-Mini Cheesecakes in 5 flavors: cherry almond, strawberry, cookies and cream, Butterfinger, and chocolate chip.
-Bon-bons (a.k.a) Oreo cookie balls
-Mini White Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake
-Mini Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes
-Lime Bars
-Mint Chocolate Brownies
-Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache Tart
-I really need another fridge/freezer. We had to take tons of food out of our fridge and freezer - I still have a cooler in the basement full of food that doesn't fit back in the fridge because of all the left over desserts I didn't feel like rearranging at 12 A.M. last night. (Today we are baking the ham we had to take out of the fridge yesterday - ham dinner anyone?)
-You can't do everything! - Much to my disappointment. I wanted to make lemon bars and mini lime buttermilk souffles- but ran out of time - so we got lime bars instead - they were great!
-Costco doesn't always have strawberries! - Can you believe it? I went to buy some on Friday morning and they didnt have any. -I even stopped some stranger there who had some in their cart and asked where they found them - they got the last ones. They had asked an employee to check for more for them too - Alas - none to be found.
-You MUST MUST MUST use shortening to grease mini Bundt pans. It doesn't matter how much cooking spray you use - they will not come out. I learned the hard way. - Use lots of shortening and flour them well. The first batch tasted great - but was a mess. - See the recipe for other tips.
-You MUST use pie weights in mini tart pans to keep the crust from falling when prebaking - also learned the hard way. - And it doesn't make any difference if you grease the pans or not - I greased the first set without thinking, they fell, And I didn't grease the second set - they fell too. Anyone want weird pie crust cookies? Line those pans with tinfoil and fill them with old dry beans!
So..... Now for the recipes.
Chocolate Mint Brownies
I made these first on Tuesday night and them froze them until Saturday when I added the mint layer and chocolate frosting. I worked all day Tuesday - So here's the working mom shortcut for brownies: Use a Fudge Brownie Mix. They're great - no one can tell. Remeber to line the pan with tinfoil before you bake them so they are easy to get out of the pan later. The rest of the recipe is from Sally's Baking Addiction classic mint chocolate brownies. She has GREAT recipes. Including the brownies from scratch if you have time. Here's the part I used with my modifications:
MINT FROSTING LAYER
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
1 and 1/4 teaspoons peppermint extract
1 drop green food coloring
Put everything in a bowl and beat until smooth and cream. Frost brownies and allow to set - I stuck them back in the freezer for a few hours. Then later added the chocolate layer:
CHOCOLATE LAYER
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 heaping cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Melt in the microwave, stirring every 20 to 30 seconds (Mine took 60 sec). Stir until creamy. Pour over the mint layer and smooth it out with a spatula. Put them back in the freezer until set and you are ready to cut them.
Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes
Tuesday night I also made the Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes. This recipe is from the Deals to Meals blog. Ryan used to subscribe to their service, But not anymore - Smith's on sale with my 10% discount on Kroger brand stuff was just as good and he didn't have to run around to different stores or go to Walmart - whom he hates. Here's what I did:
1 lemon cake mix
3 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1/3 cup oil
Zest of 1 orange
1/4 cup sour cream
Put cupcake liners in pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Fill the cupcakes 3/4 full. Bake for 12-15 min. I did the toothpick test. Regular sized cupcakes were supposed to back 15-18. I assumed small ones would be done faster.
Then I stuck those in the freezer too. I frosted them Saturday:
Orange Buttercream Frosting:
1 1/2 sticks butter at room temp. (Lot of butter - though about cutting it down but didn't)
2 ounces cream cheese at room temp.
2 Tbsp fresh orange juice
1 tsp orange extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Put everything in a bowl and mix well. The original recipe said to beat the butter until it turned white, and the add the other stuff and beat more - I didn't have time for that. It turned out fine.
Mini Cheesecakes
Crust
Each part makes enough for 24+ mini cupcakes. The fist time I made them it was exactly 24. When I did half the recipe for the cherry ones with just the graham cracker crust, I had enough for 36.
Graham Crust
2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 -3 T butter
2 T sugar
Oreo Cookie Crust
10 Oreo cookies smashed into crumbs
1-2 T butter
Mix the crumbs, butter and sugar (for the graham crust) together. Press a small amount into lined cupcake tins. I used a water bottle lid. It worked perfectly! The first time I didn't prebake the crusts. The second time I did - I don't know if it make a difference. The baked ones may have held together better. If you do remember to bake them its at 325 degrees for about 8 min. Keep an eye on them.
Filling
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese at room temp.
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
You really need room temp cheese for this so you don't get lumps in you cheesecake. I don't usually worry about having ingredients at room temp, but I did for these and it makes difference. Then divide into 4 separate bowls. Lots of the recipes said to add lemon juice or vanilla - I didn't. The first time I forgot, the second time I decided not to. But if you do, I added suggestions for how much I was thinking of doing below.
