Chocolate Cheesecake

Even though I don't like cheesecake, I love MAKING cheesecake because the possibilities are endless. It lets my inner creative baker go crazy. Tomorrow being Mother's Day, and my mother in law and her boyfriend enjoying cheesecake, I figured that when we go down to see them, I'd make some to bring along. What better flavor cheesecake for the occasion is there than chocolate? I mean, really now. Of course it's not PLAIN chocolate, heaven forbid I ever make something PLAIN. They smell fantastic though. I can tell you that much. Even for cheesecakes. 

Ingredients:

Filling:

2 pkgs cream cheese (8oz each, softened)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tbsp Kahlua

2 eggs

Crust:

1/2 pkg of graham crackers, crushed

2 tbsp melted butter

1 tsp Kahlua

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325º. 

Cream the cream cheese. Add sugar, cocoa powder and Kahlua, blend well. Add eggs and mix until just combined.

In a separate bowl, combine crust ingredients until the liquids are well distributed.

Distribute crust ingredients between 12 muffin cups, lined. This will be JUST ENOUGH for 12. Press the crust mixture down with a spoon or fingers. Add about 1/4 cup of filling to each cup. There is exactly enough filling for 12 cups. 

Bake for 20-25 mins or until only slight movement remains in the cups. 

Simple and elegant. The Kahlua is just enough coffee to enhance the chocolate while adding that wonderful kick. And they're gorgeous. And smell delicious. Did I mention that? Another that ALMOST makes me want to try them. 


**REVIEW**


Hubby tried these, and believe me, he's my biggest critic other than myself when it comes to cooking. He said (inbetween mouthfuls) that these are rich, creamy, slightly tangy, and "MMMMMMM.. they taste a bit like tangy hot chocolate.. and some syrupy black cherries would be AWESOME on top.." (the last bit of course was after he had already shoved the rest of his in his mouth). So there you go folks, if you wanted a black forest cheesecake, these would make a perfect base. Maybe soon I'll give it a shot!

Blueberry Lemon Cheesecakes

Okay. We all know by now that I still despise cheesecakes, yet I keep making them. I figured out why today. THEY'RE GORGEOUS FOODS. Disgusting, but gorgeous. At least the co-workers like them. A lot. Well, I won't speak to these just yet, but they at least make for a good photo-op.

See?

GORGEOUS!

They look like amazing little edible dalmations! I love the little wrappers that I found. ADORABLE. Add in the fantastic splashes of purple from the blueberries, and it just makes it heavenly to look at. I have absolutely no need to eat them. Can I just preserve them to look pretty? For eternity?

Okay. Onto the recipe before I get myself into trouble rambling.

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 1/2 c Nilla wafers

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2-3 tbsp melted butter

Filling:

3 pkgs cream cheese, softened (8oz each)

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Juice & zest of 3 lemons (I used 2 HUGE ones)

3 eggs

1 heaping cup frozen blueberries, thawed 

68 blueberries for topping (depending on how many yours actually makes, one for each)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325º. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. 

Combine nilla wafers and cinnamon in a food processor, pulse until fairly fine crumbs. Add melted butter until the consistency of wet sand is achieved. If you want a more lemony flavor in the crust, you can also add a 1/4 tsp of lemon extract as well, or 1/4 tsp of lemon zest.

Cream the softened cream cheese with an electric mixer in a large bowl. Add sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and zest, mix well. Beat in eggs until almost mixed, add blueberries and mix until eggs are finished barely mixing in. DO NOT OVER BEAT. Plus, if you get some of the juice from the thawed blueberries in, it'll make a pretty purple swirl. SCORE.

Place one teaspoon of crust mixture in the bottom of each mini muffin cup liner, press down with your fingers or the back of a spoon (I've been known to do either, they both work equally well for me). Place one tablespoon of filling over each crust. I tried to get 2 blueberries in with the batter in each cup. Place one blueberry on top of each cup.

Bake for 15-20 mins. Mine took 17-18, and my oven's pretty average, so adjust accordingly. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes at least before removing gently to a cooling rack. Cool for another 20-30 minutes then refrigerate (or freeze as my husband prefers).

