| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 6 hr 15 min |
| Active: | 45 min |
| Yield: | 15 servings |
Ingredients
- Nonstick cooking spray, for the pan and parchment
- Two 14.3-ounce packages vanilla sandwich cookies, such as Golden Oreos (72 cookies)
- 2 sticks (1 cup) butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon red gel dye (I use AmeriColor super red 120)
- Three 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup mascarpone, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 15 large plump strawberries, hulled
- Confectioners’ sugar, for sifting
Instructions
- For the red velvet crust: Adjust the oven racks to the middle and bottom of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13-by-9-inch metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place a double layer of parchment into the pan so that it overhangs the long sides; spray the parchment with cooking spray.
- Add half of the cookies to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the cookies resemble crumbs. Drizzle in half of the butter and half of the red dye, pulsing until it’s all incorporated. Remove the first batch to a large bowl and repeat the with the remaining cookies, butter and dye. Combine both batches, then pour the cookie mixture into the prepared baking pan, using your hands to press the crust down to make one even layer. Bake for 10 minutes.
- For the filling: Beat the cream cheese, granulated sugar and vanilla together in a stand mixer using a paddle attachment. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the sour cream and mix again. Pour the filling over the crust and smooth the top.
- Put a large roasting pan with water on the bottom rack of the oven and put the pan with the cheesecake on the top rack. Bake until the cheesecake is set and no longer jiggly, about 45 minutes.
- Turn off the oven, open the oven door and allow the pan to sit in the open oven for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool for at least 2 hours. Once cooled at room temperature, refrigerate to chill for another 2 hours.
- To assemble: Remove the cheesecake from the baking pan. Using a 2-inch round pastry cutter, carefully punch out 15 cheesecake circles. Remove them to a serving platter. Refrigerate while you make the mascarpone cream.
- For the whipped mascarpone cream: Add the cream to the bowl of a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whip to stiff peaks. Add the mascarpone and confectioners’ sugar and mix until well combined and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a number 12 pastry tip.
- For the Santa hats: Pipe a rim of the mascarpone cream around the top of each cheesecake circle. Put an inverted strawberry into the center of each and top with a tiny blob of the mascarpone cream. Chill to set.
- To assemble the snow scene: Arrange the Santa hats on a cake stand, place the miniature Christmas trees, reindeer and sleigh and cowboy Christmas figurines around and dust with confectioners’ sugar snow.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 15 servings |
| Calories | 885 |
| Total Fat | 58 g |
| Saturated Fat | 27 g |
| Carbohydrates | 84 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Sugar | 58 g |
| Protein | 9 g |
| Cholesterol | 174 mg |
| Sodium | 505 mg |
Reviews
n nor
After reading all the reviews and watching the episode where Rhee created these I decided to give it a shot…Here is what I did to modify. I cut the base crust in 1/2. I made the full cheesecake recipe but didn’t use it all-probably 3/4 of it! Also, I made it several days(4) in advance and let it sit in the refrigerator. I pulled it out on Christmas Eve and lifted it out of the pan and let it sit for about 30 minutes. I did not have a 2″ cookie cutter so I used a 1-1/2″. It was perfect. I did not have any issues with cutting it or getting it out of the cookie cutter because it was so firm. I feel like this will be the highlight dessert on Christmas Day… to those who complained about waist. I balled it up, froze it and dipped it in white chocolate to make a cake ball Zero waste!! Rhee…this is a home run recipe!!
After reading the reviews, I used Graham crackers for about half of the crust and that worked great. Cut into squares so we didnt waste any. Still adorable and delicious!
Very time consuming and a lot of waste
Despite the bad reviews I gave it a shot following others advice.
Cut back on amount of cookies. Did cut outs before refrigerating to avoid difficulty cutting very hard cookie crust. That worked. But the waste is overwhelming. Should also offer tips on how to remove from cookie cutter. The whipped cream never got smooth. Threw it away used regular icing.
Despite the bad reviews I gave it a shot following others advice.
Cut back on amount of cookies. Did cut outs before refrigerating to avoid difficulty cutting very hard cookie crust. That worked. But the waste is overwhelming. Should also offer tips on how to remove from cookie cutter. The whipped cream never got smooth. Threw it away used regular icing.
The crust was too thick and I used the same size pan as she used. I couldn’t get the crust and cheesecake out of the pastry cutter. Total wast of my time.
So cute, but I had a problem with the crust being too thick and hard to cut with round pastry tool. Also too much waste of good cheese cake. Directions also said to chill after they had been cut. Cake would not slip out of pastry cutter and hold shape. Chilling cake before cutting and a thinner crust would work better.
Can you use store bought cheescake?
These are so cute I made a few substitutions are use gram cracker crust, and spead thinner than her cookie crust, I also made strawberry cheesecake filling to give it the red color these are really cute can’t wait to serve them at Christmas.
I haven’t tried this recipe, reading the negative reviews, I’m thinking that maybe making these in a small cupcake pan and baking the filling and the crust at the safe time would be better. It would also save the waste made by punching them out of the pan of cheesecakes. I’m going to try it that way. I will have to use cupcake liners, but I’ll just take them off before decorating with the whipped topping.
Use graham cracker crumbs for base instead of cookies.