Ingredient: cocoa

Strawberry Lime Cheesecake Cups

The flavor of lime has not always been one that I have enjoyed. It always seemed to have an overall harsh characteristic about it. After we spent a few holidays in the Yucatan, Brion started using lime juice in his chicken soup and really enjoyed it. From there I swapped out the lemon juice for lime in our guacamole. Now here I am putting it in cheesecake. Who knew it could be that good!

A squeeze of lime juice is vital to many classic dishes. It’s the kick in a margarita, the spark that ignites many curries and the tart foil to sweetness in a host of desserts. Conveniently, for such an indispensable ingredient, limes are available year round.

Lime pairs well with apple, berries, cherry, ginger, papaya, plum and strawberry to name a few. Today, I’m using it in a cheesecake filling. It seems like a nice little dessert to start off the month of June.

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 Strawberry Lime Cheesecake Cups
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Course Brunch, dessert
Cuisine American, French
Keyword cheesecake
Servings
Ingredients
Cookie Cups
Cheesecake Filling
Course Brunch, dessert
Cuisine American, French
Keyword cheesecake
Servings
Ingredients
Cookie Cups
Cheesecake Filling
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Cookie Cups
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter or coat with cooking spray a miniature or small muffin pan.
  2. In a bowl, cream butter & sugar together for 5-7 minutes until light & fluffy. Add egg & vanilla; beat until combined. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients; mix until smooth. Dough will be thick.
  3. Shape into 1-inch balls; press onto the bottom & up the sides of muffin cups. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven & allow to cool for about 5 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling. If centers aren't cupped enough use the underside of a measuring tablespoon to press the centers down a bit.
Cheesecake Filling
  1. In a bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar & lime juice & beat well. When cookie cups have completely cooled, pipe the filling in them & top with a fresh strawberry. Refrigerate until served.

Irish Cream Cheesecakes

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

Although St. Patrick’s Day started out as a religious feast holiday celebrating the life of St. Patrick, it has become kind of a mixture of non-religious celebrations steeped in Irish culture, folklore and superstition.

Many St. Patrick’s Day traditions revolve around luck. Ironically, the Irish have been a very unlucky people as history tells. For instance, the rainbow you often see depicted in the St. Patrick’s Day themes, has seven easily distinguishable colors. Both the rainbow and the number seven are symbols of luck.

It is considered lucky to find a four leaf clover or ‘Shamrock’. It has been estimated that there are about 10,000 three leaf clovers to every four leaf clover. According to legend, each of the four leaves represents something: hope, faith, love and luck, respectively.

In the 19th century green became the symbol of Ireland ( also called ‘The Emerald Isle’). The wearing of green on St. Patrick’s Day is considered lucky. Pinching those not doing so began in Ireland many years ago. 

The legendary ‘Blarney Stone’, which is set in a wall of a castle in the Irish village of Blarney, is said to have magical powers. Whoever kisses the stone will have powers of persuasion.

Of course, we can’t forget some of the lucky charms associated with all this folklore.  If you hang a horseshoe over your doorway, make sure it has the open end up or your luck will pour out. The saying ‘see a penny pick it up and all day you will have good luck’. If you are lucky enough to see a falling star or a ‘shooting’ star, you get to make a secret wish.

With all the serious and concerning things happening in our world today, I thought it would keep things lighter just to acknowledge our Irish friends with some ‘fun facts’ on their St. Patrick’s Day holiday.

For the food tribute of the day, I chose to do IRISH CREAM CHEESECAKES .  How can you not love these little treasures!

 

 


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Irish Cream Cheesecakes

Like eating a fudge brownie topped with cheesecake.

Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Course dessert
Cuisine American

Servings
cheesecake cups


Ingredients
Base

Cheesecake Filling

Course dessert
Cuisine American

Servings
cheesecake cups


Ingredients
Base

Cheesecake Filling

Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!


Instructions
Chocolate Shells
  1. In a small bowl, combine flour, sugar & cocoa; cut in margarine. Add water & mix only until combined. Shape into 1-inch balls; press onto the bottom & up sides of lightly greased miniature muffin pans (1 3/4-inch diameter size).

Cream Cheese Filling
  1. Preheat oven to 325 F. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth on medium speed. Add sugar, Baileys Irish Cream, & vanilla & egg; blend well. Fill chocolate cups. Bake 15-18 minutes.
    If desired top with whip cream.

Brownie Fudge Pudding

If you grew up in the 60’s, you probably remember ‘brownie fudge pudding’. Those wonderful pudding cakes every homemaker was making. The ultimate time saver because it could be mixed and baked all in the same dish.

Pudding cakes offer two treats in one. While baking, the cake portion rises to the top and a creamy pudding-like sauce forms on the bottom. They can also come in a variety of flavors and can even be made with fresh fruit. Adding fruit, such as blueberries or cherries, makes a pudding cake even better than a regular fruit cobbler in that it develops a thicker, richer sauce around the fruit than most cobblers would.

This dessert is relatively low in fat and it really isn’t necessary to add an extra topping, although ice cream or whipped cream are good. At the time my mother was making this dessert, it was only the chocolate version. It’s definitely one of those classic recipes that has never been forgotten.

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 Brownie Fudge Pudding
Serving it parfait style adds a bit of elegance to this ordinary little pudding.
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Course dessert
Cuisine American
Servings
Ingredients
Course dessert
Cuisine American
Servings
Ingredients
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. In an 8 x 8 inch baking dish, combine first 5 ingredients. Add milk, margarine & walnuts; combine. Spread batter evenly in dish (batter will be stiff). Sprinkle brown sugar & 1/2 cup cocoa over batter.
  2. Pour boiling water over all & bake for about 40 minutes or until batter rises to the top & is baked through.