Chocolate Cheescakes for Two

Wedding planning consumes me, and I feel totally guilty for neglecting my blog. I've been meaning to post this for 2 weeks now! For those of you who are still around, thank you. :o) I have a lot of comfort fall desserts I want to make now that autumn is practically here. And soon enough the stressful part of planning will be over and I will make more time for the blog!

For now, you must try these personal sized cheesecakes. Extremely easy to make, and that perfect size for that quick cheesecake fix! The recipe makes two, one for you and one for your honey...or one for you now, and one for later! ;o)


Chocolate Cheesecakes for Two (from kraftrecipes.com)

• 2 oz. (1/4 of 8-oz. pkg.) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 Tbsp. Sugar
• 1 square Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted
• 1/2 cup thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping
• 2 Oreo Cookies

1. Beat first 3 ingredients in medium bowl with whisk until well blended. Stir in COOL WHP.
2. Place 1 Oreo cookie on the bottom of each paper-lined medium muffin cups (make sure you place the liners in a muffin pan so the liners don't flatten out before the cheesecake thickens); top with cream cheese mixture. Mixture will be somewhat thick, so use a small spatula to spread it evenly.
3. Refrigerate for 2 hours and eat up!

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Really enjoying Kraft's cheesecakes recipes. They are so simple and fast to make, and they taste delicious! The White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake is so yummy! The recipe called for an Oreo pie crust, but I couldn't find a pre-made one and I didn't feel like making my own, so I just used a chocolate pie crust. I do think however, that the Oreo pie crust would have been much more rich...there is something about Oreo and raspberry together that is soooo good! Like my Chocolate Raspberry Tarts...yum-o! Anyways, on with the recipe!

Cheesecake with swirls prior to baking.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake (adapted from Kraft Recipes.com)

Ingredients

• 2 pkg. (8 oz. each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
• 2 Eggs
• 3 squares Baker's White Chocolate, melted
• 1 Chocolate Pie Crust (6 oz.)
• 3 Tbsp. Raspberry seedless preserves
  

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Melt chocolate in microwavable bowl, in microwave for 20 secs. Stir and microwave an additional 15 secs until melted, stirring in between. Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add eggs; mix just until blended. Stir in chocolate. Pour into crust.
3. Microwave preserves in small bowl on HIGH 15 sec. or until melted. Dot top of cheesecake with small spoonfuls of preserves; swirl gently with knife.
4. Bake 35 to 40 min. or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. Enjoy and store leftovers in refrigerator.

-amanda

Toffee Crunch Cheesecake

I loooove cheesecake and I love toffee. I knew this recipe would not fail me. It is delicious and the best part about it was that it only took me a few minutes to mix. Fast, easy, yummy, and hardly any dirty dishes...just the kind of recipe I love. You must try it!

Pre-bake photo

Toffee Crunch Cheesecake (from Kraft Recipes.com)

Ingredients:

• 2 pkg. (8 oz. each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
• 2 Eggs
• 4 Heath bars (1.4 oz. each), chopped (3 bars to mix in, 1 bar to sprinkle on top)
• 1 Graham Pie Crust (6 oz.)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs; mix just until blended. Stir in the 3 chopped Heath bars.
2. Pour into crust. Sprinkle with remaining chopped Heath bar.
3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator. Enjoy!

-amanda

Cheesecake Brownies

My favorite parts of dessert usually involve two ingredients: cream cheese (which honestly I have no problem eating by itself, except for the fact that it's not such a healthy idea), and chocolate. When I came across cheesecake brownies, I thought it was one of the best ideas ever! It was one of the first recipes I found when I first discovered foodie blogs, and I have been wanting to make it ever since. I decided today was the day so here they are! They are very rich, but oh so good!


Cheesecake Brownies (Recipe from My Baking Addiction)
Makes 32 brownies

Ingredients
Brownie Batter:

• 2 Sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 2 cups superfine sugar*
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

Cheesecake Batter:

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese; softened
• 2/3 cup superfine sugar*
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Put an oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan with butter.
3. Heat butter and chocolate in a saucepan over moderately low heat, whisking occasionally, just until melted, or just melt in the microwave.
4. Remove from heat, pour into a big bowl and whisk in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and a pinch of salt until well combined and shiny.
5. Whisk in flour and baking powder until just combined and spread in baking pan.
6. Next, whisk together the cheesecake batter ingredients in a small bowl until smooth.
7. Dollop over brownie batter, then swirl in with a knife or spatula. (I forgot to dollop and smoothed mine evenly in the pan, so there isn't much swirl going on, but still delicious!)
8. Bake until the edges are slightly puffed and center is just set, about 45 minutes.
9. Let cool.
*Note- If you do not have superfine sugar, just throw some granulated sugar in the food processor for a few seconds.


-amanda

Pineapple Cheesecake

My mom made me this delicious cheesecake for my birthday. She got the recipe from my great grandma, and we're not sure if it was her own or if she got it from somewhere else. But if you like like pineapple and you like cheesecake, you will definitely enjoy this.

Pineapple Cheesecake
Makes 8 servings.

Crust:

• 1 1/4 c graham cracker crumbs
• 1/3 c sugar (omit sugar if using Honey Maid graham cracker crumbs)
• 1/3 c melted butter

Combine ingredients together and then reserve 1/4 of the mixture for the top of the cheesecake. Press remaining mixture into bottom and sides of 8 inch pie pan.

Filling:

• 1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
  
• 2 tbsp butter, softened
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2/3 c milk
• 1 can (9 oz) crushed pineapple, including juice

Blend together the cream cheese and butter until well mixed, and then add the sugar and egg. Mix thoroughly, then blend the remaining ingredients in the order listed: flour, milk, pineapple.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pie pan and spread evenly. Top cheesecake with reserved crumb mixture. Bake for 35 minutes at 350° F. Chill before serving.

-amanda

Happy Birthday to you...

I made these little cheesecakes for my friend's birthday (Happy Birthday!). I used the same recipe that I used for Valentine's Day however, I altered them by making different flavors. In my opinion (and the boyfriends) they were to die for delicious! Hopefully my friend will enjoy them just as much! :)

Left to Right: Strawberry (swirled with jam and topped with a strawberry), Chocolate (Oreo crust and swirled with chocolate sauce), Plain cheesecake (topped with fresh fruit), Oreo (Oreo crust and Oreo crumbs mixed in).

-amanda

Lemon Cheesecake Pots

I found this great recipe for a cheesecake dessert that takes much less time than a traditional cheesecake. It was very easy to make and very tasty!

Here is the recipe from Hungry Girl that I used:

(This ended up making 4 ramekins for me)

• 1 bar of cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 3 tbsp. half and half (she used 2tbsp. but i added another)
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
• zest of one lemon
• 1 egg

preheat oven to 350 F.

beat cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment with lemon zest until creamy. add sour cream, half and half and sugar. blend well. add the egg and combine, scraping down bowl as needed.

pour mixture into ramekins and bake in a water bath for 30 minutes, until centers only wiggle slightly. cool completely and chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

These were so good! However, next time I don't think I would do the lemon zest, because the boyfriend didn't care for the lemon taste. So I will probably just put some fresh fruit on top.

-amanda

Box of Cheesecakes...yum!

I made these delicious little cheesecakes for my boyfriend for Valentine's day since he is not a fan of chocolate, he loved them! (and so did i :)

The recipe that I used can be found here.

The only thing I did different was made a graham cracker crust instead of using vanilla wafers. Once the cheesecakes were done and cooled, I piped designs using blueberry and cherry pie filling.

Yum! I look forward to making these again.

-amanda