Mini Oreo Cheesecake

So my sister has been bugging me to make her Oreo cheesecakes ever since I made mini pumpkin cheesecakes last November.  She's not a big fan of pumpkin and loves her Oreos.  I've been meaning to experiment with Oreo cheesecakes, but with my busy school schedule, I never got around to it.  During 4th of July weekend, I had the perfect opportunity.  The great thing about making your own desserts is that you can control the ingredients and the portion sizes.  These mini cheesecakes come out to around 170 calories so you can make your cake and eat it too!  And the best part is that this recipe is quick and easy.

  I decided to use the mini pumpkin cheesecake recipe and adapted it to create an Oreo cheesecake recipe.  I replaced the pumpkin with Greek yogurt, used reduced fat cream cheese instead of regular, and reduced the sugar. 

Keep your cream cheese at room temperature, this will help when you mix in the yogurt and sugar.  Most regular and Oreo cheesecake recipes that I've seen use sour cream.  So I decided to opt for the high protein, no fat content of fat free Greek yogurt because I've found Greek yogurt to have a similar taste to sour cream.  This will help to increase the protein and decrease the fat content of this cheesecake recipe.  As for the mini cheesecake molds, I would use a mini cheesecake pan which I have yet to invest in, but if you don't have one then you can also use cupcake liners in a cupcake pan.  I also found paper baking cups to be useful.  Place the liners, or baking cups, in a cupcake pan.  Scrape cream off of the cookies, and place cookies in each of the 12 cupcake slots.
Place the cream cheese, sugar, and yogurt in a mixing bowl and mix at medium speed until everything is smooth.  Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix again until smooth.  Crush 5 Oreo cookies in a Ziploc bag using a rolling pin.  Add the cookie crumbs to the cream cheese mixture and fold in.

Use a spoon to evenly distribute the cheese cake mix into each of the cupcake slots.  Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes.  The mini cheesecakes are done when the cakes do not jiggle after shaking the pan.  Let cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes and chill in refrigerator.

Make the Oreo whip cream by combining heavy whipping cream and 1 Tablespoon sugar.  Whip until stiff peaks form.  Use the cookie crumbs and fold into the whipped cream.  Use a piping bag or piping gun to top cheesecakes with the whipped cream.

Makes 12 Mini Cheesecakes
Ingredients
1 package reduced fat cream cheese, or Neufchatel cheese, 8 oz, softened
6oz fat free Greek yogurt, plain
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
6 Oreo cookies, cream removed
5 Oreo cookies, crushed

Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 Tbsp sugar
Oreo cookie crumbs

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place plain cookie halves in cupcake pans or mini cheesecake pans.
Place cream cheese, sugar, and yogurt in mixer and mix on medium speed until smooth.
Add egg and vanilla extract and mix on medium speed until smooth.
Fold in cookie crumbs.
Spoon Oreo cheescake mixture into each of the slots, place in oven and bake for 20 minutes.
Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes and chill in refrigerator.

Meanwhile, combine whipping cream and sugar and using a wire whisk, beat cream until stiff peaks form.  Fold in cookie crumbs.
Before serving, pipe whipped cream onto cheesecakes and serve.