Miniature-sized cheesecakes with a cinnamon-sugar swirl and a cream cheese topping. These mini desserts taste just like a cinnamon roll in a cheesecake form.
video tutorial
If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed my obsession with miniature desserts. Namely miniature cheesecakes. Not only have there been lemon-blueberry cheesecakes here, but oreo ones have made their debut as well.
Clearly, I love mini desserts.
These cheesecakes have swirls on cinnamon sugar goodness and are covered (drenched?) in a cream cheese frosting. Just how I love cinnamon rolls. The more frosting = better.
These cheesecakes are super simple. No water bath is needed and they only bake for about 20-22 minutes. The only hard part is waiting for them to cool. 1 hour at room temperature + 2 hours in the fridge. But it will all be worth it!
You’ll want to start with a homemade graham cracker crust. And this recipe calls for a thick crust which I personally think is a requirement for cheesecakes.
Next, the actual cheesecake. The cheesecake is pretty standard. The usual ingredients: lots of cream cheese, plenty of white sugar, a tad bit of flour, a few drops of vanilla extract, and one large egg.
And of course, there has to be a cinnamon swirl in these cinnamon roll cheesecakes — softened butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar are mixed to create the *perfect* cinnamon-sugar filling. That filling gets swirled into the cheesecake TWICE. First, on top of the graham cracker crust, you’ll spoon out a bit of the cheesecake filling, then some of the cinnamon-sugar filling gets swirled around. And next, you’ll layer a bit more cheesecake and top it off with more cinnamon-sugar swirled in.
The most important thing to note with this recipe is the mixing of the cheesecake. You want to mix only on low speed so you don’t whip air into the mixture. The more air that gets whipped into these cheesecakes, the more they will rise and then fall when being baked. It is normal for the cheesecakes to rise a bit in the oven, but once they are cooled, they deflate quite a bit. Mixing slowly and using room temperature ingredients will keep the fall to a minimum :). Enjoy!
Miniature Cinnamon Roll Cheesecakes
Ingredients
Crust:
- 4 full sheets of graham crackers
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter (unsalted or salted) melted
Cheesecake:
- 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese at room temperature
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons white flour
- 1 large egg at room temperature
Cinnamon-sugar swirl
- 1/4 cup butter (unsalted or salted) softened, not melted
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon white flour
Cream cheese topping
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
- 1 - 1 and 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream or whole milk, only if needed
Instructions
Crust
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a regular sized muffin tin with 9 liners and fill up half of the other empty spaces with water. This ensures even baking. Spray the liners with non-stick spray. (Cinnamon sugar mixture gets sticky!)
- In a food processor, pulse the graham crackers to crumbs. Stir in the sugar and melted butter. Press an even amount of graham cracker crust into the bottom of each muffin liner.
- Press down the crust with a milk cap or the backside of a tablespoon measuring spoon and set aside.
Cheesecake
- In a medium sized bowl, combine the room temperature cream cheese and white sugar. Beat gently only on low speed until smooth and creamy. Do not vigorously mix at all (this beats in air and will cause the cheesecakes to rise and fall a lot) Add in the vanilla extract, flour, and a lightly beaten egg. Beat until just combined (again very gently mixing as little as possible).
Cinnamon-Sugar Swirl
- In a small bowl, combine the softened (do not melt) butter, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Stir until completely combined to a thick paste.
- Spoon 1 tablespoon of the cheesecake filling into each of the prepared 9 cups. Then place 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon sugar swirl on top. Swirl the cinnamon sugar into the cheesecake with a toothpick.
- Top the rest of the cheesecake filling on top (about 1 more tablespoon per cheesecake) and then disperse the remaining cinnamon sugar (about 1/2 teaspoon) swirl evenly among the 9 cheesecakes.
- Swirl the cinnamon sugar (again) on top of the cheesecake with a toothpick and bake for 20-22 minutes. The centers will still jiggle a little bit, but the edges should be a very light brown.
- Remove from the oven and let cool at room temperature for 1 hour and then transfer to the fridge and let cool for at least 2 hours.
- The cheesecakes will have risen in the oven and will deflate quite a bit while cooling.
Cream cheese topping
- Cream together the powdered sugar, butter, vanilla extract and cream cheese. Slowly add in the heavy cream (if needed for a thinner frosting) until desired consistency is reached.
- Spoon over the cooled cheesecakes and drizzle extra cream cheese frosting on top.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
More Cheesecake:
Frozen Hot Chocolate Cheesecake
Brownie “Batter” Cheesecake Ball
Frozen Peanut Butter Cup NO BAKE Cheesecake
These were amazing! Just finished frosting them and of course I had to be the royal taste tester first before I served them. I did tweak the recipe a tad (used biscoff as crust instead if graham) so didn’t need to add the brown sugar to the base and also added just a hint of ground ginger to the cheesecake filling and some cinnatoast sugar sprinkles ontop of the frosting. Thank you so much love these.
Hahah I am so thrilled to hear this! Thanks so much Danielle! 🙂
is it a regular muffin pan or mini muffin pan ?
Regular!
The mini cinn roll cheesecake looks so yummy, will try to bake it soon. I am guessing when you say white Flour you Are referring to AP flour and not SR flour, is that correct? Thank you…..
Yes all purpose! Enjoy!
Muito bom esses bolos,estou organizando a festa de aniversário de meu primeiro filho e estou a procura de novidades por que quero o melhor para esse dia encontrei essa receita que para mim é perfeita tem tudo para agradar o paladar de todos essa vai ser minha aposta.
Ótimo estou feliz que você vai usar essa recita. Boa sorte com sua festa! 🙂
Can these be frozen ahead of time?
I’m sorry I can’t say for sure; I’ve never tried freezing these.
Hi, Have just found this on Pinterest. We don’t have Graham Crackers in Australia, so I’d use one of the bases I use in other cheesecakes. But can I ask what 4 sheets of Graham crackers would be equivalent to in weight?
It should be about 1/2 cup which I’m not sure weight equivalents. So sorry wish I could be of more help!
Have you tried this recipe in a 8×8 square pan etc? I would like to make it bite size
for a party…
Sorry I’ve never tried it in any other form!
I just recently tried these out and they were a huge hit! Problem is I have a large family and I only made one batch (I wanted to try them out before trying to double or triple) so they were gone in about 2 seconds flat! By the way maple extract is a great enhancement to the frosting I was raised with maple frosting on my cinnamon rolls so I decided to try it on these and it is delicious! I was just wondering do you think it would turn out firm enough if I make it in a cheesecake pan or should I try to experiment with another cheesecake recipe? Baking is my favorite hobby and I love trying new recipes and your blog has about all the recipes I could ever need ☺ Thanks so much!
Haha!! That’s awesome these flew out so fast 🙂 And the maple frosting sounds amazing! I’m actually not super confident this recipe would work in a springform pan, so I’d recommend trying out a different recipe. Thanks for your kind comments, I hope you love whatever you try next! 🙂
How long can this stay in the fridge? Ie could it be made a night or two before a dinner party? Maybe drizzle the icing on the day of the party, or does that not even matter?
I would try and make them only 1 day in advance 🙂 And the icing can be drizzled on in advance or right before — it’s fine either way 🙂
Ok so is it muffin or cupcake
Muffin tin!