The beauty of this treat lies in the speed and output – minimal time and effort with a large number of serves. This is great for parties or any ‘bring-a-plate’ situations. Instead of bashing biscuits for the base, a single Oreo biscuit is used. The mixer does most of the job for you and it doesn’t take long to bake at all. Since I almost always have a jar of salted caramel in the fridge, it didn’t require any extra time to make. You can leave out the caramel and use whipped cream by itself if you wish.

The mini Oreo is the cherry on the top – you can leave it out if you feel the mini dessert is rich enough. However it does provide a crunchy element as the bottom Oreo would be soft to the bite as you eat it. Since it is already portioned as individual serves, there’s no fussing about with cutting or slicing. Sit back and enjoy!

Mini cookies and cream cheesecake with salted caramel cream
Makes 32 plus

Ingredients for the cheesecake:

• 3 blocks of cream cheese (750g) softened at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup cream, lightly whipped
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
• 2 eggs, size 8
• 32 paper muffin cups
• 40 standard size Oreo cookies (reserving 8 to be blitzed)
• 32 mini Oreo Cookies

For the salted caramel cream

• 1 cup cream
• 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 2 tbsp salted caramel

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius.
2. Prepare your 12 cup muffin tins with paper lining. Place a standard sized Oreo on the bottom of each one and set aside. I only have one of this pan, so to prepare I lined up the filled cases on a cookie tray to let them hold each other up. Prepare 32 of these.
3. Lightly whip the cream.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix cream cheese and sugar together on low speed.
5. Mix in sour cream, your whipped cream and vanilla paste until smooth.
6. Mix eggs in, one at a time.
7. Blitz the remaining 8 standard size Oreo cookies till it breaks up, but not powdery, and then add them to the cream cheese batter and mix to incorporate.
8. Fill each case with the mixture. I find it easiest to use an ice cream scoop with a spring mechanism that pushes the mixture out. Fill each right up to the brim of the case.
9. Bake for 23-25 minutes, aiming for a slightly wobbly center. Remove from the oven and let cool for 1 hour at room temperature. Then refrigerate for at least 4 hours, best overnight. (You can also do up to the piping of the salted caramel cream step below and then refrigerate.)

For the salted caramel cream

1. Whip cream and icing sugar until it is combined.
2. Add the salted caramel and whip till you have stiff peaks.
3. Fill it in a piping bag fitted with a large star tip (I used the Wilton 2A tip) and pipe the cream onto the top of each cheesecake.
4. Press a mini Oreo on top just before you serve (or else the cookie will go soggy.)