My loaded sweet potato skins were featured on the Glamour Magazine Health and Fitness blog yesterday, how cool is that? Ever since I started my blog, I feel like I always have something to look forward to in my inbox, whether it’s an email update about a comment, a question from a reader, or a cool opportunity like this one! So thank you for making food blogging so much fun!
So, I promised to tell you what I did with the extra sweet potato flesh I had after making the sweet potato skins. I knew I wanted to make a dessert. My first thought was to make a sweet potato cheesecake since I had some leftover cream cheese in the fridge, and I really wanted to do little mini layered cheesecakes, because they are just so cute! So, I mixed ginger snap crumbs with the mashed sweet potatoes and topped them with a creamy cheesecake layer mixed with pumpkin pie spice and crunchy pecans. I baked them in muffin cups, since I still haven’t gotten my hands on real mini cheesecake pan. They turned out really well, but I need to stop talking about that pan and just order it!
Mini Sweet Potato Cheesecakes
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup crushed gingersnap cookies
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Mix mashed sweet potatoes, crushed gingersnap cookies, and salt in a large bowl until smooth. Line two muffin pans with cupcake wrappers and evenly spoon sweet potato mixture into 16 cups. Bake at 350˚F for 25 to 30 minutes or until set. Push down sweet potato layer with a spoon and cool slightly, about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix cream cheese, egg, vanilla extract, and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl until smooth. Evenly spoon cream cheese mixture over the cooled sweet potato layer and top with chopped pecans. Bake at 350˚F for 28 to 32 minutes or until cheesecake layer is set. Cool at room temperature for 30 minutes and then cool in the fridge for an hour, or until chilled. Carefully remove cupcake wrappers from each mini cheesecake. Makes 8 servings.
Nutrition: 256 calories, 16.7g fat, 2.7g fiber, 4.6g protein per serving
Cost: $0.54 per serving
i love cheesecake but this is the first time i’ve seen sweet potato cheesecake…it looks wonderful.
I LOVE this idea!! I’ve made pumpkin cheesecake in the past, and the sweet potato is a nice alternative.
Congrats for the potato skins feature
Oh my!!!!! YOu have won my heart! Im saving this recipe for Thanksgiving! I know my family will love these! great job!
These are sooooo cute!!! I love mini-cheesecakes and these have some great flavors – ginger, sweet potato, and pumpkin pie-yum!!! I’ve got that pan on my ‘list’ too
That’s amazing your recipe was featured! Your recipes are so original and creative, it’s good to know they are receiving the deserved recognition!!!
Many congrats on the Glamour publish. That’s so very cool, I bet it made your day:)
I like how you used the sweet potato not only for flavor, but as a binder. It cuts down on the fat you’d use for the butter, which is a nice idea. These are awesome for Fall
Adorable. The flavors sound irresistable. Also, congrats on being featured.
Congrats on your recipe spotlight!
I love the mini cheesecakes, you are so creative!
When I first saw this picture, I thought it was bacon on top! I think bacon might actually work with this, if it was candied with the pecans. All in all a fantastic recipe! Looks so good.
Oh, yum! What a terrific recipe. I love sweet potatoes. I’m going to make it even more unhealthy by topping mine with a marshmallow meringue!
Thanks for sharing and congrats!
~ingrid
This looks great! Though unless you have a huge kitchen, since they turned out great in a muffin pan, why get something else?
Wow what a wonderful idea!
Congrats on being on the Glamour blog! That is so cool! I love these cheesecakes!! What yummy treats!
These would make the perfect Thanksgiving dessert! Smaller portion so you can try other desserts…ha!
Love mini things! What a great way to use up leftovers. They look delicious!
I love sweet potatoes! These look de-lish. I did a similar one last year with pumpkin, but the nuts look like they take these over the top! Congrats on the magazine/blog thing!
Just when I didn’t think those sweet potato skins couldn’t be topped, you come up with this! They look so good and are so cute. Plus, they’re the perfect little size! Congratulations on being on the Glamour blog – that is so cool! You deserve it – everyone should know about your wonderful recipes!
Congrats!! Love the sweet potato cheesecake!
