Perfectly tart and sweet Mini Key Lime Cheesecakes. Perfect for spring.
Are you ready for Easter? It is only a couple days a way! I hope you are doing better than I am with a plan. I did manage to pick up a few things for an Easter basket today, but that is about it. At least my 8 year old will be pleased! Our neighborhood has a small Easter Egg hunt on Sunday. My 8 year old is already working on his game plan, so he can get the most eggs. Which in turn means the most candy, since they are filled plastic eggs. Speaking of eggs. Do you decorate eggs at your house? We always have in the past, not sure my son is super into it this year, so we will have to see.
I am all about citrus this spring. I discovered how good Lemon Bars actually are! And these Lemony Greek Easter Cookies were such a buttery and light treat. So I thought why not make a rich cheesecake a little lighter with a key lime twist. Andy why not make them individual sized! So the Mini Key Lime Cheesecakes seemed perfect. My husbands favorite pie is a key lime pie, so I was sure that he would love these. I was a little surprised when even my son and his friends liked them too. You could easily make this into a full size 9 inch cheesecake, but I liked the idea of everyone getting their own.
This month for our cooking club the theme was “spring showers”. I thought these mini key lime cheesecakes were the perfect thing to bring. I love anything that is mini, and these are great for any kind of shower or party. They are the perfect balance of tart and sweet. If you are worried about the amount of key lime juice, you can start with 1/2 a cup. Taste and add more to get to your liking. Personally, if I am having key lime, I want it to taste like it, not just hint at it. Warning, like almost any cheesecake baked in a muffin tin. They will sink a little when you take them out of the oven. You can see by the pictures, that I topped the mini key lime cheesecakes with whipped cream to cover that.
- 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 4 Tbls butter , melted
- 2 Tbls sugar
- 3 (8 ounce each) packages cream cheese (I used light) room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3 eggs
- 2/3 cup key lime juice (1/2-2/3 cup depending on taste)
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin cups with liners. Makes a 24.
- Combine graham cracker crumbs, butter and sugar together. Put about 1 Tbls of crumbs into the bottom of the muffins tins. Press down. Bake for 5 minutes. Set aside.
- Cream together cream cheese and sugar for a couple minutes until very smooth, scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add sour cream, key lime juice, and vanilla. Mix well. Add 1 egg at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each addition. Stir in flour.
- Scoop batter into muffin cups. Return to the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, until set.
- Cool completely. Top with whipped cream to serve.
After feedback and multiple tests, this recipe has been re-written. As of 1/26/15 there is a new recipe listed.
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Erin S
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Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar says
April 18, 2014 at 7:41 amSo pretty and yummy looking! Love it!
Ambar says
April 19, 2014 at 4:31 pmMy fiance is going to love these key-lime pies!
JanetFCTC says
April 19, 2014 at 11:17 pmTwo of my favorite things in the world are key lime pie and key lime cheesecake. These look delicious!
Stephanie @ Eat. Drink. Love. says
April 19, 2014 at 11:46 pmThese are too cute (and yummy!)!
Medeja says
April 23, 2014 at 5:04 amThese little cheesecakes look very cute. And I can imagine with lime they taste awesome!
Christy says
June 14, 2014 at 4:04 pmi made these today and the fell in the middle! what happened 🙁
Erin S says
June 14, 2014 at 4:20 pmHow much did they fall? I have never made a cheesecake that does not fall slightly in the middle. Were the cooked all the way?
Christy says
June 14, 2014 at 4:41 pmthey fell probably a third of the way down…i cooked for 30 minutes 🙁
Erin S says
June 15, 2014 at 12:26 pm30 minutes should be good, but all ovens are different. Sometimes with cheesecake I bake until it just starts to crack, that ensures it is cooked 100% of the way thru.
Danni says
June 14, 2014 at 9:39 pmMine were a disaster. They puffed up in the oven and then totally collapsed down to about a third of the muffin cup. I used the full amount of key lime juice (freshly squeezed by hand) and they also tasted awful. What a waste of money and effort. I am sorry but these should not be posted on the web.
Erin S says
June 15, 2014 at 1:21 pmI am sorry these didn’t work out for you. Normally, cheesecake should not puff up in the oven. If it does, it usually means you have cooked it too long. Hot air expands, and then when you take it out of the oven it contracts, and sinks. I did not have sinking issues, and got rave reviews. The recipe is slightly modified of another recipe I make regularly as well (I just swapped out the liquids). I have not used fresh squeezed key lime juice, so I don’t know if that had anything to do with it either. Other reasons could be over mixing and getting too much air in. Cooling too quickly; this causes it to contract more. All ovens are different, so it does take a little testing to get the perfect time in your oven.
Danni says
June 15, 2014 at 3:25 pmYou might have hit the nail on the head with the air. We had it in the KitchenAid mixer and that might have aerated the batter too much. The cheesecakes basically blew up (they totally overflowed the muffin cups) and then collapsed while in the oven so it wasn’t an issue of something happening after they were taken out of the oven. It was quite the mess to clean up. And they looked curdled so not a good thing. Maybe the fresh key lime juice had something to do with that. I can laugh about it today but I sure wasn’t last night when they came out of the oven. I guess we will look at this as a learning experience. Don’t use the high setting when mixing and stick to bottled lime juice. And for me, 1 cup of lime juice is too much. Thanks for responding to my frustrated post.
Erin S says
June 16, 2014 at 9:33 amSo glad you can laugh about it now! The curdling sounds really strange, I wonder if that was the fresh juice! Very strange!
