Pumpkin Cheesecake Puffy Cups

Here's something which I made very recently for a bake sale we were having at work, and the popularity of which took me completely by surprise. I originally made these in the form of galettes (round, flat pastries with a cheesecake center), but the super-puffiness of the galette with cheesecake at its heart was a little too flaky for my liking, so I decided to try an alternative presentation.  I liked it this way much better -- not only was it more compact, so the pastry dough didn't get as dry and overly-flaky, but the look is quite unique, which always appeals to me. ;) Since puff pastry can be found in the freezer section and does not necessarily have to be made from scratch (you can try to do it yourself, if you've got the time & patience...and I have neither), you'll have to set it out to thaw well in advance.  But believe me when I say that you will look like a genius or a culinary master if you've never used puff pastry before and use it for this recipe.  People will be so impressed with you!  ;)  The pre-made pastry makes this a super-easy recipe, and one that can be made in parts, the first part well ahead of time.  (Especially handy when dealing with lack of time during the day of a big event in your life!)  In my opinion, the hardest part of this whole process was removing the puffs from the muffin tins without completely destroying the pastry if it gets stuck to the sides of the muffin well.  Also, it is worth noting that you will need to use large/jumbo muffin tins, not small ones, containing 6 muffin wells.  The smaller muffin tins simply will not be big enough in this case.

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Ingredients:
1 8-oz brick softened cream cheese (can be reduced fat)
1 stick butter, softened to room temperature
½ C sugar
⅓ C brown sugar
½ can (about 7 oz) mashed pumpkin
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 Tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3 puff pastry sheets
Decorative sugar and extra pumpkin pie spice for garnish
Powdered sugar

Directions:
Take puff pastry out of freezer and place on counter at least 1 hour ahead of any other preparation so it can thaw and soften up.  With a stand mixer, cream butter, sugars, salt, and vanilla together.  Add cream cheese and beat until well-incorporated.  Add mashed pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and flour.  Continue beating until well-blended, scraping down sides of bowl and beater as needed.  Pour mixture into an air-tight container and place in refrigerator to chill. (Can be made up to 3 days in advance.)

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spray the individual wells of two muffin trays with cooking spray.  Lay puff pastry sheets out on parchment paper laid out on a flat surface.

Take a pizza cutter or knife and divide sheet into 4 even squares.  

Take each square and place into muffin cups. Corners hanging out are OK.  

Liberally sprinkle pumpkin pie spice over puff pastry dough.  Take cheesecake mixture out of the fridge, and using a small scoop (½ oz), drop a generous scoopful into each well.  When finished, sprinkle decorative sugar over the edges of each pastry.

Stick muffin trays into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until edges are puffed up and are golden brown. Remove from oven. (Cheese centers will puff up during baking, but then completely collapse once removed from the heat, just FYI.)

When completely cooled, remove puffs from muffin tins and generously sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Serve.  Can be stored overnight without refrigeration for one night.

Makes 1 dozen cups.

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GBAdams
12/12/2012

Mascarpone Frosting/Filling

This is my new favorite dessert filling/frosting.  I like it much better than a cream cheese frosting, because it doesn't have that sour component.  :)

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Ingredients:
1 stick butter, softened to room temperature
¾ C powdered sugar
16 oz mascarpone cheese
1 t vanilla
1 t meringue powder

Directions:
Cream together butter, powdered sugar, and meringue powder until smooth.  Add vanilla and continue to beat. When vanilla is incorporated, add mascarpone cheese and beat for 2 minutes.  Scrape side of bowl & beat again for another 2 minutes, or until all ingredients are well-blended.  Be careful not to over-beat to the point where mascarpone begins to separate.  Can be frosted over cakes or put into pastry bag and piped over cupcakes or whoopie pies.  Refrigerate any unused frosting in an airtight container, up to 1 week.

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GBAdams
03/05/2012

Basic Shortbread (Icebox) Cookies

So this holiday season, I went looking for something different to do for baked goodies.  Banana and pumpkin breads, as well as my usual cookie batches of Chocolate Chip, Chocolate White Chip and Ma's Styrofoams, would still be made, but I was looking to change things up a bit.  I found this basic shortbread recipe in an old cookbook I had sitting for years in my kitchen bookshelf.  They are also known as "icebox" or "refrigerator" cookies because the dough is chilled (in this case frozen) so that it's easier to slice up individual cookies.  Now that I've made dozens of batches of these, I quickly discovered that I reeeeeeeaaaallly like making them. They're neater than any other cookie I've ever made because once the dough is made and rolled up in plastic, there's no scooping, rolling out & cutting, etc.  You just slice, garnish and bake.  Done.  I *LOVE* that!

