The best mini chocolate cheesecakes that you'll ever make. These baked chocolate cheesecakes don't need a water bath, which is so easy and convenient to make. Just like New York-style cheesecakes, these beauties are dense yet creamy, rich, and decadent. They're also freezer-friendly!
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Why This Recipe Works
We're known for our success-guaranteed cheesecake recipes amongst our readers, like our delicious easy mini cheesecakes, no-bake mango cheesecake, and the best no-bake chocolate cheesecake. After more than 8 years of doing what we do, it's safe to say we know a thing or two about cheesecakes. Here's why this is another no-fail recipe.
Dense yet creamy decadent cheesecake - If you're a fan of New York cheesecake texture like our easy New York-inspired cheesecake, which is dense, rich, and yet creamy, then this is the perfect mini cheesecake recipe for you! Look at the texture, it's worthy of some good drooling!
Easy - The myth about cheesecakes is for pro bakers make everybody, especially beginners hesitant to make their own. Follow our detailed instructions and tips, and you'll be making out-of-this-world cheesecakes like a pro yourself! These chocolate cheesecake cupcakes are also the perfect size to serve and freeze later instead of a big whole cheesecake.
No water bath - Most baked cheesecakes require the hassles of using the water bath method. Well, this recipe doesn't, and look how amazing the mini chocolate cheesecakes are! Our secret is using a very low oven temperature like in our double chocolate cheesecake!
No cracks - Baked cheesecakes are notorious for having cracks on top of them, right? We're excited and proud to tell you that never happened to any of our recipes. Our secret is whisking the ingredients less, to prevent incorporating air into the batter, thus creating cracks when baked.
Freezer-friendly - Yes! These mini chocolate cheesecakes are still perfect, delicious, and creamy after being frozen. We always have some tucked away in our freezer for some family gatherings or cozy weekends!
Ingredients For This Recipe
Oreo cookies - No need to discard the filling! It adds flavor and sweetness to the mini chocolate cheesecake base. If you're not into Oreos, use other cookies that are similar in consistency, texture, and flavor.
Butter - Unsalted. We love to use unsalted butter in our house so we can control the amount of salt if we were to use any in a particular recipe.
Cream cheese - Full-fat cream cheese, we love the Philadelphia brand. In the US you can find it in blocks, and if you're in Europe like us, you'll find it in tubs. Don't use light cream cheese as it won't have enough fat content to help firm up these mini chocolate cheesecakes.
Chocolate - We use bakers' semisweet chocolate with 55% cacao. The perfect balance of chocolate flavor and sweetness for these mini chocolate cheesecakes and our no-bake peanut butter chocolate cheesecake. The higher the percentage of the cacao, the more bitter and less sweet the cheesecake will be.
Sour cream - Full-fat. It's going to add to the creaminess and luscious texture of our mini chocolate cheesecakes We've often interchanged it with full-fat Greek yogurt with no problems.
⭐ See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Step-By-Step Instructions
1. Make the base - Add Oreo cookies in a food processor and blend to get fine crumbs. Pour into a bowl together with melted butter, and mix well using a spoon. Divide the crumbs mixture into 12 muffin liners, in a muffin pan, and press evenly. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
2. Whisk the eggs - From this step onwards, never over-whisk, mix, or fold any of the ingredients. It'll prevent incorporating lots of air which will create cracks when we bake our mini chocolate cheesecakes later. Add the eggs into a bowl. Using a hand whisk, slowly whisk them. Set aside.
3. Melt the chocolate - Melt the chopped chocolate in the microwave or using a double boiler. For microwave, heat and stir every 30 seconds. For the double boiler, make sure the bowl containing chocolate doesn't touch the simmering water. Let the melted chocolate cool slightly before using.
4. Make the filling - Add cream cheese into a bowl and whisk using a handheld whisk on the lowest speed for a maximum of 1 minute, just until it's creamy. Now add in sugar, sour cream, vanilla extract, and salt and mix just until everything is well combined. Pour in melted chocolate and give it one last mix.
5. Fold in the eggs - Using a spatula, fold the beaten eggs into the mixture.
6. Bake - Bake in a preheated oven at 285ºF (140ºC), without the fan, on the lower ⅔ rack, for 25 minutes, or until when you gently shake the pan, the edges have set but the center still wiggles. Remove from the oven and cool completely at room temperature. Once cooled, chill the pan in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours. Optional, but we love to top them with some sweetened whipped cream and a square of chocolate each. Enjoy your delicious mini chocolate cheesecakes!
Recipe Expert Tips
- Use ingredients at the temperature specified. This will ensure all the ingredients for our mini chocolate cheesecakes mix better with each other.
