By Bea Tarthur
Posted on Wednesday, July 6th, 2016
Do you struggle with ways to include cheesecake in your life? Do you struggle with full sized cheesecakes that are difficult to transport and share? This recipe is for you. I’m not saying you have to share but this makes a dozen cheesecake beasts, so it’s only a little bit of a sacrifice.
Finished product first so you can know you’re making the correct decision for a cheesecake filled future.
Ingredients
Cookie base:
12 cup muffin tin
12 cupcake liners
12 sandwich cookies (Whaaaaat? You may say. Just go with it.)
Cheesecake filling:
1 lb room temperature cream cheese softened (I left it on the counter for an hour)
½ cup of sugar (you could reduce this to ⅓ of a cup if you want a less sweet version)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Sour cream topping:
½ cup of sour cream
¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of sugar
Bonus supplies needed:
Whisk or mixer
1 large mixing bowl for the cheesecake filling
1 small bowl for the sour cream topping
Oven temperature:
325 degrees F
Cooking Times:
5 minutes for the cookie base
20 minutes for the assembled cheesecake cupcakes
Quantity:
1 dozen
Directions
Preheat your lovely oven to 325 degrees F.
Take your muffin and line each spot with a cupcake liner. I strongly suggest using liners for this recipe. The cheesecake filling is too delicate to try to spray the sides and pop the cheesecake cupcakes out unscathed. Place one sandwich cookie into each liner. I used vanilla sandwich cookies but you can use any flavor that you wish. Place the assembled cookie base tin into your heated oven for 5 minutes. Why? The cheesecake mixture is quite wet and this helps to dry out the bases a little so they don’t get immensely soggy.
After 5 minutes, take the tin out of the oven and set aside. Leave the cookie bases in the tin.
These cookies want you to join them on a wonderful adventure.
In your large mixing bowl, it’s time to assemble the ambrosia of man, the cheesecake filling.
First, scrape your softened pound of cream cheese into the bowl. Using either a whisk or an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until it is uniformly soft and whippy. If you’re using an electric mixer, start on the lowest setting for about 30 seconds until the cream cheese is easy to mix. Increase the speed to medium and this should take about another minute. Create a well in the middle of the cream cheese.
Pour your teaspoon of vanilla extract, 2 cracked eggs, and ½ cup of sugar into the well. If using an electric mixer, start it on the lowest setting unless you want to clean wet cream cheese from your ceiling. This should take about 30 seconds until it is lumpy but a cohesive mix. Increase the speed to medium and beat for another 90 seconds until a whipped mix. Set aside.
In your small bowl, combine your ½ cup of sour cream, ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract, and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Mix with a spoon until combined. Protip: the sugar will likely not integrate well at first. Allow it to sit for 5-10 minutes, stir again and the sugar should have dissolved into the sour cream mixture.
Now that your cookie bases are cooled, spoon 1 ¾ tablespoons of the cheesecake filling into cookie base liners. I used an ice cream scoop, but you could easily use a large spoon. You may have extra mix but I urge you not to overfill the liners because you still have the sour cream topping to add. Smooth the cheesecake filling so that it is mostly even on top.
On top of the cheesecake filling, add 2 teaspoons of sour cream filling. You do not need to worry about overly smoothing it as it will even out while cooking.
Look at how lazily these were assembled.
Bake the fully assembled cheesecake cupcakes for about 20 minutes. They will not seem fully set but they should be fully cooked.
Allow to cool on a cooling rack for 15-20 minutes and then cool in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
These are best served the first day. They will still be good the next day but the cookie bases will have substantially softened.
About the Author:
After a long career as a fetus, I was pushed out into this world kicking & screaming about the lack of internet, reality tv, and 30 minutes or less pizza delivery. It would take far too long for me to receive these simple requests. When I'm not wishing for the future, I'm running around my home pantsless, blasting PJ Harvey, and shakin' my buns.
