Truffle Brownie Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites

Thanksgiving is around the corner, and I can honestly say, I am still a little obsessed with pumpkin.  I cannot wait for pumpkin pie, I am making my pumpkin soup as I write this, and I am thinking about attempting some sort of pumpkin macaroon (have lots of egg whites on hand).

My Thanksgiving menu is already set and organized and I am not planning on adding to it.  However, my kids are off from school this week and later today, we are meeting friends for a hike.  Our plan is to go out for lunch after the hike, yet I knew everyone is going to end up back at our house to play for a bit.  I wanted to have some snacks on hand.  I whipped up these truffle brownie pumpkin cheesecake bites as I had some left over pumpkin puree in the fridge.  Rather than making them in a 9x9" pan, I opted to make individuals in my silicone baking muffin pans.  These are going to be the perfect compliment to a big bowl of pomegranate seeds and a white bean dip with roasted pita chips.  Maybe, we will skip lunch all together and simply come home for the snacks!

Truffle Brownie + Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites

yield: 28 mini bites

ingredients:

brownies:

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate

1 stick of butter, cubed

2 Tbls. unsweetened cocoa

1 Tbls. espresso powder

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. salt

3 eggs

1 cup flour

cheesecake

8 oz. cream cheese

1 egg

1/3 cup sugar

2 Tbls. flour

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

instructions:

• preheat oven to 350*

for the brownie layer:

• melt chocolate, butter, cocoa, and espresso powder in a bowl over simmering water.

• remove bowl from the heat and add the sugar, vanilla, and salt.  add the egg and mix until smooth.

• fold in the flour.

• using a small ice cream scoop, scoop batter into individual muffin tins. set aside while you make the cheesecake

for the cheesecake layer:

• in the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth.

• add the sugar and combine

• add the egg and the vanilla and mix to combine

• mix in the remaining ingredients until fully incorporated.

• using the same ice cream scooper(cleaned, of course), scoop over brownie mixture and fill muffin cups almost to the top.

• using a toothpick or small skewer swirl the cheesecake mixture slightly to form a pattern with the brownie mixture.

• bake 20-25 minutes, rotating pans back to front mid through.  brownie bites are done when the top of the cheesecake feels slightly firm to the touch.

• let cool on a wire rack.  once cool, stick in the fridge for about 45 minutes.  once totally firm, pop the brownie bites out of the muffin cups and enjoy!!

Bite Sized Ricotta Cheesecakes

I live in house of cheesecake lovers.  Big, small, bite-sized or sliced, it really doesn't matter.  Up until today, the household favorites have always been the raspberry ( or chocolate ) swirl cheesecakes (here) and the  mini mascarpone - chocolate cheesecakes (here).  However, today, we have added yet another version of a cheesecake to the top of the list.

I had saved this recipe from a back issue of donna hay magazine.  Yet, another recipe in my overflowing "file" of all things edible that I hope to accomplish in this life time!  I was reminded of it when I was reading Patricia's blog, Technicolor Kitchen, and of course, she beat me to it!  Hers looked perfectly perfect.

I wanted to give these a trial run for an upcoming dinner event I have next month. My three trustworthy taste testers gave them the thumbs up!  And, I am confident you will too!

Vanilla + Macadamia Crumble Mini Cheesecakes
adapted from donna hay magazine #17
yield 48 bite sized morsels of goodness

ingredients:
cheese cake
370g ricotta cheese
300g cream cheese
1 1/3 cups (267g) caster sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

base
125g shortbread cookies ( I used these )
1/2 cup (50g) almond meal
45g unsalted butter, melted

crumble topping
100g shortbread cookies
1/2 cup (70g) unsalted macadamia nuts
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbls. brown sugar, packed
50g unsalted butter, melted

instructions:
• preheat oven to 285*
for the base:
• in the bowl of a food processor, process the cookies ( I had some lemon scented sables in the freezer that I baked off, however any shortbread would work ) until crushed.  add the almond meal and the butter and process until combined.
• press 2 tsp. of the crumbs into mini silicone muffin tins. using a 1/8 cup measuring cup ( or a small bottle) flatten the crumbs into the bottom of the pans. refrigerate the crumbs until ready to use.
for the cream cheese filling:
• place the ricotta and the cream cheese in a food processor and process until smooth. add the sugar, eggs and the vanilla and process until combined and smooth.
• pour the mixture almost to the top of the baking cup.  set the silicone muffin pans on a baking sheet.
• bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until set.  rotating pans half way through.
 make the crumb mixture:
• while the cheesecakes are baking, place the cookies, macadamia nuts, vanilla, sugar, and the butter in the bowl of the food processor and process until roughly chopped.
• after baking the cheesecakes, top them with the crumb mixture and bake for another 10 minutes or until the tops are golden.
• cool completely to room temperature.
• once cooled, place trays in the freezer.  once frozen the cheesecakes pop out beautifully.  serve at room temperature!

