The 25 Days of Holiday Goodies Day 14: Caramel Macchiato Mini Cheesecakes

Once upon a time, my mom decided not to make her normal cheesecake. She had two options that she found: a red velvet cheesecake with a white topping and a caramel macchiato cheesecake miniaturized below.

I will be perfectly honest: the cookies make this cake (both in the mini form and the biggie form).

I cheat and used jarred caramel topping instead of making my own.

Caramel Macchiato Cheesecake Minis

Adapted from Southern Living

1 ¾ cups crushed crisp, sweet cookies (Pepperidge Farm Bordeaux), about 27 cookies (1 package)

¼ cup butter, melted

4 (8 ounce packages) cream cheese

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons heavy cream

1 ¼ teaspoon instant espresso powder (or 2-3 teaspoons instant coffee powder, darkest roast possible)

Caramel sauce (at least 9 tablespoons, homemade or the caramel ice cream topping)

4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together crushed cookies and butter. Line muffin tins with cupcake wrappers. Barely line the bottom of the cupcake wrapper with the cookie/butter mixture. Spread very thin. (You will use approximately 1 teaspoon of the stuff.)

Bake at 350 degrees for five minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.

Note: This recipe makes 36 cakes. I ended up having to do two 350 to 325 cycles.

Beat cream cheese and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Add heavy cream, espresso/instant coffee powder, and 9 tablespoons caramel sauce, beating at low speed until well-blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until the yellow disappears after each addition. Pour and spread batter into prepared crusts.

Bake at 325 for 15-18 minutes, or until the center is almost set. Remove cheesecakes from oven. As soon as you can, remove the cheesecakes from the muffin cups by the cupcake wrappers to cool to room temperature on a wire rack. At this point, I remove them from the wrappers and wrap them in plastic wrap. Chill until “chilled.”

Store leftovers in bags, wrapped, either in the fridge or freezer.