Recipe: Mini Cheesecakes

My family recently celebrated my grandmother’s 80th birthday and my mom asked me to make the desserts. In addition to having store-bought birthday cake she wanted me to make some other goodies that folks might like. I volunteered cheesecake and brownies. I realized when I went to get the ingredients for cheesecake that a whole cheesecake hardly moves at a party, even if people love it. So I opted for a more party-friendly, single serving version and came up with these!

Domestocrat’s Single Serving Cheesecake (makes 20)
(adapted from Kraft’s Mini Philadelphia Cheesecakes)

For the crust:
10 sheets graham crackers
6 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. sugar

For the cheesecake:
4 8oz. packages cream cheese (I use half light, half full fat)
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

1) Leave the cream cheese and eggs out to come to room temperature. This will take about 4 hours and is a critical step in making a smooth cheesecake.

2) In a food processor pulse the graham crackers, melted butter, and sugar together until it resembles wet sand.

3) Line a muffin tin/cupcake pan with liners and scoop a tablespoon of the crust into each. Press the crust mixture down firmly into each liner. I have a muffin tin that I got from a restaurant supply store and it fits 24 at a time. If you have a smaller one you’ll have to do this in batches.

4) In a stand mixer or big bowl, blend together the cream cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla until smooth.

5) Fill half of the cupcake liners with the plain cream cheese mixture – about 2 or so tablespoons per.

6) Mix the mini chocolate chips into the rest of the cream cheese batter (or omit this step and keep them all plain).

7) Fill the other half of the cupcakes liners with the chocolate chip cream cheese mixture.

8) Bake on 325 degrees for 30 minutes. They will be really puffy when they first come out of the oven but will fall a bit as they cool.

9) Cool completely before eating or the liners won’t come off properly. These can be made the night before and kept in the fridge overnight.