Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

I found a copy of Martha Stewart's Cupcake cookbook on sale for $6.99 and I just couldn't pass it up.  It won me over with it's beautiful photography and cute little cupcakes and I couldn't wait to get it home and look it over.  When my daughter saw it sitting on the couch she became interested and asked if she could pick the first recipe, hence these little Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes.  The girl loves Oreos.

The little cheesecakes look so cute in Martha's book and naturally I had high hopes that mine would look as pretty as Martha's.  Let's just say that didn't happen.  The picture at the top of my post is a copy of what they looked like in the book. Naturally Martha and her crew make them look perfect, right?  Well, here's what mine looked like.  Mine are not so cute.  Strike #1.

At any rate, this recipe should be really simple.  One whole Oreo cookie is placed at the bottom of each lined cup in your muffin tin.  A cheesecake filling is made with a mixture of cream cheese, sour cream, and more chopped Oreos, then poured over the cookie.  Easy enough, right?  It was easy until I discovered that I only had (2) 6-cup muffin tins and could only make 12 at a time.  Strike #2 (totally my fault). Since the recipe makes 30 cheesecakes that bake for 20 minutes, then need to cool for even longer, the entire process took forever.  I learned a valuable lesson that day, which was that I need to buy more muffin tins and also start paying attention to my kitchen equipment, as well as the ingredients, when choosing a recipe.

The recipe indicates that it makes 30 cheesecakes, but I had a lot of leftover filling which meant more batches of cheesecakes, more cooling, and another hour of standing in the kitchen.  Strike #3.  You're out!

In the end I do have to tell you that the recipe made about 42 cheesecakes.  Most of them went to my daughter's Girl Scout Troop, who really enjoyed them.  Some stayed here in the house and the rest went with my Mom to work.  Everyone enjoyed them, but I don't think they were anything to write home about.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Makes over 40 cupcakes

42 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped (This  is the equivalent of one pacakage of Oreos) NOTE: I would buy 2 packages though because you will have extra filling

2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten

1 cup sour cream

Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 275F.  Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.  Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.  Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined.  Beat in vanilla.

Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed.  Beat in sour cream and salt.  Stir in chopped cookie by hand.

Divide batter evenly among cookie-filled cups, filling each almost to the top.  Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes.  Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely.  Refrigerate (in tins) at least 4 hours (or up to overnight).  Remove from tins just before serving.

Notes/Results:  I learned several things while making these cheesecakes.  Probably the biggest lesson was to give more thought to my kitchen equipment, not only the ingredients, when making a new recipe.  The second thing I learned is that I really don't like it when the food doesn't turn out as pretty as it does in the books.  The difference between the way Martha's look and the way mine look is pretty stark.  Because these cupcakes took so much time and care, tending to the muffin pans and such, it really upset me the way they came out. 

I definitely want to say that I still love Martha's cupcake book and plan on making several more of the recipes in the future.  Overall this is a good recipe, just not the best.  I don't know that I would necessarily recommend it. On the other hand, Martha's book does mention that these are a staff favorite so maybe I just did something wrong.  I'll never know because I'm most definitely NOT making them again. 

Have you had any similar kitchen adventures lately?