- Do not over-whisk, mix, or fold any of the ingredients. We don't want to incorporate air into any of them, to prevent cracks when we bake the mini chocolate cheesecakes later.
- Use a low-temperature oven. Without the air. The circulating hot air tends to make the oven temperature higher. We love to use a portable oven thermometer every time we bake to make sure our oven temperature is accurate. It's one of the cheapest investments ever!
- How to remove the muffin liners and get the clean, sharp edges. Since we take a long time to photograph and film each of our recipes, we've learned from experience that putting the mini chocolate cheesecakes together with the muffin pan in the freezer for 1-2 hours will do the trick. The cheesecakes will be somewhat frozen, and easier to remove from the pan. Peeling the muffin liners is a breeze also, leaving them with clean, sharp beautiful edges!
⭐ Make cheesecakes like a pro, in your kitchen! Simply follow the tips and tricks we've put together in our Cheesecake eBook. We've crafted very detailed info for both baked and no-bake cheesecakes!
How To Store And Freeze
Store - In an air-tight container, in the fridge, for up to 5 days. These mini chocolate cheesecakes need to be chilled at all times, like any other cheesecakes. Depending on the weather of your place, take them out from the fridge 30-60 minutes before serving to experience their fullest creamy texture and flavor!
Freeze - Fast-freeze them directly in the muffin pan or on a tray for 2 hours. Then place the frozen mini chocolate cheesecakes in an air-tight container or a ziplock bag, and back in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge one day before.
Recipe FAQs
No, you don't. The reason for the water bath is to create a gentler heat medium between the cheesecakes and the hot oven temperature, so they cook evenly. By using much lower temperatures as we do, we are simplifying the process and achieving the same result!
There are 2 reasons for that. 1) You've overmixed the ingredients at some point, incorporating air and it inflates in the oven. 2) The oven temperature was too high, cooking the batter too fast, made them expand and crack, and the extreme change of oven to room temperature caused the cheesecakes to deflate, crack if they hadn't already, and sink.
The same reasons above, which are overmixing the batter and the oven temperature was too high. Use a portable oven thermometer as we do, that's the only way to get the accurate temperature for ovens.
For a creamy luscious cheesecake texture, the surroundings of the cheesecake should set but when you shake it gently, the center should wiggle. That's the perfect guidance. If it doesn't wiggle, then it's overcooked. The texture would be stiffer but it's still delicious though!
More Cheesecake Recipes
⭐ If you tried these Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes or any other recipe on our website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let us know how it went in the comments below!
Watch How To Make It
📖 Recipe
Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes
Equipment
Ingredients
Base
- 18 (200 g) Oreo cookies , or 7 oz
- 3 tablespoon (45 g) butter , melted
Filling
- 12 oz (340 g) full-fat cream cheese , room temperature
- ⅓ cup (65 g) sugar
- 1 cup (210 g) sour cream , room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 oz (110 g) semisweet bakers' chocolate
- 2 large eggs , room temperature
Instructions
Base
- Add Oreo cookies in a food processor and blend to get fine crumbs. Pour into a bowl together with melted butter, and mix well using a spoon. Divide the crumbs mixture into 12 muffin liners, in a muffin pan, and press evenly. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Filling
- From this step onwards, never over-whisk, mix, or fold any of the ingredients. It'll prevent incorporating lots of air which will create cracks when we bake our mini chocolate cheesecakes later. Add the eggs into a bowl. Using a hand whisk, slowly whisk them. Set aside.
- Melt the chopped chocolate in the microwave or using a double boiler. For microwave, heat and stir every 30 seconds. For the double boiler, make sure the bowl containing chocolate doesn't touch the simmering water. Let the melted chocolate cool slightly before using.
- Add cream cheese into a bowl and whisk using a handheld whisk on the lowest speed for a maximum of 1 minute, just until it's creamy. Now add in sugar, sour cream, vanilla extract, and salt and mix just until everything is well combined. Pour in melted chocolate and give it one last mix. Using a spatula, fold the beaten eggs into the mixture.
Bake
- Bake in a preheated oven at 285ºF (140ºC), without the fan, on the lower ⅔ rack, for 20-25 minutes, or until when you gently shake the pan, the edges have set but the center still wiggles. Remove from the oven and cool completely at room temperature. Once cooled, chill the pan in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours. Optional, but we love to top them with some sweetened whipped cream and a square of chocolate each. Enjoy your delicious mini chocolate cheesecakes!
Notes
- Use ingredients at the temperature specified. This will ensure all the ingredients for our mini chocolate cheesecakes mix better with each other.
