Nom Nom Nom Mini Oreo Cheesecakes

We have our first theme! Hence forth Monday's shall be Cooking with Button days! Which means I'm going to share a recipe (complete with pictures) of something I probably made over the weekend. This weeks recipe is courtesy of one of my most favorite people ever, Katie who you can find over at The Katie Chronicles.

Individual Oreo Cheesecakes

This is probably the worst picture I've ever taken

Before you even try this, I recommend that unless you are a thick headed stubborn pain in the ass like me you get yourself a mixer or at the very least some decent spoons and killer biceps. My lack of mixer or spoons that don't bend brought out the crazy Italian in me and I went at it with my hands. If you've ever made any kind of cheese cake before you know what a terrible idea that is. Thankfully, I am an infomercial junkie and happen to have a magic bullet in my kitchen, I loaded that up several times in order to get everything smooth. It worked but it made this take way longer than it needed to and as a result I have a ton more dishes to wash, which I hate.

Ingredients:

36 fat free Oreo cookies, 24 left whole and 12 crumbled

3 packages fat free cream cheese (about 1 1/2 lb)

1 cup granulated Splenda or white sugar

1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs, beaten lightly

1/2 cup fat free sour cream

1/2 cup low fat or fat free ricotta cheese

Melted milk chocolate or cocoa powder (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Line muffin pan with paper muffin cups. Place a whole Oreo cookie in the bottom of each muffin cup.

3. Beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Add vanilla and beat until smooth.

4. Drizzle eggs in, continuously beating, until eggs are in. Add ricotta and sour cream and beat until smooth. Fold in crumbled Oreo cookies.

5. Divide batter among muffin cups (about 2/3 full). 

if you're smart you'll have better cupcake pans, i recommend one with 12 spots

6.Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees, or until filling is set.

 7. Remove from heat and cool completely on wire racks. Drizzle on melted milk chocolate or sprinkle with powdered cocoa as an optional topping.

8. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Keep cool until ready to serve. Makes 24 individual cheesecakes. And they are delicious. 

In speaking with others there has been some debate over recipes that have a cookie on the bottom and if using foil liners verses paper will keep them from burning. Due to my in ability to read the quantity of the foil liners on the package I ended up baking the last 6 with paper liners and they came out exactly as the foil ones had.