Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

I made this fresh summer snack for a get-together with some lovely ladies.

These are so simple to make, and taste like a mini bite of strawberry cheesecake.

I decided to add some heavy cream because I wanted that strawberries-and-cream kind of undertone along with the cheesecake flavor. I also made mine a little sweeter which I highly recommend. :)

You don't have to pipe the cream with a star tip, even though its an easy way to make it look so pretty. You could just put in a plastic bag and cut off the end. 

You know what would make these over the top? Dip them in chocolate. Omg. Maybe next time.

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Recipe adapted from The Sweets Life and Nutmeg Nanny

Ingredients
1 lb large strawberries

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1 graham cracker

Directions

Process the graham cracker in a blender to make fine crumbs.

Rinse strawberries and cut off the tops. Core out the inside with a paring knife. Try to find large strawberries because most of them have a nice hollow center. If you want to stand your strawberries upright slice a bit off the bottom to make a flat surface (I didn't do this).

Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla with a mixer and beat until creamy. Beat in heavy cream. Add cream cheese mix to piping bag and fill strawberries. Once strawberries are filled dip the top in graham cracker crumbs. Devour and fall in love.

You could also drizzle or dip strawberries in chocolate if desired.

Store leftovers in refrigerator.

Oreo Truffle Pops

I wanted to make little Ramadan favors when we had our girls iftar. I got too busy with cupcakes, but I'm glad I at least got to make these for Eid! 

Here's one of those "everything you need" pictures! I never take one of these but this recipe is so easy to make, all you need is a few things. (I forgot to add the paper liners in this picture).

The smell of oreos. Nothing is more tempting when you're fasting!

Dump the entire package of oreos in your food processor.

Process until they are fine crumbs.

Reserve 1/4 cup of the crumbs and set aside.

Add your softened cream cheese

and blend until its all mixed together

Roll into balls the size of a tablespoon and place on a plate lined with parchment paper. Stick them in the freezer for 20 minutes. 

Melt your candy coating in a double broiler by placing a heat-safe bowl over a small pot of simmering water. I bought vanilla flavored Wilton white candy melts from Michaels. It tasted just like white chocolate and hardened very nicely!

Take the end of the lolipop stick and dip it into the melted candy coating, about 1/4 inch up the stick. Don't be shy, we want enough on there rather than too little. Stick it about half way through the oreo truffle. Return to the freezer for about 5 more minutes so that the coating can firm up. This trick really helps your lolipop stick stay in place.

(Didn't get a picture for this step) Put some of your melted candy coating in a short cup or mug and dip the truffle to coat all sides.

Sprinkle with reserved oreo crumbs on all sides and allow to set up on a plate lined with parchment paper. Try to work as fast as you can so that the oreo truffles stay cold which helps the lolipop stick stay in place. If you want to take your time, I suggest keeping half in the freezer while you work on dipping and coating the others!

If you wanted the tops to stay round, you need a piece of Styrofoam so that they can stand up. 

If you have pretty mini cupcake liners, you don't have to worry about your pops having a flat top

Stick the liner inside your treat bag first

Make some cute tags

I found some ribbon (top) that looks just like an oreo cookie!

Cut each piece of ribbon to be 8 inches long. You can make 27 bows with 6 yards of ribbon.

You could tie the bag with this look if you didn't have a tag

Or you could tie a bow without a tag

But if you do have a tag, stick it on one side of the ribbon...

and then firmly tie a bow!

Oreo Truffle Pops

Yield: 33 truffles

1 large package of Oreo cookies, about 45 cookies (family size)

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

12 oz. package candy melts or almond bark

lolipop sticks

mini cupcake liners

plastic treat bags

6 yards of ribbon

decorative tags (optional)

Directions

Dump the entire package of oreos in your food processor. Process until they are fine crumbs. Reserve 1/4 cup of the crumbs and set aside. Add your softened cream cheese and blend until its all mixed together. 

Roll into balls the size of a tablespoon and place on a plate lined with parchment paper. Stick them in the freezer for 20 minutes. 

Melt your candy coating in a double broiler by placing a heat-safe bowl over a small pot of simmering water. Take the end of the lolipop stick and dip it into the melted candy coating, about 1/4 inch up the stick. Insert stick into the center of a truffle, be careful not to go all the way through the other side. Return truffles to the freezer for about 5 more minutes so that the coating can firm up.

Put some of your melted candy coating in a short cup or mug and dip the truffle pop to coat all sides.Sprinkle with reserved oreo crumbs on all sides and allow to set up on a plate lined with parchment paper.

Stick the mini cupcake liner inside your treat bag first. Cut each piece of ribbon to be 8 inches long. Place the truffle pop inside and tie with a bow.

Disney's Ohana Bread Pudding

Bread pudding was first known as "poor man's pudding" because leftover stale bread was softened with a little water, sugar, and spices. However nothing feels poor about this bread pudding.Warm from the oven, smelling of butter and cinnamon, sweetened with a caramel-like banana sauce and topped with vanilla ice cream.

