Miniature apple pie cheesecakes

In our house, Procrastination = Baking.  Saturday, I planned to clean up the house and start clearing out our front room to make it over.  I did that in the morning and early afternoon, but then I wanted to take a break, so I went in the kitchen and got to work.

I purchased a no bake cheesecake mix last time I was at the store, along with a can of apple pie filling.  I knew I wanted to make mini cheesecakes, but had the intention of using Nilla wafers as the crust.  But I realized when I started putting the ingredients together that the wafers weren't big enough to cover the bottom of the cupcake liner.  So, I decided to use the crust mix that comes in the cheesecake box.  That was until I opened the bag and it exploded all over me and the counter!  Ooops!

So, I pulled out some graham cracker crumbs from the pantry and mixed them with butter and sugar.

I spooned the crust mixture into 12 cupcake liners and flattened it with the bottom of a measuring cup I have that's the size of a shot glass.  Worked like a charm.

Then I mixed the cheesecake filling according to the directions on the box...

...and used my Pampered Chef cookie scooper to spoon it into the cupcake wells.  I use this tool whenever I make cookies, cupcakes, or anything else that I'd like to be sized equally.  I hate it when cupcakes come out of the oven in different sizes, some overflowing and some not even reaching the top of the cupcake liner.  Blech.  So this scooper prevents this :)

I smoothed out the top of the cheesecake filling once the liners were full, and put the tray in the fridge for a few hours.

When we were ready for dessert, I pulled out the cheesecakes and topped them with a spoonful of the apple pie filling.  Next time I'll cut up the large pieces - some were a bit too big for the size of the cheesecakes.