Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

I can't believe that I haven't shared this recipe with you yet! Because this recipe is my specialty. This is the one that started it all. This is the first desert I made for Game Night, and it was a hit.

And the best part is, it is so easy, and it's a total crowd pleaser!

Not to mention, it's Oreos, and it's cheesecake. What could be better?

I decided to make this batch Halloween-y, because Paige-y Paige gave me this wonderful batch of Halloween Oreos, and I only ate a few of them before using them in the cupcakes. See how much self-control I have?

Your ingredients: Oreos, sour cream, sugar, vanilla, eggs, and cream cheese

First, line all your muffin pans with cupcake liners and put a whole Oreo into the bottom of each one, like this.

Now, beat your cream cheese, add in the sugar and beat, add in the vanilla and beat, then the eggs, then the sour cream. At this point it looks very cheesecake-ish and delicious.

Stir in the chopped-up Oreos by hand. Mine looks orange because of a little food coloring magic, but yours will look white with delicious Oreo flecks.

Spoon the mixture evenly into your cupcake liners and bake for 22 minutes, until the middle doesn't jiggle. Take them out and them cool on a wire rack.

Look how cute and orange they are!

I am going to give you the recipe halved, because the first time I made this I wound up with an obscene amount of these, like 40 cupcakes. So I almost always half the recipe, but sometimes it messes with my brain trying to look at the full recipe and half it. Let's just say that it doubles well- really well.

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

Makes about 18 cupcakes

From Handle the Heat

1 lb. cream cheese, softened

2 eggs, lightly beaten, room temperature

24 Oreos, 18 whole and 6 coarsely chopped

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

dash of salt

Preheat your oven to 275°. Line standard muffin tins with cupcake liners, put a whole Oreo in the bottom of each one.

Beat the cream cheese until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary. Add the sugar a little at a time, beat until combined. Add the vanilla, beat until combined. Pour in the eggs a little at a time until combined. Beat in the sour cream and salt until combined.

Stir in the chopped cookies by hand. Pour the mixture evenly into cupcake liners. Bake for 22 minutes, until the middles don't jiggle. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool.

Nutella Cheesecake Cupcakes

Look, I have to tell you something. Last week I tried to make S'mores Cookies, and it was an epic, EPIC fail. It was... awful. It was the most disappointing and saddening thing that's ever happened to me in the kitchen. So this week, it was with great trepidation that I went back into the kitchen.

On an unrelated note, I just discovered Nutella. I know, right, I'm about 1,000 years late. But I think that when everybody was all, "I'm really into Nutella," I said I didn't like it because I wanted to be hip by being unhip. Because that's how I roll apparently. But guess what?

NUTELLA IS DELICIOUS. So I went back to every Nutella recipe I'd ever overlooked, and when I saw the word "cheesecake," I stopped. And here they are.

 

They are wonderful.

Your ingredients: Cream cheese, Sour cream, Butter, Graham Cracker crumbs, sugar, eggs, Nutella, condensed milk, and vanilla (oops).

Melt your butter, and mix it in with the graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Press about a spoonful into the bottom of your cupcake liners and bake for 5 minutes.

Then, mix together your cream cheese and condensed milk, add the eggs and vanilla, then the sour cream, until it's all smooth, like this.

Pour it on top of the crust. Add about 1/2 tablespoon of Nutella into each one, then swirl with a knife. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cheesecake is set and they look like....

this! Then just let them cool and refrigerate. Yummm.

Look at this guy! The reason I didn't post last week is because (of the cookie fail and) also I was at DragonCon! I bought him at one of the dealer booths because I fell in love with him on sight. His name is Mister Food, and I think his benevolent prescence is going to forestall any more baking disasters in my kitchen.

Nutella Cheesecake Cupcakes

Adapted from Tasty Kitchen

2 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs

4 tbsp. sugar

4 tbsp. butter, melted

2 14 oz. cans sweetened condensed milk

2 tbsp. vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 cup Nutella

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.

In a bowl, mix together with a fork the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter. Press about a tablespoon of the mixture into the bottom of each of the cupcake liners. Bake for 5 minutes, then set aside to cool.

In an electric mixer, mix the cream cheese and condensed milk together until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla, then the sour cream, and mix well. Pour the batter evenly into the cupcake liners. Dollop about 1/2 tablespoon of Nutella into each one and swirl with a fork.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cheesecake filling doesn't jiggle too much. Cool in the muffin pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool for another 10 mintues. Refrigerate at least 30 mintues before serving.

Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars

This recipe is so easy. It's so easy you'll have time to do all the dishes while it's baking. Because you know what else is great about it? It hardly makes any dishes.

