Did you know you can bake cheesecake in a muffin pan? This recipe for creamy mini cheesecakes is so simple and perfect for a small crowd. Make sure you use a standard 12-count muffin pan. For extra mini cheesecakes baked in a mini muffin pan, see recipe Notes.
Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts and I have two recipes that steal my heart each time: classic cheesecake and no-bake cheesecake. Both recipes serve A LOT of people. If you love cheesecake, but don’t need an entire cheesecake in the house, try mini cheesecakes instead.
I have a few mini cheesecake recipes:
- Mini Margarita Cheesecakes
- Pumpkin Cheesecakes
- Chocolate Chip Cheesecakes
- Sprinkle Cheesecake Cookie Cups
These recipes yield anywhere from 16–24 muffin-sized cheesecakes. They’re all fun and flavorful, but maybe 16–24 mini cheesecakes is still too many. I felt inspired to reduce down even further and leave out all the extra goodies. Today’s recipe yields 9–10 mini cheesecakes. They’re simple, straightforward, and at only a few bites each, they’re awesome for portion control.
Video Tutorial
How to Make Cheesecake in a Muffin Pan
All we’re doing here is scaling down both the graham cracker crust and cheesecake batter from my classic cheesecake. Use a little more than 1 Tablespoon of both the crust and batter in each mini cheesecake. Like the big version, pre-bake the crust and make sure your cheesecake batter ingredients are at room temperature.
Bake the cheesecakes in a standard 12-count muffin pan. There’s no need for a springform pan and no need to mess with a water bath. Mini cheesecakes are not only easier than a full cheesecake, they take half the time to prepare! And if you’re looking for a version that sets in the refrigerator instead of the oven, you’ll appreciate these mini no-bake cheesecakes instead.
Want to add some flavor? Use my white chocolate raspberry cheesecake bars recipe and see those recipe notes for how to turn them into mini cheesecakes. Love those.
Get creative with the toppings. The baked and cooled cheesecakes will slightly sink down in the centers, but all is not lost. The way I see it, the dip gives you more room for toppings!
Cheesecake Toppings:
- Strawberry Sauce
- Lemon Curd
- Homemade Whipped Cream
- Red Wine Chocolate Ganache
- Homemade Salted Caramel
- Chocolate Ganache
Mini Cheesecakes
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes
- Yield: 9-10
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Bake deliciously creamy mini cheesecakes in a muffin pan! This easy recipe yields 9 individual cheesecakes that are perfect for portion control. Use a standard 12-count muffin pan. For extra mini cheesecakes baked in a mini muffin pan, see recipe note.
Ingredients
Graham Cracker Crust
- 2/3 cup (80g) graham cracker crumbs (about 5 1/2 full sheet graham crackers)
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 Tablespoon (12g) granulated sugar
Cheesecake
- 8 ounces (226g) full-fat brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (60g) full-fat sour cream, at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (optional, but recommended)
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a standard 12-count muffin pan with 9–10 liners. (For a mini muffin pan, see recipe note.) This recipe yields only 9–10 mini cheesecakes, so there will be 2–3 empty. You could skip the liners and spray the pan with non-stick spray or grease with butter, but the mini cheesecakes are pretty stubborn to release from the pan. I recommend using liners to make things easier.
- Make the crust: Combine all of the crust ingredients in a medium bowl. Mixture will be sandy. Firmly press a heaping Tablespoon of crust mixture into each liner. (I use closer to 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons of crust per mini cheesecake.) Pre-bake for 5 minutes.
- Make the filling: Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed in a large bowl until the mixture is smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the sour cream, vanilla extract, and lemon juice then beat until fully combined. On medium speed, add the egg and beat just until combined. Batter will be thick. Divide the batter between all the liners. It’s about 1 Tablespoon per cheesecake.
- Bake until the edges are set and the centers only slightly jiggle, about 18–20 minutes.
- Set the pan on a wire rack and allow cheesecakes to cool at room temperature for 30 minutes, then transfer to the refrigerator and chill for at least 2 hours and up to 1 day. If chilling for longer than 2 hours, loosely cover the cheesecakes. The cheesecakes will slightly sink in the middle as they chill. It gives you room for toppings!
- Once chilled, add any desired toppings (see Note below) and serve. Cover and store leftover cheesecakes in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Prepare the cheesecakes through Step 3 up to 2–3 days in advance. Cover unbaked cheesecakes and store in the refrigerator until ready to bake. Continue with Step 4. Freeze individual baked cheesecakes for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 12- count Muffin Pan | Cupcake Liners | Food Processor |Â Glass Mixing Bowls | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Cooling Rack
- Topping Suggestions: Salted caramel, lemon curd, strawberry topping, chocolate ganache, red wine chocolate ganache, fresh fruit or maraschino cherries, and homemade whipped cream.
