Yes I Made These in an Hour Cheesecakes

Individual Creamy Lemon Cheesecakes
(Make and bake in 1 hour, allow additional time to set in refrigerator)

Ingredients
Crust
8 double graham crackers
2 tsp sugar
4 tsp butter, melted

Filling
1 and 1/2 packages of cream cheese (you can use 2 whole packages for a slightly firmer cheesecake)
2/3 c sugar
5 egg yolks
1 lemon (zest for garnish, then juice- you'll need 3 T juice)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 large container sour cream (2 cups), plus one tablespoon per ramekin if you'd like to garnish with sweetened sour cream


Tools
Kitchen Aid with whisk attachment or regular whisk and a strong arm
Silicone spatula
Large deep pan
5-6 medium oven proof ramekins-- these hold about 1 cup
or 12 dinky ramekins-- these hold 1/3 cup
(or 1 standard cheesecake pan)
Optional food processor for graham crackers
or a plastic zipper bag plus a rolling pin

Method
Heat oven to 350. Melt butter on low heat.
Crush graham crackers in food processor or in bag with rolling pin. Mix in sugar. Mix in melted butter in processor or in bowl with fork. Divide crumbs evenly among ramekins, press down with fingers inside of a plastic bag or piece of plastic, or even with the bottom of a small glass.

In stand mixer, mix cream cheese and sugar thoroughly. Whisk in egg yolks until fully combined, add lemon juice, vanilla and salt. Mix again. (If you decide at this point that you would like to garnish with sour cream later, you can still take out the 6 tablespoons and the recipe will be just fine.) Fold in sour cream. (Ok, at this point, you can no longer take out the sour cream.)

Distribute the batter evenly among the ramekins. Place ramekins in deep roasting pan in the top 1/3 of a preheated oven. Pour hot tap water into the roasting pan until it reaches halfway up the ramekins. Set a timer for 45 minutes. Take a look halfway through to make sure nothing (ahem, sorry) make sure nothing is cooking unevenly. If so, rotate pan if possible. If you use the smallest ramekins, they may need less than the total 45 minutes to cook.

At 45 minutes, check for doneness. The cakes can be ever so slightly jiggly in the middle and a little bit golden. (If making a full-sized cake, turn the oven off at this point and wait for it to cool-- the cake will finish cooking as the oven cools-- then remove to rack.)

Remove roasting pan from oven and carefully remove each from water bath with potholders. Set on a rack to cool. After mine had cooled slightly, I moved the rack to the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, for an additional 2 hours while we had dinner. Overnight would be nice if you have the time, but as long as they are cold, they'll be fine.

**Aha! I forgot to tell you what to do with the reserved sour cream, if you did decide you wanted to reserve it. Mix it all with a tablespoon of fine sugar and put one tablespoon of sweetened sour cream on top of each cheesecake, then sprinkle with zest from the lemon you remembered to zest before juicing, or one special little curl of peel, if you like. These are meant to be eaten directly from the ramekin with a spoon, rather than unmolded, but you know how I am. If you choose to separate each one from the ramekin with a knife, unmold onto a plate, and then flip back onto the dessert plate, THEN garnish, that is totally fine with me.

Adapted from a Fine Cooking recipe