Vanilla and macadamia crumble mini cheesecakes

Let me start today’s post by ashamedly confessing that I doubted Donna Hay. I did, I must admit it. I made these cheesecakes and they looked so cute in the oven, I thought that adding the crumble topping would ruin them. But I’d already melted the butter, so I carried on with the recipe.
The topping is delicious and goes perfectly well with the smooth, creamy cheesecakes.

Donna, my dear, I will never doubt you again. :)

Vanilla and macadamia crumble mini cheesecakes
from Donna Hay magazine

370g ricotta
300g cream cheese
1 1/3 cups (267g) caster sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Base:
125g digestive/shortbread cookies
½ cup (50g) almond meal (ground almonds)
45g unsalted butter, melted

Crumble topping:
100g digestive/shortbread cookies
½ cup (70g) unsalted macadamias
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
50g unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 140°C/285°F.
Make the base: process cookies in a food processor until crushed. Add the almond meal and butter and process until combined. Grease a round 22cm springform pan and line the base with baking paper. Press the crumb mix over the base and refrigerate (I left it in the fridge overnight).
Place the ricotta and cream cheese, in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the sugar, eggs and vanilla and process until combined and smooth. Pour the mixture over the base and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until set.
In the meantime, make the crumble topping: place the cookies, macadamias, vanilla, sugar and butter in a food processor and process until roughly chopped.
After baking the cheesecake for 1 hour and 10 minutes, top it with the crumble mixture and bake for a further 10 minutes or until top is golden. Allow to cool in the pan, then serve.

Serves 8-10 – I halved the recipe above, used 1/3 cup (80ml) capacity mini pans (with removable bottoms) and got 9 mini cheesecakes (baked for 25 minutes, pans only buttered, I did not line the bases with paper)