- More Than 9 Mini Cheesecakes: This recipe is fantastic for doubling, tripling, or quadrupling. Simply double, triple, or quadruple each ingredient, including in the crust.
- Super Mini Cheesecakes: Line a 24-count mini muffin pan with mini muffin liners or grease with nonstick spray or butter. For easy and seamless removal from the pan, using liners is preferable. Make the crust and cheesecake batter as directed. Press 2 teaspoons of crust into each mini muffin liner. Pre-bake at 350°F (177°C) for 4 minutes. Remove from the oven and fill each with cheesecake batter. Bake for 10–11 minutes or until the cheesecakes appear set on top. Continue with Step 6 in this recipe. Yields approximately 30 super mini cheesecakes.
- Non-US Readers: ​​Don’t have graham crackers where you live? Use these measurements for a biscuit crumb crust for these mini cheesecakes: 1 cup (105g) digestive biscuit crumbs (7 biscuits) + 30g butter, melted + 2 Tablespoons (25g) sugar. Grind the biscuits into crumbs, combine with sugar, then stir in the melted butter. Press into liners and pre-bake as directed in Step 2. And from what I understand, spreadable cream cheese sold in a tub in countries outside of the US is a little different from the spreadable cream cheese in the US. It’s thicker, sturdier, and more solid and should be OK to make cheesecake. I have no experience with it, but this is what I’ve heard from other non-US readers.
I made this using exactly the same measurement for each ingredient and it turned out to be the best cheesecake I’ve ever baked! Easy to make plus it doesn’t require much ingredients. A lot of my friends loved it. Btw, I used strawberry filling for the topping! Delicious!! Thank you Sally! Almost all your recipes that I’ve tried were absolutely good!
Lovely…my daughter n I did it in a heartbeat…..we r all excited. First time ever…we never bake….
If freezing can I add fruit topping before freezing?
Hi Jess! It’s best to add any toppings fresh before serving or on the day of serving.
SO GOOD and so quick. This is now my go to desert for a crowd now! I used half of the batter and change the crust for Oreo chocolate cookie crust. Then added more in that batter .
I made these for my son’s 20th birthday and they didn’t disappoint! I used cinnamon graham crackers in the crust. HUGE hit and so easy to make. Thank you!!
When you say ‘mini cheesecake’ are you referring to regular size muffin pans or the ‘tiny’ muffin pans that are usually referred to as the ‘mini’s ??
I understand that baking cheesecake in muffin pans are ‘mini cheesecakes’ because they’re not the regular- size big cheesecakes, but I’ve always heard the ”mini’ cheesecakes’ being referred to as being baked in the tiny pans.
Your recipe here seems as though you are referring to regular size muffin/cupcake size pans.
Would you please clarify this for me.
Also, I must be Gluten-free (due to having Celiac Disease) so if I do not use the crust in this recipe & just do the filling, how would this change the baking time?
. Thank you.
. Marti
Hi Marti! A regular 12 cup standard muffin pan, not a mini muffin pan. In comparison to a big cheesecake, these are indeed still mini! 🙂 I’m nervous you’ll have a hard time removing the cheesecakes from the cupcake wrappers if there’s no crust, though you can certainly try it. (Or use gluten free graham crackers.) Obviously skip the pre-bake time and bake the cheesecakes until the edges are set and the centers only slightly jiggle, which will probably still be about 18-20 minutes.
Thank you Sally. I appreciate your prompt reply.
I plan on making these mini cheese cakes tomorrow for my daughters’ birthday. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
Marti
I also mistook the “mini” for the walnut toffee size little cupcakes. I had to go with it after I got started, because that’s the only size paper liners I had. The first batch, I watched closely and were done at about ten to twelve minutes. This recipe makes a whopping 90 plus tiny cookies. I put five drops of black raspberry syrup on each one. They froze perfectly (lucky for me!). Gave some away to my Christmas supper guests! Thank you for another great recipe!
Hi Sally
I made these yesterday and they were fantastic! It is my first attempt making cheesecakes and I am glad it was a success.
Thank you for the recipe!