Wanna see the pretties again? Of course you do. Especially since I only got one picture while I was making them.

GAWGEOUS, dahling. 

I'll be sure to post reviews tomorrow after the co-workers get at them!




**REVIEWS**
Well, the co-workers devoured all 50 or so that I brought with me in a matter of hours. Several people came said they took one or two, but had to come back for more because they were ridiculously delicious!

Apple Pie Cheesecakes

As we all know, Easter is coming up (TOMORROW! Holy cow!), and that usually means lots of food. Well, at least with my family it does. I may have gone overboard with contributions this year, but I don't think anyone will complain. Today's agenda? Apple pie cheesecakes, Chocolate Angelfood Cake (coming soon!), and possibly an orzo chicken salad (if I can get back to the store tonight since I forgot to get orzo on this morning's trip). First on the agenda is my "small batch" of apple pie cheesecakes. Please note that all of my cheesecakes are either made to be cupcake sized or mini-cupcake sized. I do not make full sized cheesecakes. Period. At least not yet. Today I made cupcake sized cheesecakes. I had some super cute little ladybug wrappers I needed to use up (they were originally valentines day wrappers, but I figured ladybugs are spring-y too, right?)

Okay. Enough chit-chat. Time for the recipe! (And the tons of pictures I took since my camera is finally charged!)

Ingredients:

2 pkgs cream cheese (8oz each), softened

1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup applesauce

1/4 cup "apple pie shots" (see below for details)

2 eggs

1 tbsp apple pie spice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º. Line a cupcake pan with 12 liners. 

Place softened cream cheese in a bowl.

Beat until creamy and broken up a bit. 

Add vanilla..

And applesauce..

And apple pie shots.. (And sugar, not pictured)

Mix until well combined..

Add apple pie spice, mix again until well combined.

Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until just combined. 

Let the batter rest while you make the crust. In a food processor, crush 1/2 cup of Nilla wafers, add 1/2 cup broken graham cracker crumbs and 1 1/2 tsp apple pie spice, pulse until fairly fine crumbs. 

Add 2 tsp melted butter and pulse until mixed. Dump into a bowl (or keep in there, but it'll be easier to get it all out in another bowl), and break up any lumps.

Add 1 tbsp crust to each liner and press down with the back of a spoon or your fingers.

Add 1/4 cup filling to each liner. 

You'll really need to scrape the bowl to get enough to fill all 12 cups, but it's just the right amount. 

Bake for 20 minutes, or until they barely jiggle anymore. They will probably crack, because I haven't figured out how to make them so that they don't. Once I figure it out, I will let you know. I didn't do a waterbath with these like I did the last couple cheesecakes I made, so they cracked pretty bad. I doubt it affects the taste much though, if at all. 

For these cheesecakes, I used organic applesauce. I don't think it will make a difference if you use regular, but I think it would have been fun to use a chunky applesauce for even more of an "apple pie" effect. This is all I had on hand though, because I was dumb enough to buy a whole case of it from Costco awhile back..

Okay. Onto the "apple pie shots". My dad makes this for Christmas, and last year he gave me a bottle. Considering it's still in my fridge, sitting a little under half full, I figured I'd try to use it somehow. 

He told me once that it was apple cider boiled down to syrup-y goodness along with a cinnamon stick or two, and then a bottle of rum dumped in. I found versions online made with vodka or everclear, so I would imagine it would be a similar process, just with rum instead of vodka or everclear. 

Anything else..? Oh yes! The finished product! I've chosen to unwrap one and drizzle a little caramel over it. It looks delectable! ALMOST good enough for me to stomach cream cheese! Almost. 

For the time being, the hubs will still be a good guinea pig for cheesecake. 






***NOTE***
In my original batch, I put no sugar, only the applesauce. Hubby has deemed that it DEFINITELY needs the sugar. I've added it to the ingredient list above, and if I make another batch, it will definitely have some in there. In the meantime, these will be made edible by drowning them in caramel sauce. Not every made-up recipe is a success! 

