Mini Butterfinger Cheesecakes

A few weeks ago for a football game, I decided to try focusing my efforts on dessert in lieu of always having appetizers. I felt it was time to discard the boring old dips and cheese trays and give some spotlight to dessert. Normally, I don't make dessert all that much because I don't have a test audience, and although Todd does his part (and then some) on being my food guinea pig, I felt a different audience would be nice for testing out a new recipe. The football game was a great opportunity, after all, there would be children, beer swilling men, and women who love to treat themselves to a treat. 

I hit the food blogs and found a perfect recipe to try and re-create in my little bitchin kitchen. The results? Huge hit! Everyone loved them. My favorite part? They are miniature!! It would be much to rich to serve this any bigger. But best of all, this is a GREAT way to make cheesecake crowd friendly!

Mini Butter Finger Cheesecakes

Yield: 24 Mini Cheesecakes 

Ingredients: 
For the crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. butter, melted
Pinch of salt 

For the filling:
12 oz. cream cheese, softened
6 tbsp. creamy peanut butter
¾ cup sugar
1 egg + 1 egg white
3 tbsp. heavy cream
Pinch of salt
6 fun sized Butterfinger candy bars, chopped 

For the topping:
1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 tbsp. heavy cream 

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Set a 24-well mini-muffin pan on a baking sheet and line with paper liners.  

In a small bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, melted butter and salt.  Toss with a fork until the mixture is completely moistened.  Press a small spoonful of the mixture firmly into the bottom of each well.  Bake for 10 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 300° F.  

To make the filling, add the (room temperature) cream cheese to a bowl and mix with well with hand mixer. Add in the peanut butter and beat again until well combined.  Mix in the sugar, eggs, cream and salt and continue to mix. With a spatula, slowly fold in the crushed Butterfinger pieces.  Spoon the mixture evenly into the wells of the pan over the crust and bake for 20-22 minutes or until the center is set.  (The cakes may puff up a lot while baking, but they come down once they have cooled). Let cool for at least two hours before removing from the pan. 

For the topping, heat the chocolate and the heavy cream in the top of a double boiler until the chocolate is melted.  Stir just until smooth and glossy.  Spoon over the tops of the cakes and sprinkle with the remaining crushed candy bar pieces.  

Chill until ready to serve.

I will admit, this was not the quickest dessert I have ever made and it was slightly "putsy" if you will, but the results were well worth it! 

Happy cooking! - The Little Bitchin Kitchen

Source: Annie's Eats