Mini Cheesecakes (Muffin-Pan Cheesecakes)
Twelve little cheesecakes in a muffin pan: a pressed graham crust under a smooth cream cheese, sour cream and lemon batter, baked at 325°F for 15 to 18 minutes, 30 minutes of hands-on work and about an hour start to oven-off, then chilled at least 3 hours and topped with berries or jam.
A full-size cheesecake takes most of a day. Baked in a muffin pan, the same batter becomes twelve single servings that bake in under 20 minutes and need only a few hours in the refrigerator. Wikipedia notes that even traditional cheesecakes like the Filipino ube cheesecake are made as cupcakes or bars.
This recipe is King Arthur Baking's Mini Cheesecakes, from its small-batch and mini-bake collection. It is a scaled-down New York cheesecake: graham crust, cream cheese, sour cream, lemon and eggs. King Arthur also prints its own doneness temperature: the minis are done when the centers still jiggle slightly and read at least 150°F to 155°F.
Why it works the kitchen science
Small means fast
A quarter cup of batter heats through in 15 to 18 minutes and chills in 3 hours, against more than an hour in the oven and an overnight chill for a 9-inch cake.
Medium speed, room-temperature dairy
Soft cream cheese, sour cream and eggs blend smooth without high-speed beating, so the little cakes bake up dense and flat instead of puffing and sinking.
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 350°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners or grease it lightly.
- Step 2
Stir the crumbs, butter, sugar and salt together. Press a rounded tablespoon (about 11 g) firmly into the bottom of each cup. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until set and just starting to brown. Lower the oven to 325°F and let the crusts cool while you make the batter.
- Step 3
Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and salt on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes, until smooth; don't use high speed, which beats in bubbles.
- Step 4
Stir in the sour cream, then beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl, and finally the lemon juice, until the batter is smooth.
- Step 5
Spoon or pour about 1/4 cup (64 g) of batter over each crust.
- Step 6
Bake 15 to 18 minutes at 325°F, until the edges are set, the centers still jiggle slightly and don't look fully set, and an instant-read thermometer in the center of one reads 150°F to 155°F.
- Step 7
Cool on a rack 30 to 45 minutes, then refrigerate, still in the pan and uncovered, at least 3 hours or overnight. Lift them out (run a small offset spatula around any without liners) and top with berries, jam, curd or chocolate.
Mini Cheesecakes (Muffin-Pan Cheesecakes)
Serves 12 · 12 mini cheesecakes · 1 hr total
Crust
- 3/4 cup (75 g) graham cracker crumbs (about 5 whole crackers)
- 3 tbsp (42 g) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tbsp (25 g) sugar
- A pinch of table salt
Batter
- 2 packages (8 oz each, 454 g) cream cheese, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup (149 g) sugar
- 1 tbsp (14 g) vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp table salt
- 1/4 cup (57 g) sour cream, at room temperature
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 tsp lemon juice
To serve
- Fresh berries, jam, lemon curd or melted chocolate
Method
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners or grease it lightly.
- Stir the crumbs, butter, sugar and salt together. Press a rounded tablespoon (about 11 g) firmly into the bottom of each cup. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until set and just starting to brown. Lower the oven to 325°F and let the crusts cool while you make the batter.
- Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and salt on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes, until smooth; don't use high speed, which beats in bubbles.
- Stir in the sour cream, then beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl, and finally the lemon juice, until the batter is smooth.
- Spoon or pour about 1/4 cup (64 g) of batter over each crust.
- Bake 15 to 18 minutes at 325°F, until the edges are set, the centers still jiggle slightly and don't look fully set, and an instant-read thermometer in the center of one reads 150°F to 155°F.
- Cool on a rack 30 to 45 minutes, then refrigerate, still in the pan and uncovered, at least 3 hours or overnight. Lift them out (run a small offset spatula around any without liners) and top with berries, jam, curd or chocolate.
Adapted from King Arthur Baking, "Mini Cheesecakes" (posted December 31, 2009), 12 mini cheesecakes. We follow it as written: a crust of 3/4 cup (75 g) graham crumbs, 3 tbsp (42 g) melted butter, 2 tbsp (25 g) sugar and a pinch of salt, a rounded tablespoon (about 11 g) pressed into each well and baked 8 to 10 minutes at 350°F; a batter of two 8-oz packages (454 g) cream cheese, 3/4 cup (149 g) sugar, 1 tbsp (14 g) vanilla and 1/8 tsp salt beaten 3 to 5 minutes on medium, then 1/4 cup (57 g) sour cream, 2 eggs one at a time and 2 tsp lemon juice; about 1/4 cup (64 g) batter per well; 15 to 18 minutes at 325°F until the edges are set with a slight jiggle in the center and 150°F to 155°F; 30 to 45 minutes cooling and at least 3 hours chilling. Hands-on 30 minutes, bake 23 to 28 minutes, as King Arthur lists them. King Arthur Baking. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (2)
Tips
- Paper liners make the minis lift out cleanly, King Arthur says.
- A 4-tablespoon cookie scoop portions the batter evenly.
