Dulce-de-Leche Cheesecake

Cheesecake is one of my most favorite desserts. Often my friends want to go to The Cheesecake Factory for girls nite. My husband has often said, "Why don't you make a cheesecake and let them pay you?" And I have considered it. But I have yet to charge my friends for cheesecake.. But I love cheesecake and love to make them. I found a basic recipe and have played around with it to make a lot different kinds.

My husband's favorite is this Dulce-de-Leche cheesecake. I made it last year for his birthday and he was in Heaven. It is sooooo good. Very rich and yummy! My oldest child has even started requesting it as her birthday cake.

This year when I asked my husband what he wanted for his cake he told me that I should already know the answer. So I made another Dulce-de-Leche Cheesecake. This time I saved a little caramel to write Happy Birthday on the top.

Dulce-de-Leche Cheesecake

1 Graham cracker crust (see recipe below)

4 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, softened to room temperature

1 1/4 c. sugar

2 T. unbleached flour

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 T. dulce-de-leche flavored syrup

1 t. vanilla

2 T. whipping cream

1 bag Kraft caramels

1/4 c. whipping cream


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Wrap the outside of your springform pan with heavy duty foil and place in a large baking pan with sides at least 2 inches high.

Unwrap the caramels and place in small sauce pan. Add 1/4 c. whipping cream.
Heat over medium-low heat and stir occasionally until completely melted. Let cool about 15 minutes. Pour half of the caramel sauce over the bottom of the crust.


Put the cream cheese in a mixing bowl and beat for 1 minute until creamy. Add sugar and beat for 1 minute or until combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Mix in the four. Add the eggs two at a time, mixing completely after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl twice during this process. Add the flavored syrup and the vanilla.
Add the whipping cream.

Pour batter over caramel in crust. Shake slightly to remove any excess bubbles. Drizzle caramel over top.

Place in oven and pour boiling water into baking dish about 1 inch up the sides of the pan. Bake for 75 minutes. Remove from oven when the cheesecake wiggles but is firm in the middle. Place on cooling rack, in water bath and cover with paper towels for 1 hour. Remove from water bath and remove towels. Cool for 1 hour on cooling rack. Remove the side of the springform pan. and let cool until cool to the touch.
Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight. Serve with extra caramel or chocolate sauce.

Graham Cracker Crust

1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs

6 T butter, melted

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter sides and bottom of pan. Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter. Stir with fork until moistened. Press evenly into bottom of pan and up the side about an inch. Bake for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Tips:

• Invest in a good springform pan. You will have better success with making cheesecakes with the proper tools to make one.


• Be patient and plan. This is the hardest part of making a cheesecake. I get my eggs and cream cheese out of the refrigerator early in the morning, around 6am. I start working on the cheesecake at about 10 am. And I let it cool completely before we eat it. Trust me it is so much better nice and chilled than warm in the middle.


• Make sure you give your ingredients time to come to room temperature. If it is cold or you add cold ingredients the batter can become lumpy. This gives the cheesecake a strange consistency.


• Boil the water as you are making the cheesecake. You do not want to wait for the water once you have poured the batter into the pan.


• We use the Torani's or DaVinci flavored syrups. We love them for a lot of recipes. And they have so many flavors, you are bound to find a few you love.


• I use store brand cream cheese for a lot of recipes, but for cheesecake I only use Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese. It really does make the best cheesecake.

Cherry Cheese Cupcakes

For the Fourth of July we had a BBQ at our house and I wanted to make a treat. I saw all over the blogs these amazing cupcakes. So I thought I would follow suit and make cupcakes for our get together. In college, I went to a graduation party and they served this wonderful sheet cake. It was a white cake with a fluffy icing and cherry pie filling. So yummy. I asked my friend for the recipe and thought these would be perfect because they are red and white. And I could easily turn it into cupcakes.

Cherry Cheese Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix and ingredients to make the cake

2 8 oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softened to room temperature

4 c. powdered sugar

16 oz. cool-whip topping

1 can cherry pie filling

Prepare cupcake pans and make cake mix according to package directions. Bake cupcakes and allow to cool.

Combine cream cheese and sugar. Mix until it is light and fluffy. Gently fold in the cool-whip. Using a butter knife cut a small x in the top of the cupcakes. Fill cupcakes using a decorator's tip and piping bag or plastic bag, push tip into x and squeezing filling in. Frost cupcakes and top with a couple cherries.

