Category: Desserts

Posted on May 10, 2011
Filed Under Desserts

They’re rich. They’re cute. They’re LOADED with chocolate. And mildly loaded with peanut butter. And sorta loaded with cream cheese. They’re easy. They’re irresistable. They’re fun to make and fun to eat. They’re sweet. They’re yummy. They’re a guilt-free size… so, go ahead, eat seven. ????

One thing I like about this is that it’s a small recipe. Say you have a family of 2 adults and 3 children, one of which is less than a year old, and the one adult isn’t addicted to all things chocolate/peanut butter/cream cheese, and the other adult isn’t supposed to be eating more than one serving of such things. Well, this recipe doesn’t make a whole big cheesecake. It makes 24 mini cheesecakes, plus a little more.

I originally saw these on Annie’s Eats  and I’ll admit that what grabbed me about them was exactly the part that ended up flopping on mine! It was the beautifully done ganache on top. Well, my ganache flopped (but I’m not giving up, I do want to make it successfully sometime), so mine have more like a puddle of chocolate instead of a twisty gourmet mound of chocolate. But I just switched my focus from beauty to taste and it all turned out great then! I wanted a bit more chocolate in them, so I added some chocolate chips to the batter (smart move! ???? ). To make up for the added chocolate, I backed up the ingredient quantities for the batter, which worked out well because then I didn’t have to break open a second package of cream cheese. So, for the original recipe and to see the gorgeous ganache, go to Annie’s site (Thanks, Annie! You are very talented and you have a lot of awesome-lookin desserts on your website!).

Little Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecakes

I’ll post the recipe how I made them with my beloved extra chocolate. ????

Crust:
1 cup Oreo crumbs
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 Tbsp. sugar

Preheat the oven to 350.  Spray a 24-well mini muffin pan with cooking spray.  Annie says that using a silicone pan works best for removing the baked cheesecakes. I don’t have one, so I greased my pan well. It worked ok, but some of them got a bit messed up. Annie also said using mini cupcake liners would be another option. Combine the Oreo crumbs, melted butter, and sugar in a bowl. I know, the butter isn’t melted on this pic. I put the whole works in the microwave for a bit to melt the butter.

Mix with a fork until evenly blended.  Divide the crust mixture between the wells of the prepared pan, about 2-3 teaspoons in each.  Press the crumb mixture into a flat layer on the bottom of the well. I used a glass toothpick holder to press it down. Bake for 10 minutes.  Transfer the pan to a wire rack.

Cheesecake:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 Tbsp. sour cream
½ cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar, scant
1 large egg
Dash vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
8 oz. chocolate chips

Reduce the oven temp to 300.  Combine the cream cheese, sour cream and peanut butter. Beat on medium-high speed until smooth and well blended.  Add in the sugar and mix about 1 minute more, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.  Blend in the egg, vanilla, and salt.  Continue to beat until the mixture is completely smooth.  Divide the mixture evenly over the cookie crumb crusts and smooth the tops slightly. Kinda looks like I didn’t smooth the tops.

Bake for 22 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.  Transfer to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature.

Once completely cool, transfer the pan to the refrigerator and chill thoroughly, at least 3 hours. Once the cheesecakes are chilled, carefully remove them from the pan.

Ganache:
4 oz. chocolate
½ cup heavy cream
1 tbsp. butter, softened

Place the chocolate in a bowl.  In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer over medium heat.  Once simmering, remove from the heat and immediately pour over the chocolate.  Let stand 1-2 minutes.  Whisk in small circular motions until a smooth ganache has formed.  Whisk in the butter until completely incorporated.  Let the mixture stand at room temperature until slightly thickened for piping onto the cheesecakes. In my case, it never got thick enough at room temperature for piping, maybe because I didn’t use bittersweet chocolate, or maybe because I didn’t have unsalted butter. I thought maybe I should’ve whipped the cream and then added melted chocolate. After I spooned it onto the cheesecakes and chilled them, it got stiffer, so having it to do over, I would’ve chilled the ganache, then piped it on. But I wasn’t about to scrape it all off just to do that.

