- Have you been searching for the perfect party food
that you can secretly hoard to yourself,
and gorge on when no one's looking?
Mini cheesecake recipe, coming up on "Preppy Kitchen,"
where I, John Kanell, teach you how to make
delicious, homemade dishes
to share with your family and friends.
These snacks are gonna hop right into your mouth,
and they cook up in a flash, so let's get started.
We're starting off with the crust, and I'll be using
graham crackers and toasted pecans,
but you could use any cookie that you enjoy.
It could be literally any cookie, they all work.
16 graham crackers, half a cup of toasted pecans.
Toasting really makes a big difference to nuts,
it makes them more aromatic,
and just all-around more delicious.
A quarter cup of sugar, and yes,
you can kind of like reduce, or even omit this if you want.
Half a teaspoon of cinnamon.
And this is optional too.
Really, this is any crust you wanna do.
Pulse, pulse, pulse.
(food processor grinds)
Okay.
I'm gonna open this up and drizzle some butter in.
So I have four tablespoons of butter,
but you can always add a little bit more if you need.
It's really just a binding agent.
So pulse that up.
(food processor grinds)
And now I'm gonna drizzle in the rest.
(food processor grinds)
If you don't have a food processor,
just mince the nuts, like really (clicks tongue quickly),
and then crush the cookies or the graham crackers
in a plastic bag, and mix with butter in a bowl.
It's really easy, you don't have to use this,
but it's just so efficient.
Except for the dishes part.
You have to clean this now.
Little taste.
Delicious.
All right, this gets set aside until we need it.
See you in a bit.
I'm adding one pound, or 16 ounces
of room temperature cream cheese
right into the bowl of my stand mixer.
If you don't have a stand mixer,
go ahead and just use a big bowl
with electric hand mixer beater things.
We're gonna whip this up,
and let it go for three or four minutes.
Just beat it.
You want it nice and smooth.
(mixer whirs)
A little bit of mixing later, and this is nice and creamy,
perfectly smooth, ready for the sugar and salt.
I'm just gonna toss the salt in there, no one cares.
But the sugar.
I'm gonna add this on low, and let it cascade in there.
Let it mix it up, but let it get really nice,
smooth, fluffy, incorporated.
You'll see the change in texture pretty quickly.
(mixer whirs)
Now that the sugar is nicely incorporated,
I can add in the sour cream.
Just pop it in right here.
You know I love a quarter cup of sour cream,
but this time it's a third of a cup.
Someone suggested that would be
one of my apron catch phrases I loved. (laughs)
Quarter cup of sour cream.
All right, so mix that in, and while it's mixing,
we'll divide some eggs.
(mixer whirs)
One egg.
So here, shh.
So, I need to have two egg yolks now,
but it just so happens that right after this,
I'm making another recipe, and it needs egg whites.
So I'm gonna reserve carefully these whites
and use them shortly.
Gonna wash my hands, but you mix.
(mixer whirs)
While that goes, feel free to add in a splash of vanilla.
It's a healthy teaspoon.
(mixer whirs)
This is looking good, but what I will do
is scrape the bowl done, because there's all sorts
of unmixed nonsense at the bottom here,
which I do not appreciate.
I'm gonna let this mix, and while it's mixing,
I'll find some cupcake papers, because I need some.
This is well-mixed.
Don't go crazy.
One final stir.
Let's start assembling.
So before we assemble everything and pop this into the oven,
I wanna say, this makes a big batch of mini cheesecakes.
However, here's the deal.
If you're making them, why not make more for later,
and keep them in the freezer?
These are the best thing to have in your freezer,
for an anytime treat.
Trust and believe.
Spoon in a generous tablespoon of the crust,
although, could be a stingy tablespoon too,
it's really just to kind of give the cheesecake
some definition from the bottom.
Some people love the crust,
and some people are not into it at all.
And my mom will sometimes make this with no crust at all.
Wild and crazy.
All right, once the first batch is ready,
use a shot glass or anything kind of small and flat
to press the edge down.
