Mini Sweet Potato Cheesecakes

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

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56 Responses to Mini Sweet Potato Cheesecakes

  4. 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!!!

    Reply

  5. 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 :)

    Reply

  8. 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.

    Reply

  9. 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

    Reply

  15. 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!

    Reply

  16. 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!

    Reply

  27. 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!

    Reply

  31. 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!!

    Reply

  36. 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.

    Reply

  37. Thanks everyone!

    Dolce – Because I’m completely addicted to buying kitchen gadgets of course :)

    Ingrid – Oh, marshmallow meringue would be fabulous on top – YUM!

    Reply

  46. 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. :)

    Reply

  49. 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?

    Reply

  50. 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 :)

    Reply

  51. 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 !

    Reply

  52. 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!

    Reply

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