Cheesecake-filled Pumpkin Cupcakes.. A fall favorite!

These are my favorite cupcakes thus far and I am not even a big fan of cheesecake! The melding of cupcake and cheesecake is perfect. The cupcakes came out super moist with a beautiful orange color and are super easy to make. I used the mixer only for the cheesecake and whisked the pumpkin cupcake with a hand whisk. This recipe does not require butter.

Try this recipe with Brown Sugar Meringue Frosting (here)!

Cheesecake-Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• One 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 large eggs, plus 1 large egg whites
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

1. Place a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 350°. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with baking liners. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and confectioners' sugar for 3 minutes. Beat in 1 egg white and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.
   

2. In a bowl, whisk the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. In another bowl, mix the pumpkin puree, 2 eggs, granulated sugar, oil and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Whisk in the flour mixture.
   

3. Layer each muffin cup with some of the pumpkin batter, then the cream cheese mixture, then more of the batter. Bake until springy to the touch, 25 minutes. Let cool.

Let cream cheese cool to room temperature (the fastest way to do this is slice into pieces)

Mix cream cheese and 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Beat in 1 egg and 1/2 tsp vanilla

Whisk pumpkin puree, 2 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup oil and 1 tsp vanilla

Whisk in flour mixture (2 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 1/2 cups flour)

Fill cupcake liners with pumpkin batter 1/2 full then layer cream cheese then more pumpkin batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes until springy.

Frosted with Brown Sugar Meringue Frosting! It was delicious and the perfect compliment to the cupcakes! The Cheesecake-Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes are also wonderful without any frosting.

Side Note: I used the EZ Cracker Egg Cracker to break the eggs and to also separate the whites from the yolks. I thought this thing was a gimmick but it is awesome! It cracks open eggs perfectly!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes with a Gingersnap Cookie Crust

Tips:

• Use aluminum foil cupcake liners for cheesecake cupcakes so your cheesecake does not soak through the paper liner and make a mess.

I have officially been bitten by the "Fall" bug! Last weekend we went apple picking. The leaves were turning and the apples were bright and delicious. It was so exciting to pick apples fresh from the trees and see an actual real pumpkin patch! So exciting in fact, I wanted to carry over the fall theme to my kitchen with Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes! These were delicious, although I undercooked them a bit.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cheesecake:

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp pumpkin spice

For the crust:

2 cups finely ground gingersnap cookies
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Combine gingersnap cookies and sugar in bowl; add melted butter and mix until combined. Press crust mixture onto bottom of each cupcake liner, about 1 tbsp. Set aside.

2. In a stand mixer with a flat beater, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time.

3. Add pumpkin and pumpkin spice to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Fill the cupcake liners almost full. Bake in preheated oven for 22-25 minutes, or until center is almost set. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.


Make sure you don't forget anything by gathering up all of your ingredients beforehand!














I used the Magic Bullet to finally ground the gingersnaps as I do not have a blender. A blender is preferable but the Magic Bullet will work in a pinch. To get 2 cups of crumbs, I filled the Magic Bullet roughly 2 1/2 times with whole cookies.


I should have mixed the brown sugar and gingersnaps together before adding the melted butter but instead I melted the butter, then added the brown sugar to the hot butter while I continued to grind the gingersnaps. I ended up with caramelized sugar. It may sound great but the crust was a bit too chewy!









































































Use aluminum foil liners when baking cheesecake cupcakes. The moisture will seep through paper liners as seen in the corner cupcake holder. I baked all the cupcakes in foil liners except the corner one and I was left with a bit of a mess when I took the cupcake with the wrapper out.

Cheesecake Cupcakes

Tip:

• Use aluminum foil cupcake liners for cheesecake cupcakes so your cheesecake does not soak through the paper liner and make a mess.
• If you do not have sour cream on hand, use yogurt. Put yogurt into cheesecloth or coffee filter and place it over a bowl or cup making sure to have room for the liquid to drain and let sit for 30 minutes. Since sour cream is thicker than yogurt, this will allow the yogurt to become a thicker consistency and perfect for use in everything from baking to spinach and artichoke dip!

As I am sure many people are quite tired (possibly someone in my apartment??) of cupcakes everywhere, I decided to try a different spin on cup"cakes" and I was surprisingly pleased with the results partly because I don't typically like cheesecake and mostly because I forgot to set the timer and I have absolutely no sense of time!

So I bring to you,... Cheesecake Cupcakes!

Basically a blank canvas, Cheesecake Cupcakes and Vanilla Cupcakes are very much alike in that you can instantly change the flavor by choosing from a multitude of toppings. This past week, while devouring them, we have tried the Cheesecake cupcakes by themselves, topped with raspberries, topped with cool whip and raspberries, cut into pieces and drizzled with chocolate... you get the idea. Nothing failed! It was always delicious!

So here is the recipe from "125 Best Cupcakes" book by Julie Hanson with my various tweaks and notes in italic.

Cheesecake Cupcakes

• Muffin pan for 12 cupcakes
• 12 foil cupcake liners

CRUST:

• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 7 graham crackers)
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tbsp packed light brown sugar

FILLING:

• 12 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 eggs

TOPPING:

• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar

CRUST:
1. In a food processor, turn graham crackers into crumbs, or just crumble them yourself. I put the graham crackers into a plastic bag and with a rolling pin crushed them.
2. Mix together graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and brown sugar. To get an even consistency of the butter and sugar, I used my hands to mix the mixture together so all of the graham cracker mixture would have moisture throughout.
3. Press mixture into bottoms of prepared cupcake liners.








FILLING:
1. In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, pulse cream cheese until smooth. You don't want to overprocess the mixture; you just want it to be smooth. I used a handheld mixer for the entire filling process.
2. Add sugar, pulsing until smooth.
3. Add sour cream, pulsing until smooth.
4. Add eggs, pulsing until smooth.
5. Scoop filling over crust in foil cupcake liners.
6. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 18-22 minutes or until centers of cupcakes are firm.
7. Let cool in the pan or on a rack for 5 minutes.



TOPPING:
1. In a small bowl, stir together sour cream and sugar. I ran out of sour cream so I spooned Greek Yogurt into a coffee filter over a cup to remove the excess liquid and proceeded with using the Greek Yogurt as a substitute.
2. Gently spoon and swirl (using back of spoon) mixture over cupcakes, covering tops.
3. Return to oven and bake for 4 minutes.
4. Let cupcakes cool to room temperature.
5. Remove from pan.
6. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight to chill completely.



Luckily, even though I forgot to set the timer, the cheesecake tasted perfect, not over or underdone. My cheesecake cupcakes did puff up quite a bit though resulting in cracks on top and a slightly sunken in cheesecake when cooked. Maybe I over-beat the mixture, whipping too much air into the eggs and whatnot? I will try this recipe again and try not to forget I am mixing a cheesecake and not cake. Could this possibly be why the original recipe was mixed with a food processor and not a handheld mixer with beaters?

Typically with cheesecakes you should set them in a water bath so the steam and heat will help prevent curdling, cracking and over darkening of the exterior of the cheesecake but since I did not have a pan large enough to put a cupcake tin in, I could not do this. However, I do not believe this caused the cracking at the top of my cupcakes since I do not think the steam would have prevented the puff up.