Tips:

-For the Fourth of July I wanted red and blue too. So I colored some of the batter blue and red. I used the paste food coloring so the consistency of the batter was not altered.

-We had a lot of kids coming so I also made mini cupcakes and filled them the same. Each got one cherry and they were perfect for little hands.

-To make this a sheet cake bake the cake in a large sheet pan for 20 minutes and let cool. Spread frosting and top with the pie filling.

-I can imagine that these would be wonderful with fresh strawberries, raspberries or blueberries instead of the pie filling. Any of those pie fillings would also be delicious too.

Monster Cookies

When my husband was in PT school, we made some great friends with another couple and she is a great cook. She taught me so many things. I am so grateful to her for all she imparted. One of the recipes she gave me is for an amazing cookie. My favorite cookie ever. I can eat these until I am sick I love them so much. But I figure they are a little healthy because they have peanut butter and oatmeal. (Smile.)

Monster Cookies

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. white sugar

1 cube butter

3 eggs

1 1/3 c. peanut butter

1 c. M & M's

1/2 t. vanilla

1 T. corn syrup

1 c. chocolate chips

3/4 c. flour

2 t. baking soda

4 1/2 c. oatmeal

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine sugar and butter and mix until blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add peanut butter, vanilla and corn syrup. Add M & M's and chocolate chips. add dry ingredients and mix completely. Scoop onto cookie sheet with large ice cream scoop and flatten slightly. top with additional M & M"s to make it look good. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and move to cooling rack.

Tips:

-I use butter, but you can use margarine.

-I use crunchy peanut butter, I love the little pieces of nuts, great texture.

-I use the large scoop from PC, but my friend always made them with an ice cream scoop to make them true Monster cookies. I love the bigger size but I make them smaller to help them last longer. I would make them huge if it were for a special occasion.

-Try them with a scoop of ice cream smashed between two cookies. The best ice cream sandwich EVER!

Thanks to Melissa for this amazing recipe. It is a favorite in our house.

Homemade Gourmet Cookie Collection

When I was growing up my mom had big parties all the time. She made food for two days and bought an assortment of fancy foods (brie, special crackers, pate) to serve to her guests. One of those items was the box of assorted cookies from Pepperidge Farm. You know the ones. The box is full of paper liners and fancy little cookies in all shapes and sizes. I LOVED THOSE!!! It was such a treat to eat the left overs and I still consider Milanos my favorite store bought cookie ever.
A group of friends and I did a cookie exchange a couple of years ago and one gal gave me a great recipe for shortbread cookies with chocolate chips in them. They are so fabulous and when I made them last week I kept thinking that they tasted a lot like the Milanos.
So I thought what if I changed these up and rolled the dough out and sandwiched them with chocolate truffle sauce? Maybe I could make my own Milanos. Then as I worked on them I thought that I could also make more of the varieties of cookies and create my own gourmet cookie collection.

Here is what I came up with.

Shortbread Cookie Recipe

1 1/2 c. butter, softened to room temperature
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
4 t. vanilla
1 t. salt
4 1/4 c. flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In mixing bowl, beat butter until creamy. Gradually add sugar and mix until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing completely after each addition. Add vanilla. Add dry ingredients. This will make a soft dough. Shape into two balls and roll each out separately. Roll to 1/8 inch thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut shapes. Bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes. Remove from oven. Let cool on pan for 2-3 minutes and remove to cooling rack. Cool completely before topping.

Chocolate Truffle Sauce

3/4 c. whipping cream
2 T. butter
12 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat cream and butter until the butter is completely melted, careful not to boil the cream. remove from heat and add chocolate chips. Let stand for 1 minute and whisk until smooth. Let cool for about 30 minutes before using to decorate cookies.

To decorate:

For one type I frosted the cookies with the truffle sauce and then sandwiched another cookie on top.

For the next one I frosted and them topped with chopped pecans.

The last one I pulled some of the truffle sauce and flavored it with orange extract. I then frosted the cookie.

Tips:

-If you are going to sandwich the cookies make sure you turn some of your cookies over before baking to ensure the can be flipped over. You want the pretty side to be up on both sides.
-You can use any type of flavoring to flavor the chocolate. I used orange, but mint, raspberry or blueberry would be delicious too!
-I used pecans because I love them, but you could also use peanuts, or almonds and even cashews.
-Use a small bite size cookie cutter. The ones I used were larger which resulted in a larger cookie. (Someone told me this was good because it meant they only ate one instead of more than one!)
-I think I am going to try topping them with a little caramel and them frosting them. Yummy! Also I am going to try the dough in my cookie press.

