Ingredients
Cheesecake Crust
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup graham crackers
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Mini Cheesecakes
- Two 8-ounce blocks full-fat cream cheese, softened to room temp
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 full-fat sour cream, room temp
- 1 tbsp heavy whipping cream, room temp
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 2 large eggs, room temp
- Pinch of salt
Cherry Pie Topping
- 1 cup fresh cherries
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp almond extract (optional, but so good!)
- 1/8 tsp coconut extract (optional, but so good!)
- pinch of salt
Pie Crumble
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, cold, and grated from a cheesegrater
- 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
What to do
1. For the cheesecakes, preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 muffin pans with cupcake liners. To make the cheesecake crust, pulse grahams until they are a fine crumb. Pour in melted butter. Press about a tbsp of the crumbs into each liner. Bake crusts for 5 minutes. Remove from oven to cool.
2. For the filling: Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and sugar together on medium speed. Add sour cream, heavy cream, vanilla extract, salt, lemon zest and juice. Mix until everything is combined. Add eggs and mix just until combined. Batter will be thick. Divide/pour cheesecake batter into each liner.
3. Bake until edges are set and the centers of each cheesecake jiggle slightly. This will take about 15-20 minutes (ovens vary). Remove from oven and cool on wire rack for 1 hour. Cover and chill for at least 3 hours. Overnight preferred.
4. For the cherry topping, add cherries, sugar, salt and lemon juice to a saucepan. Cook over low/medium heat (Note: move the sugar and cherries around as the pan will get sticky until the sugar melts and the cherries release their juices) In a small bowl, mix the water and cornstarch. After the cherries have started to release liquid and cook down, add the water/cornstarch slurry. Stir and cook everything down for several minutes. The mixture will thicken. If you want your cherry mix to be thicker, you can add another round of the cornstarch and water slurry. Remove mix from the heat and add coconut, vanilla and almond extracts. Cover and store in fridge until ready for cheesecake assembly.
5. For the crumble topping, simply place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well with your hands. Place the crumble mix on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 375 for about 5 minutes. Be careful and dont walk away from your oven, this crumble cooks fast! The mix will spread, thats ok! Remove from oven when the crumble has reached a golden color. Then, take a spatula and give the mix a rough toss. Let it cool and the mix will turn crunchy.
6. Time to assemble cheesecakes. Remove cheesecakes from the fridge and top with cherries (I place about 2-3 cherries on each cheesecake). Top the cherries with a generous pinch of the pie crumble. Serve immediately and enjoy! Note: You can store the cheesecakes for up to 3-4 days in the fridge (I would wait to top the cheesecakes with pie crumble until its time to serve).
FAQ’s
Helpful tips
Here are some important Pro tips by Maude
- In order to make delicious and delicate cheesecakes, really try to make sure your ingredients are room temperature. We want the cheesecake batter to be smooth- having room temp ingredients will assist in that successful batter.
- Cheesecake is a very decadent and delicate dessert… it should be treated as such! Don’t over mix your batter, especially when adding the eggs. Don’t be afraid to mix everything, make sure there are no eggs streaks. You can do this if you fold gently!
- Before baking: Make sure that you use cupcake liners or paper in your muffin tin. This will allow for easy removal of the cheesecakes later.
- Do not overbake the cheesecakes. We want the edges set but the centers to jiggle slightly. They will firm up as they cool.
If you try this recipe, I would love your feedback! Please leave a star rating, a comment below or on the reel in Instagram! Also please share what you made and tag @eatmaudes !! Thank you so much for stopping by and making yumminess with me!