Easter Mini-Cheesecakes

These colorful mini-cheesecakes are made with malted milk ball eggs and have a sugar cookie crust…yum!

I love seasonal candy.  I love Cadbury eggs at Easter and Tim Tams at Christmas and conversation hearts at Valentines Day….but the Whopper brand malted milk ball eggs are the best.  Did any of you use the outside shell as colorful “lipstick” as a kid?  So fun!  Crunch them up in a whipped cheesecake and put them in a fun Mini Cheesecake Pan for a dessert that will make everyone smile!

INGREDIENTS: (makes 12 mini cheesecakes)

• One Nestle Sugar Cookie Dough Bar (the refrigerated dough that is scored into 24 squares)
• 8 oz. of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (softened)
• 1/3 c. granulated sugar
• 2 t. vanilla
• 1 (8 oz) container of Cool Whip
• 2 bags (10 oz. each) of Whopper’s Robin Eggs (I used mini’s, but I’m sure the full size would work fine too.)  You could use regular Whopper candies to get the same flavors when the seasonal Robin’s Eggs are not available.

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Prepare pan by placing the metal disks into each cup (the Mini Cheesecake Pan comes with metal disks that sit at the bottom of each cup- like the bottom of a spring form pan!)
• Break apart 1/2 of cookie dough bar.  (This recipe makes 12 cheesecakes but the bar contains 24 cookies.  You can double this recipe and make 24 cheesecakes or just make the other 12 cookies another time.)
• Roll each cookie dough square into a ball and put it into a greased cup in the mini cheesecake pan.
• Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes.
• Cool completely.
• In a mixing bowl, cream together softened cream cheese and sugar. 
• Add vanilla.
• Smash one full bag of Malted Milk Chocolate Eggs.  I put them in a ziplock , placed them on a cutting board and hit them with a hammer until they were in pieces about the size of mini chocolate chips.
• Fold about 2/3 of Cool Whip and  the one bag of smashed eggs into the cream cheese mixture.
• Spoon cheesecake mixture into a large zip-top bag.  Clip a large piece of one corner off and pipe filling evenly over each cooled cookie crust.
• Use a knife or spatula to smooth tops of cheesecakes flat across top of pan.
• Freeze for about 3-4 hours (or overnight)
• Remove from freezer, pop cheesecakes out by pushing up on the bottom of each cup. (This took a little practice for me- you have to push it up high enough to grab it by the cookie part.)
• Remove the metal disk from the crust.
• Pipe remaining 1/3 of Cool Whip on top of each cheesecake and decorate with  malted milk chocolate eggs as desired
• Keep refrigerated until serving.

My thoughts:  These are a yummy, colorful and fun Easter treat!  They go together fast too- which is always a bonus for me.  You can make these in a muffin tin, if you don’t want to invest in the mini-cheesecake pan- but mine has been a great addition to my kitchen- so many fun things to make in it!!!  Hope you enjoy these fun little treats!!!  ~r

Other Easter ideas from Easybaked (click on an image to get the recipe):

Other ways to use your Mini Cheesecake Pan: