White Russian Mini Cheesecakes

My first signature holiday desserts were cheesecakes inspired by cocktails. I started doing them about 10 years ago. I tried making all sorts of creamy cocktails into cheesecakes like mudslides, bushwackers and buttery, well you know.  And of all the ones I tried, my white Russian cheesecake was by far the most popular. So popular in fact, I was making at least 2 every year until my mother-in-law begged me to stop making them because she would eat the whole cheesecake. She had no self control, and neither did I. If someone else in the family hadn’t finished off the White Russian cheesecake, I would.

So to spare all those holiday pounds my family was directly blaming on my cheesecakes, I decided to make them in mini size. This way there was no reason for anyone to  complain that  their jeans didn’t fit anymore because they couldn’t control themselves around my cheesecakes.

For these White Russian Cheesecakes, I start with a basic cheesecake recipe which is a brick of cream cheese, an egg and 1/4 cup sugar. Then I add the flavor of a creamy White Russian. My recipe for a white Russian is coffee liqueur, Irish cream liqueur, vodka and cream. Since the  cream cheese is going to act as the cream, we’ll leave that out. We’ll also omit the vodka since it has very little flavor. So that leaves us with the coffee liqueur and Irish cream liqueur. I add a tablespoon of each along with some good vanilla extract.

For these cheesecakes I used PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese. Do you know they  have been America’s favorite cream cheese since 1872? It’s amazing! I wouldn’t trust any other brand of cream cheese for my holiday cheesecakes. I like to “Bring Out the Silver” when I’m making cheesecake.

What makes PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese so good?

• PHILADELPHIA uses milk sourced from dairy farmers local to where the cream cheese is made, and combines it with real, wholesome cream to create a delicious cream cheese
• Fresh milk from nearby farms is made into cream cheese and refrigerated at PHILADELPHIA creameries in just six days
• No preservatives are found in the original  PHILADELPHIA cream cheese brick varieties
• From real jalapeños in its Spicy Jalapeño cream cheese spread to crunchy pecans in its Honey Nut cream cheese spread, PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese provides delectable, varieties to choose from.

Be sure to visit CheesecakeCheer.com for more holiday recipes and tips.

This recipe sponsored by PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese. All opinions 100% mine.