These best-ever Miniature Oreo Cheesecakes with an easy chocolate ganache are simple to make and delightful to taste! Mini muffin tins help us achieve greatness without a lot of effort.
There aren’t too many desserts I’d pick over these Mini Oreo® Cheesecakes; they’re smooth, creamy, rich, and velvety. With a thick Oreo crust, an Oreo-speckled filling, and a chocolate ganache topping, these cheesecakes are perfection. They are definitely rich, but worth every single calorie!
Cheesecake making has an intimidating reputation, but I’ve found miniature cheesecakes are always much more user-friendly. (Not to mention, I prefer the smaller serving size anyway!) If you haven’t made cheesecake before or are a bit hesitant about the idea, check out my list of top cheesecake-making tips below.
Mini Oreo Cheesecake Ingredients
Cream cheese: It wouldn’t be cheesecake without cream cheese! In this recipe, creaminess is the top priority, and calories are secondary. With that in mind, don’t take the low-fat shortcuts for this dessert. Full-fat ingredients bring so much to the table–they help hold the cake together and add tremendously to the flavor. And come on, now: this recipe will never be low-cal or low-fat. If you’re eating cheesecake, calories and fat are a given!
Sugar: We use white sugar to keep the texture right. Adding honey or other liquid sweetener will upset that delicate balance. We did not test this recipe using artificial sweeteners, but if you’d like to try it, please let us know how it turned out!
Sour cream: Here’s another ingredient that adds lots of creaminess to the cheesecake. Use full-fat sour cream for best results. Lower-fat versions won’t provide enough thickness to the batter.
Eggs: Large eggs, used at room temperature, will give the best results.
Oreos: We love and recommend Oreos® for their flavor and consistency. That said, there are many brands of chocolate sandwich cookies you could use instead.
Bittersweet chocolate: Bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate provides the best flavor balance to this Mini Oreo Cheesecake recipe. Milk chocolate will be too sweet, and white chocolate will not melt in the same way.
Heavy cream: When results matter, go with the real thing. Non-dairy cream and low-fat products won’t deliver the amazing texture that makes cheesecakes a crowd favorite.
How to make the perfect Mini Oreo Cheesecakes: Tips
- Use room-temperature cream cheese: Room-temperature cream cheese becomes creamier when it is mixed and it incorporates much better with the other ingredients in this recipe. If your cream cheese is too cold, it tends to stay lumpy which makes it next to impossible to mix. You’ll also be tempted to over-beat the batter (which is not good for a cheesecake!) to get rid of the lumps.
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- Quick tip to get room-temperature cream cheese: Remove the cream cheese from the packaging and microwave in bursts of 15-20 seconds until it reaches room temperature (not softened or melted at all). Be sure to also use room-temperature eggs and sour cream.
- Don’t over-mix the batter: Mix the cream cheese enough to remove the lumps and to combine the ingredients sufficiently, but not so much that it will introduce too much air into the mixture. Too much air will cause the cheesecake to rise too quickly in the oven and then fall. And that’s how you get cracks in your cheesecake. Mixing the cheesecake at low and consistent speeds reduces the risk of beating in too much air.
- Pulse or blend the Oreos into even-sized crumbs: Large chunks of Oreo crumbs (in the crust or the filling) make for a less smooth cheesecake. I pulse the Oreos in a food processor until all the crumbs are evenly small.
- Allow the cheesecake to completely cool at room temperature: It might not seem like a big deal to expedite the chilling process by putting them in the fridge right out of the oven. If you do this, though, the cheesecake tends to get a weird appearance on top. This appearance comes from condensation that forms on top of the too-quickly chilled cheesecake. Rapid chilling can also create cracks on it.
Quick Tip
If you forgot to remove the cream cheese from the fridge, you can speed up the softening time by cutting the cream cheese into small cubes or slices. The more surface area exposed to air, the faster it will soften.
More Amazing Cheesecake Recipes:
- The Best Chocolate Cheesecake
- Twix Cheesecake Bars
- Mini Cinnamon Roll Cheesecakes
- No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
- Thin Mint Cheesecake
Mini Oreo Cheesecakes
Ingredients
Oreo Crust
- 1 cup (~12 full Oreos) Oreo crumbs
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Oreo Cheesecake Filling
- 1 and ½ packages (12 ounces total) brick-style full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
- ½ cup white granulated sugar
- ½ cup full-fat sour cream, at room temperature
- ½ tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ⅛ cup (2 tablespoons) white flour
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 5 whole Oreos, crushed
Chocolate Ganache
- 4 ounces semi-sweet (or bittersweet depending on personal preference) chocolate, coarsely chopped
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
Instructions
CRUST
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 12-cavity (regular-sized) cupcake pan with paper liners and set aside. Blend whole Oreos in a food processor or powerful blender to form crumbs. (Make sure the crumbs are all even-sized and you don't have big pieces.) Do not remove the vanilla creme in the Oreos before blending.
- Combine the cookie crumbs and melted butter. Divide the mixture between the cupcake liners (about 1 tablespoon per cup) and press into the bottoms. I like to use the lid of a milk container to press the crust into the bottoms evenly.
- Bake crusts for 5 minutes then remove from oven. Set aside to cool.
CHEESECAKE FILLING AND TOPPING
- Make sure the cream cheese, sour cream, and eggs are all at room temperature. Reduce the heat to 300 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, combine the cream cheese and white sugar with a hand mixer. Beat at low speed and in the same direction (to avoid cracks later on). Add in the sour cream, vanilla extract, and sea salt. Beat on low speed until completely combined.
- Scrape down the sides and add in the flour. Beat on low speed until combined. Add the first egg and beat until the egg is completely incorporated. Add the second egg and again, still beating slowly, beat until combined.
- Blend another 5 whole cookies in a food processor or powerful blender to form crumbs. Do not remove the vanilla creme in the Oreos before blending. Gently fold the crumbs into the cheesecake mixture with a spatula.
- Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners and fill most of the way. You should use all of the batter between the 12 cupcake liners.
- Bake cheesecakes for 13-16 minutes, or until there is just an ever-so-slight jiggle in the center. Then turn off the oven and leave the door closed for another 10 minutes. Crack the oven door and allow cheesecakes to cool for 25 minutes longer, and then remove and place on the counter at room temperature.
- Once the cheesecakes are at room temperature, transfer to the fridge to chill for 2-3 hours.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Chocolate Ganache
- Place the chopped chocolate in a heat-safe bowl. Bring the heavy cream to a simmer on the stovetop, stirring occasionally. Just as soon as you see a simmer, remove from the heat and pour over chocolate chips. Place a plate or lid over the chocolate and cream mixture and let sit (without touching) for 5 minutes. Remove the plate or lid and whisk the chocolate until it becomes smooth.
- Let the ganache sit for about 15 minutes to thicken and set. Spoon over the top of the cheesecakes. (Don't add ganache to any cheesecakes that won't be eaten the same day). Store ganache and cheesecakes separately.
- Enjoy within 5 days.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi Chelsea! For the Oreos, are you removing the filling?
Nope! 🙂
is white flour same as all purpose flour? if not, can I use an apf instead?
Same thing!
The directions never say to add the sour cream even though it is in the ingredients list. I hope mine taste good without it ?
Sorry about that Marsha, it’s been updated. How did they turn out?