Mini PB&J Cheesecakes -- Sweet and Small, Like the Moments That Hold You

Hanukkah continues and the vaccine has begun — not for me, not yet, but for healthcare workers, for the front line, for David, who received his first dose on Wednesday and called me to tell me and I sat at the kitchen table and cried, not for myself but for him, for my son the doctor who has been treating patients in a pandemic for nine months and who now has a needle in his arm that will protect him, and the protection of my child — even my forty-six-year-old child — is the thing I have wanted most urgently since March, more than the vaccine for myself, more than the ability to hold my grandchildren, more than anything. David is protected. My son is safer. The rest will follow.

Night seven of Hanukkah. Seven candles plus the shamash, and the menorah is almost full, almost blazing, the light stronger each night, which is the design of the holiday — you don't light all eight at once, you build, one candle at a time, one night at a time, the light accumulating gradually until the final night when the menorah is full and the room is bright and you've proven, over eight days, that persistence produces illumination. This year, that proof feels earned.

I made sufganiyot — the jelly donuts, fried in oil, because Hanukkah demands fried food the way Yom Kippur demands fasting: as a spiritual obligation expressed through the body. The donuts were filled with raspberry jam and dusted with powdered sugar and they were messy and sweet and completely, utterly necessary. I ate two. Marvin ate one and a half — the half a concession to his decreasing appetite, which I monitor the way I monitor everything: constantly, fearfully, noting each change as evidence in a case I don't want to build but am building anyway, the case of Marvin's decline, entered into the record one data point at a time.

The sufganiyot I made that night were about more than Hanukkah obligation — they were about filling something, sweetening something, making the house smell warm when the world outside felt so uncertain. Raspberry jam inside fried dough is its own kind of prayer. These Mini PB&J Cheesecakes carry that same spirit: small, sweet, and centered on jam — the kind of recipe you make when you need your hands to do something hopeful, when a little sugar and a little effort feel like the right response to a night that asked a lot of your heart.

Mini PB&J Cheesecakes

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 18 minutes | Total Time: 38 minutes + chilling | Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup raspberry jam (or strawberry jam)
• Powdered sugar for dusting, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners and set aside.
2. Make the crust. Combine graham cracker crumbs, granulated sugar, and melted butter in a bowl and stir until the mixture resembles wet sand. Press about 1 tablespoon into the bottom of each liner. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove and let cool slightly.
3. Make the filling. Beat cream cheese and peanut butter together with a hand mixer on medium speed until completely smooth, about 2 minutes. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and mix until combined. Add sour cream and beat until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing on low just until incorporated — do not overmix.
4. Fill and swirl. Spoon the cheesecake filling evenly over the cooled crusts, filling each cup about 3/4 full. Drop a small teaspoon of raspberry jam onto the top of each cheesecake, then use a toothpick to swirl it gently into the surface.
5. Bake. Bake for 16–18 minutes, until the centers are just barely set and edges look firm. They will jiggle slightly — that’s fine. Do not overbake.
6. Cool and chill. Let cheesecakes cool in the pan for 30 minutes at room temperature, then transfer to the refrigerator and chill for at least 2 hours before serving.
7. Finish and serve. Just before serving, dust lightly with powdered sugar if desired. Serve cold straight from the refrigerator.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 278 | Protein: 6g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 24g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 185mg