August's Cupcake of the Month: Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

I was looking for something quick and easy to whip up in the waning days of August to keep this "of the month" business on track. I'd never made a cheesecake before, so I had skipped over the various cheesecake cupcakes in Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat. But in my search for simplicity I noticed the short ingredient list and sparse instructions for how to make Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes, so I thought I'd make my cheesecake debut.


If I had known cheesecake making was this easy, I would have made a habit of it long ago. Certainly the small scale makes it even easier, as there's less worry that the center will be undercooked while the edges become overcooked. Also the paper liners alleviate any concerns about getting the cheesecake out of the pan in a presentable fashion. The single Oreo crust is both simple to execute and handy for eating. And if all that weren't enough, they're also delicious. I am definitely going to make these little cheesecakes again.

The recipe says it yields 30 cupcakes. I easily go thirty two, and could have made 34 if I hadn't eaten those two Oreos the night before. Now, the trick with this yield is that the instructions say to refrigerate the finished cupcakes in their tins until it's time to serve them. Well, that means you need sufficient tins for 30 cupcakes AND sufficient space in your refrigerator for said multitude of muffin tins. I kinda looked twice at the picture that accompanies the recipe because it shows a six-cup muffin tin. I thought maybe these were mega-muffins, but no, they were standard muffins. But if you're going to make 30 of these bad boys, you need two twelve-cup muffin tins and at least another six-cup muffin tin. So the recipe is subliminally trying to get you to buy a six-cup muffin tin, which is something no one needs. I threw caution to the wind and took a dozen little cheesecakes out of their tin and put them on a rack to cool so I could reuse the tin for the remaining cupcakes. They turned out just fine. The only warning I would give to anyone else daring to make this recipe with only two (or dare I suggest one) muffin tins, is that you might want to underfill the cups so it's easier to pinch the top edge of the paper liner to lift them out while they're still not completely cool. If they're super full you're likely to smoosh them more.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat

Ingredients:

• 42 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped
  
• 2 lbs cream cheese, room temperature
  
• 1 C sugar
  
• 1 t pure vanilla extract
  
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
  
• 1 C sour cream
  
• Pinch of salt
  

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 275. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place one whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate in tins at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

Previous Cupcakes of the Month:
January's Cupcake of the Month: Streusel Cupcakes
February's Cupcake of the Month: Martha's Meyer Lemon Cupcakes
March's Cupcake of the Month: Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes
April's Cupcake of the Month: Tres Leches Cupcakes
May's Cupcake of the Month: Strawberry Cupcakes
June's Cupcake of the Month: Flock of Sheep Cupcakes
July's Cupcake of the Month: Lavender-Iced Brownie Cupcakes

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