And if you're gonna get kind of antsy about the edge,
you might wanna flick it down
so it doesn't crawl up the sides,
if you wanna see more of the cheesecake on the side.
I don't know if that's you.
You can let me know in the comments
if you're that person.
It's always neat to learn about people
from the comments they leave,
because I might think that I go
double Virgo crazy on things,
but for some people, doesn't even scratch the surface,
and for others, it's way too much.
Okay, tampa, tampa, tampa.
And now we're gonna spoon the cheesecake mixture
into this situation here.
Try and be neat.
I'm using an ice cream scoop,
and these guys will puff up and deflate.
It leaves you a nice well inside,
for either a cherry fruit filling,
ooh, a blueberry fruit filling,
if you wanna make that from scratch, is amazing.
That's what I grew up eating.
Or you can just pile it high with whipped cream
and top with fresh berries,
which is what I often like to do.
These are super dangerous to have around the house,
because they are so snackable.
You'll always be like (lips smack).
Pop it into your mouth, it's one or two bites,
and you keep moving like nothing happened.
Like, "I don't know, what are you talking about?"
So I'm calling these mini cheesecakes,
and I'm using a cupcake or muffin tin,
but you could use mini springform pans as well,
and make actual, more sizeable,
I don't know if this is one serving, seems kinda big.
But I'm only saying that because I'm on camera. (laughs)
I would never eat this much cheesecake,
that's more than one serving.
Lies, (laughing) the lies.
Ah, I'm so gratified when I spoon cheesecake batter in,
and there are no lumps.
One of my very most favorite things.
So I had just enough batter for two dozen mini cupcakes,
which in my mind, is a party.
These are gonna go into the oven at 350
for about 15 to 18 minutes,
and lemme tell you, if you're bothered
by there being a rise and a fall,
you want them to be flatter,
bake them at a lower temperature for longer,
but I'm not bothered by that,
because they're gonna be topped
with whipped cream and berries, no one's gonna care.
(laughs) That's just my opinion,
but if you do care, go low and slow.
(mixer whirs)
Okay, I just whipped up a batch of delicious whipped cream
while these were baking, and you can click up here
for my whipped cream recipe,
if you're not used to making it at home.
You know, whipped cream is my weakness.
Ah, so good.
I'm spooning some of this whipped cream into a piping bag,
fitted with an 846 attachment,
but you could totally just pop a dollop
of whipped cream onto these babies.
No piping necessary.
And I wanna show you what they look like
after coming out of the oven, and after cooling.
I actually baked a couple.
I couldn't help myself.
I was like, "You know, 350's fine,"
but then I said, "No, John, let's try 340,"
and then one batch at 310.
Kind of came out the same.
I think the 310 batch has a little bit gentler
of a concave top, and less cracking, but who cares?
It's gonna get topped with whipped cream.
See, look at this.
So pretty.
Isn't that nice?
Brian got some plates, and I have to use
this cute little guy over here
for this mini cheesecake.
What?
It's like it's meant to be.
Pop a nice dollop of whipped cream on there,
then who would say no to maybe a cherry,
and some strawberry pieces?
This is my idea of heaven.
(laughing) It looks so good.
I also wanna point out that the thicker
you make the cheesecake layer,
the more difficult it is to bake it.
So if you have a really thin cheesecake piece,
like this one, it's almost totally flat,
and nice, and has that nice perfect look to it.
But the thicker it is, you'll have
maybe some more issues and cracking,
but more cheesecake, so I mean,
I'm always gonna say yes to more cheesecake, just by the by.
If you like this recipe, check out my OREO cheesecake.
It is big, bold, full of OREOs, and totally delicious.
But for now, it's time for a bite.
I've eaten several off-camera.
Mmm.
Lemme tell you, the pecans in the crust,
the creaminess of the filling,
and the cloudy whipped cream with berries on top,
it's a match made in heaven.
I hope you get to make this recipe.
If you like my videos, hit that Like button and subscribe,
and I'll see you in the next video.