Chevre Brownies

Brownies are the perfect picnic food.  I wanted chocolate, I wanted a brownie, but I wanted something a little different.  I thought a cream cheese brownie would be great but didn't have cream cheese.  However, what I did have was some goat cheese.  I thought, what the heck...I am going to experiment.

I used the brownie base for David Lebovitz's ( Ready for Dessert ) cheesecake brownies, but swapped the cream cheese for goat cheese and added a touch more sugar ( to compensate for the tartness in the goat cheese).  I also omitted the chocolate chips from the actual brownie base and instead took a skinny bar of Valrhona and did a rough chop.  After swirling in the cheese mixture, I dotted the top of the brownies with the chocolate chunks. This ended up being a delicious experiment!

Chevre Brownies
adapted from David Lebovitz
yield 16 brownies

ingredients:

brownies
6 Tbls. unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbls. unsweetened cocoa powder ( I use Valrhona )
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate chunks

goat-cheesecake topping
8 oz. mild goat cheese, room temp
1 large egg yolk
6 Tbls. sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

instructions:
• preheat oven to 350*.  spray the inside of a 9" square baking pan w/cooking spray and line with parchment, leaving some overhang.  lightly spray the parchment.
• for the brownies, in a medium saucepan melt the butter, then add the 4 oz. of bittersweet chocolate, melt over low heat until smooth.  remove from heat and stir in the 2/3 cup of sugar, followed by the eggs.  add the rest of the ingredients, minus the chocolate chunks.  using a small off set spatula, spread evenly in the prepared pan.
• for the cheesecake, in a medium bowl, beat all the ingredients until smooth and incorporated. distribute the cheesecake mixture in dollops over top of brownie batter.  with a butter knife, swirl the cheese mixture into the brownie.  don't mix and swirl as you will end up with a muddy mess.  you want it to look streaky.   dot the tops of the brownies with the chopped bittersweet chocolate, distributing evenly.
• bake until brownies are set in the center, about 35 minutes.  let cool completely in the pan before removing.
• I stored these in the fridge.

Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes

This was the one of the three desserts I made for last weeks fund raiser.  I wanted little finger desserts as the food was going to be heavy appetizers.  This was a good trio; mini chocolate mascrapone cheesecakes, mini lemon bundts, and pecan tea tassies.  I have made these cheesecakes in the past (post here) and they are super delicious.  They keep well in the freezer, they are not too sweet and they are the perfect size.

The recipe doesn't call for a baked crust.  I like my cheesecake with a baked crust.  I had some brownie ends in the freezer.  I had just enough crumbs to make 48 mini cheesecakes.  After filling the 48 tart pans, I still had filling.  i decided to take my 8" spring form pan and make mama "G" a cheesecake.  I didn't have any left over crust, so I crumbled up about a 1/2 cup of graham crackers, added a tablespoon of sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons of melted butter and made that her crust (pre-baked crust at 350* for about 10 minutes).

Delivered all the desserts to the fund raiser, then headed over to the "G's" and gave them their goodies.  I left a few of everything behind, because had I not done so, I probably would have been locked out of the house.

Check out my post from last October to get the recipe for these delicious cheesecakes.

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

I had pulled this recipe from Gourmet Magazine a while ago and have been looking for a reason to make them. The recipe says it makes 12 cupcakes. I opted to make minis as I need way more than 12. I followed the recipe, however the batter was more like a tough cookie dough batter rather than a cake batter. I threw the first batch of batter out. It just didn't look right. I made the second batch of batter and let it beat a little bit longer in the mixer. This worked and looked better but it was still a little stiff. I proceed, regardless.

The kids have somewhere to go this afternoon and I felt as though I needed to bring a little treat for everyone. I am not quite sure if the kids are going to like the zucchini taste(they got rave reviews), but I had one in the veg drawer that had I waited a few more days, it would end up in my garbage can. Felt better about using it rather than wasting it. Although I am guilty of it, I hate throwing away groceries. It really annoys me and I only have myself to blame for the waste. I am really trying to play "use it up" and thus far have been quite successful.

