Hello! My name is Janetha and I have a little space on the internet called meals & moves.
I am thrilled (and honored!) to be posting here on Blog is the New Black today, I have admired Liz and her recipes for a very long time!
I have a dessert recipe for you today. There are three things that make this recipe fabulous:
- It is versatile! You can make these fruity, chocolaty, caramel, the sky is the limit here, folks.
- There is built in portion control! I need this.
- Most importantly, they are delicious!
Miniature White Chocolate Cheesecakes
Makes 12
Prep time: 15 minutes
Bake time: 30 minutes
Cool time: 2 hours+
Ingredients:
For the crust:
- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 TB butter, melted
For the cheesecake:
- 3 oz white chocolate (chips or bar form—you will be melting it down)
- 3 TB butter
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 4 oz plain greek yogurt OR sour cream
- 1/2 TB corn starch
- 1/2 TB vanilla bean paste OR extract
- 1 egg
Ideas for topping and/or filling:
- Oreos
- Cherry/Blueberry/Apple/Etc pie filling
- Chocolate sauce
- Salted caramel sauce
- Peanut butter
- Whipped cream
- Fresh fruit
Directions:
For the crust:
*See the variations below if you plan to make Oreo crust!
- Preheat oven to 325°. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with liners.
- Crush graham crackers into crumbs using a food processor or blender (unless you bought the pre-made crumbs, of course!)
- Combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter in a small bowl.
- Distribute the mixture evenly into the muffin liners. Press the mixture down with your fingers or the bottom of a small glass.
- Bake for 8 minutes.
- Remove and set aside until you are ready to fill the cups.
For the cheesecake:
- Reduce oven heat to 300°.
- Using a double boiler or the microwave at half power, melt the white chocolate and butter together in a small bowl.
- In a mixer or using a hand mixer, combine cream cheese and yogurt/sour cream for about one minute.
- Add the white chocolate/butter mixture and mix for another minute.
- Add the corn starch, vanilla, and egg one at a time, letting each ingredient mix into the batter well before adding the next.
- Distribute the batter evenly in the 12 cups over the baked crusts. *See variations below if you plan to fill the cheesecakes!
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven, let cool for about 15 minutes, then transfer to fridge for at least two hours, but overnight is best.
- Garnish cheesecakes however you’d like (see ideas list above!)
- Store extra cheesecakes in an airtight container for up to a week.
Variations:
- For Oreo cheesecakes, you can simply place an Oreo cookie at the base of the muffin liner and skip the crust ingredients/steps. I posted a tutorial on Oreo cheesecakes here.
- For filled cheesecakes, fill each cup (over the crust) with 2 TB of cheesecake batter. Add your filling (I like to use cherry pie filling and use 2-3 cherries per cheesecake) and then top the cups off with the remaining batter. Bake as directed.
- I like to top filled cheesecakes with whipped cream.
- For Reese’s peanut butter cup cheesecakes, use the filling method above and fill each cake with a Reese’s peanut butter cup instead of pie filling.
- For holidays, use food coloring to color the cheesecake batter. I have done green cheesecakes on St. Patrick’s day and green & red cheesecakes on Christmas.
Step-By-Step Photo Tutorial:
For the crust:
*See the variations below if you plan to make Oreo crust!
Preheat oven to 325°. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with liners.
Crush graham crackers into crumbs using a food processor or blender (unless you bought the pre-made crumbs, of course!)
Combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter in a small bowl.
Distribute the mixture evenly into the muffin liners. Press the mixture down with your fingers or the bottom of a small glass.
Bake for 8 minutes.
Remove and set aside until you are ready to fill the cups.
For the cheesecake:
Reduce oven heat to 300°.
Using a double boiler or the microwave at half power, melt the white chocolate and butter together in a small bowl.
In a mixer or using a hand mixer, combine cream cheese and yogurt/sour cream for about one minute.
Add the white chocolate/butter mixture and mix for another minute.
Add the corn starch, vanilla, and egg one at a time, letting each ingredient mix into the batter well before adding the next.
Distribute the batter evenly in the 12 cups over the baked crusts. *See variations below if you plan to fill the cheesecakes!
Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven, let cool for about 15 minutes, then transfer to fridge for at least two hours, but overnight is best.
Garnish cheesecakes however you’d like (see ideas list above!)
This recipe really is so versatile! Have fun playing around with it!
Thanks, Liz, for having me today. For more recipes (mainly healthy, but some not so healthy!) head over to meals & moves.
xo. Janetha G.
