Mini Apple Pie Cheesecakes

I love the kitchen in my apartment. I really do, but it just has one major flaw: there's no windows. At my old apartment, I had pictures of all my food positioned by the windowsil so that natural light can illuminate my photos, and the pictures were gorgeous albeit a tad awkward. At night, the ceiling lamps in my current apartment are much brighter than in previous apartments, which is good when I take step-by-step pictures. But I like to make the final product pictures all artsy fartsy, which is pretty impossible with fluorescent lighting. So today I had the brilliant idea of...photographing my food in my room. And look how pretty these mini apple pie cheesecakes look! Luckily, they taste just as good as they look.

To make the crust, you're supposed to crush 10 graham crackers and 1/3 cup walnuts in a food processor. I made modifications because a) I had some Special K crackers that I wanted to use up, and b) I don't have a food processor, so I omitted the walnuts and crushed the crackers into crumbs in a ziplock bag, using a cup as a rolling pin. So basically I didn't follow the crust instructions at all. I ended up with about 1 3/4 cups of crumbs to use.

To the crumbs, I added 3 Tbsp sugar, a dash of salt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 7 Tbsp softened butter.

Press the crust into a lined cupcake tin. You should be able to do about 12. Bake at 375F for 10-12 minutes, then cool in the fridge.

To make the filling, cream together 8oz cream cheese, 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, 1/2 cup apple butter, and a dash of vanilla extract with a hand mixer until fluffy.

In a separate bowl, whip 3/4 cups of cold heavy cream with hand mixer or stand mixer until stiff peaks form. Fold the heavy cream into the filling from the last step. 

Fill the graham cracker crust, and refrigerate overnight to set.

To make the topping, melt 2 Tbsp butter in a saucepan. Add 1 diced apple, 1/3 cup chopped walnuts, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, and a dash of salt. Continue to cook until the apples are softened, which should take around 5 minutes.

When the cupcakes are ready to serve, add the apple topping to the cheesecakes. Don't do this too far in advance, because the apples will release liquid over time and make the cupcakes all soggy.

D'aww ain't it pretty? I'm going to be taking more food pictures from my room from now on. Gotta be careful not to get cheesecake all over my bed.

Source: Mini Apple Pie Cheesecakes from Shutterbean
Would I make this recipe again? Definitely