Recipe For Mini Cheesecakes With Vanilla Wafers

Are you a cheesecake lover? These easy mini cheesecakes are light and fluffy. They are an impressive, delicious dessert for any event or party you may be going to, whether it is a baby shower or a simple get together with friends. Because we use vanilla wafers for the mini cheesecake crust, these are so easy to make and yummy. I made them for a New Year’s Eve party a couple years ago and now I am always asked to bring these easy mini cheesecakes to every party I attend! You can serve them as mini cherry cheesecakes with vanilla wafers or without the cherry topping, as you and your guests prefer.

Mini Cheesecake Vanilla Wafer Crust Recipe

I love the taste of Nilla wafers and they make such an easy crust for this mini cheesecake recipe. Mini Nilla wafers perfectly cover the bottoms of the muffin cups in a mini muffin pan. In fact, my friend calls them cheesecake cupcakes with vanilla wafers! They are so easy and so good. A few simple ingredients make rich cheesecake that is the perfect dessert for potlucks.

Mini Cheesecake Nila Wafer Ingredients:

• 2  8 ounce packages of room temperature cream cheese
• ¾ cup sugar (granulated white)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp of lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest
• 48 Mini Nilla Wafers
• 1 can of Cherry pie filling

In addition to these ingredients, you will need a mini muffin tin and paper liners. If you have two mini muffin pans you will be able to cook them all at once, instead of in two batches. You will use a mini cupcake liner in the bottom of each cup. The cupcake liners are optional but they keep them from sticking and make clean up even easier!

Where can I buy mini vanilla wafers?

Mini ‘Nilla Wafers are available at most local grocery stores. Or you can get Nilla wafer cookies through my affiliate Amazon link. If you can’t find mini vanilla wafers, regular Nilla wafers fill the bottom of a regular size muffin pan but the bake time on those would be 25-30 minutes. You can also make a graham cracker crust if you can’t get Nilla wafers.

This recipe makes 48 mini muffin sized cheesecakes!

How To Make Mini Cherry Cheesecakes With Vanilla Wafers:

1. After you have all your ingredients out, make sure your cream cheese is room temperature. If it isn’t, put in on a microwaveable safe plate and microwave it for 10-20 seconds. It needs to be room temperature to whip cream cheese. Otherwise cold cream cheese will turn out lumpy and not taste as fluffy.

2. Use an electric mixer on medium speed or a magic bullet to mix together: cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest. If you feel like being a “hardcore baker” you can mix it by hand, but it takes A LOT of mixing by hand. I’ve done it before and it can become super tiring mixing it. The mixer is the easiest and fastest way to make it super creamy.

3. Line muffin tins with mini baking cups. Spray the baking cups with Pam so that the cheesecake won’t stick to it once it has been cooked. Place the mini Nilla Wafers face-up in the cups. In other words, the flat side down towards the bottom of the muffin tin.

4. Spoon the cheese cheese mixture into the baking cups. Fill the cup ¾ full or if you’re like me and fill them almost to the top they will be bigger.

5. Bake these at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Then, remove from oven and place on a cooling rack.

Add topping

6. Once they are finished baking, let them cool enough to put into your refrigerator (about 10-20 minutes). This way the mini cheesecakes will cool much faster.

7. Once chilled (roughly about 10-20 minutes), take them out and scoop the cherry pie filling on top of the mini cheesecakes!

If you make these in advance for a party or get together, go ahead and put them in your refrigerator until you’re ready to leave. Then serve your easy mini cheesecakes and enjoy!!

Printable Mini Cheesecake Recipe Card

Recipe Notes:

How do you know when a mini cheesecake is done?

The mini cheesecakes will no longer look wet on the surface. It is ok if it seems soft and creamy. It will set up more as it cools.

How do you keep mini cheesecakes from sinking?

They will sink just a tad in the middle as you can see in the picture. This is totally normal and fine. In fact, it works great to help hold the cherry topping in place.

Can mini cheesecakes be frozen?

If you are making these for a party, there probably won’t be any left to freeze! If you are making these to have easy desserts on hand, feel free to freeze them in an airtight container with parchment paper between the layers for up to 3 months.

Instead of cherry topping, feel free to substitute fresh fruit or other favorite topping to create your perfect bite.

Conclusion

Mini cheesecakes with Nilla wafers are a popular choice for several reasons. Using Nilla wafers as the base eliminates the need to crush and mix ingredients for a traditional graham cracker crust, saving time and effort. Nilla wafers fit perfectly in the bottom of a standard cupcake liner or mini cheesecake mold, making them an ideal ready-made crust. Furthermore, Nilla wafers have a sweet, vanilla flavor that complements the creamy cheesecake filling well. Finally, when baked, Vanilla wafers soften slightly but still provide a satisfying crunch that contrasts nicely with the smooth cheesecake.

Everybody loves creamy cheesecake. These delicious, fluffy, easy mini cheesecakes will be the hit of any party or get together you will be going to! They are perfectly sized for portion control too. My favorite way to enjoy them is as mini cherry cheesecakes with vanilla wafers. Do you have a simple cheesecake recipe you want to share? Will you make these mini vanilla wafer cheesecake bites for your next event?

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