I know, I know. It's another bar recipe, and it's another cheesecake recipe. What can I say? I have a serious problem. But that problem results in delicious recipes to share with you, so quit your complaining.

Just kidding! Sorry, some leftover teacher sass from this morning. But I'm not kidding about how easy and delicious these are. So make them! They're going with our Game Night Mexicana, including a build-your-own taco bar and sangria.

Ingredients: Cream cheese, crescent rolls, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla extract, butter, and honey

First, roll out one package of the crescent rolls into the bottom of a 9x13. You can use a rolling pin if you want it to be perfect, but that's not how I roll so I just smushed it in with my fingers. Worked like a charm.

Beat the cream cheese, 1/2 cup of sugar, and vanilla extract until it's smooth. Mmm. Spread that deliciousness onto the crescent rolls, then unroll the other crescent rolls on top of that. Repeat the smushing until it's in place. Then take a break and lick the cream cheese spoon.

Mix together the butter, sugar, and cinnamon and dollop the mixture on top of the crescent rolls. Now listen, very carefully. Please do not lick these spoons. It will be so incredibly tempting, and you know me well enough by now to know that I would never stop you unless it was important. And it is really, really important to get every bit of buttery-sugary goodness onto your bars. You'll thank me later.

Now just bake it until the crescent rolls puff up, about 30 minutes. Take it out and immediately drizzle with honey. Bask in how good your kitchen smells while the bars cool.

And then eat them up. Because they are SO SO GOOD. 

Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars
Adapted from My Baking Heart
2 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 8 oz. cans Crescent rolls
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. cinnamon
honey for drizzling

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9x13 baking pan.

Unroll one of the tubes of crescent rolls and press into the bottom of the pan.

Beat the cream cheese, 1/2 cup of sugar, and the vanilla until smooth. Spread the cream cheese mixture over the crescent rolls. Unroll the second tube of crescent rolls and lay it over the cream cheese mixture.

In a bowl, mix together 3/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Dollop the mixture over the crescent rolls. Bake for 30 minutes, until the crescent rolls start to puff up. Take out and immediately drizzle with honey.

Brown Sugar Apple Cheesecake Bars

So, the Husband and I have this friend:

See him there, in the sweet velvet jacket? His name is Brandon, and he has an awesome band called Stateside Menace. You should check them out. He also loves Futurama, and making fun of me. In a nice way.

Anyway, his birthday was this this week, and he loves food. He LOVES food, like a lot. I've never seen anybody get as excited about good food as this guy.

And so, for Game Night this week I knew that I had to top myself with the Desert of the Century. He really wanted churros, but they were not feasible so I told him I would surprise him.

This desert terrified me. You know I love cheesecake. So does he. But I've never made a cheesecake like this. This is the most cook I've ever been. I altered this recipe so much it's practically unrecognizable. I'll warn you- there's a lot of crazy steps in this recipe that I was skeptical of. But you have to go with it.

Just go with it. Because this thing doesn't look like much, but when you taste it--oh, when you taste it. You will forget all about your hard work.

Your ingredients: Sugar, Light Brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, apples, apple cider (I couldn't find apple cider, had to use apple juice), cinnamon, sour cream, heavy cream, and gingersnap cookies

First, process your gingersnap cookies into crumbs. And be aware that these cookies are not going down without a fight. I've never seen my poor food processor work that hard. It's like, if you asked a Gingersnap, "Do you want to be a delicious, crumby crust?" he would say "No!" like a two-year old throwing a fit.

Mix in your cinnnamon, brown sugar, and butter until your crumbs are moist. Press them into the bottom of your foiled 9x13 and put it in the freezer while your oven preheats. Once your oven is ready, wrap the bottom and sides of your pan in foil and bake that crust for 12-14 minutes, until it's browned and set.

While it's cooling, cook your apples. Melt 2 tbsp. of your butter and cook half the apples for about 3 minutes, throwing a tablespoon of brown sugar and cooking until they're browned. Put on a plate and repeat with the other half.

Once your apples are cooked, let them cool while you make the filling. Start by beating the cream cheese until it's really smooth. Add in the sugars and beat until combined. Add in the cider, vanilla, and cinnamon and beat. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beat one minute between each egg. Finally, beat the sour cream and heavy cream in until everything's smooth and there are no lumps. It looks delicious.

Pour 1/3 of the filling onto the crust, then layer in the apples. If you have too many, you can put the rest on the top once it cools. But don't weigh down your filling. Pour the rest of the filling on top.

