Treat Day Wednesday–Lemon Curd Cheesecake Bars

This might be a day late in posting but these treats were definitely on the counter when the girls got home from school yesterday.  This is also another treat made with what I had on hand in the fridge and pantry.  My favourite kind.

We, as you may know, are selling our house.  So baking and cleaning as you go bites.  I feel like you just can’t get into baking without making a mess.  Have you sold a house?  If so, then you know what I’m going through.  I mean I’m not a dirty person, lazy maybe, dirty no.  But when you have two hundred pounds of dogs, two kids and a husband; it all makes for an unreasonable amount of cleaning when there could be a showing at any moment. It’s also very stressful and when I’m stressed I bake and there you see my dilemma.  Good times indeed :)

I may not be blogging or baking cookies regularly but I wanted to keep the Wednesday treat day going for the girls.  Plus I happen to have an hour to sit down and write the blog post.  Yay me!

Here it goes!  Lemon Curd Cheesecake Bars

Crust

• one package graham crackers
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 tbsp melted butter

Cheesecake

• one 8oz package softened cream cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• zest of one lemon
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Lemon Curd

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 2 tsp lemon zest

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Pulse graham crackers and sugar until finely ground.
3. Add melted butter until they graham crackers come together.
4. Press into 8” square pan. Set aside
5. In a medium bowl, cream together the cheesecake ingredients.
6. Pour on top of graham cracker crust.  Bake for 17-20 minutes until cream cheese is set. Let cool.
7. In medium saucepan.  Whisk together the eggs, sugar and lemon juice.  Add the zest and butter.  Turn onto medium heat and cook.
8. Continually whisk until the mixture thickens.  Pour mixture through a mesh sieve to remove any larger bits.  Cover with plastic wrap and store in fridge until cool. 30-40 minutes.
9. Pour curd over cheesecake and chill for at least an hour.
10. Remove from fridge and cut into bars.
11. Enjoy!

Now these are some tasty little treats.  Little bars of sunshine. 

Whilst I don’t recommend living through the sale of a house if you are a baker but I do recommend these bars!

Thanks for looking!

Raspberry Cheesecake Bars–Two Ways

Here’s a question!  Graham cracker crust or shortbread crust?  As a self proclaimed non-fan of cheesecake, I don’t have a preference.  I mean I’ll eat it but it’s not a dessert I seek out, like so many I’ve learned.  So when a friend asked if I could make some I said yes but then I couldn’t decide which crust to use.  As you can imagine I made both. I also slightly changed the cheesecake part too, so you’ll get both recipe.

Now both bars were quite tasty, for cheesecake, but I still don’t have an answer to which crust is better.  I took them to Rowan’s daycare for the teachers and will be serving them at tonight’s Thanksgiving dinner.  I hope to have an answer by Monday.

Recipe 1: Shortbread crust

• 1 1/2 cup unbleached flour
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp soft butter
• 1/4 brown sugar
• 1 cup raspberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp corn starch mixed in 4 tbsp water
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1/3 heavy cream

1. Mix together the flour, butter and brown sugar until the mixture is like soft oatmeal, press into a 8” square pan.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until it starts to brown at edges.  set aside.
2. In a sauce pan, combine the raspberries, sugar and water. Bring to a boil.  Once the raspberries start to break down, add the cornstarch flurry to help thicken the sauce.  Set aside.
3. Beat together in mixer the remaining ingredients until smooth.
4. Pour cream cheese mixture onto the crust.  Spoon the raspberry compote into the cream cheese then use a spoon to mix.
5. Drop temperature in oven to 300 and bake until set, about 25 minutes.
6. Let cool completely and slice into squares.

