Cooking With Coffee Chapter 1: Mini Coffee Cheesecakes

Do you like coffee? How about food? If you answered yes to either of these questions, then stick around as we embark on our first ever Cooking with Coffee journey! 

With a passion for coffee and a love of food, we thought what better way to combine the two than to start cooking with coffee! 

To kick things off, we wanted to keep things sweet and simple with a twist on a classic cheesy dessert. That means we're making Mini Coffee Cheesecakes!!!

After all, who doesn't like a mini dessert to go with their coffee, and cheesecake can count as a breakfast right? 

This recipe only requires 8 simple ingredients and should take you no more than 40 minutes to prepare and bake, plus 2 hours of chilling.

OK, without further ado, let's get started! 

MINI COFFEE CHEESECAKES

First things first, lets make sure you've got the necessary tools to make this recipe happen. 

Start by making sure you have a muffin tin or two (enough for roughly 12 mini cakes)

Next up, make sure you have cupcake liners to line your muffin tins with. This step isn't mandatory, but is strongly recommended for the ease of removing cheesecakes from the tin.

Now it's time to tackle ingredients. Like we said before, this simple recipe only requires 8 ingredients, including the obvious star, coffee!

INGREDIENTS

•  1 1/2 cups Oreo crumbs (this comes out to roughly 2/3 of a pack of an Oreo's Family Pack
•  2 tbsp melted butter 
•  2 (8 oz) packages full fat cream cheese, room temperature
•  1/3 cup sugar
•  1 tsp vanilla extract
•  3 tbsp brewed espresso or dark coffee of choice (we used Del Playa)
•  2 tbsp coffee grounds (can be fresh or used, we used used grounds, we needed some coffee to sip on while baking)
•  2 eggs

Now that you've got your ingredients it's time to start baking! 

Instructions

CRUST

• 1 1/2 cups Oreo crumbs (this comes out to roughly 2/3 of a pack of and Oreo's Family Pack 
•  2 tbsp melted butter 

1. Start by preheating your oven to 350º F
2. Line you muffin tins with 12 liners
3. Crush Oreo's into crumbs either in a food processor or by hand
4. Mix Oreo's and melted butter together until they start to resemble coarse sand 
5. Scoop 1-2 tbsp of Oreo crumb mix into each muffin cup
6. Pack Oreo crumb base down firmly into each cup
7. Bake crusts for 5 minutes, allowing time for crust to cool while cheesecake batter is prepped

CHEESECAKE

•  2 (8 oz) packages full fat cream cheese, room temperature
•  1/3 cup sugar
•  1 tsp vanilla extract
•  3 tbsp brewed espresso or dark coffee of choice (we used Del Playa)
• 2 tbsp coffee grounds (can be fresh or used, we used used grounds, we needed some coffee to sip on while baking)
•  2 eggs

1. In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese for 2-3 minutes with an electric mixer until smooth
2. Add in and beat the sugar, vanilla extract, brewed espresso or coffee, and coffee grounds until smooth
3. Add in and beat the eggs. Careful to not overbeat the eggs and the cheesecake batter or your cheesecakes could sink while baking
4. Pour cheesecake batter into muffin cups filling each cup roughly 2/3 full. This should be just over 2 tbsp of batter
5. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until the center of the cheesecake is only slightly jiggly. Give the muffin tin a little shake test to make sure they are done
6. Allow the cheesecakes to cool to room temperature, then place them in the fridge for at least 2 hours to chill before serving. Cover loosely if you intend to refrigerate longer

Because we're extra and believe there can never be enough coffee, we decided to top our cheesecakes with an easy 3 ingredient homemade Coffee Whipped Cream, see recipe below!

COFFEE WHIPPED CREAM

•  2 cups heavy cream
•  1/2 cup powdered sugar
•  2 tsp instant coffee granules (or more for a more intense flavor!) (PS: We know instant coffee is cheating but is best for this recipe)

1. Place a metal mixing bowl and beaters in the freezer for 15 minutes
2. Remove the bowl from the freezer. Add all ingredients: heavy cream, powdered sugar, and instant coffee granules and beat with an electric mixer for 4-5 minutes, or until stiff peaks form. The whipped cream should be scoop-able and keep its shape
3. Top your Mini Coffee Cheesecakes

Warning: This stuff is seriously addicting and you may find yourself wanting to put it on everything! 

Now that you've topped off your mini coffee cheesecakes, the only thing left to do is enjoy!! 

If you decide to give this recipe a go, we'd love to see how they come out! Tag us on social @campuspointcoffee or send up a snap!