These work great frozen, too, like regular cheezecakes do. I froze a couple of them just to try it. They were good right out of the freezer, including the rock-hard chocolate chips ???? , but the ganache wasn’t hard. And after they thawed, they were just as creamy as before they were frozen. I don’t know how long cheesecakes can be frozen for… and I probably never will, what with them always calling loudly from the freezer and all, if I would actually have some on hand in there!

There was a bit of leftover cheesecake batter. My chocolate addition vs. scaling down the recipe wasn’t equal amounts. I didn’t want to just pile it on the mini cups because I wasn’t sure what would happen… I didn’t want an overflowing cheesecake mess in my oven! So, I got Lexi’s mini springform pan out. This pan, by the way, is about the size of my palm, just to give you an idea on the size. I didn’t feel like crushing more Oreos, so I put whole Oreos in the bottom of it, cutting 2 of them down to fit in with the 2 whole ones. Whole Oreos are a bit too big to fit in a mini muffin cup, but that would sure be handy if they would! Maybe it would work to cut them smaller with a sharp round cookie cutter.???

And here is the mini springform pan cheesecake. I just threw some of the little cheesecakes on the little dessert plate with it because they were extras just sitting around. Lexi came over to see what I was doing and exclaimed, “Mom! That is SO cute! You made a bear paw!”

So, there you go, bear paw cheesecake dessert.

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Posted on October 29, 2010
Filed Under Desserts

Desserts should be:
… attractive
… easy to make
… made without dirtying alot of dishes/utensils/appliances
… able to tell what kind they are by looking at them
… quick to make
… yuuuuuuuuummy

Let’s see how this Turtle Sundae Dessert measures up. (you know where this is going, don’t you?) ????

Attractive. I’d say it passes, especially with those maraschino cherries on dollops of whipped topping. And drizzled caramel and chocolate are always a nice touch too. ????

Easy to make. Yep. No recipe needed. And there’s no mixing, baking, cooling, flipping upside down, or rolling out. Just scoop ice cream into a cake pan, drizzle with caramel and chocolate ice cream toppings, sprinkle with pecans, dollop Cool Whip here and there, and put a cherry on top of each Cool Whip. Skill level for this would be about 2 on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is what your 4-yr-old could do and 10 is like Grandma baking brown sugar pies.

Made without dirtying alot of dishes. I used 1 ice cream scoop, a couple of small spoons, and 1 cake pan. Not bad.

Able to tell what kind it is by looking at it. Definitely a 100% score on this one. Not only can you tell what kind it is, you can actually SEE all the ingredients! If you wonder why it’s good to know what kind a dessert is before digging in because, you know, “all desserts are good”, ask my husband about that one. *ahem* one word: rhubarb.

Quick to make. I made this in 15 minutes flat. Actually, I didn’t time it, but it really doesn’t take long to scoop, drizzle, sprinkle, and dollop because nothing is meticulous here, although you could get fancy with the Cool Whip and pipe it on with a flower tip.

Yuuuuuuuummy. This is, of course, a matter of opinion, but it passes with flying colors in my book. You know what, though, I think next time, I’ll bake brownies in the pan and THEN put this turtle combo on top. Extra yummy and that would also make it more of a complete dessert, too.

One more good point and then one bad point about this:

Good point: This is a great way to make turtle sundaes for a crowd, like if you don’t have enough fancy little pedestal dessert cups for everyone. It would be perfect to whip out of the freezer while you’re clearing away the main course. Another reason it would be great for a crowd is because if it’s individual servings, ‘Sally’ might force the last of hers down while ‘Joe’ is wishing for another one. This way, they can take however much they want.

