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Easy Mini Cheesecakes in 5 different flavors: This simple cheesecake recipe makes 12 perfect mini cheesecake bites in any flavor you want! These are creamy and smooth with the perfect crust – I’m giving tons of flavor ideas below!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
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! I’ve been making this recipe in different ways for years! This is the perfect mini cheesecake recipe.
Ingredients Needed
- Graham Cracker Crust: The basic crust combines graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and brown sugar. or use my for a crushed chocolate cookie crust.
- Cookie Crust: Use my Oreo cookie crust recipe for a ground cookie crust OR use full size Oreos or similar sized cookies as the crust (shortbread rounds, vanilla wafers etc) – no crushing needed!
- Cream Cheese and Sour Cream: Use full fat and make sure they’re room temperature to avoid lumps.
- Sugar: Granulated Sugar to sweetened the cheesecake.
- Egg: You need a large egg and make sure it’s room temperature to avoid lumps.
- 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
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Ahhh! Very true! I’ve been baking for months now and I got way bigger than I used to be! Haha My friends just couldn’t believe it.
I always tell them that if what I’m baking weren’t that good I would never get fat from em. Haha
Btw, I love love cheesecakes and seeing this today makes me wanna run into my kitchen! Haha I wonder if there’s something I can use inplace of sour cream? I have everything now except the sour cream 🙁 don’t have yogurt too.
Right? My mom always said “don’t trust a skinny chef” LOL!
Wow! That looks delicious & seems so easy to make. Thanks for sharing .
Dorothy, the mini cheesecakes look scrumptious! Can you freeze them?
Rather than dieting I recommend making lifestyle changes by slowly one thing at a time eliminating unhealthy life choices and adding healthier practices (like getting enough sleep). The first year, I gave up drinking soft drinks for Lent and have stayed off of them since then. I have added one more change each year since then and it is slowly working. The way I’m doing it is not fast but I’m hoping it will be permanent. Good luck with your weight loss goal! Go with what choices you can live with!
Yes you can totally freeze them, plain. Some of the flavors too (but nothing with a topping like the lemon curd). Enjoy!
The struggle is real! It’s so hard to be a food blogger and try to lose weight! I start my little healthier eating/exercise plan tomorrow, and all I want are these cheesecakes!
I’m just trying one thing at a time…last week I went without bread and crackers (except yesterday, lol). It was easier than I thought…I’ll do that for a week or two then move onto something else!
My family started Whole 30 on March 1st (even bought the cookbook beforehand); my husband is still on it. After 3 days, my daughter and I couldn’t take it anymore. We are switching to Weight Watchers, which is sustainable and healthy and reasonable. I love that you made these small desserts – how handy to enjoy one of my favorite desserts but not have too much around to tempt me.
Yeah my husband is good at Whole 30 but there is NO way I can do it! WW works if you follow it, Mel did that too.
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