Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Cupcakes

I made these a while back but never got to posting the recipe.  I baked them for a co-workers birthday and they were exceedingly popular!

From Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
Makes 30

• Ingredients:
• 30 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, left whole, and a large bag of Oreo Minis (if you can’t get the minis then just chop up some of the large ones)
• 4  8oz. packages of cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
• 1 cup sour cream
• Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Add eggs one at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed; then beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in about 1 ½ cups of the Oreo minis by hand  (save at least 30 to decorate the top)

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, for about 15 minutes then add one mini to the top of each cupcake and rotate the pan.  Bake another 10 minutes, until filling is set. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

 Happy Feasting!

French Onion Soup

French onion soup can be a little tedious in the beginning but it's one of the most satisfying do-it-yourself comfort foods.

 

Ingredients:

1 lrg White Onion

1 lrg Spanish Onions

1/2 of a Purple Onion (mostly because I had it in the fridge

2 cloves of Garlic - minced

1 Tbl dried Rosemary     } I like my french onion really herby.  If you don't 

1/2 Tbl  dried Tarragon  } you can cut these down to 1 tsp or Rosemary,

3 Bay Leaves                 } 1/2 tsp Tarragon, and 2 Bay Leaves

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 c Red Wine

3 c Beef broth (easily substituted with Vegetable broth for a Vegetarian soup)

1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

Olive Oil

grated Swiss and Asiago

a baguette

Kitchen mandolins are a great little invention and make this soooo much easier!  Another good tool are tea filters, they're these empty, sort of do it your self tea-bags for loose leaf tea - you'll see why in a bit.

First thing is to slice up the onions and put them in a soup pot with a little olive oil and the minced garlic.  This is be the most arduous tasks in making the soup ... you need to caramelize the onions.  This can take 45 minutes or so as you'll need to saute all of the water out of the onions before they start to really brown.

While the onions are cooking, start to set up the next few things.  Put the Rosemary, Tarragon, and Bay leaves in the tea bag ...

Also measure out the wine and beef broth (splash in the tsp of Worcestershire sauce) and grate the cheeses (I like using both for a little variety).  I cut the bread into cubes (not the whole loaf, just enough for the two bowls) and put them on a cookie sheet and toast them in the oven for a bit. When they've toasted, pull them out of the oven and add them into your onion soup bowls and set aside.

Once the onions are done things really start to roll.  Add the broth liquid and bring to a boil.  Toss in your herb bag and simmer for 20 minutes.  When that is done, fish out the herb bag and ladle soup into the bowls.  Top with a nice heap of the grated cheese and broil until the cheese is gooey and starts to brown.

Serve right away with slices of the remaining baguette.

Happy Feasting.

Cream cheese filled Carrot muffins

I found this recipe on line ages ago and wrote it down.  I've since lost the link so I can't give credit where credit is fully due but here it is none-the-less.

Preheat oven to 350.

Sift together 1½ c. all-purpose flour, 1½ tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp.baking powder, ½ tsp. salt, 1 tsp. cardamom, 1 tsp. cinnamon, ½ tsp. nutmeg, and 1 c. sugar.

In a separate bowl, beat 3 eggs and 2/3 cup vegetable oil until lightened. Stir in 1½ c. shredded carrots, ½ c. chopped walnuts, and ½ c. raisins that have been soaked for 10 minutes in hot water (or warmed rum, if you’d like).

In another bowl, cream 4 oz. softened cream cheese with 1 egg yolk (add the egg white to the carrot cake batter to make it really moist) , ½ c. sugar, and ½ tsp. vanilla.

Fold the dry ingredients into the egg/oil mixture. Stir until just combined.

Fill mini-muffin cups about 1/2 full, add a spoon of the cream cheese, and then another spoon of the carrot cake batter.


Bake about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake part comes out clean.

Happy Feasting!

Chai Spice No-bake Cheesecake

I had a friend pack me a lunch one day and in it they included some Graham Crackers.  When lunchtime came I dipped the crackers in my Chai tea and munched away ... the flavour was so yummie and I thought, "This NEEDS to be a cheesecake!!!"  ... voilà ... behold the fruits of that Ah-ha moment


Ingredients:

For the Chai spice mixture you will need:

1 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
2 tsp of ground cardamom
3/4 tsp of ground cloves
1/2 tsp of ground ginger
1/2 tsp of ground corriander
1/4 tsp of black pepper
dash of salt.

mix all of these together and set aside.
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For the crust you will need:

2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1/3 c. sugar
1/2 c. melted butter/margerine
1/2 a bag of Skor bits.

Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees F.  Mix all the ingredients together and press into a 9" spring form pan.  Bake for 10 - 15 minutes (until the crust seems set and the Skor bits have melted a little)

Once that is done, remove from your oven and cool in pan.  You can put it in the fridge, uncovered, to speed up the process if you like.
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For the filling you will need:

1 pkg. (8 oz) of Cream-cheese
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup of sour cream
1 pkg of Knox Gelatin
the Chai spice mix from earlier.

Beat softened cream-cheese, condensed milk, sour cream, and spice mix until smooth.  In a separate dish mix the Knox with 1/4 c boiling water (as per the instructions on the pack) until dissolved.  Add that to your cream-cheese mix and beat some more.

Pour that mixture over the cooled crust in the form pan, cover, and chill 'til firm.

I like to garnish/decorate this with shaved white chocolate and the remaining Skor bits.

I've taken this to a few pot-lucks over the holidays and it's been a huge success

Happy Feasting!!!