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 | 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.
Your cheesecake is always a crowd pleaser!! These turned out perfect!! To those who are baking them for the first time. LEAVE THEM IN THE OVEN. Don’t open the oven until the timer goes off. If you do they will sink farther than you want.
Great recipe for a picnic or easy sharing. Made these in both the normal and mini muffin pan sizes, and both were delicious! Personally, I’d suggest adding less of the graham cracker base for the mini pans so that there’s more filling to crust. (The graham crackers overpowered the flavor of the cheesecake a bit in the mini version.) Even so, these got major compliments from everyone I shared with! Topped the minis with two blueberries and a rasberry, and the normal sizes with a mixture of strawberry jam and sliced strawberries. I think the jam was the key for helping the topping stick! Looking forward to trying other topping combos in the future.
I only have fat free sour cream, will that still work?
Hi Catherine, Using lower fat sour cream may cause the cheesecakes to not set up as nicely. You can use full fat plain yogurt in its place if you have that!
Wondering if the 1 tablespoon of filling per cup is accurate? Just put mine in the oven and it’s more like 3 tablespoons per cup if I divide the batter evenly. I made 9 mini cheesecakes.
Also crossing my fingers they don’t sink a ton. Wish I would have read the comments first. I barely mixed until combined so crossing my fingers they stay ok.
Yea, this is my go to recipe and my cheesecake enthusiast friends all say it’s the best cheesecake they’ve ever had.
They tasted amazing! Texture and flavor were great (I love your recipe for the basic full size cheesecake). Mine did sink quite A LOT! I’m at high altitude, is that part of it? Any recommendations for how to avoid this? I’ve mastered your full size cheesecake with a perfectly smooth top, so I know I’m not baking clueless.
Hi Kathryn, That’s completely normal! The mini cheesecakes will slightly sink in the middle as they chill. It gives you room for toppings! I’m unsure if yours are sinking more than normal due to altitude as we have no experience baking at high altitude. But some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
mine turned out very bad! I followed the exact recipe but when I took them out of the oven they completely sunk.
What could have been my mistake?
Is my first fail ever with your recipes!
Hi Juliana, That’s completely normal! The cheesecakes will slightly sink in the middle as they chill. It gives you room for toppings!
I’ve made this recipe multiple times and it’s absolutely amazing! However, I ran out of sour cream and was wondering if plain greek yogurt is an appropriate substitute.
Hi LH, yes! Plain yogurt will work in place of the sour cream here.
These mini cheese cake were delicious. I was able to make 11 of them.
I will be making these again and again. ☺️☺️
Hi there! We are always coming to your site for amazingly good recipes for my high school culinary class, so first off, thank you! Do you think these would turn out ok if I halved the recipe? I know it only yields 9-10 to begin with, but I’m having to do everything small batch this year. It seems all ingredients can be halved… except the egg.. try to half it? Use the whole thing? Not a good idea?
Hi Mary, We’re so happy that our recipes are a hit in your culinary class, thank you so much for trusting them! We don’t see why this recipe couldn’t be halved. Our general rule for halving an egg is to crack it open, beat the yolk and white together with a fork, measure the volume (should be a few Tbsp), then use half.
Came together very nicely and super fast. Used chocolate graham crackers (all I had) and topped with jelly. Big hit and easy to make. Thank you!
I was skeptical at first, but these turned out fantastic! Added this recipe to my collection.
Would it be ok to use a different crust for this recipe? I was thinking an Oreo crust.
Hi Amanda, absolutely! An Oreo crust would be delicious.
Flavour is great but it sank quite a lot so it wasn’t appealing visually
Hi Ceeski, thank you for giving this recipe a try. The cheesecakes will slightly sink in the middle as they chill. It gives you room for toppings!
I love this recipe. It’s incredibly easy and a crowd pleaser. I’ve tried it twice with great results each time. Fun to great creative with toppings as well.
