RECIPE: Cherry and Pumpkin Butter Ginger Snap Cheesecake Cupcakes

Over 4th of July, I made a giant S'more buffet for dessert. The table was filled with various fillings, like a sweetened cream cheese and a homemade pumpkin butter. The post is here, in case you want to do the same thing. It's super fun and delicious.

But the one draw back is that you will have a lot of leftovers of 'stuff'. You need to have will power of steel to not eat your way through straggling peppermint patties and Reese's peanut butter cups! I also had a lot of left over sweetened cream cheese, pumpkin butter and cherry pie filling. I hate wasting food, so I wondered what I could make with it all. I remembered my mom making these cute little mini cheesecake cupcakes with vanilla wafers on the bottom to form a crust. I decided to make a version of them, using tangy ginger snaps on the bottoms and using the various toppings to change the flavor profiles.

They turned out wonderfully, and they are super easy. I kept them in the fridge for a week, and my family dug into them for dessert each night.

Cherry and Pumpkin Butter Ginger Snap Cheesecake Cupcakes

Ingredients

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

dash of salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

½ cup powdered sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup flour

1 egg, lightly beaten

12 ginger snap cookies

6 Tbsp. pumpkin butter (here is my own recipe if you can’t find store bought, it keeps in the fridge for a few weeks)

6 Tbsp. sour cream

6 Tbsp. cherry pie filling or cherry jam

Directions

Preheat oven to 350˚. Place cupcake liners in a muffin tin. Place a ginger snap cookie in the bottom of each liner. Set aside.

 

In a medium bowl, whisk the cream cheese with the vanilla, sugars and salt until creamy and smooth. Add the egg and whip until creamy, then whisk in the flour until just combined. Spoon the batter into each mold until 2/3 full.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until batter is beginning to set. Then carefully pull out the pan and top 6 with the sour cream and top the other 6 with the pumpkin butter. Do this evenly so that each cupcake has a tablespoon of topping, try and place it on the top in an even layer.

Place the cupcakes back in the oven to bake up for another 15-20 minutes, until all is baked through and set. The cheesecakes are slightly golden around the edges and the sour cream is set.

Let the cupcakes cool completely. Top the sour cream ones with a tablespoon each of cherry pie filling. If you wish, you can dollop some whipped cream on top of the pumpkin butter ones. Serve and enjoy.