Oreo Cookies & Cream Cheesecakes

Oreo Cookies & Cream Cheesecakes

(Adapted from Martha Stewart via gimmesomeoven.com)
Ingredients:
42 Oreos, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped
2 pounds (4 blocks) cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
pinch of salt
whipped cream, (optional)
Method: Preheat oven to 275° F. On the bottom shelf, place an oven-proof pan (a half sheet pan will work) and fill with 2 cups of water. This will heat and make the bain marie or  "water bath" so that the cupcakes do not crack when baking (but who cares when it comes to eating cheesecake really?)

Cupcake pan ready

Line standard muffin tins with liners (prefer metallic liners). Place 1 whole Oreo cookie in the bottom of each lined muffin cup. 
In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese on medium-high speed until smooth, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Gradually add the sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in the vanilla.
Drizzle in eggs, a little at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add sour cream and salt, beat to combine. Using a large spatula, fold in the chopped Oreo cookies.
Divide batter evenly among the cookie-filled muffin cups, fill each cup almost to the top. Bake, rotating muffin tins halfway through, until the filling is set, about 22 to 28 minutes. If you are like me and have only one muffin pan then you will need to reuse muffin pans and place batter in the fridge between refills and check the water in the half pan at the bottom of the oven. This worked for me, but I didn't realize I'd be making so many cheesecakes.   Transfer the muffins tins to a wire rack to cool completely. Refrigerate (in the muffin tins) at least 4 hours (or overnight). Remove from tins just before serving. Top with whipped cream if you'd like. Or just serve like cupcakes. 

Finished Cheesecakes

Comments: Not many photos of these while making them because who, really, wants to look a lot of photos of white/beige stuff - boring. However, the results are lovely. Seems to be driven by number of cookies in a pack, but certainly not by a standard cupcake/muffin pan.
My numbers aren't working with this - 12 cookies seems too little for the filling (oops - it wasn't) and I have batter left after 30 mini cheesecakes... What to do? What to do? So the fix is to use vanilla wafers in case one runs out of Oreo cookies.
Difficult to tell when they are done. I finally decided that 25 minutes seem to work well and no one has died from them yet - the Boy has eaten at least six or so (probably more, but I won't ask). I have had one request for the recipe and the office loved them, so ... they seem to be popular.  Hope the office is not trying to humor me ... 
I need to work on better photos - these mini cheesecakes really deserve better.