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Individual Cheesecakes with Orange-Cranberry Sauce

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I think I may have mentioned once or… 50 times that I love cheesecake. I am also a big fan of all things miniature. If you follow MBA, you may have noticed that the lovely Katie from GoodLife Eats and I have been hosting a Holiday Recipe Exchange.

Many of the recipes that have been posted look outstanding, but there is one particular creation that immediately caught my eye. That recipe was for mini cheesecakes with cranberry topping from Tessa of the blog, Handle the Heat. I thought Tessa’s recipe for creamy vanilla flecked individual cheesecakes topped with cranberry sauce would be the perfect festive dessert to make for our holiday potluck at work.

If you have never made mini cheesecakes before, don’t be intimidated because they are pretty simple. Not to mention, they are a great addition to any potluck or holiday spread because they’re quite portable if you keep them in the cupcake liners. I hope you enjoy this recipe for mini cheesecakes as much as I did, have a great start to the week and thanks so much for stopping by!

Individual Cheesecakes with Orange-Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

  • 1 ½ cup graham cracker crumbs
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter; melted
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

For the Filling:

  • 3 (8 ounce) bricks of cream cheese; softened
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 vanilla bean, split in half and seeds scraped
  • 3 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream

For the Orange-Cranberry Topping:

  • 12 ounces fresh cranberries
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup orange juice

Directions:

For the Cheesecake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cupcake pans with 24 paper liners.
  2. In a small bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, sugar and cinnamon. Stir together with a fork until well blended and all dry ingredients are moistened and look like wet sand. Press 1 tablespoon of the mixture into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Bake until just set, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees F.
  3. In a medium bowl beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed with an electric mixer just until smooth. Beat in sugar until well incorporated. Mix in the salt and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, add in the heavy cream. Be careful not to over-mix.
  4. Spoon 3 to 4 tablespoons of the cheesecake batter over the crust in each cupcake liner using an ice cream scoop or two spoons.
  5. Bake until the filling is just set, about 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and let cool to room temperature. Transfer to the refrigerator and let chill for at least 4 hours before topping and serving, preferably overnight.

For the Sauce

  1. In a medium sized saucepan over medium heat, dissolve the sugar in the orange juice. Stir in the cranberries and cook until the cranberries start to pop (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat and place sauce in a bowl. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools.
  2. Before serving, top refrigerated cheesecakes with the cooled cranberry sauce.

adapted from Handle the Heat

All images and text ©

Follow Jamie on Instagram. We love to see what you're baking from MBA! Be sure to tag @jamiemba and use the hashtag #mbarecipes!

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Sarah

Wednesday 26th of October 2016

I just made these mini cheesecake for a party, they are chilling in the fridge :-p Can't wait to taste them. Thank you for sharing this great and easy recipe =)

Jamie

Thursday 27th of October 2016

I hope everyone at the party enjoys them, Sarah!

Pat Kirkham

Sunday 17th of July 2016

Sounds delicious. Can these be frozen. I live alone and would like to eat one at a time. Thanks

Jamie

Sunday 17th of July 2016

Hi, Pat! Yes, these can be frozen. You might want to consider freezing without the sauce and putting the sauce on before you enjoy. Take care!

Christina

Monday 4th of July 2016

Hi , I am wanting to make these for a baby shower in 3weeks. I want use Reynolds cupcake liners without the cupcake pan and I want to make more than 24. Can you please help me out. Thank you

Jamie

Tuesday 5th of July 2016

Hi, Christina! You can definitely use cupcake liners without the pan; just put them on a baking sheet. I would double the recipe just to make sure you have enough. I hope everyone at the shower enjoys them!

Merle

Sunday 4th of October 2015

Is there a way you can measure the ingredients for me with grams and not with cups? I'm from Holland and I really want to make these but I find the cups so confusing to convert!

Jamie

Tuesday 5th of January 2016

Hi, Merle! Try this conversion site. I hope this helps! http://www.convertunits.com/from/cups/to/grams

Annie

Monday 8th of July 2013

I didn't make the sauce. I used: Maine wild blueberry sauce, black raspberries, cherry pie filling, and home made chocolate sauce. My husband went nuts and now I am making them again this week. Don't know whether to thank you or curse you!

Not only do they taste great and look very cute on my plate, they also are just the perfect size.

Jamie

Tuesday 13th of August 2013

Annie,

Wow, those sound great! Thank you so much for stopping back and thank you for following MBA!

Jamie

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