Bad point: While this works great for a crowd at your house, it doesn’t works for all crowds. I took this exact dessert pictured here to a carry-in/potluck/whatever you call it. Well, at that type of meal, the people in charge of food set ALL the food out and people file through the line filling their plates. So, it was sitting out there for quite awhile and pure ice cream with nothing else mixed in does not take long at all to melt! Let’s just say Lesson learned. When I went thro the line, about 3/4ths of the people had already gone through and there was a bottom-cover of melted ice cream and about 5 or 6 very very soft scoops swimming in it. From now on, I’ll just make this for occasions when the dessert can be gotten out when it’s time for dessert to be served.

And yeah, I want to try it with the brownies underneath too.

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Posted on March 25, 2008
Filed Under Desserts

Ah, we used to chant that alot. Things were funnier back then.

I’m not screaming for ice cream, but I do feel like screaming, I especially felt like it last night! We were having what looked like a good ol’ fashioned WI blizzard out there… that’s when big snowflakes are flying horizontally past the window instead of falling vertically. I’ll bet the snowflakes going past our windows didn’t land till they got to Tims, a mile away. Thankfully, the snow didn’t amount to much, but really, it’s the end of March! And we just got dumped with snow last week.

And we still have plenty left.

And it’s snowing at the moment!

Anyway, what does that have to do with ice cream? Like the saying “When life gives you lemons, make lemonaide”, well, we got snow in March, we want to make snow ice cream.
 

Snow is one ingredient and I think milk of some sort too. But, I haven’t been able to find a recipe for it, so I’m wondering if any of you can help us out. I know, seems like kind of a funny recipe to have in a cookbook, but it seemed less weird all the time as I was finding recipes for suet balls for birds, playdough, laundry detergent, and dandelion gravy! I never did find a recipe for snow ice cream though.

So, do any of you have a recipe for snow ice cream? If so, and you have the time, you can leave it in a comment. Thank you!

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Posted on January 9, 2008
Filed Under Desserts

I just really like that section in my Quick Cooking Annual Cookbooks… with only 5 ingredients in a recipe, there’s a better chance that I’ll have them all on hand.   I do have a cookbook that most recipes have about 15-25 ingredients… the stuff in that cookbook dances with flavor! I’ll feature it sometime. But for now, we have…

Easy Cherry Tarts       …from the 2003 Quick Cooking Annual Cookbook

1 tube (8 oz) refrigerated crescent rolls
1 pkg (3 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 cup canned cherry pie filling (I used strawberry, it’s better  And I also put it in the food processor to get rid of the big chunks)
1/4 tsp. almond extract

Place crescent dough on a lightly floured surface; seal seams and perforations.

Cut into 2″ circles. Place in greased miniature muffin cups.

In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Place about 1/2 tsp in each cup.

Combine pie filling and extract; place about 2 tsp in each cup.

Bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Refrigerate until serving. Yield: 2 dozen.

These little things are GOOD! And yeah, easy too! But mine did get a bit messy. The filling bubbled over out of the cups and they didn’t look near as neat as they do in the cookbook.   But I would recommend them!

———————————— First the old —————————————————–

I have made this recipe so many times and it turns out great every time. I don’t know where it came from, it’s handwritten (by me) in my blank cookbook that isn’t so blank anymore!

Pumpkin Roll

3 eggs
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. pumpkin
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger

Beat eggs for 5 min. Gradually beat in sugar. Stir in pumpkin and lemon juice. Stir together dry ingredients. Fold into pumpkin mixture.

Spread in greased (I greased and floured it) 15″x10″ pan.

Bake @ 375 for 15 min. Turn out on towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. I usually run a pie server around under it to make sure it’s loose before turning it onto the towel.

Roll towel and cake together. Cool.

Unroll and spread with filling.
Filling:
1 c. powdered sugar
8 oz cream cheese
4 T. butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Beat until smooth and creamy. Spread over cake.

