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Easy Mini Cheesecakes in 5 different flavors: This simple cheesecake recipe makes 12 perfect mini cheesecake bites, in virtually any flavor you want! Learn how to make these easily with different flavors – they’re creamy and perfect.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Today I’m bringing you lots of Mini Cheesecakes – these are easy to make in a muffin pan in so many different flavors. You can use whatever crust you want and I’m showing you lots of variations – graham cracker crust, oreo crust, even using cookies as a crust! The filling is silky with a creamy texture and they’re easy to flavor and top different ways to satisfy every appetite and holiday – plus you can make them ahead and freeze them! This is the perfect mini cheesecake recipe.
Ingredients Needed
- The basic crust combines graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and brown sugar or use my Oreo cookie crust recipe for a crushed chocolate cookie crust.
- You can also use Oreos or similar sized cookies as the crust (shortbread rounds, vanilla wafers etc) – no crushing needed!
- The basic cheesecake filling recipe starts with cream cheese, egg, sugar, sour cream, and vanilla extract.
- Flavoring – just add flavors listed below and in the recipe for different tastes.
- Toppings – Depending on what kind of cheesecake you’re making you can use lemon curd, caramel sauce, strawberry sauce, hot fudge sauce, chocolate ganache, candy, or fresh fruit!
How to make Mini Cheesecakes
- Line muffin pans with cupcake liners for easy removal.
- Decide on your crust. To make graham cracker crust, mix all ingredients with a fork and press into the bottom. It’s easiest to crush cookies in a food processor, but you can also use a rolling pin in a large bag. Otherwise, place a cookie in the bottom of each liner.
- Mix cream cheese, sour cream, and sugar until smooth. Mix in egg and vanilla and any flavorings.
- Divide into muffin pans using a cookie scoop or ice cream scoop and bake until puffed and no longer glossy. Cool to room temperature then chill at least 4 hours.
- Top as desired.
Favorite Mini Cheesecake Flavors
- Mini Lemon Cheesecakes: Lemon is my absolute favorite, obviously. I love pairing lemon cheesecake with a Golden Oreo crust because the flavors compliment each other nicely. Feel free to use the plain cheesecake recipe and then just top with lemon curd, but you can also add some fresh lemon zest to the cheesecake batter. It amps up the flavor of the lemon!
- Mini Oreo Cheesecakes: These have an Oreo crust and the basic cheesecake filling full of chopped Oreos.
- Candy IN Cheesecake Bites: You can put a whole mini cup in the cheesecake, on top of the Oreo crust, or you can chop up some peanut butter cups to mix with the batter. I can’t wait to try Milky Way or Kit Kat cheesecakes!
- Top with cherry pie filling or blueberry pie filling.
Expert Tips
- Make sure your cream cheese is room temperature before starting to avoid lumps. It’s also best if your eggs and sour cream are room temperature too.
- Don’t use low fat cream cheese!
- You can use digestive biscuits in place of the graham crackers.
- It’s best to use a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment to ensure you’ll have no lumps.
Storage
- These are perfect to make ahead of time because they need to chill several hours or overnight.
- Store cheesecakes in the fridge in an airtight container.
- To freeze, place in a single layer in a freezer bag. It’s best to freeze them without toppings.
FAQs
How do you keep mini cheesecakes from sinking?
Be sure not to overmix, don’t overfill the muffin liners, and don’t over bake the cheesecakes.
How do you know when mini cheesecakes are done baking?
They’ll be slightly puffed and no longer wet-looking.
Do mini cheesecakes need a water bath?
No, cheesecake bites will bake just fine without a water bath because the amount of batter is so small.
Easy Mini Cheesecake Recipe
Easy Mini Cheesecake Recipe – this simple cheesecake recipe makes 12 perfect mini cheesecakes and can be made so many ways! Lemon, Oreo, S’mores, Fruit, Peanut Butter Cup – any cheesecake you want in no time at all.
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Chill time 4 hours
Total Time 4 hours 40 minutes
Ingredients
Basic Graham Crust:
- 1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs
- 3 tablespoons (38g) brown sugar
- 5 tablespoons (70g) unsalted butter melted
- *See Note for additional crust ideas*
Basic Cheesecake Filling:
- 8 ounces (226g) cream cheese room temperature
- 1 large egg room temperature
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (62g) sour cream room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- *See Note for additional filling and topping ideas*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- Make the graham cracker crust: Stir together graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter. Press about 2-2 1/2 tablespoons of the mixture into the bottom of each muffin liner and press to compact.
- Beat room temperature cream cheese with a hand mixer until fluffy. Beat in room temperature sour cream. Beat in egg, sugar, and vanilla extract. (Room temperature ingredients are a must to avoid lumps!)
- Evenly divide (about 2-2 1/2 tablespoons each) cheesecake among crusts. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until they just begin to brown. Cool completely and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.
- Serve plain or topped with whipped cream and berries. See notes for additional serving suggestions.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
- Crust: instead of a graham cracker crust you can use 12 Oreos (any flavor). Just place them (whole) into each cupcake liner and they will form the crust.
- Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecakes: use an Oreo cookie for the crust. Chop up 6 regular sized peanut butter cups and sprinkle them into the batter in step 3. Alternately, use 12 Reese’s Minis and place one on top of each Oreo before dividing filling. Top cooled cheesecakes with chocolate sauce and more peanut butter cups.
- Oreo Cheesecakes: use an Oreo cookie for the crust. Chop 4 additional Oreos finely and stir into the cheesecake batter before step 4. Continue as directed.
- Lemon Cheesecakes: use either a graham cracker crust or a Golden Oreo cookie for the crust. Optional: add 1 teaspoon lemon zest to the batter in step 3. Top cooled cheesecakes with lemon curd and fruit.
- Plain: Top plain cheesecakes with hot fudge, caramel, whipped cream, or pie filling.
Recipe Nutrition
Serving: 1plain cheesecake | Calories: 190kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 50mg | Sodium: 130mg | Sugar: 11g
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
**Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!**
I tried this recipe for the first time last year for the holidays and it was so great! Very easy, simple and delicious! It was the perfect bite size amount for my sweet tooth!
Thank you for sharing!
I made this recipe for my first actual baked cheesecake and I’m impressed! The flavor was amazing, the amount was perfect, the crust was just right. I’ll be making these often!!
Great recipe – Made a variety for a friends Birthday – Made two batches and did cookies in the bottom for some, and the others with graham cracker crust. The favorite was the basic cheesecake with lemon curd dolloped on top from a can of lemon for pie recipe with homemade “stabilized” whipped topping for the top with some lemon zest for top. Another favorite was turtle cheesecake. Just a dollop of fudge from a jar for ice cream and some pecans on top, blueberry with whipped topping on top and so on…. You can do so many versions with this recipe and it’s a no fail recipe. Easy but great presentation!
Thanks for this recipe. If I don’t have sour cream can I use plain yogurt
Yes
Wonderful recipe. I’ve been using this for 3-4 years now. I usually top with lemon curd. I get requests for these all the time.
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