On Christmas Day, Mr. Handsome and I opened gifts and had a relaxing morning and afternoon at home before heading over to another couple’s house for dinner. They cooked ham and sides, and we brought Caesar salad and dessert. The hostess has celiac disease and is gluten-free, so I settled on cheesecake for the dessert. (My cheesecake recipe can easily be converted to gluten-free just by using gluten-free cookies for the crust.)
Rather than make an entire cheesecake for four people, I decided to bake mini cheesecakes instead. That way, we could easily split up the leftovers between our two households. The mini cheesecakes turned out great and were easy to prepare. My recipe is below. Do you like cheesecake? If so, what is your favorite flavor? Feel free to experiment with different flavors using this recipe.
Mini Cheesecakes
Ingredients
- 20 creme-filled sandwich cookies, crushed Chocolate or vanilla Oreos or similar work well
- 16 ox cream cheese
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cup sour cream
Instructions
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Firmly press crushed cookies into muffin pans lined with 18 liners (about 1-1/2 Tbsp per liner.) When you crush the cookies, make sure to crush the entire cookie. The creme filling helps the crumbs stick together.
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Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add sugar and almond extract, and beat again until fluffy.
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Add eggs one at a time, and then add sour cream. Beat until smooth.
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Spoon cream cheese mixture into muffin pans.
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Bake 20 minutes at 350 (until cheesecakes are firm). Remove from oven, and allow pans to sit 5 minutes.
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Gently remove cheesecakes (with muffin liners) from muffin pans, and place on a cookie sheet. After sitting out for a few minutes, the centers will no longer be as puffed up as they were when they first came out of the oven, but this is to be expected.
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Cool cheesecakes in refrigerator for 1 hour, and then gently remove from muffin liners. Serve plain or covered in fruit or melted chocolate.
Recipe Notes
To make this recipe gluten-free, use gluten-free cookies.