Raspberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

A friend sent me this recipe when I was trying to think of something to make for one of our daycare teachers.  I have made a cheesecake bar recipe for years that is awesome and is always requested for parties.  But they are a bit time consuming so I don't make them often.  Regardless, I went ahead and used my recipe with this technique.  Result?  Perfection.

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated
Inspired by Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

Crust:
6 tbsp butter, melted & cooled
7 whole graham crackers, broken into 1 inch pieces
3 tbsp light brown sugar
2 tbsp AP flour
1/8 tsp salt

Filling:
2 blocks cream cheese (8oz), softened
2/3 c sugar
2 eggs
1/4 c sour cream
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract

Swirl:
6 oz raspberries (or your fruit of choice)
2 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 325.

In a mini food processor, pulse the graham crackers to a fine crumb consistency. Add the remainder of the crust ingredients and pulse until well mixed.  Bake for 12-15 minutes or until fragrant.  Set aside.


While the crust is baking, make the filling & puree...

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese with the paddle attachment until creamy.  Add sugar and mix for another minute.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg.  Beat in sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla until incorporated.  Set aside.

To make the raspberry puree, combine the berries and sugar in a blender.  Process until smooth, then press through a sieve to remove the seeds.  We then poured the puree into one of my flood/squirt bottles but a spoon would be fine for the marbling.


To assemble...

Put 2 tbsp of cheesecake filling into each cup. 

Drop (or squirt) 3 drops of puree into each cup.  Swirl with a toothpick or bamboo skewer for a marbled effect.  If you do 3 dots and just one circle through all three, it makes a cool looking heart pattern.  Very Valentine's Day appropriate.

Bake for 22 minutes, turning halfway through baking time.  Let cool then remove from pan (or they will stick and you will tear the papers getting them out) and chill in the fridge for 3-4 hours (or overnight).

These are just ridiculously delicious.  You could do almost any fruit with these: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, peaches...I'm already making a blueberry/strawberry concoction in my head for the fourth of July.  Make these today!