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Archive for the ‘Desserts’ Category

Banana Cheesecake

Posted in Desserts, Entertaining Ideas, Holiday Recipes, Holidays, tagged , , , on May 6, 2011| 3 Comments »


My most wonderful mother-in-law will be arriving later today for the weekend. We are pretty excited about her coming for Mother’s Day!

I wanted to make something extra special for her so I contacted my sister-in-law to find out her favorite desserts. One of them just happens to be The Cheesecake Factory’s Banana Cheesecake.

After a little bit of searching online I found the recipe and dived right in to create this treat for her.

I will warn you that it takes a bit of patience to make, but the result is most definitely worth it!

Ingredients for Banana Cheesecake.

Smash cookies until finely crushed (or pulse in food processor). At least this way, I could put Captain Cavedweller to work!

Press obliterated cookies into the bottom of a springform pan.

Mash up enough bananas to make 1 cup. I used three, and then made Captain Cavedweller mash them for me.

Beat the cream cheese until it is smooth and creamy.

Add your eggs one at a time.

Pour batter into crust.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes then reduce temp to 200 for 75-90 minutes. Mine was closer to 90 when I took it out of the oven and could probably have gone another 5-10 minutes to be done the way I would have really liked. I recommend not deciding to make this at say 7 p.m. at night because you'll be standing in your PJs staring at the stove waiting for this to be done!

You can garnish the cheesecake with slices of fresh banana, a dollop of whipped cream, whatever floats your boat. My boat was floating on caramel sauce, Heath bits and chocolate swirlies.

Enjoy!

Banana Cheesecake

1 package vanilla sandwich cookies

1/4 cup butter, melted

24 ounces cream cheese, softened

2/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp. cornstarch

3 eggs

1 cup mashed bananas

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. banana flavoring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place cookies in a resealable bag and smash the dickens out of them with a cast iron skillet or a meat tenderizer. If you have a food processor, just pulse until they are finely crushed. Mine were finely crushed by Captain Cavedweller.  Crushed by the fine Captain Cavedweller. Finally crushed finely. Oh, you know what I mean.

Add melted butter and mix well. Press into the bottom of a 10″ springform pan and refrigerate.

Beat cream cheese on medium speed with electric mixer until creamy. Add sugar and cornstarch, beating until blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in bananas, cream and vanilla and banana flavoring. If you don’t have banana flavoring, just add another spoon of vanilla. Place springform pan on cookie sheet. Pour mixture into prepared crust. Bake 15 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 200 degrees and continue baking 75-90 minutes until center is just set. Loosen edge of springform pan but do not remove. Let cool completely then take off pan rim. Refrigerate cheesecake for at least six hours before serving.

Happy Entertaining and Happy Mother’s Day!

She Who Can’t Wait for my MIL to Arrive!

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Fruit Pizza

Posted in Desserts, Easy Recipes, Entertaining at Home, Recipes, tagged , on March 25, 2011| 5 Comments »

I was desperate for something fruity and light and delicious the other day to make for a party. So I decided to finally give fruit pizza a try.

Why didn’t someone tell me how perfectly wonderful and easy to make this is? Why have you been holding out on me?

Needless to say, I will definitely be making this again.

Ingredients for Fruit Pizza. The blob in the pan is sugar cookie dough, cooked longer than it should have been, thanks for asking.

Mix whipped cream cheese with powdered sugar for the filling.

Spread over your sugar cookie crust. I would mention at this point that you should cut your pizza into slices or bars at this point.

It was not so much fun trying to cut through all the fruit.

If you are using berries and they are not in season, you can bring out their flavor by slicing and sprinkling with sugar. Let rest at room temperature about 20 minutes. I’m fairly certain people think I am nuts when I purchase berries because if they don’t smell like berries, they aren’t going in my cart. Go ahead, sniff a carton and see how many strange looks you get over in the produce department.

Once you’ve got the pizza, start layering on the fruit.

Keep on layering all that fruity goodness.

Arrange on a platter and watch them disappear!