- Store them covered in the refrigerator up to 3 days, or freeze them for longer, per King Arthur.
- Bake the crusts while you beat the batter; everything else is pantry staples, which is what makes this a weeknight recipe.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- You can't bake a cheesecake on a weeknight. Folklore: the minis are hands-on 30 minutes and out of the oven within an hour; only the chilling takes longer.
- Mini cheesecakes need a water bath. Documented as false for this recipe: King Arthur bakes them without one.
- A cheesecake is done when the center is firm. Documented as false: King Arthur says the centers should still jiggle slightly and read 150°F to 155°F; they firm as they cool.
Every other cheesecake
Crostata di Ricotta (Italian Ricotta Cheesecake Tart)
A lemon-scented shortcrust shell filled with drained whole-milk ricotta, sugar, egg yolks, orange zest, a pinch of cinnamon and dark chocolate chips, closed with a second sheet of pastry and baked low on the rack at 350°F for 70 minutes until deep golden.
Käsekuchen (German Quark Cheesecake)
A buttery shortcrust base and rim filled with low-fat quark, lemon juice and cornstarch, lightened with whipped egg whites and whipped cream, baked low and long at 320°F and cooled in the turned-off oven so it stays tall, pale and tangy.
Sernik Krakowski (Polish Lattice-Top Cheesecake)
A rich filling of triple-ground full-fat twaróg, butter, powdered sugar, egg yolks and orange zest with raisins and candied orange peel, lightened with beaten whites, baked in a sweet shortcrust under a pastry lattice at 350°F and finished with a lemon glaze.
Basque Burnt Cheesecake (San Sebastián Style)
No crust and no water bath: cream cheese, eggs, sugar, a spoonful of flour and cream stirred together by hand, poured into a crumpled parchment-lined pan and baked hot at 410°F until the top is nearly black and the center still trembles.
Japanese Soufflé Cheesecake (Cotton Cheesecake)
Cream cheese, butter and cream melted together, enriched with yolks and cake flour, folded into a firm meringue and baked slowly in a water bath at 320°F, then cooled in the oven so the tall, wobbly, cottony cake doesn't crack, with an apricot glaze.
Ube Cheesecake (Filipino Purple Yam Cheesecake)
Cream cheese beaten with sour cream, ube halaya (purple yam jam) and ube extract on a graham cracker crust, baked in a water bath at 350°F until the center is just set, cooled in the oven and topped with lavender ube whipped cream.
New York Cheesecake (Lindy's-Style, Graham Crust)
Two and a half pounds of cream cheese beaten with sugar, sour cream, lemon, vanilla and eight eggs over a graham cracker crust, blasted at 500°F for 10 minutes, then baked low at 200°F until the center reads 150°F for a tall, dense, creamy cake.
Brooklyn Sponge-Crust Cheesecake (Junior's Style)
A thin, golden sponge cake baked in the springform as the crust, covered with two pounds of cream cheese beaten with sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, eggs and heavy cream, and baked in a water bath at 350°F until the top is lightly tanned and the center still jiggles.
No-Bake Icebox Cheesecake
No eggs and no oven: cream cheese beaten with sugar, lemon juice, sour cream and vanilla bean, lightened with whipped cream, spread into a brown sugar graham crust and chilled overnight, then finished with whipped cream and fresh berries.
Original-Style Restaurant Cheesecake (Inspired by The Cheesecake Factory, Not Official)
Inspired by The Cheesecake Factory's Original, not its official recipe: a thick graham crust up the sides, a filling of a full pound of sour cream with two pounds of cream cheese baked in a water bath at 325°F, and a sweet sour cream layer baked on top for a clean white finish.
Meatballs of the World
Italian-American Meatballs
Big, tender meatballs braised for an hour in red sauce over spaghetti. The one most Americans grew up with.
Pallottine (Abruzzo Meatballs)
Tiny meatballs, smaller than a marble, tossed right through square spaghetti alla chitarra. No bread at all.
Swedish Meatballs (Köttbullar)
Small, soft meatballs browned in butter, in a cream sauce made from the same pan, with lingonberry jam on the plate.
Danish Frikadeller
Pork meatballs shaped with a spoon and fried slowly in butter, crusty outside and soft in the middle.
Königsberger Klopse
German meatballs that are never fried: poached, then served in a creamy white sauce with capers.
Spanish Albóndigas in Almond Saffron Sauce
The tapas bar classic: small meatballs in a golden sauce thickened with fried almonds and bread.
Mexican Albóndigas with Chipotle and Mint
Soft meatballs with rice and fresh mint inside, simmered in a smoky tomato and chipotle broth.
Izgara Köfte (Turkish Grilled Meatballs)
Small, flat meatballs kneaded hard, rested cold, and charred on a hot grill pan.
Lion's Head Meatballs
Big, soft pork meatballs, stirred into a sticky paste, fried to set, then braised in a savory sauce.
Chicken Tsukune
Japan's chicken meatball: kneaded sticky, grilled on skewers, glazed with sweet soy tare, dipped in egg yolk.