Best Ever Cheesecake Cupcakes
This has sour cream in it, making it a little different than the normal 1-2-3 cheesecake. Delicious!
This recipe is designed for cupcakes. If you’d rather make a cake, here is the cake version.
Best Ever Cheesecake Cupcakes
Makes: 12 cupcakes
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Ingredients
Crust:
- ¾ cup graham cracker crumbs
- 4 Tbsp butter (melted)
- 1 ½ Tbsp white sugar (more or less to taste)
Batter:
- 16 oz cream cheese (softened)
- ½ cup white sugar
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¾ tsp vanilla
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 325°. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners and grease them. Set aside. *It may seem unnecessary to grease the papers, but the cheesecakes will stick if you don't.
Crust:
- Crush the graham crackers into crumbs and melt the butter,
- In a bowl, stir together the graham crackers crumbers, butter, and 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar.
- Press the mixture into the papers – press into the bottom and up the sides. Set aside.
Batter:
- Place the softened cream cheese in a bowl then, with an electric mixer, stir on low speed until smooth and creamy (but don't whip or excessively beat it – you don't want to incorporate much air into the batter).
- Add the sugar and stir again until well-combined.
- Add the sour cream, vanilla, and salt. Stir until the ingredients are well combined, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl so there are no lumps.
- In a separate bowl, beat the eggs gently.
- With the mixer on the lowest setting or just with a spoon, gradually add the eggs, a few Tbsp at a time, and stir until just incorporated.
- Evenly divide the batter into the paper liners (using an ice cream scoop makes this easy).
- Bake in the preheated oven for 17-20 minutes or until the edges are just beginning to turn a very, very light golden brown and the centers are just set. *Do not overbake or the texture will be dry and mealy.**Watch these closely – they will turn from shiny to a matte texture when they are getting close to finished.
- Allow the cheesecakes to cool then remove them from the tins. When they are completely cool, transfer them to the fridge and chill for 2-3 hours before serving.
Notes:
Make Ahead: These can be kept, covered, in the fridge for 1-2 days or frozen for up to a month. If you freeze them, just thaw them in the fridge overnight before serving.
Optional Toppings: Whipped cream, blueberry sauce, chocolate sauce, or caramel sauce.
Tips for a moist, tender cheesecake:
- Use room temperature ingredients – this prevents lumps and helps everything to blend properly.
- Do not overmix the eggs.
- Do not open the oven door while it’s baking.
- Do not over-bake: The edges may be slightly puffed and just begun to turn light golden. The center should spring back to the touch but still be Jello-jiggly.
- Allow to cool slowly: (for cake – adjust times accordingly for cupcakes) when it’s finished baking, cool for 10 minutes on top of the stove (where it’s warm from the oven). After those 10 minutes, slide a knife between the crust and pan sides to loosen the crust – this will help it to not crack when the cake shrinks as it cools. The cool it on the counter for 1-2 hours or until near room temperature. Then cool in the fridge for another 6 hours or overnight.
This is the best cheesecake recipe I’ve made – not too rich and a very creamy texture. Because the cupcakes are smaller, they are easier to cook evenly and remove before overbaking them. I greased the papers and when I served the chilled cupcakes, they popped right out of the papers without sticking at all.
It works well to press berries into the cupcakes right after they come out of the oven. If you wait, the cupcakes are too solid to be able to press them in. And they won’t get cooked.