These look great with the pecans on top! The gingersnap crust sounds delicious too.
Awww.. I love sweet potatoes!!
They’re so adorable, perfect size, too!
Congratulations! These sounds so good. I’ve never heard of a sweet potatoes cheesecake before.
those are so cute! i love sweet potato and i’ve been meaning to try it in a dessert, but i haven’t yet. thanks for the great recipe!
Those look mighty dangerous!
Excuse me while I wipe the drool off of my chin. These little cheescakes look AMAZING!
Congrats on being featured in the Glamour magazine! The mini sweet potato cheesecakes look scrumptious, such a creative recipe, beautiful!
Yay for you! Congratulations!
The cheesecakes sound heavenly right now. I love the use of the gingersnaps. Delicious! Can I have one
What a great & delicious idea to use sweet potatoes in a dessert!! I so digg it!!
Just lovely!!!
If you hadn’t won my heart already with all of your delicious food, you would have done so solely on the basis of these cheesecakes. How fantastic! I ADORE sweet potatoes. And cheesecake. You can’t possibly get any better than a marriage of the two!
Whoaaa.. sweet potato to make cheesecake? I want to try it
Sweet potato? I love it! I’ll definitely give a try
Looks so yummie!
I love the combination of ginger snaps, sweet potatoes and pecans, yum! Congrats on the glamour spot as well!
Congratulations!! So cool, and very, very well deserved!!
I get excited about anything involving sweet potato…
Your sweet potato cheesecake sounds incredible, and they’re gorgeous!! SO adorably perfect!!
How cool…congratulations!! These are adorable and they sound sooooo delicious
Uh huh! That’s what I’m talking about. I think I love you. These look fantastic!
Wow, how adorable. I love anything mini but these are beyond cute.
How cool – congrats on being featured on Glamour! These look delicious
Everything you make looks so delicious. I know I would love these. I loooove sweet potato. I know what you mean – I love emails and comments. Makes my day much more interesting.
Thanks everyone!
Dolce – Because I’m completely addicted to buying kitchen gadgets of course
Ingrid – Oh, marshmallow meringue would be fabulous on top – YUM!
I can’t believe I just found your blog–it rocks! Totally need to go & browse around now
Those look like delicious mini-cheesecakes!
And HOLY COW AWESOME to your spotlight in the Glamour blog! That’s so neat, Kerstin!!!
These are amazing!
kerstin! wow girl, these look amazing! nice!
Very clever of you to mix the sweet potatoes with the crumbs. I would have added the potatoes to the cheesecake. These look delicious.
Those look wonderful, and very Fall like.
These look so SO SO good! I want to make these for Thanksgiving!
Congrats on being featured in the magazine…and these cheesecakes are precious kerstin! Just BEE-YOO-TI-FUL!! very clever & very very fall! Wonderful!
totally unique and wonderful, kerstin! i thought the gingersnaps alone would make the crust, but i love that they were combined with the sweet potatoes instead. decadent, delicious treat.
Congrats on Glamour!! I absolutely love sweet potatoes and this looks like an awesome treat
Congrats on the mention! Sweet potato cheesecake sounds wonderful. I’ve made sweet potato ice cream before and it was amazing.
I am *so* glad I’ve found your blog! Love this idea.
Question: (in case you read this…) About how many sweet potatoes (or how many lbs.) do you think you need to boil in order to come up with 2 cups mashed?
Kush – I used about half the flesh from 4 sweet potatoes (and used the rest for my sweet potato skins), so I think you’d be ok using all the flesh from 2 large sweet potatoes! Please let me know how you like them if you end up making them
I made these for a Thanksgiving dessert buffet, and they are VERY good. I made some adaptations to accomnodate a few special diets. I used Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese and Gluten-Free Gingersnaps…and I put just a bit of sugar (2 T?) I had to increase the “cream cheese” a little (50% or so) because of the consistency of Tofutti and that required the addition of a bit more spices, but mmmmm…..very tasty.
Best of luck in the Bon Appetit contest !
Jan – I’m so glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for taking the time to comment and let me know
Your substitutions for a lighter treat sound great!
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glamour… so awesome! way to go.
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