Cheesecake Cupcakes

We'll use Vanilla Wafer cookies (Nabisco's Nilla Wafers is the most commonly available brand) as a bottom crust for these cheesecake cupcakes. To make a dozen cheesecakes, gather up one pound (455 g) cream cheese, 2 large eggs, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, and 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar. The cheesecakes can be topped with whatever you like - maraschino cherries, streusel, Hershey's kisses. I like to use mandarin orange slices.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Place the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl and beat on medium-low speed until creamy.

Starting with softened cream cheese will speed up the process, but even cold cream cheese will eventually beat in with the eggs to form a creamy mixture.

Place cupcake or muffin liners (also called baking cups) into each cup of a muffin pan. While preparing these pictures and reading up on other recipes, I read a recipe that recommended getting aluminum cupcake liners but removing the paper layer (aluminum muffin liners have an inner paper lining placed within the aluminum liner). I decided to take this opportunity to test out different liners: aluminum with paper insert, aluminum without paper, and paper muffin liners. Aluminum with paper is what I recommend (more on why later).

Place a vanilla wafer cookie into the bottom of each muffin liner.

Pour the cheesecake batter into each muffin liner. Fill to about 3/4 full. The batter should be sufficient for twelve cupcakes with possibly a little left over. Top the individual cheesecakes.

Bake the cheesecake cupcakes for about 15 minutes in the preheated 350°F (175°C) oven. As soon as the cheesecakes are set, remove the muffin pan and let it cool for a couple minutes on a wire rack. After the pan has cooled a bit, pull out each of the cheesecakes and let them completely cool before refrigerating.

While pulling out the baking cups from the muffin pan, I realized that the aluminum liners made it easy to lift up and pull out. The cupcakes lined with only paper cups were a bit more difficult to grasp and lift up due to the less rigid nature of the liner.

However, the paper lined cupcakes peeled easily while the aluminum only cup had a tendency to stick to the cheesecake. Sometimes while peeling the aluminum lining off, it would tear the cupcake. So, for the best of both worlds, use the aluminum baking cups with the paper lining left inside.

After chilling, the cheesecakes will keep for a couple days - ready for a quick snack or for delivery to your next get-together.