Cookies & Cream Cheesecakes

At work, I've made it clear that if anyone has a recipe that they feel needs to be seen, to run it by me and I'll see what I can do. My first subtle hint was a printout of a cookies 'n' cream mini-cheesecake recipe. The recipe that was printed out involved sour cream, which I didn't discover until I sat down to actually look at it once I was home, and I rarely have sour cream in my house since the only person who will eat it is my husband. So, being the diligently wonderful coworker I am, I searched for a cookies N cream cheesecake recipe that involved ingredients I already had on hand, and I came up with this. Since I don't have a spring form pan (yet!), and several coworkers aren't big on the possibility of other people touching their food, I adapted it to be cupcake sized, like the one I had dropped on my desk. Normally, when I make something to take into work with me, I generally use my mini muffin pan. It makes more, and people feel less guilty about eating one small one than a regular size one. However, the recipe dropped on my desk was clever. Too clever.. It used a whole Oreo as the crust. That particular bit put into my head made me a bit too lazy to dig out my food processor to crush some up into an actual crust. Therefore, sorry coworkers, you'll get fat from my cheesecakes on Monday, or you'll learn to share. I'm too lazy to make them smaller. 


Okay. Onto the recipe. The original is slightly more cream cheese than I had (called for 4, I had 3.. Master of adaptation!). This is my slightly smaller version, it made 22 cupcake-sized cheesecakes. 




Ingredients:


30 Oreos, divided
24oz cream cheese, softened (3 pkgs)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs


Directions:


Preheat oven to 325º. Line cupcake pans with 22 liners, and place one whole Oreo in the bottom of each. 


In a large mixing bowl, cream the softened cream cheese. Add sugar and vanilla, mix well.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well in between. 

Rough chop the remaining 8 Oreos, add to the cheesecake batter. You can either fold them in, if you'd like larger pieces, but I just blended the pieces in with my mixer to make them slightly smaller. (Yes, I FINALLY got an electric mixer! I'm in LOVE.)


Place 1/4 cup of the batter in each liner. I use my 1/4 cup measuring cup for a lot of things, but the 1/4 cup was the perfect amount with the Oreos in the bottom. 


Bake for 25-30 minutes, until set. I use a water bath in the oven (just a pan with some water) to keep the moisture, but I'm not sure that it affects cooking time. It's supposed to help with the cracking on top of cheesecakes, and I have to admit, I do see less cracking when I use it than when I don't. I will someday master the crack-less cheesecake. Someday.. 

Later, I will post pictures of the inside, if I remember to nab a picture before hubby destroys one. I will also post reviews within the next few days!

Churro/Cinnamon Bun Cheesecakes

Okay. So, I admit, this is a strange sounding recipe. And no, I still don't eat cheesecake. But, I just bought a new hand mixer (for $8.68 at Target, what a deal!), and I needed an excuse to use it. Plus we are having an office mini-golf game tomorrow, and apparently our designated hole to design was designated the "Disney/food" hole. There is also going to be popcorn. Ahhhh the memories of Disneyland, the smells of fresh churros.. MMM.. 

Okay, back to reality. Can't go to Disneyland in a day, since it's 1,179 miles away and all, but this will come close. Well, for people who eat cheesecake at least.. I hope.. 


This is another recipe that was not really a recipe to begin with. Believe me, I tried to find a "churro cheesecake" recipe, and the only thing I found really was either cheesecake with burnt cinnamon/sugar croissants on top, or cheesecake-filled churro-style pastries. I'm partial to mini cheesecakes. At least making them. Not eating them. So. I made a recipe up. The last time I tried this, with my Mexican Chocolate Cheesecake, it turned out pretty good. Call my ego boosted, I'm just hoping it's not OVER boosted. 


In case anyone wonders, I write the first part of these blogs while I'm passing the time between batches. I have a tendency to get really impatient and check on things in the oven way too often. So, all this droning is just me making myself be patient. So, be patient with me. 


Ready for the recipe? Here we go, kids!


