Sweet Gifts

I absolutely love giving sweet little treats away as gifts! Last year I was on a major bacon toffee kick and made tons of it to give away (sound nasty?? well, you gotta try it!). Everyone loved the bacon toffee, but it is quite the chore to make. Anyhow, this year I wanted to make treats for all of my classes. For one class I made gingerbread cookies, another vanilla cupcakes, and for another a triple chocolate cake with a ganache glaze. Yum! Can you guess what I choose to do rather than work on my lesson plans???? Ha! Today I gave my freshman and sophomore class these delicious cookies and cream cheesecakes. They disappeared in about 2 seconds, so I'm guessing they liked them.

I also got my very first teacher gift! One of the girls in my 6th grade class gave me the cutest ornament...... a cupcake ornament!! Precious.

Photo courtesy of 52 Cupcakes

Here is the recipe for the cheesecake. It is really easy and comes together fast! Enjoy!

Martha Stewart's Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes Recipe
Makes 30

Ingredients:
42 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole, and 12 coarsely chopped
2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.