Fruit Pizza

Sugar cookie crust, baked (you can make from scratch or be lazy like me and purchase a tube of cookie dough

1 cup whipped cream cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 banana, sliced

1 kiwi, peeled and sliced

1 cup sliced strawberries

1/2  cup grapes, sliced in half

1 can mandarin oranges

Bake your sugar cookie crust and let cool completely. You can use a round pizza pan or a baking sheet. I knew I was serving this on a rectangular platter so cutting it into squares made more sense.

Mix together cream cheese and sugar. Remove crust from pan then spread with whipped cream cheese. Slice.

Top with sliced fruit and serve.

How easy is that!

Go ahead, try it, you’ll like it!

She Who Now Loves Fruit Pizza

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Lemon Cookies

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Recipes, tagged , , on March 11, 2011| 3 Comments »

The other day I was in the mood to bake something light and lemony and these super easy cookies fit the bill. There are very few ingredients, take just minutes to bake and are finished beautifully with a dusting of powdered sugar. If you are looking for a simple cookie that just screams “springtime” give these a whirl. Your taste buds might do a little dance for joy!

Ingredients for super easy lemon cookies

Melt butter, then add eggs, cake mix and lemon juice.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a baking sheet.

Ready for the oven.

Bake until cookies are just set - about 8 minutes.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar...

and Enjoy!

Lemon Cookies

1 box Betty Crocker Lemon Cake Mix

2 eggs

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 tsp. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter then combine with remaining ingredients. Drop by onto a baking sheet and bake about eight minutes or until cookies are just set. Do not let them get brown because they will get hard and goodness knows lemon cookies should be soft and luscious. It’s a law written somewhere, I’m sure!

Remove from the oven and while warm, dust with powdered sugar. Sit back and enjoy!

See, I told you they were easy!

Happy Lemon Cookie Baking!

She Who is Desperate for Spring

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Banana Pudding

Posted in Comfort Food, Desserts, Recipes, tagged , on March 4, 2011| 1 Comment »

Banana Pudding

Hubby likes bananas. As in if we don’t have any, he goes a little bananas. Other than meat, they are the one thing he thinks he must have on a daily basis.

The other day, I was feeling particulary generous and offered to make him banana pudding. After his comment that he didn’t think we had any instant in the pantry, I was less inclined, but forged ahead anyway. I’m glad I did because the pudding was really good – smooth and creamy with just the right amount of banana flavoring.

The recipe is easy, so make it and enjoy!

The ingredients - all simple and good.

Blend dry ingredients in a heavy-duty saucepan. If you don't have a heavy pan, cook this via the double boiler method. It will take longer, but you won't run the risk of scorching your pudding.

So, I forgot to take a photo of the milk being added to the dry ingredients and then cooking until it starts to thicken. Once that happens, add about 1 cup of the milk mixture, stirring in just a bit at a time, to your beaten eggs.

Pour egg mixture back into the pan and stir continuously.

When it has thickened, add in the banana flavoring and remove from heat.

Slice a banana and line dessert bowls with Nilla wafers and banana slices. Pour pudding on top.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap, pressing it down on top of the pudding to keep a film from forming. (say that fast three times in a row!) Refrigerate for at least an hour.

 

You can serve plain or...

add some whipped cream or...

dip bananas in chocolate and add to pudding with a few more Nilla wafers.

Banana Pudding

1/3  cup sugar
2     tablespoons cornstarch
1/8  teaspoon salt
2  cups milk
2  large eggs, slightly beaten
2 teaspoons banana flavoring

1 banana

Nilla wafers

Slice banana. Line dessert cups or bowls with Nilla wafers and banana slices, set aside. Lightly beat eggs in a small bowl. Set aside.

In 2-quart heavy saucepan, mix sugar, cornstarch and salt. Gradually stir in milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute.

Gradually stir about one cup of the hot mixture into eggs, a few spoonfuls at a time,  then stir back into hot mixture in saucepan. (Note, if you mix the eggs and the milk mixture together all at once, you’ll end up with eggy lumps that will not be the most palatable thing you’ve ever tried to swallow.)

Boil and stir 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in flavoring.

Pour pudding into dessert dishes. Cover and refrigerate about 1 hour or until chilled. Store covered in refrigerator. When ready to serve, garnish with whipped cream, banana slices (dipped in chocolate if you want some added deliciousness) and a few Nilla wafers.

Enjoy!

She Who Doesn’t Always Have Instant Pudding

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