Ingredients:


Crust:
1 1/2 cup Nilla wafers
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp melted butter/margarine


Filling:
3 pkgs cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick of butter/margarine (4 tbsp), softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp fresh ground cinnamon/sugar (I have a grinder that I bought in the spice aisle)






Preheat oven to 350º. Place a pan of water on the bottom rack.


In a food processor, crush Nilla wafers. Add sugar and cinnamon, mix until blended, then add butter slowly while the food processor is running, mix until blended. Set aside.


In a large mixing bowl, cream cream cheese. Add sugar, vanilla and butter, mix until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until just blended after each. Add cinnamon and barely mix. You'll want swirls of it, if possible. If you don't have or can't find a cinnamon/sugar grinder, don't worry about it. Just add an extra dash of cinnamon, and it should be fine. 

Line a mini-muffin pan with liners. This recipe makes about 60 "bite-size" cheesecakes. 


Place about a teaspoon of crust mixture in the bottom of each liner, press down until lightly compacted. 

Fill the rest of the cup with 1 tbsp of filling. The cups will be very full. 


Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until set. They will be puffed on top at first, then settle down.

You can probably just serve these plain, but since when am I a plain person? Uh. Oh. Most of the time. Scratch that comment. Okay. I've decided to be fancy with these. Mix a can of cream cheese frosting (because what other kind would you use on cheesecakes?) with some cinnamon, about 1-2 tsp. Just swirl. No need to go nuts with stirring. Put a dollop on top of each cake once they are cooled. Sprinkle with a cinnamon and sugar mixture. 

Sorry, I know, not the best lighting, but at least I've got a camera that works now! That's an improvement. Baby steps, folks. 


These will be coming to work with me tomorrow, and I'll post reviews then. I'm a bit skeptical of these, but we'll see what the foodies say. 




***REVIEWS***


These turned out tasting a bit more like cinnamon buns than churros, so our fix was to get a Costco churro and place little bits on top of each cheesecake, like so. (Sorry for the poor picture, it was a last minute thought before I let the vultures get to them at work.)

If you don't have the urge to have a hunk of fried diabetic carb-filled coma on top, you can leave as is, and just call them "cinnamon bun cheesecakes". LOL. 

Mexican Chocolate Cheesecake

When I heard we were having a "mexican fiesta" potluck for a co-worker's upcoming wedding, I decided that I'd get creative. My cheesecakes usually go over pretty well at work (pumpkin pie cheesecakes for Thanksgiving, Red Velvet cheesecakes for Valentines Day), so I thought I'd try to figure out something mexican-inspired. I immediately started mentally going through my pantry and trying to figure out what I could make. Mini-cheesecakes are pretty easy to make, and I need to use some of the chili powder I was just given. Good excuse, right? Yeah, I thought so too. 

This particular recipe isn't really derived from any particular recipe, just a basic cheesecake recipe that I had adapted to my needs. I'm a pretty adaptable person. Is that even a word..? It doesn't matter. My crust is, once again, a crust of improvisation (I thought I had Nilla wafers still, but they MAGICALLY disappeared *cough cough HUBBY cough cough*), but I did have some gingersnaps and Oreo's. Mexican chocolate is spicy, gingersnaps are spicy. Oreo's are chocolate, mexican chocolate is.. well.. chocolate. It all works out perfectly. I made a "half batch" to test them out and see what needed to be changed (I'll post the feedback I get tomorrow at work later), but even a half batch filled my 24 cup mini-cupcake pan, plus two regular size cupcake liners, all VERY full. Recipe time! Remember, this is for the "half batch". Amendments will come later if need be. 

Ingredients:

Crust:

1/2 cup gingersnap cookies (about 10)

1/2 cup Oreo cookies (about 8)

1/4 to 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1-2 tbsp melted butter

Filling:

1 1/2 pkgs (12oz total) softened cream cheese

2/3 cup sugar

3/8 cup cocoa powder (I just did a 1/4 cup, then half of another)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp Kahlua

2 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp chili powder

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350º. Line 24 mini muffin cups and 2 regular muffin cups.