So here's the basic recipe I found.  There's no variation needed for high altitude (thank goodness!) but if you vary it by flavor additive, then you'll need to adjust accordingly.  See below for links to the variations I did.

(On a related note/idea...needing a standalone yolk for this cookie dough means you're left with a standalone egg white.  If you make 2 batches of these cookies, of any variation, then you can easily save those whites to make Ma's Styrofoam Cookies.  It's perfect, because then nothing's wasted!)

:)

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Ingredients:
2 sticks butter, softened to room temperature
1 C super-fine (baker's) sugar
½ tsp salt
1 lg egg yolk
1 lg whole egg
2 tsp vanilla
2 ½ C flour
Decorative sugar (optional)

Directions:
Cream butter, sugar and salt at high speed. Add yolk, beat another minute, add whole egg, beat again another minute.  Add vanilla, beat again.  Add flour, beat on low until dough has been mixed thoroughly and starts to cling to the paddle.

Remove, divide in half.  Roll half the dough into a log, about 1½ in diameter, repeat with remaining dough.

Wrap each log in plastic and place in freezer.  Freeze for at least 1 hour or until firm. (Can be stored in the freezer for up to 2 months.)  When logs are firm, take out 10-15 minutes ahead of time to thaw a little while oven heats up.  Preheat oven to 325°F. Slice dough into ½- to ¾-in thick pieces and place slices onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. If desired, sprinkle a little decorative sugar on top.  Bake for 19-20 minutes; do not overbake to the point where the edges start to brown or else cookies will end up hard and tough.

For variations on this basic cookie recipe, see Lemon Shortbread, Almond Shortbread, and Chocolate Shortbread versions.

Lemon Shortbread Cookies

Here is the recipe for Lemon Shortbread Cookies...

(Based on the Basic Shortbread Recipe I found.)

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Ingredients:
2 sticks butter, softened to room temperature
1 C super-fine (baker's) sugar
½ tsp salt
1-2 whole lemons, depending on size
1 lg egg yolk
1 lg whole egg
2 tsp vanilla
2 ¾ C flour
Decorative sugar (optional)

Directions:
Take lemon and using a zester or small-holed grater, zest lemon peel. (Be careful to only obtain the colored part of the peel, do not go into the white part of the lemon's skin.) Peel should yield about 2 tsps of zest.  (If your grater does not yield that much, you may need to zest a second lemon in order to make up the difference.)

Cut lemon in half, and using a strainer to catch the seeds, squeeze lemon halves for the juice.  Should yield about 2-3 tablespoons.  Cream butter, sugar, salt, and zest at high speed. Add yolk, beat another minute, add whole egg, beat again another minute.  Add vanilla and lemon juice, beat again.  Add flour, beat on low until dough has been mixed thoroughly and starts to cling to the paddle.  Remove, divide in half.  Roll half the dough into a log, about 1½ in diameter, repeat with remaining dough.  Wrap each log in plastic and place in freezer.  Freeze for at least 1 hour or until firm. (Can be stored in the freezer for up to 2 months.)

When logs are firm, take out 10-15 minutes ahead of time to thaw a little while oven heats up.  Preheat oven to 325°F. Slice dough into ½- to ¾-in thick pieces and place slices onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.

If desired, sprinkle a little yellow decorative sugar on top.

Bake for 19-20 minutes; do not overbake to the point where the edges start to brown or else cookies will end up hard and tough.

Yields approximately 40-50 cookies, depending on thickness of slices.

For other variations on the basic cookie recipe, see also the Chocolate Shortbread and Almond Shortbread versions.


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GBAdams
12/17/2011

Almond Shortbread Cookies

Here is my recipe for Almond Shortbread Cookies.  I started with the recipe for Lemon Shortbread, and then modified it for almonds...

(Based on the Basic Shortbread Recipe I found.)

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Ingredients:
2 sticks butter, softened to room temperature
1 C super-fine (baker's) sugar
½ tsp salt
1 lg egg yolk
1 lg whole egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp almond extract
2 ½ C flour
Sliced almonds for garnish

Directions:
Cream butter, sugar and salt at high speed. Add yolk, beat another minute, add whole egg, beat again another minute.  Add vanilla and almond extract; beat again.  Add flour, beat on low until dough has been mixed thoroughly and starts to cling to the paddle.  Remove, divide in half.  Roll half the dough into a log, about 1½ in diameter, repeat with remaining dough.  Wrap each log in plastic and place in freezer.  Freeze for at least 1 hour or until firm. (Can be stored in the freezer for up to 2 months.)

