Apple Pie Cheesecakes

As we all know, Easter is coming up (TOMORROW! Holy cow!), and that usually means lots of food. Well, at least with my family it does. I may have gone overboard with contributions this year, but I don't think anyone will complain. Today's agenda? Apple pie cheesecakes, Chocolate Angelfood Cake (coming soon!), and possibly an orzo chicken salad (if I can get back to the store tonight since I forgot to get orzo on this morning's trip). First on the agenda is my "small batch" of apple pie cheesecakes. Please note that all of my cheesecakes are either made to be cupcake sized or mini-cupcake sized. I do not make full sized cheesecakes. Period. At least not yet. Today I made cupcake sized cheesecakes. I had some super cute little ladybug wrappers I needed to use up (they were originally valentines day wrappers, but I figured ladybugs are spring-y too, right?)

Okay. Enough chit-chat. Time for the recipe! (And the tons of pictures I took since my camera is finally charged!)

Ingredients:

2 pkgs cream cheese (8oz each), softened

1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup applesauce

1/4 cup "apple pie shots" (see below for details)

2 eggs

1 tbsp apple pie spice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º. Line a cupcake pan with 12 liners. 

Place softened cream cheese in a bowl.

Beat until creamy and broken up a bit. 

Add vanilla..

And applesauce..

And apple pie shots.. (And sugar, not pictured)

Mix until well combined..

Add apple pie spice, mix again until well combined.

Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until just combined. 

Let the batter rest while you make the crust. In a food processor, crush 1/2 cup of Nilla wafers, add 1/2 cup broken graham cracker crumbs and 1 1/2 tsp apple pie spice, pulse until fairly fine crumbs. 

Add 2 tsp melted butter and pulse until mixed. Dump into a bowl (or keep in there, but it'll be easier to get it all out in another bowl), and break up any lumps.

Add 1 tbsp crust to each liner and press down with the back of a spoon or your fingers.

Add 1/4 cup filling to each liner. 

You'll really need to scrape the bowl to get enough to fill all 12 cups, but it's just the right amount. 

Bake for 20 minutes, or until they barely jiggle anymore. They will probably crack, because I haven't figured out how to make them so that they don't. Once I figure it out, I will let you know. I didn't do a waterbath with these like I did the last couple cheesecakes I made, so they cracked pretty bad. I doubt it affects the taste much though, if at all. 

For these cheesecakes, I used organic applesauce. I don't think it will make a difference if you use regular, but I think it would have been fun to use a chunky applesauce for even more of an "apple pie" effect. This is all I had on hand though, because I was dumb enough to buy a whole case of it from Costco awhile back..

Okay. Onto the "apple pie shots". My dad makes this for Christmas, and last year he gave me a bottle. Considering it's still in my fridge, sitting a little under half full, I figured I'd try to use it somehow. 

He told me once that it was apple cider boiled down to syrup-y goodness along with a cinnamon stick or two, and then a bottle of rum dumped in. I found versions online made with vodka or everclear, so I would imagine it would be a similar process, just with rum instead of vodka or everclear. 

Anything else..? Oh yes! The finished product! I've chosen to unwrap one and drizzle a little caramel over it. It looks delectable! ALMOST good enough for me to stomach cream cheese! Almost. 

For the time being, the hubs will still be a good guinea pig for cheesecake. 






***NOTE***
In my original batch, I put no sugar, only the applesauce. Hubby has deemed that it DEFINITELY needs the sugar. I've added it to the ingredient list above, and if I make another batch, it will definitely have some in there. In the meantime, these will be made edible by drowning them in caramel sauce. Not every made-up recipe is a success!