Happy Thanksgiving! I thought this recipe would be an appropriate one given the holiday tomorrow. Who doesn't love a good cheesecake? And pumpkin makes everything better- especially this time of year! I actually made this one a few weeks back for Danny's birthday and it was really good! I'm working on a different cheesecake recipe for tomorrow that I'll share later this week, but give this one a whirl for your holiday festivities this season!
What you need for the cheesecake:
Crust
2 cups crushed graham crackers (about 32 squares)
1/2 cup melted butter
Filling
4 packages (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1.5 cups of sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (if you don't have it, this consists of 1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon allspice)
Topping options
Chopped pecans
Whipped cream
Caramel sauce for drizzling
To make the cheesecake:
1. Heat your oven to 300 degrees F. Wrap the outside bottom and sides of a 9-inch spring form pan with foil. Grease the inside of the pan.
2. Mix your crust ingredients together in a bowl and then press into the bottom of your prepared pan.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown. Set aside and let cool while you prepare the filling.
3. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Add in the sugar and beat. One at a time, add each egg, mixing until each is combined.
4. Spoon 3 cups of this mixture into the bottom of your crust and spread evenly.
5. Add the pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice to the remaining mixture still in your bowl. Mix with a spatula or wooden spoon until combined. Spoon this over the plain cream cheese mixture already in the pan.
6. Bake in your preheated oven for one hour and 20 minutes. The center may be a little jiggly but edges should be golden and set. Let cool in the oven for 30 minutes then transfer to the refridgerator for 6 hours (or overnight).
7. Remove from pan and top with pecans, caramel and/or whipped cream.
ENJOY
Hello! Over the last few months one of my nieces has been struggling with some tummy troubles. In the process, she's gone gluten and mostly dairy free (she can still do eggs). This has made for some baking challenges!! But, it's about time I start a section on the blog for some gluten free recipes as many people have this same allergy. This was my first attempt but the entire cake was eaten so I'm guessing it was pretty tasty!! Have a go and let me know what you think!
GLUTEN FREE FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE
What you need for the fudge cake:
6 ounces chopped semisweet chocolate (I used the Enjoy Life brand since they're dairy free)
1 stick unsalted butter (again, I used Earth Balance for dairy free)
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Glaze:
4 ounces chopped chocolate
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (again, I used Earth Balance for dairy free)
1 tablespoon cream (I used almond milk for the dairy free)
To make the fudge cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9 inch cake pan (or spring form pan), then line with parchment paper.
2. Melt your chopped chocolate and butter in the microwave on low, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth (about 2 minutes).
3. Transfer melted chocolate into a bowl and whisk in your cocoa powder and eggs, one at a time, until smooth.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes until the center of the cake is just firm to the touch.
5. To make the glaze, melt your butter in a sauce pan on medium heat. Add chopped chocolate and almond milk. Mix until melted and smooth.
6. When your cake and glaze have cooled, spread the chocolate sauce on top of the cake and serve. I'm sorry, I forgot to get a picture of the final product!
ENJOY!!
ps. Here's some pics of Ted Ted playing while I baked!
Hello! Here's a fun recipe that I made a few weeks ago. These little cookie cups are not super easy to make (probably because I don't have non-stick mini muffin tins) but boy oh boy are they tasty! And who doesn't love Nutella? It's all the rage these days so making it into frosting has to be one of the best ideas yet! They were a huge hit at the office and this Christmas I'm going to ask for some non-stick tins that will make this recipe even easier!
CHOCOLATE COOKIE CUPS WITH NUTELLA BUTTER CREAM
What you need for the cookie cups:
2 and 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups of sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
What you need for the butter cream:
1 stick of unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup Nutella
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
To make the chocolate cookie cups with butter cream:
1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with a mixer.
2. Add the eggs and vanilla to the sugar mixture and cream until combined.
3. In another bowl mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and continue mixing until combined.
5. Roll the dough into a ball and refrigerate until firm, about 20-30 minutes.
6. While the dough is chilling, grease your mini-muffin tins. Preheat your oven to 350.
7. Once firm, form small balls of dough and press into the greased muffin tins. Press a small indent in the middle of the cookie to allow for filling after baking.
