Internet Chef Crafts Unforgettable Mini Apple Pie Cheesecakes Using 3 Ingredients

Cheesecake is a ubiquitous dessert found in many stores, dessert shops, and homes across the world. Though it charms with its smooth quality and wealth of versatile flavors, baking it can require quite a bit of work, including perfecting the batter's texture and setting up a water bath. Thankfully, chef Matt Groark has granted the wishes of home bakers everywhere with a simple cheesecake puff pastry recipe — no springform pan needed. Known as The Meat Teacher, Groark is a high school culinary arts teacher and two-time contestant in televised cooking competitions, so you can trust he knows his stuff.

In his TikTok recipe, he combines brown sugar cinnamon cream cheese and apple pie filling on top of pastry sheets to create flaky puffs brimming with sweet apple flavor and smooth creaminess. Stretching the sheets across a muffin tin allows for easily dividing up six pastries. The trick to incorporating that cinnamon flavor in each bite is dusting the puff pastry sheet with cinnamon sugar before adding the cream cheese and filling. Sprinkling more on top after you pinch the pastries closed carries that warmth further.

Groark finishes them off with powdered sugar for a touch more sweetness and a pretty presentation. While delicious alone, these mini apple pie cheesecakes pair well with vanilla ice cream for a classic American dessert and one of the most creative ways to serve ice cream without a cone. This recipe also lends itself well to modifications for a customizable dessert.

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Apple Pie Cheesecake Puffs!

♬ original sound – TheMeatTeacher

Though Groark's recipe is a take on apple pie, you can adapt it to feature your favorite fruit pie filling, such as cherry, peach, or mixed berry. Philadelphia cream cheese, the brand Groark's recipe uses, makes a range of products in fruity flavors to suit your preferred filling, and you can also make flavored cream cheese yourself for that homemade appeal. For example, satisfy those pumpkin spice cravings with mini cheesecakes made using pumpkin cream cheese spread.

Groark applies an egg wash to his pastries before popping them in the oven to create a nice brown on top. You can experiment here by adding cream, water, or milk to the wash. The best type of egg wash to use for a baking project depends on the recipe itself. For these cheesecakes, you want the whole egg to achieve a shiny, golden-brown result.

To bake a truly light and flaky delight, employ a popular cold-temperature hack for puff pastries by placing the mini cheesecakes in the fridge before baking them. You get mini desserts with the pleasantly airy texture that's ideal in puff pastries. Whether you eat them yourself or with others, they'll disappear before you know it.