Full-Sized Flavor in a Bite-Sized Treat
While most of us love a classic, full-sized cheesecake recipe, making one does have some drawbacks. They take a long time to bake (over an hour), sometimes require require a messy water bath (although mine does not!) and take a long time to cool (at least 6 hours!). You have to worry about cracks AND your springform pan leaking, and while I’d never say that it isn’t worth the effort, sometimes you just want something easier…like these mini cheesecakes. Mini cheesecakes are the much simpler, muffin tin version of a regular cheesecake. They’re quick and easy, creamy, sweet and subtly tangy, and just all around delicious–just like the full-sized version! BUT they take less than half the time to make! 😲 Plus, they’re already portioned out into individual servings, so no one is on slicing duty. Win-win.
Why You’ll Love Mini Cheesecakes:
So quick compared to a regular cheesecake: less than 20 minutes to bake and only a few hours to cool.Can be made on today’s graham cracker crust, or you can change things up and use a half batch of my Oreo crust instead. Can handle a few mini chocolate chips or broken Oreo pieces (for an Oreo cheesecake or chocolate cheesecake flair) in the batter, if you need a chocolate kick.Easily doubles to make 24 mini cheesecakes!
What You Need
Just a few simple ingredients come together to make these nice and easy mini cheesecakes. Here are the important ones:
Cream cheese. As with my other cheesecake recipes, I don’t recommend using tub-style or low-fat cream cheese. Stick with the block-style, full-fat kind for best results!Sour cream. To me, you simply can’t make cheesecake without sour cream. It is an essential flavor element that adds a perfect richness. Full-fat Greek yogurt could also work in a pinch.Butter. Unlike most of my other recipes, I recommend using salted butter for today’s cheesecake crust. If you only have unsalted, that will work too; just remember to add ⅛ teaspoon of salt!
SAM’S TIP: While they’re great plain, these cheesecakes also taste wonderful topped with homemade whipped cream and fresh fruit, chocolate ganache (with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt for good measure!), hot fudge sauce, blueberry sauce (or just about any fruit sauce), or homemade caramel sauce. Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Mini Cheesecakes
SAM’S TIP: Do NOT over-bake! Overbaking is the easiest way to ruin any cheesecake; if it spends too much time in the oven, the texture will be dry, mealy and even crumbly–not smooth and creamy! Watch your cheesecakes carefully, make sure your oven temperature is accurate (I keep two inexpensive oven thermometers in my oven at all times), and check your cheesecakes a few minutes before they’re supposed to be done. I’d love to hear how you top or decorate yours; let me know in the comments below! Enjoy! Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
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