Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Cupcakes (In Mini)

Cheesecake. Cupcakes. Need I say more?
I'm not the biggest fan of chocolate, or Oreos, or snack/junk food. But my friend was having a Thanksgiving party the other day and I decided to do something nice and make some mini Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes for the party. I do love cookies and cream, which is a little odd to think about when I don't really like Oreos all that much.

I had never made these before, and the original recipe called for regular sized cupcakes and regular Oreos. But because I like to make all of my cupcakes in "mini" form, these just had to be made mini, with Mini Oreo cookies.
I halved the original recipe (if you're making mini cupcakes you will get a little over the same original amount of cupcakes, but in mini form) and got about 42 mini cupcakes. The original makes about 30 regular sized ones.

Instead of chopping up the cookies into chunks I ground them very finely with my Magic Bullet food processor and mixed them into the cheesecake batter before putting into the cupcake liners.

Can I just say...

Wow! These were really good! I mean like, REALLY good! And they were a huge hit at the party. The fact that they were miniature probably helped with the cuteness factor, too.
Today I ended up using the same recipe only instead of Oreos I made them with blueberry preserves. I will put up those in an upcoming blog post. I'm sure you didn't come check out this post for blueberries, though.
So without further adieu, Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Cupcakes (In Mini):

I added an extra cookie onto the top of some of the cupcakes for some extra fun!

Unfortunately I only took a picture of it when it was in the liner. But you can still see the Oreo :)

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Cupcakes
Makes 42 mini cupcakes.


INGREDIENTS:

• 1 bag MINI Oreo cookies. 21 pulled apart (or 42 left whole), the rest finely chopped. A food processor works well for this.
• 1 pound cream cheese, room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
• ½ cup sour cream
• Pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS: 
1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line miniature muffin tins with mini paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie (or ½ cookie, logo side down) in the bottom of each lined cup.

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

3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in ground up cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top, about ¾ full (they will puff up a little bit but quickly sink back down once taken out of the oven).

5. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Cool cupcakes in the pan, or carefully remove and cool on wire racks. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight).
Tip: Since I was in a hurry I took the cupcakes out of the tins and put them on a metal baking sheet and popped it in the freezer. They were set after about 15-20 minutes.

Fluffy Pancakes with Honey Syrup

I wanted to make some pancakes the other day from scratch. I like to make things from scratch because then I know exactly what's in it. I think I have kind of a "control freak" problem with cooking. But I keep a pretty healthy diet that way it seems. I'm definitely not a health nut but I like to get into good eating habits.

I came across a recipe for fluffy pancakes and made them. They turned out pretty darn good, too. I wanted to make buttermilk pancakes but I didn't have any buttermilk. No worries, though; You pretty much make your own buttermilk for this recipe and use that. The original recipe didn't call for vanilla though, but I think vanilla is always necessary in pancakes. :) They didn't turn out like cardboard (which is the first sign that you're doing something right), and weren't too salty. I can't stand overly salty pancakes.
 ♥ I usually make pretty big pancakes. I halved the recipe and it made 2 nice big pancakes. If you have two people who like big pancakes I would say make this original recipe. If you're just making them for yourself just half the recipe and you'll be good. ♥
*Tip: How I halved the egg: crack and egg into a bowl and beat it. Then just pour half of it into the mix.

When I was done I realized that I didn't have any maple syrup. Uh-oh! So I decided to try and whip up some kind of sweet syrup to drench these bad boys in. I came up with the idea to microwave some honey and butter together and use that. It wasn't nearly as thick as maple syrup but it tasted really good, and I actually liked the fact that it soaked into the cakes and flavored the whole thing.

Milk and vinegar...the key to makeshift buttermilk

Honey and butter, before microwaving

Fluffy From-Scratch Pancakes
INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• cooking spray (I used olive oil, but you could use butter to grease the griddle, too)

HOW-TO:

1. Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour".
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk. Add vanilla. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

Honey-Butter Syrup
INGREDIENTS:

• Honey
• Butter 

HOW-TO:

1. Put some honey in a bowl with a little bit of butter.
2. Microwave for about 20 seconds.
3. Pour over pancakes.

Naked fluffies