Martha Stewart is like a bad, bad boyfriend. She lures you in with promises of perfection – good-looking little somethings that are sure to please. And sometimes she delivers, bringing you a DIY holiday gift that made you the talk of the office or a tip for cleaning your coffee grinder that made your roommate think you were a genius. But most of the time, especially once you trust her enough to blindly follow her instructions – she lets you down. Mostly they’re little disappointments, like a carrot cupcake that turns out too sticky or a gingerbread blondie recipe that never bakes all the way through. Occasionally is a ditched-on-Valentine’s Day-sized let down complete with runny frosting and a dried-out cake that, thanks to the Meyer lemons she insisted on, ended up costing you like, $30 to make.

So you can imagine why, as slick and beautiful as they are, I always hesitate to buy Martha’s books. So when I saw all the other baking blogs losing it over her new book, Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone’s Favorite Treat,  I did my best Public Enemy impression – “don’t believe the hype.” Then Borders went and sent me a 40% off coupon on a ridiculously rainy day, and like the sad-sack, whipped girlfriend I vowed to never be, off I went to buy Martha’s newest book. But, I will have you know, I paid like, $14 for it and it’s going to take some major let downs to make me regret that. I spend more than $14 on eyeliner in a week. (OK, not really, but I am a bit heavy-handed on the liner.)

I let Tony leaf through and choose his Father’s Day test recipe. Every year for various holidays on which I’m supposed to be nice to Tony, I try something new and almost always fail. So, at least this time, I could blame Martha. Only these were crazy-simple and they turned out really good! As I was making them I realized how easily they could be made with vegan ingredients, making them cholesterol-free – even nicer to Tony! I’d leave them in the fridge overnight, they were good they day-of, but much better the next day. I halved the recipe, so what you find below will make about 15 mini cheesecakes.

You’ll need:

• 15 whole sandwich cookies
• 6 coursely chopped sandwich cookies
• 1 pound cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons large eggs, room temp, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• pinch salt

Then you:
Preheat oven to 275 degrees, line pan with paper liners. Place one whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.
With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. Gradually add sugar, beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.
Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in cookies by hand.
Divide batter evenly among cookie-filled cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack to cook completely. Refrigerate, in pan, at least 4 hours (or up to overnight.) Remove from pan just before serving.

Oh, and hey – I have hoodies and totes on clearance in the shop (see the tab above) so maybe pick up a hoodie for the hot baker man in your life?