Roll and chill before slicing. I put it in the freezer to chill… the firmer it is to slice, the better. Well, I guess I’ve never had it frozen solid. It might not cut very easy then. You could roll it either way, it depends on how big you want the pieces to be.

—————————————- And now the new ———————————————–

This recipe comes from an Easy to Bake Easy to Make recipe card. I did a bit of variation to it. Look at the pictures…I don’t ned to tell you if it was good or not!

Easy Chocolate Lover’s Cheesepie … I actually made it into a cheesecake instead of a cheesepie, so in this case, it’s Easy Chocolate Lover’s Cheesecake

3 pkgs (8 oz each) cream cheese softened
3/4 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. (12 oz pkg) Hershey’s mini semi sweet chocolate chips (I use regular-sized chips and used milk chocolate)
2 T. whipping cream
1 extra-serving-size packaged graham cracker crust (9 oz) (I mixed 1 1/4 c. graham cracker crumbs, 3 T. sugar, and 1/3 c. melted butter together and pressed it in the bottom of a springform pan. Then I chilled it in the fridge until I was ready to pour the batter in.)

Heat oven to 450. Beat cream cheese and sugar until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Stir in 1 2/3 cups choc chips; pour into crust.
Note: I’m always asked to share some of my crust and batter when I use a springform pan because of my little helper in the kitchen with some of her own mini bakeware.
Bake 10 minutes. Without opening oven door, reduce temp to 250 (I don’t have a window in my oven. You wouldn’t believe how hard it was for me to simply turn the oven down and walk away!); continue baking 30 minutes or just until set. Remove from oven to wire rack.

Cool completely. Cover; refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Place remaining 1/3 cup choc chips and whipping cream in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high 20 to 30 seconds or just until chips are melted and mixture is smooth when stirred. Cool slightly; spread over top of cheesepie.  I put some caramel ice cream topping on, then piped the chocolate mixture on. I don’t know that it was really any better, just felt like doing it that way.

Refrigerate 15 min or until topping is set. Cover; refrigerate leftover cheesepie.

——————————————- This and that ——————————————————

I just paged down and it’s looking pretty desserty lately! Time to get some main dishes and side dishes on here again! We have not been just eating desserts! Actually, all those desserts happened to be food to take away somewhere. Can tell what I like to make the best when I have to take food somewhere!

What are you having for supper tonight? Sometimes I’m stumped and I’m sure some of you are too. Let’s have some suggestions for us all!

I have a ham in the fridge and am planning to make that for supper tonight. Not sure what’s gonna go with it yet.

My food group was on for salad and dessert for carry-in at church a few weeks ago. I made a veggie and dip tray and Chocolate Peanut Supreme dessert. I try to make my featured recipes like the recipe says, but the dessert recipe has a substitution in it. But I’m fine with that because it’s an idea you might like to use sometime… you know how when you’re baking cookies and something comes up (like, the baby needs attn, you get to talking on the phone, or you just plain forget about them) and then that batch gets darker, which makes them crunchy instead of soft and bend-able, and nobody wants to eat them? Well, when that batch cools, crush them with a rolling pin and put the crumbs in a bag in the freezer, then when you make a recipe that calls for graham cracker crumbs or crushed Oreo crumbs for the crust, just pull out your ready-made crumbs and use them. Saves you from having to eat dark crunchy chocolate chip cookies!

Chocolate Peanut Supreme   …from the 2000 Quick Cooking cookbook.

1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (didn’t have chunky, so I just used creamy)
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (I substituted the above-mentioned cookie crumbs)
1/2 cup sugar (I used about 1/4 cup because the cookies were sweeter than g.c. crumbs)
1 pkg (5.9 oz) instant chocolate pudding mix
3 cups cold milk
1 carton (12 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 cup chopped peanuts (I skipped the peanuts and sprinkled some cookie crumbs on top)

In a bowl, combine peanut butter and butter. Stir in cracker crumbs and sugar; mix well. Press into a greased 9×13 pan.