I may have baked these a bit too long. Next time, I would bake the minis for 16 minutes rather than 18.

Enjoy!

ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 pound zucchini, coarsely grated (1 cup)
1 (6-ounces) package semisweet chocolate chips

directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Whisk together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Beat together sugar, oil, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer until thick and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. At low speed, mix in flour mixture until just incorporated. Stir in zucchini and chocolate chips. Divide among lined muffin cups and bake until tops spring back when lightly pressed, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then turn out to cool completely.

our anniversary is today, these are for us!

Mini Cheesecakes

The smartest thing I did with this recipe was run out and buy many silicone muffin trays. I started making these cheesecakes and after making one tray in my nonstick pans, I knew I was going to be in trouble. I purchased 4 trays. Nearly not enough. I will be getting 4 more and now I am a little obsessed. I need to find square ones. All shapes, all sizes.

This recipe for mini cheesecakes is from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Christmas cookie book. You all know how much I adore this book. With that said, this is not one not one of the better cheesecake recipes that I have made. However, they were still pretty yummy.

I really wanted to top these little bite size treats with her lemon curd that she suggests. I had the perfect morning to make the curd. My kids were playing next door, Mitch was golfing which means my house was quiet and I had no distractions. I did everything the recipe told me to do, yet instinctively, I knew something was weird when the recipe said to cook the mixture to 196 degrees on the thermometer? I knew when the curd was ready, but I was too insecure to follow my gut. I am generally a rule follower, and in this case I followed the rules, much to my chagrin.

Now instead of lemon curd, I have lemon "paste". I will find something to do with it.

Instead of topping these little morsels of joy with lemon curd, I am topping them with the same cranberry yummy stuff I put on our bread pudding (made a fresh batch, of course)!

So not in the mood to type up the recipe. Simply use your favorite cheesecake recipe (as this one was so-so), your favorite crust and top with whatever concoction you see fit(after the cheesecakes are baked and set). Bake for about 10-16 minutes, depending upon your oven.

Don't make these without the silicone muffin trays. By using these trays, they just pop right out! Easy, peasy and clean up was a breeze!

Daring Bakers "Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake"

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes.  She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

For this month's challenge we were asked to make Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake.  My whole family loves cheesecake so this challenge was not a challenge at all. At Halloween we have made pumpkin cheese cake brownies, I often make a white chocolate cheese cake with creme de cocoa and a chocolate cookie crumb crust.  Thus, my kids favorites are these little bite size cheesecakes (the size of a muffin cup) with a raspberry puree swirl.  

We were given the basic recipe to follow, however we were able to "accessorize" our cheesecake with our own creative spin.  Since my kids love the mini raspberry bites of heaven (as Eli so adoringly calls them) I decided to make the raspberry puree as my garnish.

Here is the recipe:

CRUST

•2 cups graham cracker crumbs

•1 stick of butter, melted

•2 tbsp. sugar

•1 tsp. vanilla (I substituted Framboise liqueur)

CHEESECAKE

•3 sticks of cream cheese (8oz. each), room temp.

•1 cup sugar

•3 large eggs

•1 cup heavy cream

•1 tbsp. lemon juice (I omitted this)

•1 tbsp. vanilla

•1 tbsp. liqueur (I used the Framboise)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350*.  Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan.  You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too, baker's choice.  Set crust to cool (?).

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer and cream together until smooth.  Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next.  Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg.  Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

3b. Here is where I added the raspberry puree.  Take one cup of raspberry's and put in mini chopper. Puree.

Put mixture in a strainer set over a bowl.  Strain mixture until all but the seeds are left in the strainer. Discard seeds.  Add 2-3 tbsp. of sugar to pureed mixture and combine.  Once cheesecake is assembled, take a 1/4 tsp. of puree mixture and dot the top of the cake.  I use a long, wooden skewer to make my "swirls".  How you make your pattern, is your own creation.  Sometimes I let my kids get involved and they create their own "art".

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all the bubbles to the surface.  Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan(9" springform pan).  If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45-55 minutes, until it is almost done.  You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage.  Close the oven door, turn off the heat and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour.  This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack the top.  Take out of oven and water bath and let cool on a wire rack.  When cool, cover and put in fridge to chill, overnight.

Enjoy with family and friends!