Disney's Ohana Bread Pudding

Recipe adapted from Disney's Polynesian Resort

Breading Pudding

8 cups french bread (at least one pound loaf)

5 eggs

3 cups whole milk

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 cup sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut bread into 1 1/2 inch cubes, place on a cookie sheet and bake until lightly toasted, about 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F. Grease a 10-inch cake pan with butter or shortening.

In a bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients. Add the bread and gently stir until it is coated with the milk mixture. Place mixture in cake pan and bake for 1 hour. Let stand 10 minutes, serve warm with ice cream.

Banana Foster Sauce

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup corn syrup

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp rum extract

1 cup banana slices (about 4 bananas)

Directions

Combine both sugars, corn syrup, butter, spices, and half of the heavy cream in a large pan. Bring to a boil and slowly add remaining heavy cream keeping mixture at a steady boil.

Candy will brown slightly; cook 3 minutes until candy forms into a firm ball in cold water. Remove from heat and add extracts. Add sliced bananas. Serve warm.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

36 chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes.

Do you know how much we love to host our friends during Ramadan? Each year I am blessed to see their beautiful faces in my home is truly a cherished gift.

Maryam made some yummy indian food. I wanted to coordinate with the theme, and bake vanilla chai cupcakes or mango lassi mousse cupcakes. But considering people are fasting all day, and they would probably like something alittle sweeter, I decided to go with chocolate. And cookie dough. 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Adapted from Recipe Girl
12 cupcakes

Cookie dough filling (*may want to double recipe)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated white sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips


Directions

*You may want to double the recipe if you want to bake mini cookies to garnish the cupcakes. Or you could buy Mini Chips Ahoy Cookies to garnish.

Filling: In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to stir together the butter, sugars, milk and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips. Freeze for 30 minutes, or until the cookie dough is firm. Make the cake batter in the meantime. When ready, scoop out the cookie dough by the tablespoon and roll into a ball.

*Cookies for garnish: Roll cookie dough into teaspoon size balls and then press them down to about 1/4 inch thick because they do not spread out much while baking. Bake the cookies at 375 degrees F for 4-5 minutes. Do not over bake.

Chocolate Cake

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup hot water
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a cupcake pan with 12 liners.

Place the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Blend to combine. Add the water, oil, egg and vanilla. Blend to combine, scraping down the sides as needed a couple of times until all is well mixed. Divide the batter between the 12 cupcake liners.

Drop a ball of chocolate chip cookie dough into the center of each cupcake.

Bake the cupcakes for 12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cupcake portion of the cupcake (not tested through the center where the dough is), comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes completely before adding the frosting.

Cookie Dough Frosting

3 sticks salted butter
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mini chocolate chips (garnish)
12 mini Chips Ahoy cookies (optional garnish)

Directions:

This amount will generously frost 12 cupcakes (as seen in pictures). You could half the recipe if you aren't into that much frosting.

In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the butter and sugars until smooth and creamy. Mix in the flour, milk and vanilla and continue to mix until all is well combined.

Frost cupcakes with a knife or scoop the frosting into a piping bag and pipe it on decoratively. Sprinkle mini chips on top and garnish with a small chocolate chip cookie.

Sticky Toffee Pudding Date Cake

Ramadan Mubarak!

Incredibly moist cake baked with sweet smelling dates and topped with a brown sugar toffee sauce and walnuts.

Maybe sticky toffee pudding can have different textures? Because the last one I made was different. Hard to describe, but it was just softer, and you could eat it with a spoon. I was expecting this one to be just like it, but actually it baked up as a cake. Date cake. Moist, dense date cake. It was a delicious surprise. 

I was alittle unsure because the cake has no sugar added! The dates lend all their natural sugars. It was still satisfyingly sweet.

Since I was expecting sticky toffee pudding, I wanted the sauce to be, well sticky. But once you add the powdered sugar, however, it sets up right away and hardens. It was still good, and tasted like toffee, but I think something alittle gooey would be great. More like caramel and then add just alittle powdered sugar. Or maybe just put a thin layer of caramel underneath this topping.

Do you see how moist it is? You pre-cook the dates so they become soft and flavorful.

Sticky Toffee Pudding Date Cake

Recipe adapted from The English Kitchen

Dates

1 1/2 cups pitted dates, chopped (15 medjool dates)
3/4 cup water

1 tsp baking soda

Directions

Place the dates into a saucepan with water. Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes, gently. Make sure the water doesn't completely evaporate. Add the baking soda, and set aside to cool. It should still have water in the pan.

Cake

1 cup unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1/3 cup milk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease an 8 inch square baking pan with butter and line the bottom with parchment paper. Make sure it hangs well over two sides so that you can just lift the bars out to cut when finished.

Place all ingredients into a medium sized bowl and mix together, until well blended. Add the date mixture and lightly blend. Do not over mix.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

Topping

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp light brown sugar, packed
2 tbsp heavy cream or milk

3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar

1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Directions

To make the frosting combine the butter, brown sugar, and cream into a small sauce pan. Heat gently to dissolve the sugar. Add the powdered sugar and mix together well. Quickly spread over the cooled cake mixture and sprinkle with the toasted walnuts.

Cut into squares to serve.