Pam says
July 16, 2014 at 11:05 amIs bottled key lime juice available in most all regular grocery stores? O r am I just looking for regular lime juice? Thanks.
Erin S says
July 16, 2014 at 8:28 pmI have never had a problem finding it at a super walmart. if you can not find it, regular lime juice will work. just slightly different flavor. the bottled key lime juice is with the lime and lemon juice in my stores. hope you enjoy!
Julie says
August 24, 2014 at 3:25 pmI just took these out of the oven. They puffed way up after just about 15 minutes of baking at 350. I didn’t think there was any way they could be done after 15 minutes since my oven is usually a little cool, so I turned the heat down to 250 and baked them for another 10 minutes. They collapsed as soon as I took them out of the oven. I used fresh lime juice (about 3/4 c) because it was all I had, but I used a hand mixer to avoid over-mixing because of Danni’s post. I know they’ll taste good because the batter was fantastic, but I wish they’d turned out looking a little nicer. I guess a generous spoonful of whipped cream will help!
Pam S. says
July 17, 2014 at 3:39 amThank you, Erin S. I’ll look for it at Wal-Mart and make these this weekend. Yummy!
Pat says
November 24, 2014 at 10:25 pmMade this recipe twice. Both times ended up puffing up, and the top stays up and the rest falls, and is raw. I followed the instructions to the letter, didn’t over mix, didn’t fill the tins too high, greased the cavities and both times, failure. Won’t waste my time or money on it again. Sounds like others have had similar issues. 🙁
Erin S says
December 8, 2014 at 10:29 amPat – how much cream cheese did you use? I had someone as about the amount of cream cheese in the recipe, and wonder if that might be the problem. Thanks!
Pat says
December 8, 2014 at 11:14 amI followed the recipe to the letter. So 3 pkg.
Erin S says
December 8, 2014 at 11:16 amOk, thanks! I am sorry it didn’t work out. This is a pretty classic base for a cheesecake, so I am not sure what is going wrong. I will have to test again, and see if I can tweak it at all.
Chantelle says
November 26, 2014 at 5:49 pmWhat kind of cream cheese are you using. I picked up what I thought was a standard sized pack of Lucerne cream cheese which is 250 grams (9 oz.). Your recipe above calls for 8 oz or 3 packages or cream cheese. These numbers don’t match… 3 packages of what I have amounts to 27 oz… What am I missing? I don’t care about the brand, I just need the measurements sorted out please!
Erin S says
November 26, 2014 at 7:01 pmChantelle – the recipe uses 3 packages of cream cheese that are 8 oz each. Thanks, hope you enjoy!
Elysia says
January 3, 2015 at 3:33 pmThis has to be the worst recipe I’ve ever made !! It didn’t seem right…since normally cheesecake is made in a spring form pan and not mixed this much but I decided to try. Unfortunately I didn’t read the other reviews !!! They cracked giant craters and puffed up and then fell and looked like total crap !! And they aren’t even done in the middle. No way I would serve these as a birthday dessert as planned. By the way there was WAYYYY too much batter. I made a whole pie In addition to 24 cupcakes that will all be trashed. The only suggestion I would have (other than not wasting your money on ingredients for this ) is 1. Only fill cups halfway full. 2. Don’t beat as much as the instructions said and use your hand and a spoon and not a mixer. There’s definately too much air.
I hope you will modify the instructions to this recipe based on all the terrible reviews or just take it down so no one else wastes an hour and $10 worth of ingredients on these.
Ally says
March 2, 2015 at 1:22 pmI made these last night for morning tea today and they’ve turned out really well. I used fresh lime juice but probably only ended up using half a cup and the taste is still strong. I ended up having to cook them for 40 – 45 minutes but, like you said, everyone’s oven is different. I’m really happy with them! Thanks for the recipe!
Erin S says
March 2, 2015 at 2:11 pmThank you so much Ally – I am glad you enjoyed them!!
amy says
April 4, 2015 at 6:40 amAre these suppose to mini? or the serving size for 24 regular size cupcakes?
Erin S says
April 4, 2015 at 2:53 pmAmy – they are regular cupcake size. They are “mini” because they are not a full cheesecake, they are individual servings. Enjoy!
Irritated Mom. says
November 22, 2016 at 4:25 pmNo offense. But you should clarify they are indeed not “mini”. Seeing as that the title states “mini” cheesecakes it can be quite confusing, especially since I just made 24 “mini” cheesecakes and still have half the batter left…
Natasha says
April 5, 2015 at 2:17 pmI made these past night. Used fresh squeezed key lime juice as we don’t have it in bottle form in my town. They did rise and then fall in the middle but still look pretty good and taste wonderful!
G says
June 9, 2015 at 10:54 pmHi,
Do you bake both cupcake pans at the same time at 350 for 25-30 minutes?
Thanks;)
Erin S says
June 10, 2015 at 7:43 amYes. They fit side by side in my oven. But if they do not fit side by side in your oven, I would bake them separately. You don’t want to open the oven door to have to switch the racks around.
Michelle says
March 27, 2016 at 7:09 amAnyone else have an insane amount of filling left over? I had enough to make a regular sized cheesecake on top of 24 mini ones. Perhaps the measurements should be adjusted. Other than that I have no complaints. Keep in mind they just went in the oven…
Jamie Stewart says
July 16, 2016 at 5:16 pmThe recipe is perfect! They turned out great… Makes about 30! Followed the recipe as written and baked them 25 min.