I was looking for a dessert to make over the weekend. I wanted one that was bite sized and not too overdone. I thought I’d make mini cheese cakes with cherry pie filling on top. But then I started to get creative. Creative as in, I’ve-been-dieting-for-months- how-much-goodness-can-I-pack-into-one-little-dessert, creative.
I wanted the pretzel crust of strawberry pretzel jello salad, mixed with cheesecake, topped with salty Sander’s caramel. I got hungry writing that. That’s where I came up with these Salted Caramel Pretzel Cheesecake bites. They’re great, try ‘em 🙂
Salted Caramel Pretzel Cheesecake Bites Recipe
Serves 16-20
Crust
1 cup finely chopped pretzels
1 stick melted butter
3 tablespoons sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a food processor, finely chop pretzels until there are no chunks. Mix chopped pretzels and sugar together, then stir in melted butter. Set aside. Place foil cupcake liners in cupcake tin. Add approximately 1 tablespoon of mixture to each tin and press in to bottom of cupcake tin. Bake pretzel crusts for 8 minutes at 350 degrees, then allow to cool.
Filling
(2) 8 ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Caramel sauce
Sea salt
Using a hand mixer, combine softened cream cheese, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Fill muffin cups until almost full. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Once cool, top each with caramel sauce, sprinkle with sea salt, and refrigerate for at least one hour. Enjoy!
