Cheesecake Cups

We made these at school a few weeks ago and they were SO good, especially after cooling for a day or two.

You can garnish with chocolate chips (or sauce) or fresh strawberries, or a strawberry glaze, or cherry pie filling, or caramel, or anything you want. Or you can go au natural and enjoy them pure and simple. So good and worth the multiple steps involved. You can also use this recipe to make a single cake using a spring-form pan- and I am sure the cooking time will have to be adjusted. The cupcakes make an excellent presentation- we served company with them and then had little single serving sizes for the next couple of days. Of course, we had more than one at each sitting- but in theory, we COULD have stopped at one. :-)

Cheesecake Cups

Topping
¾ cups sour cream
1 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla

Mix together and refrigerate until cheesecake is cooked.

Crust
1 ½ cups graham crackers, finely crushed (about 20 squares)
1/3 stick margarine or butter, melted
3 tablespoons sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Get out muffin tin and put papers in each. Mix crumbs, margarine and sugar. Press mixture firmly against bottom of muffin tin. Bake 6 minutes or until light brown, cool.

Filling
2 Eggs
1½ c. Sour cream
½ c. Sugar
2 8oz pkgs. of Softened cream cheese (cut into cubes)
2 tsp. Vanilla
2 tbs. Melted butter

Blend eggs, sugar, vanilla and sour cream for 15 seconds until liquefied. With motor on, remove cover and gradually add cut up cream cheese and melted butter. Pour mixture on crust in each muffin tin. Bake 325º for 16 min. Take out topping and spoon on top of cake. Bake again 3-4 min. Refrigerate over night. Place strawberries on cake just before serving.

Strawberry Sauce
1 ½ cups frozen strawberries, thawed and drained
Sugar to taste
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Place strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in food processor. Blend until pureed and sugar is dissolved. Pour over dessert just before serving.