Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

One of the current trending topics on Pinterest is Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries.  I looked up a recipe online and it wanted you to use Philadelphia Cheesecake Mix.  I knew that I could just make my own cheesecake mixture, with ingredients that I already had.
P.S. If you don't have Pinterest yet, but you like cooking DIY crafts, cloths, baby ideas, actually ideas for EVERYTHING under the planet, you seriously need to get an account.  

Anyways, the first thing you need to do is mix up some cheesecake mix!  You will just need one block of softened cream cheese (8oz), 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  Once that is mixed up, put it in an icing bag, or just use a ziplock bag if you don't have one one of those.  Stuff all the mixture into one corner of the bag and cut off the corner. 

Next, cut the tops off of a box of strawberries.  Then, use the smallest, sharpest knife you have to hollow out the strawberries. 


Then, using your pastry bag, fill the hollow centers with cheesecake. 

The recipe I looked up on the website, wanted you to dip the tops in crushed up graham cracker so that it would actually seem like you were eating cheesecake.  I decided to make chocolate covered strawberries instead.  I just dunked the bottom of each strawberry in a bowl of melted chocolate chips.


Mmmmm....delicious. 



Peaches and Cream Muffins

I married a peaches lover.  I've always been kind of "meh" about peaches, until I discovered the Edmond Farmer's Market.  Now I can't get enough of them!  They are so delicious. They are a little more expensive than a grocery store, but taste 100 times better. We have been visiting the market once or twice a week to buy peaches.  I have made several peach pies already this summer, so today I decided to see what else I could make with them.

In a small bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1/2 a cup of sugar.

In a separate bowl mix together one egg, 1/4 cup of canola oil, 1/3 cup of milk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well.  Fold in 1 cup of diced peaches (about 1 large peach).

Line a muffin tin with cooking spray or cupcake holders.  I used cupcake holders because I can never seem to grease my muffin tin well enough, but next time I'm not going to use them.  The batter is very thick and sticky.  It sticks to the liners which makes it difficult to spoon batter evenly into them.


Anyways, fill each muffin holder 1/2 full with batter.

Next, mix together 4oz of cream cheese, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 1/4 tablespoon of cinnamon.  Spoon a small amount into each muffin tin.  




Cover the cream cheese with the rest of the batter.


Cook in a 400 degree oven for 17 minutes.

See how my cream cheese is really close to the top?  I put too much batter in the bottoms of the muffin tin, and then didn't have enough to cover up the cream cheese.  Oops. :)

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Chocolate Pudding Cake In A Jar

I have recently become obsessed with cooking things in a 4oz Mason Jar ... it's a perfect serving of something delicious and you don't have leftovers sitting on the counter begging you to eat them.

Mix 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/4 cup of cocoa, and 2 teaspoons of baking powder together in a bowl.


Add 1/2 cup of milk, 1/4 cup of canola oil or melted butter, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the dry ingredients. 

Spray 6 4oz mason jars or ramekins with cooking spray, and then divide the batter equally between the 6 jars. 

Next, stir together 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 a cup of cocoa together in a small bowl.  Sprinkle evenly over the batter in the jars. 

Next, spoon 3 tablespoons of boiling water into each jar.  


Put the jars onto a cookie sheet and cook for 30-35 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  

Top with vanilla ice cream!