Mini Butterfinger Cheesecakes

J got together with his buddies last weekend to grill and hang out. He asked if I'd make him a treat to bring. Please. Do you really need to ask? Of course I will. I only need a mediocre reason to bake something new and this was a plenty good reason.

He loves Butterfingers, so I'd spotted this recipe a while back and tagged it to make for him sometime. These were easy to make and really tasty. I think you could substitute any number of different candy bars, toffee chips, mini chips, etc. if you're not a fan of Butterfinger, and the results would be great.

Peanut Butter-Finger Mini Cheesecakes

by Picky Palate

1 Cup ground Vanilla Wafers

2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

2 Tablespoons butter

1/8 teaspoon salt

8 oz softened cream cheese

1/4 Cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 Cup sugar

1 egg

2 Tablespoons heavy cream

1/8 teaspoon salt

4 Fun Size Butterfinger Candy Bars, crushed

Ganache Topping

1 Cup semi sweet chocolate chips

2-3 Tablespoons heavy cream

2 Fun Size Butterfinger, crushed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place cookie crumbs, sugar, butter and salt into a bowl; mix to combine. Spoon mixture into bottoms of mini cheese cake pan or mini cupcake pan and press. Bake for 10 minutes and remove from oven.

Reduce heat to 300 degrees F. In a stand or electric mixer, beat cream cheese and peanut butter until smooth. Beat sugar, egg, cream and salt until well combined. Slowly stir in crushed Butterfinger. Evenly pour batter over baked crust. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until cheesecake is set. Let cool for 2 hours, then remove from pan.

Melt chocolate chips in microwave in 30 second intervals until smooth. Stir in cream until smooth and glossy. If needed, return back to microwave for 15 seconds or so until smooth. Spoon over tops of cakes then sprinkle crushed butterfinger over top.

My notes: I don't have a mini cheesecake pan, as cute as that sounds, so I just used my mini muffin pan and it worked just fine. I bet you could also use a regular muffin pan for little personal sized cheesecakes - just watch the baking time closely. Also, I tried doing the ganache topping in the microwave, but I'm not sure I like it as much that way. I do like the double boiler method (boiling a small amount of water in a saucepan and place a bowl on top of it, not touching the water) to melt the chocolate. But, I do admit this was faster.