As a child, I loved setting out cookies and milk for Santa. I asked my kids why we leave the treats and William’s answer cracked me up.  He said, “The elves just feed him carrots, celery, and ranch dressing and other nasty stuff during the year.  He is ready for a treat!”  Personally, I guess that Santa rewards those who take the time to do something special.  I love picking out the treats with the boys for Santa.  We even have a special plate at our home that is only used for this task.

So what are your treats that you leave out for Santa?  Do you offer any food bribes?  I’m not sure what you are leaving for Santa this year, but I know he will be pleased as he comes down our chimney.  (We won’t leave the fire going.)

Christmas is a time for goodies and we have been enjoying plenty of them.  Santa will be the happy recipient of frosted sugar cookies, snowballs, peanut butter balls, sandbakkles, and miniature cheesecakes.  I think he will be pleased.  What do you think?  I will be sharing the other recipes soon.  Today’s treat is these easy mini-cheesecakes.  They are quite easy to throw together and can still be made in time for you to add them to Santa’s plate of goodies at your house.

These miniature cheesecakes were one of my mother’s holiday goodies and I would devour them by the handful at parties. They are always a treat. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Miniature Cheesecakes

Ingredients:
2 – 8 oz. packages of cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons sugar

Directions:
Line muffin or mini-muffin pans with muffin papers. (This recipe makes approximately 3 1/2 dozen mini cheesecakes.) Separate eggs beating the egg whites until they are stiff. Set aside. Blend together the cream cheese, sugar and egg yolks. Once thoroughly blended, gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Fill pans 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Let cool. Meanwhile combine sour cream, vanilla, and sugar. Fill the indentation of each miniature cheesecake with the sour cream topping. (My mom sometimes added food coloring to this topping to make them more festive.  I topped a few of these with raspberries because I live with a bunch of raspberry addicts.)