- Have you been searching
for the perfect party food that you can secretly hoard to yourself, and gorge on when no one's looking? Mini cheesecake recipe,
coming up on "Preppy Kitchen," where I, John Kanell,
teach you how to make delicious, homemade dishes to share with your family and friends. These snacks are gonna
hop right into your mouth, and they cook up in a
flash, so let's get started. We're starting off with the
crust, and I'll be using graham crackers and toasted pecans, but you could use any
cookie that you enjoy. It could be literally any
cookie, they all work. 16 graham crackers, half
a cup of toasted pecans. Toasting really makes a
big difference to nuts, it makes them more aromatic, and just all-around more delicious. A quarter cup of sugar, and yes, you can kind of like reduce,
or even omit this if you want. Half a teaspoon of cinnamon. And this is optional too. Really, this is any crust you wanna do. Pulse, pulse, pulse. (food processor grinds) Okay. I'm gonna open this up and
drizzle some butter in. So I have four tablespoons of butter, but you can always add a
little bit more if you need. It's really just a binding agent. So pulse that up. (food processor grinds) And now I'm gonna drizzle in the rest. (food processor grinds) If you don't have a food processor, just mince the nuts, like
really (clicks tongue quickly), and then crush the cookies
or the graham crackers in a plastic bag, and mix
with butter in a bowl. It's really easy, you
don't have to use this, but it's just so efficient. Except for the dishes part. You have to clean this now. Little taste. Delicious. All right, this gets set
aside until we need it. See you in a bit. I'm adding one pound, or 16 ounces of room temperature cream cheese right into the bowl of my stand mixer. If you don't have a stand mixer, go ahead and just use a big bowl with electric hand mixer beater things. We're gonna whip this up, and let it go for three or four minutes. Just beat it. You want it nice and smooth. (mixer whirs) A little bit of mixing later,
and this is nice and creamy, perfectly smooth, ready
for the sugar and salt. I'm just gonna toss the
salt in there, no one cares. But the sugar. I'm gonna add this on low,
and let it cascade in there. Let it mix it up, but
let it get really nice, smooth, fluffy, incorporated. You'll see the change in
texture pretty quickly. (mixer whirs) Now that the sugar is nicely incorporated, I can add in the sour cream. Just pop it in right here. You know I love a quarter
cup of sour cream, but this time it's a third of a cup. Someone suggested that would be one of my apron catch
phrases I loved. (laughs) Quarter cup of sour cream. All right, so mix that
in, and while it's mixing, we'll divide some eggs. (mixer whirs) One egg. So here, shh. So, I need to have two egg yolks now, but it just so happens
that right after this, I'm making another recipe,
and it needs egg whites. So I'm gonna reserve
carefully these whites and use them shortly. Gonna wash my hands, but you mix. (mixer whirs) While that goes, feel free to
add in a splash of vanilla. It's a healthy teaspoon. (mixer whirs) This is looking good, but what I will do is scrape the bowl done,
because there's all sorts of unmixed nonsense at the bottom here, which I do not appreciate. I'm gonna let this mix,
and while it's mixing, I'll find some cupcake
papers, because I need some. This is well-mixed. Don't go crazy. One final stir. Let's start assembling. So before we assemble everything
and pop this into the oven, I wanna say, this makes a big
batch of mini cheesecakes. However, here's the deal. If you're making them, why
not make more for later, and keep them in the freezer? These are the best thing
to have in your freezer, for an anytime treat. Trust and believe. Spoon in a generous
tablespoon of the crust, although, could be a
stingy tablespoon too, it's really just to kind
of give the cheesecake some definition from the bottom. Some people love the crust, and some people are not into it at all. And my mom will sometimes make
this with no crust at all. Wild and crazy. All right, once the first batch is ready, use a shot glass or anything
kind of small and flat to press the edge down. And if you're gonna get kind
of antsy about the edge, you might wanna flick it down so it doesn't crawl up the sides, if you wanna see more of
the cheesecake on the side. I don't know if that's you. You can let me know in the comments if you're that person. It's always neat to learn about people from the comments they leave, because I might think that I go double Virgo crazy on things, but for some people, doesn't
even scratch the surface, and for others, it's way too much. Okay, tampa, tampa, tampa. And now we're gonna spoon
the cheesecake mixture into this situation here. Try and be neat. I'm using an ice cream scoop, and these guys will puff up and deflate. It leaves you a nice well inside, for either a cherry fruit filling, ooh, a blueberry fruit filling, if you wanna make that
from scratch, is amazing. That's what I grew up eating. Or you can just pile it
high with whipped cream and top with fresh berries, which is what I often like to do. These are super dangerous
to have around the house, because they are so snackable. You'll always be like (lips smack). Pop it into your mouth,
it's one or two bites, and you keep moving like nothing happened. Like, "I don't know, what
are you talking about?" So I'm calling these mini cheesecakes, and I'm using a cupcake or muffin tin, but you could use mini
springform pans as well, and make actual, more sizeable, I don't know if this is one
serving, seems kinda big. But I'm only saying that
because I'm on camera. (laughs) I would never eat this much cheesecake, that's more than one serving. Lies, (laughing) the lies. Ah, I'm so gratified when I
spoon cheesecake batter in, and there are no lumps. One of my very most favorite things. So I had just enough batter
for two dozen mini cupcakes, which in my mind, is a party. These are gonna go into the oven at 350 for about 15 to 18 minutes, and lemme tell you, if you're bothered by there being a rise and a fall, you want them to be flatter, bake them at a lower
temperature for longer, but I'm not bothered by that, because they're gonna be topped with whipped cream and
berries, no one's gonna care. (laughs) That's just my opinion, but if you do care, go low and slow. (mixer whirs) Okay, I just whipped up a batch
of delicious whipped cream while these were baking,
and you can click up here for my whipped cream recipe, if you're not used to making it at home. You know, whipped cream is my weakness. Ah, so good. I'm spooning some of this
whipped cream into a piping bag, fitted with an 846 attachment, but you could totally just pop a dollop of whipped cream onto these babies. No piping necessary. And I wanna show you what they look like after coming out of the
oven, and after cooling. I actually baked a couple. I couldn't help myself. I was like, "You know, 350's fine," but then I said, "No,
John, let's try 340," and then one batch at 310. Kind of came out the same. I think the 310 batch
has a little bit gentler of a concave top, and less
cracking, but who cares? It's gonna get topped with whipped cream. See, look at this. So pretty. Isn't that nice? Brian got some plates, and I have to use this cute little guy over here for this mini cheesecake. What? It's like it's meant to be. Pop a nice dollop of
whipped cream on there, then who would say no to maybe a cherry, and some strawberry pieces? This is my idea of heaven. (laughing) It looks so good. I also wanna point out that the thicker you make the cheesecake layer, the more difficult it is to bake it. So if you have a really
thin cheesecake piece, like this one, it's almost totally flat, and nice, and has that
nice perfect look to it. But the thicker it is, you'll have maybe some more issues and cracking, but more cheesecake, so I mean, I'm always gonna say yes to
more cheesecake, just by the by. If you like this recipe,
check out my OREO cheesecake. It is big, bold, full of
OREOs, and totally delicious. But for now, it's time for a bite. I've eaten several off-camera. Mmm. Lemme tell you, the pecans in the crust, the creaminess of the filling, and the cloudy whipped
cream with berries on top, it's a match made in heaven. I hope you get to make this recipe. If you like my videos, hit
that Like button and subscribe, and I'll see you in the next video.
