Set a plate over top of the mold and invert the ramekin over the plate until the cheesecake comes loose onto the plate. Serve with a twist of lime and/or a dollop of whipped cream.

My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

More Morning Muffins

"BAKE from scratch" Beet & Goat Cheese Muffins

Muffins are a lovely start to a morning. I surely don't make them too often, but I do love them. This quarter's issue of "BAKE from Scratch" had a feature with (I believe) 7 different muffin recipes. I went a little wild with the last quarter's issue with the 8 different kinds of scones. I somehow cannot get quite as excited about the muffins for some reason. There are some that certainly piqued my interest. One of them was a recipe that contained pureed beets (making them prettily pink in color), goat cheese (for a little piquancy), lots and lots of orange zest and a whole lot of streusel.

I made these last because I happened to have pureed beets in my freezer. I used them to make a most excellently moist Chocolate Beet Cake, though if any of my readers have kept up with my blogs, they will know that chocolate is very low on my list of things to make or eat. Ergo, I still have lots of pureed beets in the freezer!

Matcha & Black Sesame Muffins

Another of the muffin recipes that called my attention was one that used Matcha Green Tea powder and black sesame seeds. I love using Matcha powder in recipes and have made many things this way. I made some really excellent molded individual Black Sesame Matcha Cheesecakes once. They were to DIE for. I made some Green Tea Lime Sables about a year ago, and a GF Angelfood Cake with Green Tea Pistachio Swirl a year ago March. I love the Green color in things, though the flavor does not always come through strongly. 

Matcha & Black Sesame Muffins

While reading the recipe for the muffins in "BAKE from scratch", I rather disagreed with the method for making the muffins, and also with the streusel for the top. I followed the recipe for the pretty beet muffins to the letter. I was unsure how much beet flavor would come through for one thing, but the streusel seemed excessive, and excessively sweet. There was as much sugar in the entire muffin recipe as was in the streusel part. To me, that was just plain overkill. The same went for the Green Tea muffins. I love sweets; don't get me wrong. I do love sweets. But sometimes, there can be too much of a good thing. I opted to skip the streusel entirely on the green tea muffins and instead use the black sesame in the recipe. One thing I particularly liked in the recipe as it was presented was the use of almond meal. This would automatically make them moist. I kept that idea. Instead of streusel, I just sprinkled the muffins with sliced almonds before baking, to make them look pretty.

All the recipes in the magazine were sized for jumbo muffin tins. I do not own jumbo muffin tins, though I do have a 12-well square holed tin. I believe the square shape holds a larger amount than a regular muffin tin, though I have not officially measured. I know when making this recipe, it all fit into the square holed 12-well tin, though when I made one of the other recipes in a regular muffin tin, I had to use 3 extra wells in a regular tin to accommodate. Be aware of

this when pouring into the tins, and also when baking. Larger, jumbo muffins will take longer to bake through completely. I was so very pleased with what I did and how they came out. Here is my method:

Matcha & Black Sesame Muffins

Makes 8 jumbo muffins or 12 - 16 regular muffins

Matcha & Black Sesame Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup almond meal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons Matcha green tea powder 
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs 
1 cup milk
¼ cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
½ cup sliced almonds, for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the wells of 12 - 16 regular muffin tin wells with cooking spray, or simply use muffin papers.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the first 6 ingredients. In another bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, eggs, milk and melted butter. Pour the liquid ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir well with a silicone spatula or a spoon, until no dry ingredients are left. Divide the batter between the prepared muffin tins and sprinkle the tops with the sliced almonds.

Bake the muffins for approximately 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. Remove the muffins from the tin to cool on a rack. 


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.