These simple salted caramel pretzel mini cheesecakes start with a buttery graham cracker crust, then a twisty pretzel, perfectly sweetened vanilla cheesecake, another pretzel, and sea salted caramel sauce. So pretty, no one will ever guess they’re so easy to make!
Need more salted caramel recipe ideas? No need to fear! Check out my Salted Carmel Cheesecake Bars, Salted Caramel Stuffed Double Chocolate Cookies, and Slow Cooker Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate next!
Cheesecake and pretzels and SALTED CARAMEL and gahhhhhhhhhhh there’s just too much goodness here.
Who am I kidding. You can never have too much goodness. These have the perfect amount of goodness going on.
Let me first say that I am not a picky eater. There aren’t very many things I won’t eat. For instance, I love pickles but will not eat pickle relish. I also love grapes but don’t do raisins. Craisins? YES. Raisins? NO. Those are two of probably 6 things I just won’t eat. But there are some things that I can get a little picky with specific aspects of, like mint ice cream. My friend Whitnee just asked me yesterday how I feel about mint chocolate chip ice cream and I said it depends. If it’s really good mint chocolate chip ice cream then I LOVE it. But if the flavor of the mint is weird then not so much love is happening.
I’m the same way with cheesecakes. I heart cream cheese big time but if it completely over powers the rest of the flavors in the cheesecake and it starts to taste “sour-ish” and way too rich then I’m not on board. I always get carried away when I look into the glass cases at the front of the Cheesecake Factory – sooooooooo many flavors!!! – but at the end of the day my favorite is a classic, old fashioned, new york style cheesecake with maybe some raspberry sauce or chocolate shavings on top. There’s something about that graham cracker crust and vanilla cheesecake combo that I just never get sick of.
So today we are taking that combo I love so much and turning it into a mini cheesecake you will absolutely fall in love with. They look pretty – pretty enough to be served at a wedding even don’t you think?? But don’t let their good looks fool you, these babies are E to the Z. So simple. And that’s what I love most about them.
They start out with a buttery graham cracker crust that is just 4 ingredients. Graham crackers + butter + sugar + cinnamon. Done.
Top that with a mini pretzel twist, a very simple yet totally insanely yummy cheesecake layer, and then top it off with a bit of caramel sauce, another pretzel (!!!) and a little sprinkle of sea salt. Tada! That’s all there is to it. And that caramel sauce? You can make my super easy homemade caramel sauce orrrrrrr, {and seriously no judgements here} you can use caramel ice cream sauce/syrup.
Now just because they’re mini that doesn’t mean you can eat eleven and still feel good about it…
Oh wait. Yes it does. It absolutely means you can eat eleven and feel really good about it.
Trust me, I’m speaking from experience.
Salted Caramel Pretzel Mini Cheesecakes
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup graham cracker crumbs - (about 13 sheets if you are crushed them yourself)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 8 tablespoons butter - melted
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Cheesecake Filling
- 16 ounces cream cheese - at room temperature, (2 8-ounce bricks, do not use fat free)
- 1 egg - at room temperature
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Topping
- ⅓ cup caramel sauce - (see note)
- 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
- 36 mini pretzel twists - divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin tins with paper cupcake liners (not foil liners).
- First prepare the crust. Combine graham cracker crumbs (or graham cracker sheets, broken into several pieces) and sugar to a food processor or blender and pulse until combined (or until your graham cracker sheets become fine crumbs). Add melted butter and continue to pulse another 30 seconds or so until mixture is moistened.
- Add about 2 tablespoons of the crumb mixture to each cupcake liner. Gently press and flatten mixture with your thumb to make an even layer in the bottom of each liner. Bake for 5 minutes.
- Prepare the cheesecake layer by creaming together the cream cheese, egg, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
- Place one pretzel in each liner, flat on top of the crust. Fill each liner 3/4 full with the cheesecake mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes until cheesecake is set. (Just wiggle the pan a little big and if the cheesecake doesn’t move much it’s done)
- Allow to cool about 15 minutes. Top each cheesecake with about a teaspoon of caramel sauce, then place one pretzel and top and sprinkle with a bit of sea salt. Chill at least 1 hour or until ready to serve.
Hi! I made these this week and they are SO good! I had some issues with the cheesecake though. The batter was SUPER thick. I had to spread it in the tins, and it didn’t spread well at all. Is this normal?? They came out not so pretty, but they are delish! My husband loves them and to be honest, they’re almost all gone 🙂 I’m just wondering if I make them again, is this the correct consistency for the cheesecake?
Also I used your caramel sauce and it’s so easy & delicious – definitely worth the (little) effort!
Hi Andrea! I’m so so glad you enjoyed these mini cheesecakes and found the caramel sauce to be easy and worth it! So for the consistency, yours sounds a little thicker than any time I’ve made it… not sure why that would be (assuming you followed the recipe correctly which I think you probably did!) Did you use large eggs? They should be large eggs, I might need to specify that in my recipe. If you did and still found the batter to be that thick, maybe a tablespoon or two of milk might help thin it out a tiny bit. It should still be thick! But yours sounds REALLY thick…
Thanks, Tiffany! I think I followed it correctly, but I was wondering if maybe I beat the cream cheese for too long or something? I’m not sure! I did use large eggs. Thanks for your suggestion with the milk 🙂 If this happens again, I’ll try doing that. I was afraid to do anything because I don’t know the science of baking and didn’t want to screw it up. I appreciate your help & your amazing recipes!!
Could you make the pretzel carmel cheesecake cupcakes into a 13 by 9 cake instead?
I think you would have better results in a 9×9 inch pan. 🙂
Hi there,
This looks great. To clarify- you are using a regular muffin tin and not a mini muffin tin, correct? If so, have you ever tried the mini size with this recipe?
Thanks!
Are these made in a mini-muffin tin or a regular muffin tin?
A regular (not jumbo) muffin tin 🙂
How far ahead can I make these?
I would say about 2-3 days tops and wait to put the pretzel on top until the day-of so it doesn’t get soggy.