Mini Cheesecakes

Today I am sharing one of my family's favorite recipes, mini cheesecakes, which are very easy and fun to make. The original recipe came from Nestle to be used with Nestle Swirled real semi-sweet & white chocolate morsels, but for the last few years, I have not been able to find the Swirled chocolate chips so I have just used either regular chocolate chips or a mixture of white chocolate chips and regular chocolate chips. After a few times of making them with the chocolate chips, I started making some using cherry pie filling instead of the chocolate chips. My family liked them with the cherry pie filling so much that now when I make them I do half of the cheesecakes using chocolate chips and the other half cherry pie filling. This recipe will make a total of 36 mini cheesecakes. The chocolate chips that I used today are Private Selection Milk Chocolate Chips. The original recipe for this was given to me by my good friend Missy.

Here is what you will need:

36 vanilla wafers

Chocolate chips of your choice

3 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Foil baking cups (The 2-layer kind that have the foil on the outside and paper liner on the inside)
1 can cherry pie filling (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Directions for mini cheesecakes with chocolate chips:

Place 36  2-inch foil bake cups on baking sheet(s) with sides. Place 1 vanilla wafer, flat-side down, on bottom of each cup. Place 5 or 6 chocolate chips of choice on top of the vanilla wafer.

Beat the cream cheese, sugar and flour in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla extract; beat well. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of cream cheese mixture into each bake cup, covering the vanilla wafer and chocolate chips.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until just set and not browned. Remove from oven to wire rack. While still warm, top cheesecakes with a few more chocolate chips of choice. The morsels will soften but will retain shape. Cool completely. Cover and refrigerate.

Directions for the cheesecakes with Cherry Pie Filling:

Do all the same as above, except place about a tablespoon of the pie filling on top of the vanilla wafers in the foil cup, then put the cheesecake filling on top to cover, and then add another tablespoon of cherry pie filling on top. On the ones with cherry pie filling, all of the pie filling gets put on before baking, whereas on the chocolate chip cheesecakes you add the top chocolate chips after they come out of the oven.

Enjoy!