Then, follow the baking instructions below. It's a little complicated, but totally, totally worth it. And then, maybe later, play a board game that looks like this:

Brown Sugar Apple Cheesecake Bars

Adapted heavily from Joy the Baker

Crust:

60 Gingersnap cookies

3 tbsp. light brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

8 tbsp. butter, melted

Apples:

4 tbsp. butter

3 Golden Delicious or Fuji Apples, sliced thin

2 tbsp. light brown sugar

Filling:

1 1/2 lbs. cream cheese, room temperature

3/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar

6 tbsp. sugar

3 tbsp. apple cider

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tsp. cinnamon

3 eggs

3/4 sour cream

1/3 cup heavy cream

Crust:

Line a 9x13 pan with foil with some overhanging on either end. Put the gingersnaps in a food processor or blender and pulse until the cookies are crumbs. Add in the sugar and cinnamon and pulse until mixed. Add in the butter and pulse until the crumbs are moistened.

Put the crumbs into the pan and press them into the bottom of the pan. Put the pan into the freezer while you preheat the oven. Turn the oven on to 350°. Once it's ready, take the pan out of the freezer and wrap the bottom of the pan in aluminum foil and up the sides. Put it into the oven and bake it for about 14-15 minutes, until the crust it set and browned.

 

 

Set the crust aside to cool while you make the apples. Leave the oven on.

Apples:

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet. Once it's not foaming anymore, add half the apples and let them cook for 3 minutes, turning them once. Sprinkle them with 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar and cook until they're browned.

 

 

Spoon onto a plate and repeat with the other half of the apples. Set the apples aside to cool while you make the filling.

Filling:

Beat the cream cheese for 4 minutes, until it is light and fluffy. Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes. Add the vanilla extract, the apple cider, and the cinnamon.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating one minute between each egg. Finally, beat in the sour cream and the heavy cream. Make sure the mixture is smooth and there are no lumps.

 

 

Pour one third of the filling onto the crust. Layer in the apples- not too many, you don't want to weigh down your filling. Then pour the rest of the filling on top. Place the 9x13 into a roasting pan and fill the roasting pan with boiling water, so that it comes halfway up the side of the 9x13.

 

 

Bake for a little over an hour, until only the middle jiggles. Cut up and serve! And take a break, you deserve it.

Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

Do you remember last week when I told you about my love affair with Oreos? Well, the only desert item that I love almost as much is cheesecake.

Delicious, creamy cheesecake.

Very soon I will share with you the recipe for Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes, the most wonderful thing ever invented.

But today I'm here to tell you about these Blueberry Cheesecake Bars. What could be better than putting my favorite fruit (besides watermelon of course) into cheesecake, and cutting it into bite-able bars?

Pretty much nothing.

Your ingredients: flour, sugar, powdered sugar, cream cheese, cornstarch, eggs, vanilla, an orange, and blueberries

First, put your blueberries in a small saucepan with the cornstarch, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and the orange juice you squeezed from your orange. Turn on medium high heat until the mixture starts to bubble, then take it off the heat and set it aside.

For the crust, mix together your butter and 2 cups of flour. Add the powdered sugar and mix until it's crumbly-looking.

Press it into the bottom of a greased or foil-lined 9x13 and bake for 20 minutes.

For the filling, cream together the cream cheese and 1/2 cup of sugar. Add a tablespoon of flour, then the eggs, then the vanilla, then the orange zest. Mix well.

When the crust comes out, pour the cheesecake mixture over the hot crust. Grab the bluberries and spoon them onto the cheesecake mixture. Use a knife or a spoon to swirl them in evenly. Bake for 20 more minutes.

And then you get this! Mmmmm, cheesecake. How I love you.

Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

From Baked Bree

For the blueberries:

1 cup blueberries

2 tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. cornstarch

1/4 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice

For the crust:

2 cups flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 cup butter, room temperature and cut into chunks

For the cheesecake filling:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 tsp. orange zest

1 tbsp. flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350°. Put the blueberries, cornstarch, sugar, and orange juice in a small saucepan on medium heat until the mixture starts to bubble. Take off the heat and set aside.

For the crust, mix together the flour, powdered sugar, and butter until its crumbly. Press into a greased or lined 9x13 and bake for 20 minutes, until it is a little brown around the edges.

For the filling, cream together the cream cheese and sugar. Add the flour, then the eggs, then the vanilla and orange zest. Mix well. Pour mixture over hot crust once it comes out of the oven.

Spoon the blueberries into the cheesecake mixture, use a knife or a spoon to swirl them around evenly. Bake for 20 more minutes, until the filling is set. Keep refrigerated. Enjoy!