Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Minis - cooking recipe

Ingredients

Crust
1 cup chocolate cookie crumb (about 13 chocolate sandwich cookies)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 tablespoons melted butter
Raspberry Sauce
6 ounces fresh raspberries (just about a cup)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
Filling
2 (8 ounce) blocks cream cheese, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup full fat sour cream, room temperature

Preparation

Begin by taking out all of your cold filling ingredients so they can come to room temperature. Preheat oven to 300\u00b0F
Crust:
In a food processor, mix all ingredients until they resemble wet sand -- umm. dirt. Press I Tbsp of the cookie crust into each cupcake liner that you have set into standard muffin pan. Press the crust down with your fingers. Cover the entire pan and place in the refrigerator to harden.
Raspberry sauce:
Mix all ingredients in a cold saucepan, and heat until bubbling. Break down the raspberries by mashing them. I used my potato masher for this. Remove from heat when thickened. Transfer to a glass container and cool in the refrigerator until needed.
Filling:
Mix all room temperature ingredients in a stand mixer, on low. You don't want to mix on high because it will put too much air into the batter. Using an ice cream scoop, fill the cupcake papers. I found the cupcake scoop to be the perfect amount of batter. Next, add three \"drops\" of the cooled raspberry sauce on top of the filled cheesecake batter. I used a baby spoon for this. Use a chopstick or knife to swirl the raspberry sauce into the cheesecake batter.
Bake on 300 F for 18-22 minutes. The center should still be a little bit \"jiggly\" and still slightly moist looking. Remove and allow them to cool. Cover and refrigerate overnight or for several hours.
Tip:
to release the papers from the pan after chilling overnight, you may find that they stick down. The paper liner allow the melted butter to bleed a little, and with chilling, the butter can tend to stick to the pan. If this happens, set the whole pan in a larger pan (or sink) of warm water for a few minutes to warm that butter up again. Another alternative would be to use an outer, foil liner. I didn't want to bake the cheesecake in foil liners, as I have heard they impart a metallic taste (yuck). But if you use an inner paper liner and an outer foil liner, this may help.