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Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes are an easy dessert to make in a muffin pan! This is a simple mini fruit cheesecake recipe with a 2 ingredient graham cracker crust, a creamy and smooth plain cheesecake filling and homemade strawberry topping!
Tools to Make Mini Cheesecakes in a Cupcake Pan
- standard size muffin pan
- paper muffin / cupcake liners
Making individual cheesecakes in a muffin pan is a great way to scale down a regular cheesecake recipe. Mini cheesecakes don’t require a water bath or any special tools, plus they bake faster than regular cheesecake.
Mini Fruit Cheesecake Ingredients
Our mini cheesecake recipe with strawberry sauce only calls for 4 ingredients!
- cream cheese: use two 8 oz packages. Be sure to use full fat, not low fat, cream cheese for best results.
- sugar: helps to balance the tanginess of the cream cheese.
- vanilla extract: just a teaspoon, but it enhances the classic cheesecake flavor.
- eggs: eggs are the last ingredient that get mixed into the cheesecake batter. Be sure to mix them in, one at a time, just until the yolk breaks. Over beating the eggs is the number one cause of air bubbles and cracking.
How to Make Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes in a Muffin Pan
- Line the muffin pan with paper liners.
- Place about 2 tbsp of the crust in the bottom of each liner. Use the bottom of a measuring cup to pack the crust down.
- Pre-bake the crust for 5 minutes.
- Mix the cheesecake batter ingredients together.
- Divide the cheesecake batter evenly among the muffin liners.
- Bake until the center of the cheesecake only slightly jiggles when you shake the muffin pan.
How to Make Strawberry Cheesecake Topping
I shared an entire post on how to make homemade strawberry sauce. That post describes in detail how to make strawberry sauce, we even have a video to show you how to make it!
However, instead of chopping all the strawberries to make the sauce, we did 1 cup of chopped strawberries and 13 whole strawberries. You need whole strawberries if you’re wanting to top your strawberry cheesecake with a single whole strawberry like you see in the photos.
Total Time Required
- 5 minutes to prep the crust
- 5 minutes to pre-bake the crust
- 5 minutes to prep the cheesecake
- 20 ish minutes to bake cheesecake
- at least 4 hours to refrigerate the cheesecake before serving. I prefer to refrigerate mine overnight. Waiting is the hardest part, right?!
The strawberry sauce can be made up to 2 days in advance and stored in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.
How to Tell When Mini Cheesecakes are Done Baking?
The best way to tell when the mini cheesecakes are done is the jiggle test. The center of the cheesecake should jiggle slightly when you shake the pan and the edges of the cheesecake will be slightly more puffy or airy.
How to Cool Mini Cheesecakes
Once the cheesecakes are done baking, remove the pan from the oven and place it on the counter until the cheesecakes have cooled to room temperature. Then loosely cover the muffin pan with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight to chill.
Why Did my Mini Cheesecakes Sink?
Over beating the eggs is the number one cause of air bubbles in cheesecake. Air bubbles cause the cheesecakes to sink in the middle as they cool. Be sure to mix the eggs in, one at a time, just until the yolk breaks. Once all the eggs have been added to the cheesecake batter, beat for only 30-60 seconds, until the eggs are fully incorporated.
Tips for Making Easy Mini Cheesecakes
- Allow the cream cheese to come to room temperature before beating it. Room temperature cream cheese is easier to whip.
- The eggs are the last ingredient that get mixed into the cheesecake batter. Be sure to mix them in, one at a time, just until the yolk breaks. Over beating the eggs is the number one cause of air bubbles and cracking.
- You can buy a box of graham cracker crumbs at the grocery store instead of having to blend your own! The crumbs are usually located near the pre-made graham cracker pie crusts.
- Thoroughly chill the mini cheesecakes in the fridge before serving.
How to Freeze Mini Cheesecakes
- Cool the cheesecakes completely before freezing.
- Place the mini cheesecakes, without any garnishes, on a baking sheet, uncovered, and place in the freezer until frozen.
- Once frozen, wrap each cheesecake in aluminum foil and place them inside a ziplock bag in the freezer. They can be frozen for 4 months. To thaw, place them in the refrigerator overnight.
- Before serving add your desired toppings.
More Cheesecake Recipes
- Mini Coffee Cheesecakes
- Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes
- Mini Oreo Cheesecakes
- No Bake Cheesecake
- Espresso Cheesecake
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Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Cheesecake
- 2 packages cream cheese, softened to room temperature, 8 oz each
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
Strawberry Sauce
- 1 cup chopped strawberries, equal to about half 1 lb carton
- 12 whole strawberries, tops cut off
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Squeeze of fresh lemon
Instructions
Crust
- Preheat the oven to 350º F.
- Line a regular sized muffin pan with 12 muffin liners.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter with a spatula until it resembles coarse sand.
- Put 1-2 tbsp of crumbs in each muffin cup.
- Use a 1/3 cup (or similar) to press the crumbs down firmly into the pan.
- Bake the crust for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and allow it to cool while prepping the cheesecake.
Cheesecake
- In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth, 1-2 minutes.
- Beat in the sugar and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Beat in the eggs.
- Place a little more than 2 tbsp of cheesecake batter in each muffin cup.
- Bake for 16-18 minutes or until the center of the cheesecake is only slightly jiggly.
- Allow the cheesecakes to cool to room temperature then place them in the fridge for at least 4 hours to chill before serving. If refrigerating overnight, loosely cover the cheesecakes in plastic wrap.
Strawberry sauce
- In a small-medium sized pot over medium heat, combine the diced strawberries, whole strawberries, sugar, vanilla extract, and squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
- Bring to a boil, and stir occasionally. The mixture will bubble and foam, the strawberries will release their juices. Allow the mixture to boil for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Cook until the sauce thickens, about 7 additional minutes.
- Transfer the sauce to a container and store in the fridge to cool. Serve when ready.
- NOTE: If you’d prefer to top each cheesecake with a fresh whole strawberry, instead of one that has been cooked with the sauce, you can do that too! Just don’t include the whole strawberries when making the sauce, only chopped ones.
Assemble the cheesecake
- Place a whole strawberry from the sauce on each cheesecake, top with a spoonful of sauce. Serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclosure
All nutritional values are approximate and provided to the reader as a courtesy. Changing ingredients and/or quantities will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.
These are so beautiful! I want to try them!
Thanks my friend!!!
I’ve made these a couple times and they’re super easy to make and delicious!! My only complaint is that I wish the recipe would’ve included the amount of graham crackers in grams too because it was hard to measure out by cups. My crust broke once because I added too much graham cracker. Other than that these are amazing