One more Easter straggler - dessert!

With all of the cooking and cleaning and general preparation I do for Easter, I'm all about finding a simple dessert and letting my mom make the others.

I have found you can really never go wrong with a cheesecake. Cheesecake is always a big hit with my husband, nevermind eeryone else. And when you are short on time and focusing on serving 10 guests a huge brunch, there's nothing better than a 3-step cheesecake!

This cheesecake was easy....delicious....and addicting. I can't be held responsible if you want to make this over and over again!

Philadelphia 3-Step Toffee Crunch Cheesecake
(from KraftFoods.com)

2 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
4 chocolate-covered English toffee bars (1.4 oz. each), chopped (about 1 cup), divided
1 HONEY MAID Graham Pie Crust (6 oz.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs; mix just until blended. Stir in 3/4 cup of the chopped toffee bars.

Pour into crust. Sprinkle with remaining chopped toffee bars.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.

Thanksgiving Dessert - Part II

Ok, so, as promised here is the second dessert I made this Thanksgiving.

For what it's worth, I had a hard time choosing what to make besides the chocolate chip pecan pie. My husband is not a big pecan pie fan, so I felt the need to make something else he would like. Well, as I have mentioned previously, he loves cheesecake. So I decided on yet another recipe from my "Cooking with Mickey" cookbook for Fantasia Cheesecake.

I decided to leave this cheesecake plain with just the sour cream topping. Simple tastes, yet so delicious and relatively easy. I am posting the recipe below as is, but I basically had to double the graham cracker crust recipe because I just didn't have enough it seemed to cover my springform pan up the sides.

Either way, this was a huge hit on Turkey day, and I have a feeling my hubby will be requesting I make this again...and again...and again....

Fantasia Cheesecake

(from "Cooking with Mickey Volume II")

Graham Cracker Crust*

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 tablespoon sugar

4 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

Grease bottom and sides of 9 inch springform pan.

Combine all ingredients and blend well. Press crumb mixture into bottom of pan, set aside.

*I doubled this recipe

Filling

4 8 ounce packages cream cheese

2 cups sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix cream cheese, sugar, salt, and lemon extract until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition. Do not overmix batter. Pour into prepared cake pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until cheesecake is set. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Refrigerate for several hours before removing from springform pan.

Sour Cream Topping

1 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons sugar

Fresh fruit or fruit pie filling, if desired

Mix sour cream and sugar together and spoon over cheesecake. Decorate with slices of fruit, canned fruith topping, or fresh whipped cream if desired.

Say....CHEESE....cake that is!!!

As I mentioned in my previous post, my husband and I stayed in for a quiet night at home on his birthday rather than going out to eat. But since it was his birthday, I of course I had to make him a special dessert!

There are a few dessert elements I know are a hit with my husband at almost any given time:
- Peanut butter
- Mint
- Cheesecake
Obviously not all together though!

With that said, I decided to make a cheesecake, but to celebrate this wonderful fall season I decided on an apple cheesecake. It was delicious and easy...can't go wrong with that! I definitey would not hesitate to make this one again!

As usual I made a couple of changes which I've done below. Also even though the directions say to sprinkle cinnamon & sugar on teh apples after you place them on the cheesecake I actually tossed my apples in the cinnamon and sugar and then placed them on the top of the cheesecake. I thought this was an easier way to ensure an even coating on all of the apples.

Fall Apple Bavarian Cheesecake
(from KraftFoods.com)

1/3 cup butter, melted
1-1/4 cups HONEY MAID Graham Cracker Crumbs
2 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup plus 3 Tbsp. sugar, divided
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1 apple, peeled, cored and sliced (I had to use 2 medium-to-large sized apples to cover cheesecake)
1/4 cup Sliced Almonds (I omitted)
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon


Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix butter and crumbs; press firmly onto bottom and up side of 9-inch pie plate.

Beat cream cheese, 1/2 cup of the sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.

Pour into crust; top with apple slices and almonds. Combine 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and remaining 3 Tbsp. sugar; sprinkle over cheesecake.

Bake 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on wire rack. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.

I'm a Daring Baker!

Daring Bakers is a (very large) group of bakers who, monthly, are challenged to make the same recipe, without modifications to see what results that recipe will yield.


After some convincing from my friend Danielle, who had been urging me to join Daring Bakers, I decided to bite the bullet this month. I don't think I could have joined during a better month considering April's DB recipe was for cheesecake pops! Even the title sounds yummy!

This recipe was a lot of fun. We were given some creative freedom and we could use any kind of chocolate and any other toppings to roll the pops in which I used as an excuse to clean out my pantry a bit. I dipped my pops in dark chocolate first and then I rolled some in coconut, some in walnuts, some in crushed M&Ms (which I kind of over-crushed, oops!), and some in colored sprinkles. The result? A smorgasboard of pretty cheesecake pops, that were pretty tasty to boot!