8. Bake for 12-14 minutes and then allow to cool for about 10 minutes before removing from pan. If needed, while still warm press indent in middle of cookie again to allow for filling.
9. While cookies cool, prepare your butter cream by beating the butter in a bowl until creamy. Slowly add powdered sugar until combined. Then mix in the nutella, heavy cream and vanilla. If frosting is too thick, add more cream one tablespoon at a time; if too thin, add more powdered sugar.
10. Pipe frosting into the cookie cups once cool.
ENJOY!!
Good Afternoon! Yesterday I got busy in the kitchen with a another festive, fall recipe. Have you seen these new Pillsbury Caramel Apple mixes at the store? I thought it was time to give this a whirl! This is a modified version of the cookie pie recipe that was on the back of the box. They also have cake mixes of this stuff that you could probably do a lot with, too! I actually haven't tasted this yet but it looked pretty great and it smelled awesome after it came out of the oven!! Yay for October baking!!
CARAMEL APPLE COOKIE PIE
What you need to make the pie:
1 package Pillsbury Caramel Apple Flavored Cookie Mix
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
2 tablespoons water
2 cups chopped tart apples (I used Granny Smith)
2 heaping tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon instant oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Optional:
1 tablespoon melted butter mixed with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1/3 cup Pillsbury Creamy Supreme Caramel Apple Frosting
To make the pie:
1. Heat your oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Grease a 9 inch pie plate with non-stick cooking spray or Crisco.
3. Stir cookie mix with oil, egg and water in a large bowl until combined. Divide the dough in half.
4. Press one half of the cookie dough into the bottom of the greased pie plate.
5. In a small bowl, mix your apples with the brown sugar, oats and cinnamon.
6. Flatten the remaining piece of dough on a sheet of wax paper to the same size as your 9 inch pie plate. (I just put the wax paper on top of the dough already pushed in the pie plate to get a similar size.)
7. Spread the apple mixture on the base layer of the cookie with about 1/3inch remaining on the sides.
8. Invert your second, round piece of cookie dough on top of the apple mixture and seal the edges of the cookies together. Cut several slits in the top of the dough.
9. I then topped the cookie with the brown sugar/butter mixture in small drops all over.
10. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until edges are golden brown.
11. Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes.
12. In a small ziploc bag, place about 1/3 cup of the frosting and microwave for 7-10 seconds. Cut a small opening in the corner of the bag and drizzle frosting on the top of the cookie.
14. Cut and ENJOY!!
Fall is in the air!! I am so excited that there is a crispness outside and lighting the oven is no longer sinful! A couple of weekends ago I worked on mini-pies for some close friends of ours that just had a baby. In the midst of preparing these, mom and I decided we might use these for my brother's upcoming spring nuptials! We're preparing the dessert for the wedding festivities and the bride-to-be was hoping to have some sort of apple or cherry slices/turnovers. But after making these little mini pies-I'm convinced this could easily be a yummy, pretty, wedding treat! (Hence the hearts on top of the last batch.) You can make this recipe as easy or as difficult as you'd like...just decide how much time you have and how much effort you want to expend!
MINI PIES WITH CHERRY-BERRY FILLING
What you need for the mini pies:
1 box refrigerated Pillsbury pie crusts (now if you want to go all homemade, you can reference my pie crust recipe here...if you're in a hurry, these pre-made ones are a snap!)
1 recipe of cherry-berry filling (recipe to follow) OR
1 21oz can of ready made pie filling
What you need for the cherry-berry filling:
1.5 cup frozen cherry-berry fruit mix
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1.5 tablespoons lemon juice
1.5 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
To make the filling:
1. Mix all ingredients in a pan on top of the stove. Heat on medium heat until the mixture becomes warm-about 5 minutes. (If berries are whole-as mine were-remove from the pan and slice into bit size pieces and return back to the pan.