Prepare pudding with milk according to package directions, spoon over crust.

Spread with whipped topping.

Sprinkle with peanuts.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until set. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 12-16 servings. This was SO good, but I do want to try it the right way sometime (without substitutions)!

And here’s the veggie tray…

I’ve been craving fruit pizza ever since it got warm outside. It’s such a good summer dessert!

Fruit Pizza    …from the Taste of Home 2nd Edition cookbook, with some personal preference changes by me

1 pkg (20 oz) refrigerated sugar cookie dough …I make a cookie dough from scratch, then measure out 20 oz.
I think homemade is tastier… my recipe (featured here) has nutmeg in it.

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 carton (8 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed

Kiwi
Bananas
Mandarin oranges
Grapes
I’ve never put kiwi in. There are other fruits I like better. Here’s the order and fruits I use: mandarin oranges and grapes, bananas, strawberries cut in half, pineapple (fresh, not canned! it’s the best!!), blueberries, mandarin oranges, bananas, and one marichino cherry in the middle. I vary the order sometimes, but it’s always those fruits.

Glaze:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch
Pinch of salt

Pat cookie dough into an ungreased 14″ pizza pan.

Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes or until browned; cool.

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Spread over the crust.
Arrange the fruit on top. In a saucepan, bring sugar, OJ, water, lemon juice, cornstarch, and salt to a boil, stirring constantly for 2 min or until thickened. Cool; brush over fruit. I make the glaze and let it cool while the crust is cooling. I’d think if you’d put the fruit on, THEN make the glaze, that the bananas would be brown by the time it’s cooled. As soon as I get the first ring of bananas on, I glaze them. Then I put the rest of the fruit on and glaze the whole works. I use a pastry brush.

Store in refrigerator. Yield: 16-20 servings.
  Now tell me, are you in the mood for fruit pizza?

Comments

I can’t believe that I just got done sitting and watching a Strawberry Shortcake cooking show !    It’s on a video that Lexi was watching. What’s even scarier is that I’m tempted to try one of the recipes!!! There was ice cream pie, fudge, cookie pops, and ice cream cone cupcakes. So, if I do try the fudge featured by Angel Cake, I’ll quietly do it in the privacy of my own kitchen and not tell you all.

  ——————————————————————————————–

Got a dessert idea here. Something easy to keep on hand. And VERY easy to make! It’s a trifle using an angel food cake, pie filling, and Cool Whip, plus cream cheese and powdered sugar if desired. I do it with or without the crm cheese & p.sugar.

1 angel food cake mix
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
8 oz Cool Whip
1 can fruit pie filling, any flavor

Bake angel food cake mix according to the directions. Let it cool at least one hour. Rip about 3/4 of it in pieces and put some in the bottom of a trifle bowl or regular dessert bowl.

Beat cream cheese with powdered sugar. Fold in Cool Whip. Spread some of the mixture on top of cake pieces (or just use Cool Whip).

Spread any flavor fruit pie filling on top of Cool Whip mixture.

Repeat layers. You can garnish the top with extra Cool Whip and/or filling.
  …Blueberry
  …Cherry

This is dessert that we had for supper last night with the Martins. It’s sorta made up, although there is a tweaked recipe involved. Kinda weird with all the recipes around here, to make something up.

We’ll call it…
Cream Cheese Angel Food Cake Roll   … well, that sounds sorta long… maybe Cream Cheese Cake Roll would be better.

Angel food cake mix

Mix according to directions. Pour HALF of it in jelly roll pan. Add 1/8 cup cocoa to the other half. Mix well and pour into the other end of the pan. Spread both to meet evenly in the middle … 2 spatulas, one in each hand, would be good here (that’s why there are no pics of this process… my hands were full and the 2 people able to take pictures were taking Sunday aft naps  ).

Bake for about 18 minutes. Get it out of the oven and flip it over onto a towel or parchment paper or something.