This recipe for the cheesecake was the creamiest I've come across yet! Using my round cake pan, I found it took a little bit longer than the directions said, but all in all, this was a fabulous recipe and a really fun way to eat cheesecake!

Check out what other bakers did by checking out the DB blogroll. I'm sure there will be some wonderful variety this month. I can't wait to see what other DBs have come up with!


Cheesecake Pops
Makes 30 – 40 Pops

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ cup heavy cream
Boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)
Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.
When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.



When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set.

Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

And they said....let there be dessert!

I just realized I forgot to blog about Easter dessert.

You know those little recipe booklets that you find at the supermarket near the register? Well a couple of months ago I fell victim to the impulse buy and bought a Pilsbury one all on pies. I had made all of one recipe out of it so far. I picked it up a couple of weeks ago to look for something good for Easter dessert. I found what I remember being called a Strawberry Cream Tart and figured I could modify it to be something that my father-in-law, who is diabetic, could eat. It was very few ingredients, it called basically for a pre-made pie shell, cream cheese, some sugar, strawberries, and fresh whipped cream. I had decided using Cool Whip would just be a lot easier. So when I went shopping I didn't reference the recipe at all. But when I went to make the recipe on Saturday night I realized I couldn't find my little Pilsbury recipe booklet at all. I searched high and low, and in any room I could have brought it into. Nothing. I decide to search on the Pilsbury.com website. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

At that point I was pretty much forced to make it up myself from memory and it came out quite good I think! Below is my best re-creation of what I did - which was, in the end, super simple! I had leftovers of this and thought enough to take a picture of it last night before it disappeared. And that's dots of cool whip on those strawberries. I always seem to pick the worst piece of something when I photograph it. *sigh*

The second dessert I made was an easy one - I was all about easy dessert so I had more time to focus on brunch. It's a cookie dough cheesecake from Kraftfoods.com. I failed to take a picture (I know, you're totally surprised...not!) so I'm borrowing one from Kraft. This was easy, rich, and tasty. Can't get much better than that.

Last, is the dessert my mom made. She wanted to bring dessert but couldn't make up her mind so I sent her this Shortcut Carrot Cake recipe. Wow, was it good! Super moist and yummy. Thanks, Mom!!!

I'm also borrowing pictures from the Kraft website for the 2nd and 3rd recipes. I am sick of not having pictures and they are a lot easier on the eyes than my own pictures would have been anyway!

Strawberry Cream Cheese Tart

(Inspired by a Pilsbury recipe)

1 Pilsbury pre-made pie crust, softened according to package directions

1 8 oz block of low fat cream cheese, softened

1 small tub light Cool Whip

1/2 cup Splenda

About a 1/2 pint strawberries with stems removed and cut in half lengthwise

Heat oven to 450°F. Make pie crust as directed on box for One-Crust Baked Shell, using 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Bake about 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool.

In a medium sized bowl, combine cream cheese, 1/2 of the container of cool whip, and Splenda. Beat on medium/low until combined and creamy. Spread into cooled crust and refrigerate for about 2 hours.

Using the rest of the Cool Whip, spread across the top of the tart (I did this more for looks than anything else). Then lay strawberries on top of tart in a concentric circle formation until tart is "full" with strawberries.

PHILADELPHIA® 3-STEP® Cookie Dough Cheesecake*

2 pkg (8oz each) Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
3/4 cup prepared or refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough, divided
1 Graham Pie Crust (6 oz.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs; mix just until blended. Remove 1/2 cup of the dough; drop by teaspoonfuls into batter. Stir gently until well blended.

Pour into crust. Top with level teaspoonfuls of the remaining 1/4 cup cookie dough.

Bake 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.

*Picture from Kraft Foods

Shortcut Carrot Cake*

(from kraftfoods.com)

1 pkg. (2-layer size) spice cake mix
2 cups shredded carrots (about 1/2 lb.)
1 can (8 oz.) crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup PLANTERS Chopped Pecans, divided
2 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare cake mix batter as directed on package, stirring in carrots, pineapple and 3/4 cup of the pecans until well blended. Pour into 2 (9-inch) square baking pans. Bake 25 to 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool. My mother used 2 - 8 inch round cake pans. She noted that she had to increase the bake time by about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat cream cheese and sugar with electric mixer or wire whisk until well blended. Stir in whipped topping until well blended.

Place 1 cake layer on serving plate. Spread with 1-1/2 cups of the cream cheese mixture. Carefully place second cake layer on top of first cake layer. Frost top and sides of cake with remaining cream cheese mixture. Garnish with remaining 1/4 cup pecans. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

*Picture from Kraft Foods