2.Continue cooking until mixture is hot and bubbling, about 5-7 more minutes.
To make the mini pies:
1. Heat your oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Remove pie crusts from packaging and unroll on a clean work surface. If you made yours, roll the pie dough out about 1/3 of an inch thick.
3. Using a 3 1/2 or 4 inch round cutter (in my case, I used the top of a drinking glass) cut out 6-7 rounds from one pie crust. Save the scraps if you want to make a topping decoration for later.
4. Fit the rounds into an ungreased muffin tin. (I experimented here and cut parchment paper rounds for the bottom of some of the tins as I was afraid the pie crusts would stick. Upon removal though, this was not necessary for the Pillsbury crusts.) You can play with the edges of the crusts in the cups any way you like.
5. Fill each cup with about 2 tablespoons of your choice of filling.
6. Bake in pre-heated oven for about 15-17 minutes until the crusts are golden and your filling is bubbling.
*If you want to top the cups with a decoration, just use your scrap pie dough. I cut free-hand hearts to place on top before popping them in the oven.
ENJOY!!
Hi Everyone! I can't believe I never posted these- I made them a long time ago! Our house has been on the market now for 2 and a half months...I decided at the beginning that for all of our showings, I would make a treat for people to take and eat as they walked through the house. I had hoped this would persuade them that they just LOVED the house and had to have it. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened yet. Regardless, for the first set of showings I made blueberry muffins...I thought this would be a healthy and standard snack that everyone would eat up. I was wrong! After 3 showings only one muffin was gone. I was so bummed! I had made these truffles for fun the same week just to have something sweet around the house. So, the next showing I put these out to see if they did better than the muffins...8 were missing when we returned! I couldn't believe it! Needless to say, I've steered away from the healthy snacks and am relying on chocolate to get me through. One of these days it's gotta work, right? Anyway, try this SUPER easy, no-bake treat tonight!
OREO TRUFFLES
What you need for the truffles:
1 package Oreo cookies
1 package 8oz cream cheese (softened- you might even use the microwave to get this extra soft)
1 package of chocolate almond bark
1 tablespoon shortening
To make the truffles:
1. Blend the Oreo cookies in a food processor until fine crumbs form.
2. Add the softened cream cheese to the Oreo crumbs and pulse until combined. Old fashioned hand mixing works well for this, too.
3. Form into 1 inch balls and place on a wax-paper lined cookie sheet. Place in the fridge about 30 minutes until firm.
4. Before pulling the balls out of the fridge, melt your almond bark in a microwave safe dish with the 1 tablespoon of shortening.
5. Dip the balls in the chocolate and place back on the wax paper. Refrigerate until outside chocolate is set and crunchy. See, I told you this was easy peasy!!
ENJOY!!
Hi y'all! Back again pretty quick with one more zucchini recipe for the season. Here's another sweet take on the stuff! I know these are similar to muffins but I turned them more into a cupcake with some extra spices and cream cheese frosting. Use up the last of your garden zucchini with this sweet treat!
ZUCCHINI CUPCAKES WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
What you need for the cupcakes:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 very large zucchini or 2 medium, coarsely grated (about 3 cups)
2/3 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
What you need for the cream cheese frosting:
1 package 8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
4 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
To make the cupcakes:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line cups of a standard muffin tin with paper liners or grease with Crisco.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
3. In another bowl, lightly beat your eggs together. Add zucchini (pressed lightly with a paper towel first to remove excess liquid), oil and vanilla.
4. Add this wet mixture to your flour and stir until just combined.
5. Fill your muffin cups about 2/3 way full and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 25-27 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
6. While your cupcakes are baking/cooling, beat your cream cheese and butter together until combined. Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar in one cup increments until you've reached a desired consistency.
7. Once cupcakes are cool, pipe icing on top and ENJOY.
Cupcakes should be stored in the fridge. This recipe makes about 24.
PS. Here is Teddy enjoying some frosting (don't worry, this was AFTER the cupcakes were iced)...I guess his love for cream cheese translates to frosting too!!
