Lightning Fast S'Mores

S'mores are the perfect seasonal treat for summer, which unofficially begins this weekend since today is Memorial Day. As we remember those who have served and sacrificed for us, we can also celebrate by spending time with those we love and being thankful for the gifts we have. Food is one such gift that we can share with others, so here's an easy treat you can make for family and friends!

Now, I know the whole s'mores process is really more about assembling than actually baking something, but I still wanted to put these up on my baking blog in case others wanted to try them out!

I created the recipe this afternoon when I discovered marshmallows in the back of my pantry that were about to expire and graham crackers that were sitting around doing nothing. I always have some kind of chocolate chips around the house in case of a cookie-baking emergency, which meant I had all the ingredients for a summer sweet that leaves you wanting s'more!

Lacking a camp fire, I simply layered one half of a graham cracker rectangle with a handful of mini marshmallows and semisweet chocolate chips, and microwaved them open faced on a paper towel for about 28 seconds. Then I topped them with the other half of the graham cracker to smush down the gooey marshmallows and create a handheld dessert in literally seconds. Let them cool just a moment and then have one while they're still slightly warm!

Treats don't have to be complicated--what's important is that the people who eat them are enjoying them. My taste tester found them delicious and gobbled two up just like that. I hope you enjoy them as well. Happy Summer!

Berry Cheesecake

It's time for a potluck! To welcome our new boss, my coworkers arranged a fun vegetarian potluck lunch and I couldn't wait to sign up! For a non-meat dish, I decided on bringing in the family's traditional Artichoke Dip that my mom makes for Christmas almost every year (and sometimes Thanksgiving, and sometimes random parties in between). And of course, I couldn't show up without a baked dessert! Since our potluck was right before the Fourth of July, I decided to make something red, white, and blue. The idea of Berry Cheesecake came to me before I had a recipe, but I'm always up for experimentation. This one's based off of the Sour Cream Cheesecake I made with my friend last April, with a few slight changes to make the cake berry fun!

Ingredients:

For crust:

1 and 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup melted butter

1/4 cup sugar

For filling:

2 eggs

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 ounces light cream cheese (softened)

1/4 teaspoon salt

For topping:

2 cups light sour cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 Tablespoons strawberry jam

5-6 large strawberries

1/2 cup blueberries

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Crush a box of graham crackers to create crumbs (I crushed mine in a ziploc baggie, or you can buy graham cracker crumbs already crushed).  Mix the crumbs, butter and sugar together, then press the mixture into a round cake pan. Bake about 8 minutes, then remove from the oven to cool.

2.) In a bowl, beat the eggs, then add the sugar, vanilla, cream cheese and salt. Combine all with an electric mixer until the mixture is smooth.  Pour on top of the crust and bake another 15 minutes.

3.) Let the cheesecake cool while you make the topping. Mix together the sour cream, sugar and vanilla extract. Stir in the strawberry jelly, then pour on top of the filling and bake another 10 minutes.

4.) Cool the cheesecake completely before refrigerating overnight. In the morning, slice your strawberries very thin, and use the slices to decorate the top of the cheesecake in a pattern with blueberries around the edges. Sprinkle the fruit with just a dusting of sugar and serve cold to keep the cheesecake as solid as possible.

And, though I didn't make it myself, here's my mom's famous Artichoke Dip!

Ingredients:

3 cans whole artichoke hearts
1 cup mayonnaise
2 cups powdered Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon garlic powder (not garlic salt)
Paprika for sprinkling

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Open the cans of artichokes, drain, and cut into small pieces with kitchen scissors. Place pieces in an empty ceramic crock pot.

2.) Add in the mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, and garlic powder, stirring so that all ingredients evenly combine. If the mixture looks too moist, add a little more cheese. If it’s too dry, add more mayonnaise. When you’re done mixing, smooth the top flat with the back of a spoon.

3.) Sprinkle paprika over the top of the dip until it forms a nice and even red layer that’s not too thick but still covers the artichokes. Bake at 325 degrees for about 25-30 minutes, watching the dip for the last few minutes to make sure it doesn't brown too much on the top.

4.) Remove from the oven and serve warm or refrigerate overnight. The next day, place the ceramic pot into the electric crock and turn on to heat a few hours before the dip will be served. Tastes best warm.

Sour Cream Cheesecake

Yes, I am lactose intolerant. So, yes, as a general rule, I cannot eat such delicious foods as cheesecake--or pretty much anything with the words "cheese" or "cream" somehow buried in them. This is not to say I don't occasionally tempt fate, in very small portions, especially for the sake of dear friends, and with the help of a Lactaid pill. But you don't want to know about my dietary deficiencies. You want to know how to make that delectable-looking slice of heaven that even this non-dairy eater here is raving about from the minimal sliver she used for taste testing.