These mini cheesecakes were incredible. They were easy to make and my whole family enjoyed them. I used Lotus biscuits instead of graham crackers because I live in Europe. I didn’t add any sugar to them though. It turned out to be great. I did add a bit more lemon juice to the filling and baked them for a bit longer, because they didn’t seem to be fully baked yet. I also baked the base for longer because they weren’t crispy yet . I baked it for about 10 minutes instead of 5. But that could just be my oven. For the topping I made a chocolate ganache on some and forest fruits topping on the rest. I just cooked frozen berries with sugar and let it reduce quite a bit. I didn’t add much sugar so it contrasted the cheesecake perfectly. Both topping worked really well. Great recipe!!
Hello! I was wondering if I could make these in a six inch cake pan. I have a small family, and have been looking for a way to make a smaller six inch cheesecake. Based on the recipe, I think it might work, but I wanted to ask for your opinion. Thank you!
Hi Beatrice! We would double this filling for a 6-inch cheesecake. The crust, as written, should be plenty.
These came out great. I added 1/2 tsp of flour because I like the NY style which is a bit thicker and it was a hit. I also mashed up some strawberries added 1/2 tsp of lemon juice and 1 tsp of sugar and put it on till of whip cream. My husband commented how it good it was. I think the lemon from the strawberry mixture really perked up the flavor. I will definitely make these again.
Note: a few did split during baking but by after 2 hours in the fridge, the split was no longer visible.
From Canada: I just made this recipe for the second time. It is terrific and a big hit with my friends. I increased the proportions slightly to fill my 12 mini cheesecake pan (the pan is fantastic…it has removable bottoms for easy release). I cheated slightly by using a Graham cracker ready crust which I had in the cupboard. (I used it to make lemon meringue pies)….I just ground it up and press it into the muffin tins. This recipe is a keeper for sure!
Absolutely amazing mini cheesecake recipe!! Delicious, creamy, soft and super easy to make. My kids and husband loved them. Thank you for an amazing recipe!
Hi Sally! Can I use a silicone cupcake baking tray for these?
Hi Ed, we haven’t personally tried it, but can’t see why that wouldn’t work. Let us know if you give it a try!
Great recipe! Husband and family absolutely love this. I’m having difficulty though…getting them to share.
Hi! Do you think it would work OK to use a vanilla wafer for the crust instead of the graham crumb crust for the super mini cheesecakes?
Hi Nancy! A vanilla wafer cookie crust would be great, but it may be a bit messy– just a warning! Use the same amount of wafer crumbs.
I have Never left a review for a recipe, but these are so good! They are delicious, not too heavy, and the best treat to take to a party. I made a strawberry sauce and topped the cakes with it. So good!
WOW! This cheesecake recipe is AMAZING! I used lemon zest by accident…I wasn’t thinking and grabbed the microplane and zested away…by the time I realized it was too late but thankfully, it was a good accident! 🙂 They are delicious! Thanks so much for sharing!
Hi Sally,
I’ve made this twice and the flavor was great but both times the cheesecake batter began to puff up before the time was up. They sunk down a bit after but the result was still a soufflé looking type thing. Do you know what could be going wrong? I bake often and I followed the instructions to a T. Thank you!
Hi Mel, This is totally normal! The cheesecakes will slightly sink in the middle as they chill. It gives you room for toppings!
Substituted the sugar in the filling with swerve confectioner’s sugar, and the crust I used swerve brown sugar replacement….turned out decent….a bit sour….I’m going to try again and reduce the lemon juice
Hi Sally
I’m so glad I found your recipe. It’s my first time so I will let you know how they come out. Do have one question – I’m using the mini cheesecake path- so is it advised to remove the cupcake wrapper after it cools before I add fruit toppings? Thank you!!
Hi Sandra, That’s completely up to you when you remove the wrappers. You can keep them on to serve them if you wish!
Hi Nina, We use a standard size 12 muffin tray – it holds about 3-3.5 ounces per cavity. If you wish to make these using the actual mini muffin trays see recipe note #4 for Super Mini Cheesecakes 🙂
Awsome yummy and sooo easy too bad I can’t post a picture haha