Key Lime Cheesecake – Perfectly tart and sweet mini cheesecakes. Top with whipped cream for a great dessert any time!
I love the sweet and tart flavor of key lime. Key Lime Pie is a one of my go to desserts when I am entertaining. Everyone loves it, and it is so easy to make! So I decided I needed to combine another favorite with that tart key lime flavor to make an extra delicious dessert.
Mini cheesecakes are great because you have built in portion control, and you can serve them easily to guests. They do have a special mini cheesecake pan you can buy, but I like to just use a regular muffin tin.
In the summer No Bake Oreo Cheesecake is a great easy dessert to make. But sometimes you just want the real thing. And this key lime cheesecake recipe is darn easy to make and so worth turning on the oven for. It is very similar to a classic cheesecake, just add in key lime juice and a little flour to help make up for the extra liquid.
Mini cheesecakes are best stored in the fridge, but I like to take them out and let them come closer to room temperature before serving. The tartness of the lime comes up and they are much more flavorful that way.
How to Make Mini Cheesecakes
- Starting with room temperature ingredients makes for a creamy and delicious cheesecake. So set out the cream cheese and eggs before you are ready to start.
- To make the crust you just mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter together. Then use a tablespoon to fill each muffin liner and gently press into the pan.
- Bake the crusts for 5 minutes and then set aside until your filling is ready.
- Use an electric mixer to blend cream cheese and sugar until it is smooth and super creamy.
- Mix in sour cream, key lime juice and vanilla. Mix until well blended.
- Next add the eggs. You mix them in one at a time until they are well incorporated. You do not want to mix on too high of a speed, incorporating too much air will lead to cheesecakes that sink. Mini cheesecakes tend to sink slightly in the middle anyway, you just don’t want them to completely sink.
- Finally use a spatula to mix in the flour. This helps give you the creamy texture despite all the extra liquid from the key lime juice.
- Bake until the cheesecake is set. It takes about 25-30 minutes. If they are cracked on top, they are done.
How Long to Bake Mini Cheesecakes
They take a small fraction of the time that traditional cheesecakes do. They take closer to 25-30 minutes until the centers are set. You don’t have to let it sit in the oven with the door closed or any of the other steps in a full cheesecake either. Just take them out of the oven and let them cool. Then store in the fridge until you are ready to serve.
Next time you are looking for a different recipes to try this mini cheesecake recipe is it! Sweet, tart, and absolutely delicious.
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Mini Key Lime Cheesecakes
Key Lime Cheesecake - Perfectly tart and sweet mini cheesecakes. Top with whipped cream for a great dessert any time!
Ingredients
Crust
- 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 4 Tbls butter, melted
- 2 Tbls sugar
For filling
- 24 oz (3 packages) cream cheese, 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)
Instructions
- 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.
Notes
After feedback and multiple tests, this recipe has been re-written. As of 1/26/15 the recipe has been updated
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Nutrition Information
Yield
24Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 209Total Fat 14gSaturated Fat 8gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 5gCholesterol 61mgSodium 148mgCarbohydrates 18gFiber 0gSugar 12gProtein 3g
Nutrition Disclaimer: All information presented on this site is intended for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and any nutritional information shared on dinnersdishesanddesserts.com should only be used as a general guideline.
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Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar says
So pretty and yummy looking! Love it!
Ambar says
My fiance is going to love these key-lime pies!
JanetFCTC says
Two of my favorite things in the world are key lime pie and key lime cheesecake. These look delicious!
Stephanie @ Eat. Drink. Love. says
These are too cute (and yummy!)!
Medeja says
These little cheesecakes look very cute. And I can imagine with lime they taste awesome!
Christy says
i made these today and the fell in the middle! what happened 🙁
Erin S says
How 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
they fell probably a third of the way down…i cooked for 30 minutes 🙁
Erin S says
30 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
Mine 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
I 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
You 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
So glad you can laugh about it now! The curdling sounds really strange, I wonder if that was the fresh juice! Very strange!
Pam says
Is 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
I 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
I 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
Thank you, Erin S. I’ll look for it at Wal-Mart and make these this weekend. Yummy!
Pat says
Made 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
Pat – 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
I followed the recipe to the letter. So 3 pkg.
Erin S says
Ok, 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
What 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
Chantelle – the recipe uses 3 packages of cream cheese that are 8 oz each. Thanks, hope you enjoy!
Elysia says
This 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
I 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
Thank you so much Ally – I am glad you enjoyed them!!
amy says
Are these suppose to mini? or the serving size for 24 regular size cupcakes?
Erin S says
Amy – they are regular cupcake size. They are “mini” because they are not a full cheesecake, they are individual servings. Enjoy!
Irritated Mom. says
No 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
I 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
Hi,
Do you bake both cupcake pans at the same time at 350 for 25-30 minutes?
Thanks;)
Erin S says
Yes. 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
Anyone 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
The recipe is perfect! They turned out great… Makes about 30! Followed the recipe as written and baked them 25 min.
Dorothy Reinhold says
They are absolutely the perfect bite!! Key lime is my favorite!
Catalina says
I love this flavor! These mini cheesecakes look like heaven!
Sara Welch says
Such a lovely dessert, indeed! Served these after dinner last night and it has quickly become a family favorite recipe! So delicious!
Amy says
These look and sound so good! Love the key lime flavors!
Beth Pierce says
These were perfect for dessert last night! Like little bites of heaven and exactly what I was looking for to cure my sweet tooth!
Kimberly says
These sound delicious and so perfect for entertaining!
Jade Manning says
I need these so much! These may even satisfy my sweet tooth!
Susan says
I’m reading all of the comments as my cheesecakes finish up in the oven. Cheesecakes are tricky and you can’t just follow the cooking instructions, you have to modify based on your weather, elevation, etc. I live in central NC, so for where I live I have to add a few more minutes for cheesecakes and I turn off my oven and open the door and let them sit for a little bit (15-20 for these and a whole hour for a regular cheesecake).
Mine have cracked some, and gone down a little, tapping the batter in the pans to get the air bubbles out also helps.
Just keep experimenting with it. It’ll all work out.
Ethan C says
I agree. All of the irritated comments make me irritated. Mine turned out just fine. People just don’t know how to bake