Mini cheesecakes make great after-dinner desserts.

Their size is small enough so you don’t feel like you are over indulging. At the same time, their richness and creaminess will easily satisfy your sweet tooth. With the paper liners, they transport easily and work well at parties as easy-to-pass-around desserts.

You’ll love the texture and tang of these mini cheesecakes. You can credit that to the sour cream or Greek yogurt. Another great thing about them is how easy they are to make. There are just three ingredients in the crust: graham crackers, butter and brown sugar. In seconds you are half-way done making this dessert.

The filling has just four core ingredients (cream cheese, egg, sugar, and vanilla), plus whatever flavoring(s) and food color(s) you choose. And that’s the added beauty of this recipe. You can flavor your mini cheesecakes in so many different ways. With all the extracts and compatible ingredients, the options are endless. I’ve made many coconut versions with this coconut extract from Frontier-Co-op, plus a lot with citrus extracts. Key lime anyone? Chocolate is another go-to. And think of all the fruits you could feature. Any berry would work, or banana, or even mango. You could go the cookie/candy path, with crushed Oreos, Reese’s peanut butter cups, or Snickers.

For this version and because of my state fair love, I did cotton candy mini cheesecakes. I’ve been in love with cotton candy as a flavor since my first taste at the since closed, Izzy’s Ice Cream. In fact, I confess to not liking cotton candy itself, at all! But put cotton candy flavoring in something creamy and I’m all in. One of my favorite products to use is Amoretti’s cotton candy “artisan flavor.” It gives the cheesecake almost a raspberry meets cotton candy.

I hope you get to enjoy these soon!

-Cyndi