Halloween Treats

Halloween Treats!

It's officially Halloween weekend, everyone! Halloween is a BIG day in our household, as the boyfriend is an absolute NUT about it and plans his costume months in advance (Seriously. I think he started brainstorming in February this year). I've also loved Halloween all my life, too. Every year growing up I had to have the perfect costume, and luckily my mom is skilled at the sewing machine and would put in hours of working crafting my costumes to perfection. I'm not one for dressing as a sexy black cat (Really? We're supposed to be turned on by a cat?) or a sexy firefighter, or a sexy construction worker... or chiropractor...... I've always loved off-the-wall, creative costumes. I've also been known to spend hours searching around, thrifting, looking for the perfect pieces to make my costume juuuusssttt right. And this year mine will be no different (Don't worry, I'll give a full recap after tomorrow!).

Aside from dressing up, I love carving pumpkins! We have been SO busy the past few weeks we haven't been able to go pick out pumpkins or carve them yet! So we both took today off work to finish up our costumes, go pick out pumpkins and carve them while watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Yeah. We're taking a vacation day to prepare for Halloween. We're cool like that.

But what might be my favorite part of Halloween of all is, of course, the treats! I still light up when seeing bowls of fun-sized candy bars in the office (though I can't scarf them down like I used to...). And I've bookmarked about a dozen recipes for Halloween snacks that I've been dying to make this year. However, I've only had time to squeeze in baking one treat so far! But this treat was a GREAT one: Mini Halloween Oreo Cheesecakes. 

I sent the batch out with the boyfriend to take to work, and he reported back that his coworkers RAVED about them, one of them even saying he liked the cheesecakes better than the maple-bacon cupcakes I made last spring, which apparently are still being talked about in his office.

The cheesecake, itself, has crushed Oreo mixed in the batter, but where the REAL treat lies is at the very bottom, with a full Halloween Oreo neatly settled underneath the creamy cheesecake goodness. I hadn't had in Oreo in what seem like years, and had forgotten just how delicious they are (Yeah, I might have sneaked one or two with a cup of almond milk...).

If you're scrambling for a treat to bring to any Halloween parties this weekend, give these a try!

Mini Halloween Oreo Cheesecakes

(Adapted from Gingerbread Bagels)

Here's what you'll need!

21 Halloween Oreo cookies, 15 left whole, 6 crushed (I actually used about 20 whole)
16 ounces (1 pound) cream cheese, softened – That’s two blocks of cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs, room temperature and lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
orange gel food coloring

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line a cupcake/muffin baking pan with cupcake liners.

Place 6 whole Oreo cookies in a food processor and grind them up. If you don’t have a food processor, put them in a plastic bag and crush them. Set aside.

Put 1 Halloween Oreo in each cupcake liner.

In a large bowl with the paddle attachment (a handheld mixer works fine) on medium speed, beat the 1 pound of cream cheese until smooth.

Add in the 1/2 cup of sugar to the cream cheese and mix on medium speed until combined.

Mix in the 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Slowly add in the 2 lightly beaten eggs and continue mixing. Now add in the 1/2 cup of sour cream and mix to combine the ingredients.

Once the ingredients are combined, use a spatula to ensure that all the ingredients are combined.

Add in a small amount of orange gel food coloring and stir with a mixing spoon/spatula in order to color the entire cheesecake batter.

Throw in the Oreo crumbs and stir to combine.

Fill each cupcake liner with the cheesecake batter, almost to the top.

Bake at 275 for 25 minutes. Halfway through the baking time, rotate the pan.

Allow the cheesecakes to cool on a cooling rack. Then refrigerate for at least 4 hours. I usually refrigerate my cheesecakes overnight.