How to make mini no-bake cheesecakes

I’m a cheesecake lover. No matter the kind or flavor, I’ll be more than happy to take a slice when it’s offered to me.

In December, I shared my family’s old-fashioned cheesecake recipe. Homemade cheesecake is, without a doubt, the best kind of cheesecake. But there aren’t always enough hours in the day to prepare one.

Recently, I discovered the beauty of making no-bake cheesecake. Whenever you can get away with using fewer ingredients in a shorter period of time, it’s a good thing, especially when you’re busy! I made a couple of the recipes I found — chocolate sandwich cookie cheesecakes and plain cheesecakes — and so far, they’ve been a hit with my family. The chocolate sandwich cookie cheesecakes recipe is from

A note about the recipes

The chocolate sandwich cookie cheesecakes recipe is from Six Sisters Stuff’s No Bake Mini Oreo Cheesecakes. They remind of Oreo Blizzards from Dairy Queen. Yum. The plain cheesecakes recipe is adapted from Kraft’s Philadelphia No-Bake Mini Cheesecakes. The original recipe for the plain mini no-bake cheesecakes uses vanilla wafer cookies for the bottom crust, but my family loves graham cracker crusts, so that’s what I used instead.

If you’re short on time, or just want to make a simple dessert for a change, try these no-bake mini cheesecakes. You can make them fun and festive by using colorful or patterned cupcake liners.

What you’ll need

For each recipe, you’ll need one 12-cup muffin baking pan, plus 12 cupcake liners. The ingredients for each recipe are listed below.

Mini no-bake chocolate cookie cheesecakes recipe

This mini no-bake chocolate sandwich cookie cheesecake recipe is from Six Sisters Stuff. For all of you cookie and chocolate lovers out there, this recipe takes an entire package of chocolate sandwich cookies!

Prep time: 15 minutes
Freeze time: 3 hours
Total time: 3 hours, 15 minutes
Yield: 12 mini cheesecakes

Ingredients

• 12-cup muffin baking pan
• 12 cupcake liners
• One 14.3 oz. package chocolate sandwich cookies
• Two 8 oz. packages cream cheese, softened
• 2 ½  cups powdered sugar

Directions

1. Line a 12-cup muffin baking tin with paper cupcake liners. Place one chocolate sandwich cookie at the bottom of each cup.
2. Place the remaining chocolate sandwich cookies in a large plastic baggie (freezer size) and press it closed. Using your hands or a rolling pin, crush up the cookies. Out of that bag, reserve ⅓ cup of the crushed cookies and set them aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream the cream cheese and powdered sugar with a hand mixer. Blend until smooth.
4. Gradually add in the crushed chocolate sandwich cookies. Blend evenly.
5. Using a rubber spatula, scoop the cream cheese-powdered sugar-cookie mixture into each cup of the baking pan. You should have enough of the mixture to fill each cup to the top. Use the spatula to flatten each cheesecake, if desired.
6. Sprinkle the ⅓ cup of crushed cookie on top of each cheesecake.
7. Place the pan in the freezer for 3 hours so the cheesecakes have a chance to firm up before serving. Store leftovers in the freezer.

Mini no-bake plain cheesecakes recipe

This mini no-bake cheesecakes recipe was adapted from Kraft’s Philadelphia No-Bake Cheesecakes recipe. I would consider this recipe a “plain” cheesecake since it doesn’t have any extra flavors aside from the optional topping.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Freeze time: 3 hours
Total time: 3 hours, 20 minutes
Yield: 12 mini cheesecakes

Ingredients

• 4 graham crackers
• 3 tbsp. melted butter
• One 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
• One 8 oz. tub of frozen whipped topping (thawed)
• ½ cup sugar
• Optional:blueberries, strawberries or any other fruit or berry you like with cheesecake. The original recipe calls for multi-colored sprinkles.

Directions

1. Put a cupcake liner in each cup of the muffin pan.
2. In a deep bowl, melt butter in the microwave. Crush up graham crackers in this bowl and stir together with a spoon.
3. Use a spoon to evenly distribute the graham cracker mixture in each cupcake liner. Press into bottom of pan with a spoon or your fingers until it’s level.
4. In a large mixing bowl, blend softened cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add in sugar and thawed whipped topping. Beat until smooth.
5. Use a rubber spatula to put cream cheese mixture into each cupcake liner.
6. Kraft’s recipe says to refrigerate the cheesecakes for 1 hour, but they will be pretty soft if you do that. I placed the pan in the freezer for about 3 hours. The cheesecakes hardened and weren’t as messy to eat. Store leftover cheesecakes in the freezer.

If you make one or both of these recipes, tell us what you think! Or, if you have another way of making no-bake mini cheesecakes, tell us in the comments below!