If you have a nifty mixer (like I don't), you can cream the cream cheese before you add anything else in. I'm sure that this would make it a lot easier to handle, but I just used a little extra elbow grease is all. Not to be confused with butter, wrong kind of grease. Just wanted to be clear. Anyways. Mix everything together except the eggs. Once well combined, add the eggs, one at a time, only mixing until combined. If you mix too much, you'll wind up with too much air the cheesecake, or so I've heard. I really couldn't tell you the difference myself since I don't actually EAT cheesecake, but I try to please the people who DO eat it. 

Place a bit of crust mixture in the bottom of each cup, just enough to make it so that when pressed down in the bottom, you can't see the bottom of the liner anymore. Too much crust = not enough filling, especially in the mini cheesecakes! Once the crust is pressed down in each cup, add roughly a tablespoon of filling to each mini cup, until it is full, just shy of the top of the cup, fill the larger cups up to almost the top as well. Bake the mini cups for 15 minutes, or until set, and the larger cups for 20-25 minutes, or again, until set. 

The mini's

The regular's

I still haven't figured out how to not have the tops sink in quite so much on me, but I don't think it affects the taste any. If it does, there at least haven't been any complaints. 

Once I've got some feedback from co-workers tomorrow, I'll post the pro's and con's, and make any changes needed. Bon appetit!


***REVIEWS***

Crust is perfectly crunchy, not soggy.
Need a shot of Kahlua to go with.
YUM.

Yep, that about sums it up. One person said that it would stand up to more chili powder, if you're so inclined, but I don't think I want to kill the people here that aren't as much of a spice fan, and they said it was perfect. All in all? Good reviews!

Red Hot Love Cheesecakes

For Valentines Day, I thought I'd be creative (and the awesome person at work, of course), and make some mini red velvet cheesecakes. The original recipe (which you can find here), was for a regular muffin pan size, but I thought I'd make them cuter by using a mini-muffin pan. The result was a 2-bite major hit with the co-workers. I myself am not a cheesecake person, so I can't tell you exactly how they turned out, but judging by the reaction, and the comment of one co-worker that they rivaled one of the Christmas goodies that people drool while thinking about all year long, I'd say they turned out pretty good. I didn't really make a whole lot of changes to this recipe, since I wasn't going to be able to taste it myself to know if it worked or not. I did change the crust a bit, and I added slightly more cocoa powder, but that's about it. 

Here's my version:


Ingredients:


Crust:
48 Nilla Wafers, crushed
6 tbsp butter
3 tbsp cocoa powder


Filling:
2 1/2 pkgs (20oz total) softened cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
2 tsp vanilla 
2 tbsp red food coloring
3 eggs




Directions:


Preheat oven to 350º. Line a muffin pan with liners, you can do mini or regular size.


In a small bowl, mix cookies, butter and cocoa until well combined. Divide between muffin cups. For the mini muffin size, I used about 1/2 teaspoon of crust mixture, you'll just need enough to make a light crust at the bottom. 


Combine cream cheese, sugar and cocoa until well-combined. If you want less of a chance of lumps, use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese by itself before adding anything else. I unfortunately am NOT the proud owner of any sort of electric mixing tool other than a cheap blender, so i just made sure to beat out the lumps by hand after adding more of the wet ingredients. 


Beat in vanilla and food coloring, then eggs, one by one until well blended. Divide among cups, filling will go almost to the top of the cup. 


Bake until center is firm. For a regular size muffin pan, it should be 20-25 minutes, for a mini muffin pan, 15-20 minutes. If you choose to remove the baking liners before serving, refrigerate for at least one hour before taking them off, then refrigerate for another hour. Otherwise, refrigerate 2 hours before serving. 


Regular muffin pan size will make approximately 16 cheesecakes (according to Betty Crocker), mini muffin pan size made 60. Yes, SIXTY CHEESECAKES.




You can decorate these however you'd like. I did several different things with mine. Some I left just as is, some i dropped a single chocolate chip in the center before baking, some I sprinkled some chocolate sprinkles on before baking. 


To give you an idea of how fast these will go, I brought 50 of the 60 this recipe made to work with me, and these were gone in ten minutes flat!