I owe this one to my dear friend Janice (that's her in the picture under step 2) who wanted to try out a recipe that another friend gave her. We've often created baking experiments together, and it's always fun to teach and learn and just spend time together--especially when it results in delicious food. So dairy product or no, I was gung-ho to try out her friend's recipe labeled "Cream Cheese Pie."  Accidentally glossing over the word "pie" on the paper she handed me, I baked both our Sour Cream Cheesecakes in cake pans (we doubled the recipe to make one for each of our families). This essentially created an easy cheesecake recipe (because cheesecakes are actually rather complicated to make under normal circumstances--they require hot steam baths to prevent cracking and everything!). But whatever you call it, and however you vary the recipe, it's still going to taste great and be a fun project to put together with friends!

Ingredients:

For crust:
1 and 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sugar

For filling:
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 ounces light cream cheese (softened)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs

For topping:
2 cups light sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Crush a box of graham crackers to create crumbs (we crushed ours by hand in plastic baggies). Mix crumbs, butter and sugar together, saving a few crumbs for the topping. Press the mixture into the cake pan, bake 8 minutes, then remove from oven to cool.

2.) In a bowl, beat the eggs, then add the sugar, vanilla, cream cheese and salt. Combine everything with an electric mixer until the mixture is smooth. Pour the mixture on top of the crust and bake 20 minutes.

3.) Let the cheesecake cool while making the topping: mix together the sour cream, sugar and vanilla, along with remaining crumbs. Pour on top and bake another 10 minutes. (I also accidentally glossed over the fact that the crumbs in the original recipe are supposed to go on the very top of the cake, not inside the topping mixture. But, oh well, this does not affect flavor--only presentation. See below).

4.) Cool the cheesecake completely before refrigerating at least 30 minutes, though overnight is best.

Using the light cream cheese and sour cream makes this one just a touch healthier than most cheesecakes, and I believe made it slightly easier for my tummy to digest. Don't let the three different mixtures (crust, filling, topping) scare you away from a relatively easy recipe that's still under five steps to make! Thank you Janice, and thank you Janice's friend!

Next up, my Easter escapades!

Eggnog Cheesecake

 

What to do with all that leftover holiday eggnog? Well, actually, if you still have Christmas eggnog this late into January, you might want to smell it first.... I, however, ended up with three quarts of Silk Nog (soy eggnog) left after my Eggnog Cupcakes experiment, and they still weren't expiring until February. I didn't think my family would drink that much soy eggnog in less than a month, especially when all our Christmas decorations have long since been put away (um, last week...) and the carton itself is decked in its own seasonal holiday scarf. Still, there was a very appealing recipe for Eggnog Cheesecake on the side of the carton that kept calling to me every time I opened the fridge and spied the still un-drunk Silk Nog cartons. And where else was I going to find a recipe that specifically asked for three-fourths of a cup of Silk Nog?

I altered the original recipe only slightly, making my own homemade graham cracker crust, utilizing a lighter cream cheese (it has less fat and is also slightly easier on my dairy-challenged stomach) and substituting light rum for dark (we were out of dark rum, but I can also justify this one with the fact that it keeps the cheesecake looking more light golden. While cookies should generally be baked to a golden brown, cheese generally shouldn't...).

Thus, with such substitutions in place, my first ever Eggnog Cheesecake was born!

Ingredients:

For the crust:
1 and 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (place graham crackers in a plastic baggie and hammer the heck out of them! Or roll them over with a rolling pin. Or whip out the food processor. It's okay to be vicious here, so have fun with it).
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted

For the filling:
16 oz. (2 packages, 8 oz. each) reduced fat cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour (any flour will do)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 Tablespoons light rum
3/4 cup Silk Nog (soy eggnog)
2 eggs


Directions:


1.) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar. Press the mixture flat into the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan that's been greased with nonstick cooking spray.

2.) In another bowl (or you could just rinse out the first one like I did), beat the cream cheese, sugar, flour, salt, and nutmeg together until well combined (An electric mixer works best, though I used a fork and my weakling arms to work on building muscle). Beat in the rum and soy eggnog, then the eggs.

3.) Pour the mixture on top of the crust and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let the cheesecake cool to room temperature.

4.) Refrigerate overnight, then serve cold the next day. There may be cracks. One slice might fall apart on the plate. But I think it all contributes to a nice rustic look. This cheesecake isn't hoity toity. But it does look decent, removes easily enough from the pan, and tastes absolutely delicious when combined with that graham cracker crunch.

If you really want it to look as fancy and crack-free as possible, you can try baking the cheesecake in a hot water bath as I did for my Creme Brulee (a dessert that truly is hoity toity no matter how rustic you try to dress it down). In the end, however, your guests, family, friends, or whoever you're serving will not remember what Eggnog Cheesecake looked like. They will remember what it tasted like. Rum. Oh yeah, and eggnog. But...rum.