Pre-Halloweening Mini Cheesecakes

Is it just me, or did all things Halloween seem to begin on October 1st? Target and Old Navy are full of fun stuff, and I have to admit that for the first time in a while, I'm actually pretty excited about All Hallows Eve. So naturally I started by trying a new recipe. Cookies and cream cheesecakes made Halloween style with special edition black and orange Oreos.

I used a whole Oreo as the base for the mini cheesecakes. The Oreos have cats, ghosts and jack-o-lanterns on them. Check out the awesome orange layer under the cake. (I wanted to type "bootiful" just now. I'm really glad I didn't.)

Close up. I would have liked the cream cheese cake top to cookie bottom ratio to have been balanced a little better (more cheesecake, less crust), but the fancy Oreo colors only come in Double Stuff, so I guess I can just deal with it.

These are awesome, and super easy to make. Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. Martha finally pulled through for me. Makes 30 mini cheesecakes.

Here's what you need:

2 lbs cream cheese (I used three pkgs cream cheese, one Neufchatel cheese)

1 C sugar

4 eggs at room temp, lightly whisked

1 C sour cream (I used light sour cream & it turned out great)

1 t vanilla

1 dash of salt

42 Oreos (30 as crusts, 12 crushed up for the cheesecake)

Here's what you do:

Preheat your oven to 275. Put paper cups in your cupcake pan. Pop an Oreo in the bottom of each.

Mix up the cream cheese for a few minutes and then add the sugar. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the sour cream, then the eggs and vanilla. Toss in your dash of salt. Then hand stir in the crushed up Oreos. I like some bigger chunks in my cakes, so I just chopped them coarsely.

Bake for 23 minutes, then let them cool on a wire rack. Then put the whole pan in the fridge for four hours. They're worth the wait.

Enjoy!