I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

Oreo cookies

Halloween Oreo Brownies

Halloween Oreo Brownies- Mixing in chopped up orange filled Oreos into light brownie batter makes for a spooky, delicious treat!

Overhead view of plate of Oreo filled brownies next to mini pumpkins.

These rich, delicious brownies are perfect for Halloween. They are light in texture but are still so indulgent as they are packed with soft Oreo cookie chunks and chocolate chips.

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Mini Creamsicle Cheesecakes with Creamsicle Oreo Cookie Crusts

Today is National Creamsicle Day. I love creamsicles just as much as I love these wacky holidays. I used to go to the Jersey Shore when I was growing up and I loved going on the boardwalk and having a creamsicle soft serve ice cream. Hot day, fun boardwalk, and a yummy ice cream… perfection at the shore.

 

So when I saw the limited edition Oreo Creamsicle Cookies recently I immediately tossed them in my basket. They are a vanilla cookie with an orange flavored cream filling. I knew that I would love dunking them in some milk and just eating them as well as making mini cheesecakes with them.

 

 

These mini cheesecakes are easy to whip up which is perfect since I have been so busy all summer that making something complicated is a big deterrent. Plus turning on the oven on a hot summer night for a long perod of time is just not going to happen. So these just take 15 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to bake so I can totally deal with that. The end result is a cute marbled cheesecake that

Mini Creamsicle Cheesecakes with Creamsicle Oreo Cookie Crusts

Serves 12

Ingredients

  • 12 ounces (1 1/2 packages) cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon orange extract
  • 2 eggs, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  • red and yellow food coloring
  • 12 Oreo Creamsicle Cookies

Process

  1.  Preheat the oven to 325. Line a 12-muffin pan with cupcake liners and then place 1 Oreo Creamsicle Cookie in each liner.
  2. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat cream cheese until creamy. Gradually add the sugar, salt, and orange extract; beat well. Add eggs one  at a time, mixing just until blended. Stir in yogurt until the cheesecake filling is evenly mixed.
  3. Remove a 1/2 cup of the cheescake filling and set aside in a bowl. Add 1 drop red and 3 drops yellow to the filling and mix until the color is even.
  4. Evenly divide the batter into liners, then add the orange colored filling among the cheesecakes. Using a toothpick swirl the cheesecake batters together for a marbled effect.
  5. Bake for 15 minutes or until tops of cheesecakes are puffed and only slightly jiggly in the very center. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for at least a couple hours, preferably overnight, until serving.

 

Check out my other Mini Cheesecakes!

Mini Cheesecakes with an Oreo Crust

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes with an Oreo Cookie Crust

Mini Cheesecakes with an Oreo Crust

 

I saw a mini cheesecake recipe on Fake Ginger, one of my favorite cooking blogs, that looked so good that I knew I had to try them. But the thing is I approached this recipe like how I approach scrapbooking. That means when I’m in a scrapbooking class or using a kit I completely modify it to make it my own. But the thing is that for this recipe I dumbed it down completely. Amanda at Fake Ginger made these lovely mini turtle cheesecakes but I changed it up because…

1) The quantity. I decided to make this our monthly staff meeting so I would need to make like 4 batches of them so I wanted to keep it simple. Keep it simple stupid.

2) I’m lazy. I did not feel like making my own caramel or chocolate sauce, esp for so many little cheesecakes.

3) Nut allergies. When I made a delicious chocolate cake with a peanut butter frosting last fall and saw  that a few people could not eat it I decided that I would try really really hard not to make treats with nuts so the pecan on top and the pecan meal in the crust had to go.

4) Never made this many cheesecakes before. ‘Nuf said.

Of course when Price saw the completed ones he was just slightly disappointed “Where’s the good stuff on top??”


I love the cheesecake recipe because it made a really creamy cheesecake. I don’t really like cheesecake because it seems like I’m eating a block of cream cheese, and while I like cream cheese, I like small quantities on a bagel. Anyway, take the time to let your cream cheese and butter to soften otherwise your cheesecake might have some lumps in it. Plus your mixer will hate you, and possibly make funny noises fighting the tough fight. Take the cream cheese out of the box, so it is just sitting in the foil wrapper, since this dramatically reduces the time it takes to soften up.

PS- Sorry for the crappy photos I got up at 5.45am to make them so I just wanted to bake and get ready for the day and not worry about photos. Then I forgot to take a photo of the finished result so I was stuck with taking a photo of the prettiest of the uglies, since they got banged up on the way in to work.

Mini Cheesecakes with an Oreo Crust

Makes 12 mini cheesecakes

Ingredients

Crust:

  • 1 cup of crushed Oreos
  • 1/4 cup of melted unsalted butter

Filling:

1 1/2 packages (12 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt

Process

  1. Preheat the oven to 325. Line a 12-muffin pan with aluminum liners.
  2. To make the Crust:  Put Oreos into a large resealable bag to crush with a rolling pin. Continue rolling Oreos until they are finely crushed. In a medium bowl, combine the Oreo crumbs with the melted butter. Divide the crust mixture into the muffin liners. Press down the mixture firmly with your fingers. Bake the empty crusts for 5 minutes.
  3. To make the Filling: Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat cream cheese until creamy. Gradually add the sugar, salt, and vanilla; beat well. Add eggs one at a time, mixing just until blended. Stir in yogurt.
  4. Evenly divide the filling into the baked Oreo crusts, about a 1/4 cup of filling. The filling should should come almost to the top of the liner. Bake for 15 minutes or until tops of cheesecakes are puffed and only slightly jiggly in the very center. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for at least a couple hours, preferably overnight, until serving.