Add flavors to the 4 separate cheesecake bowls:
Strawberry
2 T strawberry jam
2 T flour (the first time I didn't add flour and they sunk in the middle - great little wells for holding topping)
(1/4 -1/2 tsp lemon juice -optional)
Oreo
5 Oreo cookies with frosting removed broken into pieces- not too crummy.
(1/4 -1/2 tsp vanilla-optional)
Butterfinger
2T peanut butter
2 fun size Butterfinger bars
Chocolate Chip
1/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips -Super rich - could be ok with just 1/4 cup
(1/4 -1/2 tsp vanilla-optional)
1/8 tsp Almond extract ( I used a little over 1/4 tsp when I did a double batch.)
**For Cherry only: Bake 15 min. Then add sour cream topping and bake an additional 10 mins:
1/2 C sour cream
2 T sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
Put filling over crust. I filled the first 4 flavors to the top, The cherry flavor I only did 3/4. Bake at 325 for 15 min. Turn off the oven and leave them there for 20+min. It's supposed to help keep the tops from cracking. They were mini ones so it didn't matter too much. After they cooled, I froze them too until Saturday morning when I added the toppings:
Topping
Strawberry
melt strawberry jam (about 3-4 Tbsp) in microwave. Spoon over tops of cheesecakes. Top with a 1/4 slice of strawberry. Drizzle with white chocolate
Chocolate Chip
I did nothing - the recipe suggested covering with chocolate ganache or melted chocolate chips, but I thought they were chocolaty enough. No time either.
Oreo
Top with stabilized whipped cream and 1/4 piece of Oreo cookie. I have a recipe for stabilized whipped cream below. It makes WAY TOO MUCH! I used it on the lime bars too and still had left overs to use on pancakes the next morning.
Butterfinger
Top with melted chocolate chips and sprinkle with 1 fun size butter finger candy bar crushed.
Cherry Almond
Top with 2-3 cherries from cherry pie filling (recipe suggested mixing pie filling with 1/2 tsp almond extract first, but I didn't) and sprinkle with sliced almonds.
Stabilized Whipped Cream
Lot of recipes out there, but I used one from Chew Out Loud.
2 cups heavy whipping cream, very cold
4 T powdered sugar
2 T vanilla extract
2 tsp unflavored gelatin powder
2 T water
Pour cold heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract in a large metal bowl. Place bowl and whisks of electric mixer in fridge for 5-10 minutes to make everything cold.
Meanwhile, combine gelatin powder and 2 TB water in a small glass bowl. Once water has been fully soaked up by the gelatin, microwave the mixture for 15-20 seconds. It should become a thick, hot liquid. Stir well and let sit at room temp.
Remove the bowl from fridge. Beat on medium-high until soft peaks just start to form. Check the gelatin mixture. (If it has re-coagulated, microwave a few seconds at a time until it turns liquid again.) If it's hot, stir until it cools down to lukewarm. It should be a slightly warm liquid, but not hot. Resume beating whipped cream, while steadily pouring liquid gelatin right where the whisks are beating, to ensure it is being fully incorporated.
Beat whipped cream to stiff peaks. This happens really fast! Try to stop beating right at stiff peaks, but if you accidentally over-beat it a little bit, don't worry. It will still frost and pipe fine. I think I over beat mine - but it was ok.
Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache Tart and Mini White Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake
I needed mini Bundt pans and mini tart pans- so I ordered them from Amazon, but they didn't come until Thursday. So I had to make both of these on Friday. I have made both of these recipes before, but making them into mini ones is easier said than done. First of all the tart pans were really disappointing. Several of the bottoms were bent as were some of the rims and the coating was coming off of them too! I used them anyway, and sent a message to Amazon that they weren't very good. This morning, I sent them back to Amazon. I mentioned you must use pie weights at the beginning of this post - its true! Especially for the mini pans. My fist try, I made 5 crusts (I greased the pans). Most of them shrunk a little bit- this was in the Amazon set of tart pans (around 5 inches). I used them anyway. Later in the afternoon, I went to Joann's and bought new tart pans (4.5 inches). I didn't know they sold them there originally, or I would have just got them there! They were made by Wilton and MUCH better quality! Unfortunately I didn't use pie weights, but I didn't grease them either and the sides still fell - worse that the first ones! I did some research online and found some suggestions:
-Don't stretch the dough
-Don't overwork the dough. That was my problem with the second set.- Allow the dough to rest after rolling it out and after putting it in the pans.
-Line the inside of the crust with foil and put in pie weights of dried beans. THIS IS A MUST!
Saturday morning I made another trip to the grocery store for more pie crust (yes I used a pre made crust) and tried again. This worked much better. Even so the one that I made with the leftover pieces still shrank a little. So don't overwork the dough either. When the sides of the tart pan are one a half inch and shrinking is noticeable!
Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache Tart
Pie crust for 5 (4.5 inch) tart pans, cooked and cooled. ( or a 10 in tart crust)
2 (4.4 oz) Lindt Milk Chocolate Hazelnut bars, broken into pieces
1/2 c milk chocolate chips
3/4 c heavy cream
1 1/2 c chopped and toasted hazelnuts (I only used half the amount of hazelnuts- I use them all when I do a 10 inch tart.)
To toast hazelnuts, lay in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast for 5-7 mins at 350 degrees.
Place broken chocolate hazelnut pieces and chips in a bowl. Put cream in microwave for 1-2 min until it boils. Pour over chocolate and stir until creamy. Pour into tart crusts, top with tosted hazelnuts and let stand until set, about 2 hours or chilled for 1 hour. Mine took forever. I finally put them in the freezer - but make sure they are level! some of mine weren't and so the filling was lopsided. Cut into 6 wedges, top each with a quarter strawberry.
The second big disappointment of Friday was the bundt cakes. The pan was great. But I didn't grease it correctly. And the recipe has white chocolate chips and pie filling in it. Not a big deal in the full size cake but in the small cakes the chips didn't melt and the pie filling didn't really swirl in. So when I tried to get them out, they stuck in the top and came apart at the layer of un-melted chips and pie filling. So tips for mini bundt cakes:
-Use shortening to grease the pans. Lots of it! Then flour with lots of flour and tap out the extra.
-Melt the white chocolate chips before stirring then in the batter.
-Put the correct amount of batter in a measuring cup, about 3/4 cup, add a spoonful of pie filling to the measuring cup and swirl around before pouring it into the cake pan.
-Don't overfill the cake pans. Only about 3/4 full.
-Just before cake is done cooking, put a towel in the bottom of the sink and pour boiling water over it. When the cake comes out. Put it on top of the towel for 10 minutes. (Its supposed to help the cake come out somehow - I tried all the tricks this time!) Then put a cooling rack over the cake and invert onto the counter. My cakes slid right out. YEAH!
I found this recipe on the internet a few year ago when I wanted to duplicate the "Nothing Bundt Cake" bakery's version of this cake. There are several websites that have this recipe. They all seem about the same.
1 pkg. white cake mix
1 (5 oz-ish) pkg. instant white chocolate pudding (or vanilla pudding if you can't find white chocolate)
1 c. sour cream
4 large eggs
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. oil
1 1/2 c. white chocolate chips, melted (I used part white chocolate candy coating left over from the bonbons.)
1 c. raspberry pastry filling, approx.
Grease and flour a bundt pan and preheat your oven to 350-degrees. Mix first six ingredients together with a beater. Fold in melted white chocolate chips. *** See notes above about using mini bundt pans!!*** fill a 1 cup measuring cup with batter about 3/4 full. Add a spoonful of pie filling and swirl into the batter. Don't leave any clumps of pie filling. Then pour into the mini bundt pans.
Cook in oven at 350 degrees for 32 mins. Check with a toothpick. If it does not come out clean, keep placing back in the oven for 1-2 min. After its cooled, frost with Cream cheese frosting:
1 (8 ounce) pkg. cream cheese, room temp
1/4 cup butter, room temp
1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
I think I halved the frosting recipe. It makes a lot!
Bonbons
These are super easy. They are really Oreo cookie balls. But one of the girls at work makes them and calls them bonbons. And that sounds so much more elegant.
36 Oreo cookies
8 oz cream cheese at room temp.
Crush the cookies into fine crumbs. Add the cream cheese. Beat with a blender until well blended. Form into 48 1-inch balls and freeze for 10 mins. Meanwhile melt white cholocate cany coating. Dip balls into melted white chocolate. Lift out with a fork so extra chocolate drains between fork tines. Place on waxed paper until chocolate hardens. Drizzle with milk chocolate. Once again, I used the freezer to hurry the process along!
Key Lime Bars
Because I was running out of time Saturday I didn't dare attempt a recipe I had never tried before. So the key lime buttermilk souffle will have to wait for another time. I decided to do lime bars instead. Late Friday night I found a recipe for lime bars that looked pretty good and I have a delicious lemon bar recipe that everyone loves from my manager at work. I combined the two and then used the leftover whipped cream and came up with this. One of the moms that came to the dessert tasting said to call them key lime bars because that sounds better than just plain old lime.
Crust:
2 cubes butter
2 c flour
½ c powdered sugar
Filling:
4 eggs
4 Tbsp flour
2 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 c FRESH squeezed lime juice
1 tsp grated lime peel zest
Mix butter, sugar and flour and cut like pie crust. Put in 15x10 jelly roll pan. Brown in a 350 degree oven for 20 min. While in oven, beat eggs with sugar and lime juice. Fold in flour, baking powder and lime zest. Spoon lime mixture over crust and bake for 20-25 min. Dust with powdered sugar while hot. Cut into bars when cool. Top with whipped cream and sprinkle with addition lime zest.
I didn't ever get a white apron. I looked at my work on Thursday. But they didn't have one. I wanted to dress the part but no luck. I settled for a white cheesecloth towel tired around my waist.