When logs are firm, take out 10-15 minutes ahead of time to thaw a little while oven heats up.  Preheat oven to 325°F. Slice dough into ½- to ¾-in thick pieces and place slices onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Press a sliced almond on top of each cookie for garnish, if desired.

Bake for 19-20 minutes; do not overbake to the point where the edges start to brown or else cookies will end up hard and tough.

Yields approximately 40-50 cookies, depending on thickness of slices.

For other variations on the basic cookie recipe, see also the Lemon Shortbread and Chocolate Shortbread versions.

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GBAdams
12/20/2011

Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

Here are Chocolate Shortbread Cookies...

(Based on the Basic Shortbread Recipe I found.)

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Ingredients:
2 sticks butter, softened to room temperature
1 C super-fine (baker's) sugar
1 tsp salt
1 lg egg yolk
1 lg whole egg
2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp water
2 ½ C flour
½ C unsweetened cocoa powder
Decorative sugar

Directions:
Combine flour with cocoa powder and mix thoroughly; set aside. Cream butter, sugar and salt at high speed. Add yolk, beat another minute, add whole egg, beat again another minute.  Add vanilla and water and beat again.  Add flour mixture, beat on low until dough has been mixed thoroughly and starts to cling to the paddle.  Remove, divide in half.  Roll half the dough into a log, about 1½ in diameter, repeat with remaining dough.  Wrap each log in plastic and place in freezer.  Freeze for at least 1 hour or until firm. (Can be stored in the freezer for up to 2 months.)

When logs are firm, take out 10-15 minutes ahead of time to thaw a little while oven heats up.  Preheat oven to 325°F. Slice dough into ½- to ¾-in thick pieces and place slices onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. If desired, sprinkle a little decorative sugar on top.

Bake for 20-21 minutes; do not overbake to the point where the edges start to brown or else cookies will end up hard and tough.

Yields approximately 40-50 cookies, depending on thickness of slices.

For other variations on the basic cookie recipe, see also the Lemon Shortbread and Almond Shortbread versions.

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GBAdams
12/27/2011

Challah Bread Pudding

Disclaimer: I am not Jewish. Though I have many, many Jewish friends and pledged a mostly Jewish sorority in college, I am a Catholic-raised Filipino girl.  Which means I grew up knowing next to nothing about their culture & traditions.  Having said that, I have always held in great respect the Jewish culture, including the foods, even if I wasn't familiar with them.  This year I decided to change my perspective by diving in and trying my hand at making some of the traditional foods...or at least, making dishes out of some of the traditional foods.  This is one of them.  About a month after I first made this pudding, I attempted potato latkes...it took the 2nd try before they were worth mentioning.  ;)  I've been told my next project should be to learn how to make bagels.  ;)

I've always loved egg breads, and of course, when thinking about making a bread pudding, the quintessential egg bread -challah- should always be considered.  You can, of course, make this bread pudding with regular bread such as French or Italian, but I like how the pre-pudding shininess of egg breads still comes through even after they're made into dessert. I've seen bread puddings made many different ways, but since neither my husband nor I prefer raisins in our bread puddings, my recipe has them listed as optional.  If you prefer yours with raisins, add them in during the whisking of the eggs & milk step.  Also, if you prefer your brown sugar sauce to be differently -ahem- sauced, you can substitute whiskey or bourbon for the amaretto in the sauce recipe.  :)

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Ingredients:
Pudding -
1 loaf Challah bread
6 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
1 C sugar
4 C milk, warmed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp vanilla
2 Tbsp amaretto liqueur
4 Tbsp butter, melted
½ cup raisins (optional)

Brown Sugar Sauce -
8 Tbsp butter (1 stick)
1½ C brown sugar, packed
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
½ C water
2 Tbsp amaretto liqueur (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F.  Make sure rack is set in the middle of the oven as much as possible.  Cut up challah bread into rough cubes, about 1x1"; does not have to be exact, but uniformity is the key.  Place cubed bread into 9x13" glass pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together warmed milk (should not be super-hot, but should be warmer than room temp) with egg yolks, eggs, sugar, salt and spices.  Add vanilla and amaretto. Gradually add melted butter.

Pour mixture over cubed bread, making sure that each cube is moistened.  If you miss some when pouring from the bowl, you can go back and submerge them using a spoon.  Make sure there are NO dry cubes, every piece should be soaked and softened with the liquid.

Place in oven and bake for 50 minutes, or until the center is no longer liquid-y in appearance. (May take as  long as an hour, depending on your oven.)

