These mini cherry cheesecakes are a smaller version of traditional cheesecake with cherry sauce, but are a lot faster and easier to make (and a lot easier to serve!)
24-cup mini muffin tin or a 12-cup regular size muffin tin
mini cupcake liners or regular cupcake liners
ziploc bag
rolling pin
Small bowl
mixer with mixing bowl
wire cooling rack
Ingredients
1cupvanilla wafers or graham crackers
3Tablespoonsbuttermelted
18-ounce packagecream cheese, softened
⅓cupsugar
1egg
½teaspoonvanilla
2teaspoonslemon juice
1cancherry pie filling
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 375 F.
Line the muffin tins with the baking cups.
Crush the vanilla wafers with a rolling pin.
Melt the butter with low power in the microwave, usually about a minute. Or cook over low heat on the stove for about 5 minutes.
Mix the crushed wafers with the melted butter in a small bowl.
Spoon enough crushed wafers into the bottom of each baking cup to cover the bottom, and press it down to form a crust.
Mix the cream cheese with the mixer until it is smooth.
Add the sugar, egg, vanilla and lemon juice.
Mix again until smooth.
Spoon the mixture into each of the muffin tins so that each baking cup is almost full.
Bake for 15 minutes.
Cool completely in the muffin tin on a wire cooling rack.
Top the mini cheesecakes with some cherry pie filling, and serve!
Notes
Warming the cream cheese to room temperature before beating it will make it much easier to mix without getting lumps.
The cheesecake may fall in the middle after baking. This is not unusual, so don't be worried if it happens (and it gives an easy place for the topping to settle).
These cupcakes can be put in the freezer after baking (before the topping goes on) and stored for up to a month. Take them out a couple of hours before serving to let them warm to room temperature. Then top with cherry pie filling.