Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (or about 180 degrees C). Put regular cupcake liners in cupcake/muffin pans. Bring cream cheese and eggs to room temperature.

2. Put the Oreo cookies in a Ziploc bag and zip it shut. Crush with a rolling pin. Chunks are fine (in fact, they’re yummy!). The white filling does not need to be removed prior to crushing the cookies.

3. Mix the crushed Oreo cookies with the melted butter. Spoon into the bottom of the cupcake liners. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes and remove from the oven to cool.

4. Mix cream cheese, sugar, eggs, and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth. Spoon mix on top of Oreo cookie mixture in cupcake liners. Leave some room at the top as the cupcakes will rise as they cook.

5. Bake cupcakes at 350 degrees (175 degrees Celsius) for 15 to 17 minutes. The cupcakes will be light brown on top when they are done. They may jiggle in the middle, but they will continue to cook after you pull them out of the oven.

6. Allow cupcakes to come to room temperature before serving. They will taste better chilled. Cupcakes may be refrigerated (covered) for up to 24 hours.

If you prefer a graham cracker crust, follow the directions on the graham cracker crumb box, but only make half of the recipe. You can then top the cheesecakes with strawberries or cherries.

I use full fat Philly cream cheese since the cupcakes are portion-controlled. I would only recommend using a 1/3 reduced fat package if the other package is full fat regular cream cheese. Otherwise, the consistency will be off. Do not use fat free cream cheese or the cheesecakes will turn out slimy.

You can put the solid Oreo cookie in the bottom of the cupcake liner if you’re pressed for time. I’ve done both, but by and large, people prefer the crushed cookies (butter + Oreos = happy guests!).