While pudding is baking, create the brown sugar sauce.  Combine ingredients into a small saucepan set to medium-high to high heat. Stir vigorously to keep brown sugar from burning.  Once sauce comes to a rolling, foaming boil, remove from heat or turn down to lowest setting.  Cover and set aside.

When pudding is done, cool for at least 15 minutes.  Cut and divide into square pieces.  Pour sauce over individual bread pudding portions immediately before serving.  Can also be served a la mode (with a scoop of vanilla ice cream), but I find that to be just a *little* too rich for my taste.  ;)

Makes 12-18 servings.

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GBAdams
11/10/2011

Browned Butter Fluffer Nutter Bites

Here's a recipe I first tried when I was in college.  The original recipe called for less servings, but as I was sharing these treats with 350 of my closest friends --also known as the Marching Illini--, I was "forced" to figure out how to make a larger batch.  So here it is.


A word of warning: this is a VERY sweet treat, due to the frosted corn flakes.  If you want to cut down on the sweetness, use plain corn flakes.

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Ingredients:
2 C marshmallows (about 1 full package)
¾ C (12 Tbsp, or 1½ sticks) butter or margarine
⅔ C smooth peanut butter
12 C frosted corn flakes

Directions:
In a very large bowl, measure out corn flakes; set aside.  Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Continue to heat until the butter solids gently start to turn brown.

Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted and smooth. Fold in peanut butter until it, too, has completely blended into the mixture. Remove from heat; pour over corn flakes.  Stir until well-coated (may need 2 spatulas or spoons to accomplish this).  Press mixture into a lightly greased large jelly roll pan (can also be lined with waxed paper) using a buttered spatula.

Let cool completely.  Cut into 1 1/2" x 2" bars.

Makes approximately 64 pieces.

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GBAdams
12/02/2011

Hazelnut Champorado (Chocolate Rice Porridge)

Here's another traditional Filipino dish.  Champorado is typically a breakfast-type of meal, usually served with  a cured meat, such as a bacon or Filipino tocino (shown at right), and is a heartier alternative to chocolate Maypo or Cream of Wheat.

The inspiration for this recipe came from two places for me: a college friend and my cousin.  I have my friend to thank for putting the original idea in my head; during a discussion once I mentioned how the only Filipino recipe in which I recalled normally seeing chocolate (no, dinuguuan does NOT count!) was champorado.  Chocolate icings or candies like we see here in the U.S. were not prevalent when I was growing up; it just wasn't practical because of the tropical heat.  So then over the next few weeks, while I was mulling over making champorado, my cousin who was visiting for Thanksgiving mentioned adding Nutella to it and how much better it made the dish.  Whoo boy, was he ever right.  It adds a depth to the chocolate taste that I never would have guessed could have been possible. Turned it right up to 11.  ;)  So here you go, here's what I came up with after those two influences.  And now that it's colder, this dish is the PERFECT breakfast treat...sort of like hot chocolate in a bowl.  ;)  I hope you enjoy.

(Thank you, Maria D-P, and Francis!)

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Ingredients:
6 C day-old (or several days-old) sticky rice
6 C milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk (I use the fat-free kind)
⅔ C unsweetened powdered cocoa (such as Ghirardelli)
¼ C Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)
1 tsp salt

Directions:
In a large saucepan, heat milk on medium heat; be sure to stir often so milk does not burn at the bottom of the pan.  When milk has warmed to the point of starting to steam, add sweetened condensed milk and salt.  Using a whisk will help to mix everything in easier.  While milk mixture is heating up, break up leftover rice so that there are no longer any huge clumps.  Add to saucepan.  Vigorously stir for an additional 10 minutes.  Add powdered cocoa.  Stir until all the powder has dissolved and there are no longer any small cocoa clumps.  Add Nutella, and stir until it has blended fully into the porridge.  If champorado is too thick at this point, gradually add more milk until desired consistency is achieved.  Serve warm.  (Reheat leftovers with milk.)

Hazelnut Champorado, with a few white chocolate shavings sprinkled on top.  ;)

Makes 10 servings; perfect to make ahead of time and reheat on cold mornings!  ;)

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GBAdams
11/27/2011

Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake

I started this dessert with a basic New York-style cheesecake recipe, and modified it to incorporate mashed pumpkin & pumpkin pie spices. Sort of a regular pumpkin pie, made all the more decadent by the addition of cream cheese.  I think it turned out decently...although next time around I won't use as much caramel sauce. (I used the entire jar on my cake; for the recipe that follows, I reduced it by half.)

