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Mini Cheesecake Cookies

By browneyedbaker · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and cherry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 890 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

The recipe

About 40 mini cheesecakes
Prep10 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a mini muffin pan with paper liners and place one Nilla wafer flat in the bottom of each cup.

  2. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth, about 2 minutes.

  3. Add the granulated sugar and beat until light and fluffy, then beat in the vanilla.

  4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing only until each is combined.

  5. Spoon the cream cheese filling over the wafers, filling each cup almost to the top.

  6. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the filling is set and the center reaches 160°F (71°C).

  7. Cool the cookies in the pan for 30 minutes, then refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

  8. Just before serving, top each cookie with a spoonful of cherry pie filling.

By browneyedbaker. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Vanilla + cherrytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together890 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Cream cheese + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,934 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Cream cheese + cherrytop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together188 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together122,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the cherry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream cheese, sugar, egg, vanilla):

  1. Strawberrybetter flavor fit
  2. Blueberrybetter flavor fit
  3. Pineapplebetter flavor fit
  4. Cherrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream cheese, sugar, egg, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).