Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bites with Praline Topping

By Angie Barrett

Prep Time:

30m

Bake/Cook Time:

20m

Yield:

25 bites

Plan for:

Chill time- overnight

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bites with Praline Topping are just the right size to satisfy any sweet tooth. Made with a graham cracker crust, delicious pumpkin cheesecake filling and topped with a homemade praline sauce, these tasty little bites are perfect for the holidays.

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Products Used

Extra Fine Granulated Pure Cane Sugar Bag

Dark Brown Sugar Poly Bag

Ingredients

Crusts

2 cups crushed graham crackers
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Baking spray

Pumpkin Cheesecake Filling

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup Dixie Crystals Extra Fine Granulated Sugar
2 tablespoons Dixie Crystals Dark Brown Sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup solid packed pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Praline Topping

1/4 cup firmly packed Dixie Crystals Dark Brown Sugar
6 ounces heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup pecan halves

Directions

For mini crusts, preheat oven to 325°F.
Spray a mini muffin pan with baking spray.
In a medium bowl, mix crushed graham crackers and butter. Add 1/2 tablespoon of mixture to each cavity of a mini muffin pan and press mixture down tightly with the h back of a spoon.
Bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes. Remove and let cool.
Prepare pumpkin cheesecake: In a stand mixer, cream together soft cream cheese and both sugars until smooth.
Mix in egg.
Remove bowl from mixer, add pumpkin, spices, and vanilla. Carefully mix by hand until combined.
Spoon one tablespoon of pumpkin cheesecake mixture into each mini crust.
Bake pumpkin cheesecakes bites for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to cool on a rack at room temperature.
Place mini cheesecakes in a refrigerator overnight.
When ready to serve, preheat oven to 350°F.
Toast pecan halves for eight minutes.
When cool, chop toasted pecans into small pieces.
In a small saucepan, bring all topping ingredients to a boil except pecans.
Boil for three minutes, watching to make sure it doesn’t boil over. Remove from heat and stir in pecans.
Allow mixture to cool for 10 minutes.
While topping is cooling, remove cheesecake bites from refrigerator. Use a small paring knife to run around edges of cheesecakes and remove from mini muffin pan.
Place on serving tray. Once topping has cooled for 10 minutes, top mini cheesecake bites with 1/2 tablespoon of topping mixture.