Leftover Halloween Candy Cheesecake Bites
Use up all of your leftover Halloween candy in a deliciously sophisticated way with these Cheesecake Bites! Perfectly creamy cheesecake filled with chopped Halloween candy bars, atop a buttery graham cracker crust, all coated in a chocolate shell!
Ingredients
Graham Cracker Crust:
- 9 whole graham crackers crushed into crumbs (*see notes)
- 1/2 cup butter melted
Cheesecake Filling:
- 16 ounces cream cheese bricks room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cup candy bars chopped (*see notes)
Chocolate Coating:
- 16 ounces semisweet chocolate (*see notes)
Instructions
Graham Cracker Crust:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Line an 8"x8" square pan with tin foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and melted butter with a fork. You may need to add more crumbs or more melted butter to get the correct consistency.
- Press mixture evenly into prepared pan.
- Bake the crust for 10 minutes or until lightly golden (you should be able to smell the crust in the oven when it's ready).
Cheesecake Filling:
- Reduce oven heat to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth in a large bowl.
- Add in the sugar, heavy whipping cream, and vanilla, and beat until combined.
- Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating lightly between each addition until just combined. It's very important not to overbeat the batter once the eggs are added; however, you can beat for as long as you want before this addition.
- Stir in the chopped candy bars, chocolate, fudge, or whatever other ingredient you'd like.
- Pour the batter into the cooled crust.
- Bake for anywhere between 30-60 minutes or until set. You will know it's set once it's slightly golden and the middle is only slightly jiggly. The key here is to keep a close eye on it after the first 30 minutes, you don't want to overbake it, but you definitely don't want to underbake it! (*see notes)
- Keeping the cheesecake in the pan, let it cool completely on a wire rack, then move it to the freezer and let it chill for at least 3 hours.
Chocolate Coating:
- Once frozen, lift the cheesecake out of the pan and gently peel away the foil.
- Using a sharp knife, cut the cheesecake into 36 bite-sized squares. If the bites become too soft, put them back into the freezer until chilled again.
- Place the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 1-2 minutes in 30 second increments, stirring in between each increment, until the chocolate is melted.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Dip each bite into the melted chocolate, coating them completely. I use a fork to do this process, since the bites just fall off of a toothpick. It's very important that the bites are cold for this so that they do not fall apart as you are coating them. Let the excess chocolate drip off and place the finished bite on the baking sheet. You could also coat them by pouring the chocolate over top (place the bites on a wire rack with a baking sheet underneath to catch the drippings), or by drizzling them with the chocolate.
- Refrigerate or freeze until the chocolate is set.
- Enjoy! Serve chilled, or store in a container in the fridge or freezer.
Notes
*I usually buy my graham crackers in pre-crumbed form. I usually measure the amount of crust needed by eye, so start by adding in about 1/4-1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs to about 1 tbsp of melted butter and go from there. I also love to use chocolate graham cracker crumbs, or oreo crumbs, to get a chocolate crust!
*Feel free to use whatever candy bars you like! I use any mixture of things I have leftover, but make sure they're chocolate candy bars and not straight up candy, because I bet having gummies in cheesecake would not be very good! For example, some things I use are: kit kats, aeros, mars, reeses PB cups, M&M's, coffee crisps, chocolate fudge pieces etc. You could even use just regular chocolate chips if you want to make this during non-Halloween candy season!
*I use bakers chocolate bars since they're the best for melting, but feel free to use any kind of chocolate (bars, chips, morsels etc.), keeping in mind the fact that they all melt differently. The best way to melt them is to go in short intervals, or to be even more careful, set your microwave to 50% power. You could also melt the chocolate in a double boiler/bain marie if you know how to, but I prefer to just use the microwave since it's less of a hassle.
*It's okay if you're cheesecake comes out with cracks! You'll be cutting it anyway, so for me personally, I find the cracks completely fine, I just try to cut along the cracks. If the cracks bug you a lot, feel free to try baking in a water bath, or even just adding a bath of water in the bottom of your oven to add more moisture in the oven and even out the temperature. Keep in mind that if you are using a water bath, it will take longer to cook since the water will retain the heat and cook the cheesecake slower and more gently.