Recipe 2: Graham Cracker Crust

• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/4 sugar
• 1 cup raspberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp corn starch mixed in 4 tbsp water
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg plus 1tbsp egg whites
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt

1. Mix together the graham crumbs, butter and sugar until the mixture is like soft oatmeal, press into a 8” square pan.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until it starts to brown at edges.  set aside.
2. In a sauce pan, combine the raspberries, sugar and water. Bring to a boil.  Once the raspberries start to break down, add the cornstarch flurry to help thicken the sauce.  Set aside.
3. Beat together in mixer the remaining ingredients until smooth.
4. Pour cream cheese mixture onto the crust.  Spoon the raspberry compote into the cream cheese then use a spoon to mix.
5. Bake until set, about 35 minutes.
6. Let cool completely and slice into squares.

A couple things I noticed between both recipes.  The shortbread crust held together better after baking and had a nice crunch.  The yogurt gave a slightly tangier flavour, which I enjoyed, and also was lower in fat than the heavy cream, which I love.

So let me know your preference!  I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for looking!

Treat Day Wednesday–Chocolate Cheesecake Pops

Sorry, I’m late.  Right day just a little later than normal.

I’ll get right to it, Rob’s away.  And when Rob usually goes away for more than a day,  I end up doing something to myself.  Whether it’s conscious effort or not, there you go.  This week has been a doozy.  I have slipped a disc (yes I picked up the soap in the shower :)) and then I woke up with what could be described as a second nose.  I’m a 16 year old girl again.  And then yesterday I poured scalding hot tea all over my legs that left a beauty 2nd degree burn on my right knee.  Rob comes home Friday, I’m hoping I’ll survive.  I think I’ll order pizza tonight to be on the safe side.

So with it also being Wednesday and all I felt I should try to stay away from the stove or oven for today’s treat,  just to be safe.  The temperature is also at 85 and with the humidity that makes it over 100 degrees F out, so I went with popsicles.

These are super simple all the way through.  Right up until you try to get them out of the popsicle molds, then you need to be a rocket scientist (or maybe that’s just me).

Recipe: (don’t be scared)

• 1 pkg jello chocolate pudding
• 1 pkg jello cheesecake pudding
• 3 1/2 cups milk

1. Mix together (I know it’s crazy)
2. When it starts to thicken, stick into popsicle molds and freeze 24 hours.
3. Attempt to take them out of molds, it took me forever but so worth it once they came out.

And there you have it.  Simple and Delish!

Again Rob is home on Friday so if you don’t hear from me by then,  I’ve fallen and I can’t get up LOL

Thanks for looking!

Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake Bars

First off cherries are not my favourite fruit.  I mean I’ll eat them but if the choice be given I’d probably go another way.  Secondly I had to use them before they went bad and since everyone else loves them in the house I thought why not create something.  But instead of pie, which is a fan fav, I decided to make them into bars.

So to the pantry I went and this is what I came up with.  I took several recipes and took the parts I liked the best.  I used my cherry pie filling recipe, combined with a wafer crumb crust and added a little cheesecake filling to balance the tartness of the cherries.  So even though I’m not a fan, these were damn good!  Rob even said they had to go to work because he’ll eat the entire pan.  So I’ll take that as a positive review ;)

Recipe:

• 2 pkgs chocolate wafer cookies
• 1 stick butter melted
• 2 cans tart cherries in water
• 3 tbsp corn starch
• 2 tbsp flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Crush up the wafer cookies into crumbs and mix with melted butter.  I used my food processor to get the crumbs small.
2. Reserve 3/4 cup of crumbs and place aside, pat the remainder of the crumbs into baking pan.
3. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes and let cool.
4. In large saucepan take juice from 2 cans tart cherries.  Heat until it starts to steam.
5. Add sugar, corn starch and flour and bring to boil.  Remove from heat when thickened.  Stir in cherries. Set aside.
6. In bowl of mixer, combine cream cheese, sugar, egg, milk and vanilla. Set aside.
7. Pour cherries over chocolate wafer curst making sure it completely covers.
8. Pour cream cheese mixture over cherries.
9. Take remaining crumbs and sprinkle over top.
10. Bake at 350 for 20-25minutes.  Let cool for 15 minutes then chill in fridge for an hour.
11. Slice and serve!

I really like the combination here of the sweet and tart!  I also really like creating a new recipe from several others, it makes me feel accomplished :)

Thanks for looking!