Let it cool a few minutes, then roll it up and let it cool about an hour (that’s how long I did and it seemed to be about right).     Unroll and spread with cream cheese filling (the stuff left over from making the Raspberry Cream Cheese Rolls (Dec 11, 2006 post)… you didn’t forget about them, did you?!   Then, spread with Danish dessert …recipe taken from the Derstine cookbook.

1 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 1/2 cups juice or water
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup jello, any flavor
1/3 cup sugar

Heat to boiling 1 cup liquid. Combine jello, sugar, and cornstarch. Make a paste of it with remaining 1/2 cup liquid. Stir into boiling juice until thick and clear. Cook about 1 minute. I did it to here, then added about a cup of strawberries pureed in a food processor (because some people at supper just like the ‘goo’ and not the ‘chunks’). When it was chilled, it wasn’t as thick as I wanted it (I was afraid it would just run down off the top of the roll), so I put about a 1/2 pack of unflavored gelatin into 1/2 cup boiling water, mixed it in and when it was chilled, it was thicker. Anyway, here’s the rest of the written recipe for Danish dessert if you ever want to make it for something else: Pour over mixture of drained canned fruit and chill well. For delicious strawberry danish dessert, add 2 to 3 cups frozen strawberries.

Roll the cake back up.

Cut it where the 2 colors meet. Put the 2 rolls side by side on a round platter. Pour rest of Danish stuff on top…. why am I telling you all this, you can see it on the pictures!

Now it’s time for the Cool Whip… just do something fancy with it. I opted for the zigzag-it-across-the-top technique, then I still had some left over in my ‘decorator bag’ (which was actually a plastic 1 gallon storage bag with the corner snipped off), so I just made little piles, one on each end.  Yeah, whatever, but hey, it worked. The dessert got licked clean and I heard some good compliments on it. I also heard comments about the chocolate one looking like meatloaf with ketchup and sour cream on top! They were making jokes about how it would be a good April Fools thing… serve it with potatoes and watch people’s reaction.  So, my advice would be not to mess around with the cake mix and just leave it all white.

Comments

We love cheesecake! It is one of the best desserts out there! I’ve made lots of cheesecakes, all of them great, and just tried another one last weekend. This recipe comes from Easy to Bake, Easy to Make . It’s a collection of recipe cards that come in the mail (with a bill, of course) to put in a recipe box they give you. They have some great recipes, including a red velvet cake that’s to die for. I should make it again just to get pictures to feature it on here so you all can taste it! There are also some ‘main dish’ cards that I have set aside to try sometime.

Classic New York Cheesecake

Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

Filling:
4 pkgs (8 oz each) Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
1 Tablespoon vanilla (yeah, that’s right, Tablespoon… I know, sounds like alot)
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs

Crust:
Mix crumbs, sugar, and butter; press onto bottom of 9″ springform pan.
 

Bake @ 325 for 10 min if using a silver springform pan. Bake at 300 for 10 min if using a dark nonstick springform pan. I baked Lexi’s along with mine at 325 for 7 min.

Filling:
Mix cream cheese, sugar, flour, and vanillla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Blend in sour cream. Add eggs, mixing on low speed just until blended. Pour over crust. (Lexi said, ‘It would be messy to pour, so it would be better to spoon it.’ ).


Bake at 325 for 65 to 70 min or until center is almost set if using a 9″ springform pan. Bake at 300 for 65 to 70 min or until center is almost set if using a 9″ dark nonstick springform pan. I baked Lexi’s along with mine at 325 for 40 min.
 
Run knife or metal spatula around rim of pan to loosen cake (forgot to do this step, so that may be why it cracked) ; cool before removing rim of pan. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
  We covered the little one with caramel and covered the big one with strawberry pie filling. I know, where’s the chocolate?!

Variation: Want to make a chocolate cheesecake? Just add 1/2 cup cocoa powder to the recipe above. This particular one is topped with ganache, fresh raspberries, and chocolate curls.

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