Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Cupcakes

I made these a while back but never got to posting the recipe.  I baked them for a co-workers birthday and they were exceedingly popular!

From Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
Makes 30

• Ingredients:
• 30 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, left whole, and a large bag of Oreo Minis (if you can’t get the minis then just chop up some of the large ones)
• 4  8oz. packages of cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
• 1 cup sour cream
• Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 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 sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Add eggs one at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed; then beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in about 1 ½ cups of the Oreo minis by hand  (save at least 30 to decorate the top)

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, for about 15 minutes then add one mini to the top of each cupcake and rotate the pan.  Bake another 10 minutes, until filling is set. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

 Happy Feasting!

Chai Spice No-bake Cheesecake

I had a friend pack me a lunch one day and in it they included some Graham Crackers.  When lunchtime came I dipped the crackers in my Chai tea and munched away ... the flavour was so yummie and I thought, "This NEEDS to be a cheesecake!!!"  ... voilà ... behold the fruits of that Ah-ha moment


Ingredients:

For the Chai spice mixture you will need:

1 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
2 tsp of ground cardamom
3/4 tsp of ground cloves
1/2 tsp of ground ginger
1/2 tsp of ground corriander
1/4 tsp of black pepper
dash of salt.

mix all of these together and set aside.
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For the crust you will need:

2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1/3 c. sugar
1/2 c. melted butter/margerine
1/2 a bag of Skor bits.

Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees F.  Mix all the ingredients together and press into a 9" spring form pan.  Bake for 10 - 15 minutes (until the crust seems set and the Skor bits have melted a little)

Once that is done, remove from your oven and cool in pan.  You can put it in the fridge, uncovered, to speed up the process if you like.
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For the filling you will need:

1 pkg. (8 oz) of Cream-cheese
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup of sour cream
1 pkg of Knox Gelatin
the Chai spice mix from earlier.

Beat softened cream-cheese, condensed milk, sour cream, and spice mix until smooth.  In a separate dish mix the Knox with 1/4 c boiling water (as per the instructions on the pack) until dissolved.  Add that to your cream-cheese mix and beat some more.

Pour that mixture over the cooled crust in the form pan, cover, and chill 'til firm.

I like to garnish/decorate this with shaved white chocolate and the remaining Skor bits.

I've taken this to a few pot-lucks over the holidays and it's been a huge success

Happy Feasting!!!