- Do not over-whisk, mix, or fold any of the ingredients. We don't want to incorporate air into any of them, to prevent cracks when we bake the mini chocolate cheesecakes later.
- Use a low-temperature oven. Without the air. The circulating hot air tends to make the oven temperature higher. We love to use a portable oven thermometer every time we bake to make sure our oven temperature is accurate. It's one of the cheapest investments ever!
- How to remove the muffin liners and get the clean, sharp edges. Put the mini chocolate cheesecakes together with the muffin pan in the freezer for 1-2 hours. The cheesecakes will be somewhat frozen, and easier to remove from the pan. Peeling the muffin liners is a breeze also, leaving them with clean, sharp beautiful edges!
Nutrition Facts
The nutrition facts provided are an estimate per serving. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Originally published on Dec 7, 2019. Updated with improved text and pictures on Feb 10, 2024.
Anna says
Hi
Awesome recipe! Made this twice n everyone loves it!
The only problem I have is after adding the sour cream the mixer becomes lumpy. I left the sour cream out for over an hour to make it room temp. Any tips on how I can make it lump free?
Thanks!!
Bea says
Hi Anna! Glad to know you liked it. What you can do is make sure all ingredients are at specified temperature, don't over mix and don't leave the melted chocolate too long/cold. Hope it helps!
Munmi says
It looks great yummy ..... but only problem with me is i dont eat eggs ..😘🥰😘🥰😍
Can u please help we with this can u let me know the substitute of eggs....🥰😍😘😍
Bea says
Hi Munmi! I haven't tried this recipe without eggs, sorry though!
Tammy says
Hi. May i know if there any other ingredient can be replace if i dunt have sour cream on hand?
Bea says
Hi Tammy! Though I haven't tried it but some mentioned they used Greek yogurt (full fat) in my other cheesecake recipes and it worked great. Hope it helps.
Linda says
Could you please explain how you make the ganache for decorating ?
Angel says
Can I use mascarpone instead of cream cheese?
Bea says
Yes, it'll taste richer though. Hope it helps.
Angel says
Thanks so much! Awesome recipe!!! Dear husband loves it too!
Sam says
Can I used whipping cream instead of sour cream?
Bea says
Hi Sam! Honestly I haven't tried it so I can't really say. Some said they've tried using full fat Greek yogurt and it worked beautifully. Hope it helps.
Saima says
Hello
I really want to make this but I don’t have sour cream can I substitute with something else
Bea says
Hi Saima! I haven't tried but some people told me they used full fat greek yogurt or creme fraiche and both worked. Hope it helps.
Clarisse says
Hi, you can make homemade sour cream by adding lemon juice to whipping cream at the ratio of 1:6 i.e. 1g of lemon juice for every 6g of whipping cream. Hopefully it helps.
Agnese says
Made this and...it was sooo tasty! Thank you for sharing this recipe: 🙂
Bea says
That's awesome! Thank you Agnese! 😍
Hicris says
Hi! How many calories per serving?
sophia sideras says
how can i avoid lumps in the cheese cake batter? also awesome recipe. it’s super tasty!!
Bea says
Make sure that you have all the ingredients at the mentioned temperature. This way they will be easier to mix without lumps. Hope it helps! 🙂
Giovana says
Estoy por hacer hoy por la tarde ,cuando ya estén listos los tengo que conservar en la nevera?
Bea says
Hola Giovana! Si, puedes leer las instrucciones que puse arriba. Saludos!
Akky says
Tried this yesterday. The recipe looked simple and so i set out to make my first cheesecake. Turned out really well. I halved the recipe and substituted fresh cream for whipped cream.
Thanks much for this. Keep inspiring!!!
Bea says
Awesome! I'm happy to know that. Thank you for your feedback Akky! XO
Neha Paul says
I am allergic to egg, so what can i use instead of eggs?
Kathy Babiak says
For the chocolate cheesecakes, you say to use digestive biscuits, but the picture shows a chocolate base. Should you use chocolate crackers instead?
Bea says
Sorry Kathy, yes I used Oreo cookies for the base. I already corrected the post. Thanks!
Yuliya says
These cheesecakes are so delicious! I'll be making them again. Thanks for the recipe 😊
Bea says
I'm happy to know that, thank you Yuliya! XO
Paulina Altamira says
Can I use the same recipe to make a full size cheesecake?
Bea says
Yes you can, but you'll need to adjust the cooking time and maybe the temperature also.
Paulina Altamira says
Great, thanks!!
Khatija says
Is it possible to freeze these cheese cakes