I didn’t have sour cream or plain Greek yogurt when I went to bake these. I did however have a salted caramel Greek yogurt. I doubled the recipe and used my mini cupcake tins as those were the ones I had liners for. I split the goodies between that tin and a 8 in springform. Very curious to see how they turn out
Sally, an awful thing happened to me. Every recipe I’ve made except for maybe 4 and even some I hadn’t had the chance to make yet all got deleted from my bookmarking section in my phone when it decided to go nuts on me a few weeks ago. This recipe was one that went into who knows where space along with the marshmallow fluff frosting that I had asked you about last week. I came back looking for this recipe today but didn’t see it in your cupcake section but I KNEW it had been your site that I had found/used to make these in the past. Thank goodness I decided to check your cheesecake only link cause now? Now I know I’m not losing my mind, lol but most importantly I now have my favorite cupcake cheesecake recipe back. Whew!! Can’t wait to bake these up again. And thank you for replying to my question regarding the marshmallow fluff frosting. You’re a sweetheart. You truly are. Have a great weekend and week to come…
Hello, thoughts on using this recipe and topping it with your apple pie filling before baking? And then drizzling with your caramel sauce ? Or is there an existing recipe for caramel apple cheesecake that I’ve missed? Thanks!
There isn’t a recipe for caramel apple cheesecake on the blog but you might have just made one!! YUM!! PLEASE let me know if you try it and how it turns out!
I made these on a Thursday evening for a work birthday on Friday. We ended up not eating them until Monday and there were amazing. I added mini chocolate chips and left them as is. My co-workers and family now know better than to ask me where a recipe came from since it’s always one of your recipes. Thank you for another wonderful recipe!
Love this recipe! It’s so simple and came out perfectly. I live in the UK so it’s hard to get graham crackers, substituted it with digestive biscuits. Turned out amazing. Also topped the mini cheesecakes with some blueberry jam. So good!!
I made these, your fudge brownies and funfetti cupcakes for my son’s first birthday. Everything turned out amazing. Thank you Sally.
I’ve made these cheesecake minis several times and they’re always so delicious! Cheesecake was always something I was intimidated to make but your instructions make it so easy! I recently made your coconut cream cheese frosting and was thinking of using it as a topping for these cheesecakes. Any suggestions on how to incorporate a little coconut flavor into this recipe? Thanks!
Hi Gina! Thanks so much for sharing– I think the best way to add coconut flavor to these mini cheesecakes is to add a little coconut extract. 1/2 teaspoon should be plenty. No need to adjust or remove the vanilla extract.
I have made this recipe several times (following the recipe exactly), and the cheesecakes always turn out perfect!
*Note: If using duck eggs, the cakes will not sink in the middle, but there is still plenty of room for toppings!
The cheesecakes are moist, delicious, and still taste wonderful if making a day or two ahead of time.
Thanks for the great recipe!
I must say thank you for this recipe, it turned out perfectly. I doubled it to make 18, and I think it’s the first time in my life a recipe has made exactly enough of everything. The amount of Graham cracker crust was just perfect, filling was just enough worth no waste whatsoever, and I made my own mixed berry compote to go on top that list happened to be perfectly portioned as well ha! Cheesecakes turned out fantastic thanks awesome lady!
Hi, Sally! So, I have some leftover cookies from making your Brown Butter Sugar Cookies. I was wondering if I could pulse those up in a food processor and use that in place of graham crackers in the crust? Thanks so much and have a great day! (Always love your recipes, Sally!)
That would certainly be delicious! Make sure the cookies are pretty crunchy. Let them sit out for 1-2 days prior to grinding up.
These came out so tiny and cute! They tasted wonderful and I can’t wait to serve them for our Valentine’s Day dessert. We’re topping them with Nutella and strawberries! I used my 1.5 tbsp. cookie scoop to portion out the crust and the batter and got 10 perfect little cheesecakes. Thank you for the recipe 🙂
Can you make a larger mini in cupcake liners? The pictures look like mini liners, not cupcake liners. You would probably want to eat it with a fork though, but it would be like your own small personal cheesecake. I can’t wait to make these!
Hi Janine, I made these in a standard size cupcake pan. You can make them as mini bite size if you wish!
Hi Sally, any tips on how to separate the crust from the cupcake liners? I’ve tried to make my own mini versions before using your original cheesecake recipe, but I find the butter from the crust usually causes very soggy cupcake liners, which aren’t fit for serving, or that the crust gets stuck to the liner making them difficult to remove for presentation purposes. Thanks!
Hi Stacey! Spray the liners lightly with nonstick spray. This will help the baked and chilled mini cheesecakes to release seamlessly from the liners.
Once again Sally you don’t fail to amaze me. These mini cheesecakes are so delish and so cute looking. Cant wait for a potluck to bring these to. Thanks for so many delish recipes. Keep them coming!!
Hello, fellow Germans! I always use Hobbits Kekse (kernig) from Brandt. They work perfectly for making the crust. I add a little sugar but a bit less.