These Salted Caramel Cheesecake Bites are little NY style cheesecakes. They're rich, dense, creamy, and luscious treats topped with salted caramel and chopped macadamia nuts. Watch them disappear fast at your next gathering!
Preheat oven to 325F, with rack on lower middle position. Line mini muffin tins with liners.
In a large bowl, mix fine cookie crumbs with butter until well incorporated. The mixture should resemble wet sand.
Scoop one slightly rounded tsp of crumb mixture evenly into each lined mini muffin tin. Press down to form crusts.
For the Cheesecake:
In a large saucepan, melt white chocolate chips with half and half on low heat, stirring often. Remove from heat once smooth. Set aside.
In large bowl, mix together nearly melted cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and the melted white chocolate mixture.
Scoop 1 rounded TB of batter into each lined mini muffin tin. Bake 20 minutes or until tops are puffy and no longer sticky upon light touch. Let cool to room temp and then cover and chill in fridge.*
For the Caramel Sauce:
In a heavy saucepan, place sugar in an even layer, and heat over medium-high heat, whisking frequently. Continue to whisk as it cooks until all clumps are melted down.
When sugar is completely melted, turn heat down to medium, insert thermometer into the melted sugar, and continue stirring until melted sugar turns red-brown. The minute your thermometer reads 350F, add all the butter and whisk. (When you add the butter, the caramel may bubble up; so be careful).
Once the butter melts, immediately remove pan from heat. Carefully pour in the cream, and whisk until a smooth sauce forms. Then, whisk in the flaky salt.
Let sauce cool to almost room temp before drizzling over dessert. Store leftover sauce in airtight container for future use. Keep cheesecakes covered and chilled until ready to serve.
The center of these cheesecake bites will cave in slightly as they cool. This is completely normal and helps create space for the caramel sauce.
Instead of macadamia nuts on top, you can use roasted/chopped pecans, almonds, or any other garnish you'd like.
Note that this recipe is for mini muffin tins, which make bite-size cheesecakes. This recipe is not written for regular sized muffin tins; if you'd like to make regular muffin sized cheesecakes, bake time will need to be increased.
Make sure to keep an eye on the caramel sauce the whole time it is cooking and to keep whisking it. It can burn very easily.