Thanks Jenn for the amazing recipe! And for letting me use it to make these wonderful cookies!

Little Bites of Heaven

Or as the recipe titles them, Mini Cheesecakes. My family loves these. They are the perfect size for my kids little hands and I do not feel as guilty if I eat one small cake instead of a larger piece from a large cheesecake.

I was having a Scentsy party (www.jackieallred.scentsy.us, if you need anything) and I wanted a few yummy treats for guests to grab on their way out the door. I have experimented with a few varieties of the cheesecakes (we really like the strawberry and vanilla). This time I decided to try making lemon, as well as, the vanilla cheesecake. They turned out pretty good. I was very happy with them. My family and guests seemed to like them too.

Mini Cheesecakes

Place cupcake wrappers in muffin tin and preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Combine the following in a small bowl:
5 T. melted butter
1 3/4 c. graham cracker crumbs

Stir with fork until all crumbs are moistened. Scoop 1 T. of the mixture into the bottom of the paper baking cups. Press down. Bake for 6 minutes at 325. Remove from oven and cool. Increase temperature in oven to 350 degrees F. Place shallow baking dish or sheet pan on bottom rack in oven and fill with hot water.



In mixer:
3-8 ounce packages of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
Mix until creamy about 1 minute.
Add:
3/4 c. plus 2 T. sugar
Mix until smooth, about another minute.
Add:
1 1/2 t. all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 T whipping cream, 1 1/2 T lemon juice, 2 t. vanilla and mix until creamy. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl. Add 3 eggs, one at a time mixing completely after each addition. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl again during this process.
Fill muffin liners about 3/4 full. Use about half of the batter. To remaining batter add 1/2 t. lemon zest and 3/4 t. lemon extract. Mix slightly to distribute flavor. Fill remaining paper liners.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 25 minutes and then remove from pans and let cool on rack for 1 hour. Place in refrigerator to cool for 4-6 hours.

Meanwhile melt 1 t. butter with 1/2 c. whipping cream. Once butter in melted remove from heat and add 1 c. semi sweet chocolate chips. Let stand for 1 minute and then stir until smooth. Let cool until pourable, about 30 minutes.

Zest one lemon. Sprinkle with sugar and heat in small saute pan for 1 minute. Remove from heat and let stand to cool.

Once the cheesecakes are cool, remove from refrigerator and on top of vanilla cheesecakes pour chocolate sauce and smooth. Or you can pour the chocolate into a small baggie and cut a small corner off and pipe on in swirls or hearts or any cute shape. On top of the lemon cheesecakes place a little of the sugared zest. Serve cooled. Makes about 30 mini cheesecakes with left over crust that can be frozen for future use.

Tips:

-I use the foil baking liners with the paper removed. I like these because they do not stick to the papers as much if I use the foil.
-Do not spray the liners. I thought this would help them to not stick but all it does is add the spray to your dessert.
-You can use Nilla Wafers or half an Oreo(scrap off the filling) in the bottom of the liner instead of the graham crust. I like the graham crust and it was super easy.
-If you want a smooth cheesecake make sure your cream cheese and eggs are at room temperature. Cold cream cheese will not smooth out very well and adding cold eggs will make the cream cheese seize up. If you get them pout about 4 hours before you make the cheesecake you should be good.
-I used to be a Pampered Chef consultant so I have all of the cooking utensils, so I used the small scoop and the tart press for the crusts, the large scoop for the filling and the zester for the lemon zest. I also used both the PC muffin stone and a couple other metal muffin pans. They both worked the same except I had to cook the PC ones about 3 minutes longer.

I will make the strawberry ones pictured in the header again and post about making those too. Let me know if these work for you!

Wonderful World of Food

Many people have told me that I should start a food blog. And since my foray into the blogging world in January, I have been surprised at how much easier it is than I thought it would be. And it has been so much fun that I decided to go ahead and start this blog to share all the fun, wonderful food tips and tricks I have learned over the years and that I am still learning. Hopefully I can share some great recipes with you as well. (If you have questions or want recipes for anything specific let me know with a comment so I know people are reading!) Notice the yummy individual cheesecakes at the top of the page. I will do a post on how to make these soon. For now you can go to www.howdoesshe.com and check out the Cook & Bake section. Scroll down and you'll see a tutorial on how to make a cheesecake. It is so good!