I've seen other recipes for pumpkin cheesecakes, but nothing like this one.  It's a relatively simple mixture, and there's no bourbon or whiskey incorporated like others I've seen out there. (Although that may be something I experiment with in the future!)  Try it...I hope you enjoy it like my Thanksgiving guests all did!  :)

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Ingredients:
Crust - 
1¼ C graham crackers (2 packages of a 14.4-oz box)
6 Tbsp melted butter or margarine
¼ C sugar
½ t salt

Filling - 
2 lbs cream cheese (4 - 8oz packages)
4 eggs, slightly beaten
½ C sugar
½ C packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp flour
½ t salt
2 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1¼ Tbsp lemon juice
½ can cooked, mashed pumpkin (7-8 oz)
1 C (8 oz) caramel topping for ice cream (such as Mrs. Richardson's or Smuckers)
pinch gourmet sea salt (optional)

Will need a 9" or 10" springform cake pan.

Directions:
In a food processor, crumble up graham crackers until they have been reduced to very fine crumbs.  (Can also be done using a gallon ziploc and a rolling pin.)  The finer the crumbs, the more even your crust will be.  Add sugar, salt and melted butter.  Mix until butter is well-blended in the crumbs.  Press mixture into the bottom of a springform pan; try to make the bottom as packed in and even as possible.  Place in refrigerator to firm up.

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Beat cream cheese in a mixer until smooth.  In the meantime, combine beaten eggs, sugars, salt, pumpkin pie spice, lemon juice and mashed pumpkin.  Mix well.  Add to cream cheese slowly.  Sides of bowl and beater blades will have to be scraped, as the cream cheese is denser and stickier than the liquid mixture.  Once the entire thing is well-blended (meaning there aren't a lot of cream cheese clumps visible), pour into chilled springform pan. Place pan onto a cookie sheet and bake for 1½ hours.  Cheesecake is done when top has cracked and center has solidified (i.e. is no longer "jiggly").  Remove and cool completely, 2-3 hours.

When cheesecake is cooled, use a butter knife to loosen cake from the sides of the springform pan.  Release cake from pan and place onto serving plate.  Spoon 1 C caramel topping onto top of cheesecake and spread evenly over the top, alowing it to spill over the sides a little.  (Sauce might need to be warmed up for a few seconds [30-60] in the microwave in order for it to reach spreadable viscosity.)  Optional sea salt can be sparsely sprinkled over top of sauce.  Slice cake and serve.

Makes 12 servings.

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GBAdams
11/25/2011

Strawberry Dream Pie

I came up with this recipe because I found a good deal on some strawberries and was trying to think of a different way of using them.  When I went looking for a dream pie recipe, all the ones I found included using gelatin.  While that in itself is not necessarily bad, in my opinion for a recipe like this, it is an unnecessary step.  So this recipe uses NO gelatin! Just sugar, strawberries, arrowroot, whipped cream, and a pre-made pie crust.  Now, this is not nearly as simple or quick as that 5-Min No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake I came up with, but it's really not that far off.  ;)

Originally I made this pie for Miss Julia's (my son's daycare provider) birthday. She & her family (including 2 teen boys) have been generously taste-testing my baked goodies as I created them for this blog.  But I wanted to give to her for her birthday something that was light, fruity, and not overtly sweet. :)  I think I scored with this one.  I can only imagine that it'll also be ideal as a summer dessert, with the combination of strawberries and whipped cream... :)

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Ingredients:
1 pint strawberries
1 C sugar
1 Tbsp thickening agent - arrowroot or corn starch
1½ C heavy whipping cream
4 packets non-sugar sweetener (like Splenda) or 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 ready-made shortbread pie crust

Directions:
Wash & remove leaves from strawberries.  Cut up entire pint by halves or quarters.

Put cut strawberries in a large saucepan, add sugar and thickening agent.  Heat saucepan on high until sugar dissolves; turn heat down to medium-high and simmer until fruit has softened and sauce is bubbling, about 15 minutes.  Be sure to stir constantly. 

Once fruit has softened and sauce has thickened, remove from heat and cool completely, minimum 2 hours.  (To speed cool, immerse saucepan in a large mixing bowl full of icewater and stir strawberry sauce for 10 minutes until completely cooled.)

While strawberry sauce is cooling, place whipping cream into mixing bowl.  Add sweetener.  Using the whisk attachment, beat whipping cream on high speed until cream has thickened and is stiff.  Set aside and refrigerate. 

When strawberry sauce has cooled off completely, take whipped cream out and fold sauce into the cream using a spatula (do not use whisk).  Blend well. 

Pour mixture into pie crust and spread evenly. Can serve immediately or cover & refrigerate and serve later.

Makes 6-8 servings.

~~~~~
GBAdams
11/02/2011