Snickers Cheesecake

I decided to skip the water bath on this cheesecake ( I have ruined several cakes that way) and the cake did fine! It did have cracks in it (which were covered by the candy, caramel and chocolate) but the texture was amazingly creamy!

Crust 2 cups graham cracker crumbs 1 stick unsalted butter; melted 3 tablespoons sugar ½ teaspoon salt

Cheesecake 4 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each; room temperature 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar 4 large eggs; room temperature 3/4 cup heavy cream 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Topping 20 Mini Snickers; cut in fourths 1/3 cup roasted peanuts; chopped 1/4 cup caramel syrup

Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Tightly wrap a 9 inch springform pan in heavy duty foil. This step prevents leaks when using a water bath. I also take the extra step by placing the foil wrapped spring form pan inside an oven bag while baking.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into the bottom of your pan and about 1 inch up the sides. Bake for 7 minutes and cool completely on a wire rack.

3. Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

4. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with your paddle attachment, combine the sugar and cream cheese and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream and vanilla and mix until smooth.

5. Pour batter into prepared crust. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan.

6. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, the edges will appear to be set, but the center will still have some jiggle to it. At this point, close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. After one hour has passed, carefully remove the cheesecake from the water bath and place on a cooling rack to cool completely. Once the cake is completely cooled, place it into the refrigerator for at least 5 hours.

7. Top with Snickers bars, peanuts and caramel (I even added some Chocolate Syrup)

Storage: A tightly covered cheesecake can be stored in the refrigerator for up to five days. The cheesecake can be stored for approximately 2 months in the freezer. I recommend you freeze this variation without the topping (Snickers, peanuts, caramel). To defrost, allow cake to defrost in the refrigerator overnight.

Recipe from mybakingaddiction.com

Cheesecake and Kisses

It's April again which means that my best friend, April gets a cheesecake made by me for her birthday! I emailed her and asked her if she had any ideas. She sent me 4 links to recipes found on blogs. I had been wanting to make a chocolate cheesecake and this one looked amazing! I read through the recipe and my mouth dropped to the floor when I read how much cream cheese is in this recipe! 32oz!!! But oh boy those 32 oz. made the creamiest most decadent cheesecake ever. And April's husband would agree as well because he kissed me on the forehead after he tasted it! The only alteration that I made to this cheesecake was to add a couple dashes of cinnamon to the crust! If you haven't tried this in your cheesecake crust, do it! It makes it even more amazing! And I used regular graham crackers because I had them on hand but it worked out just fine!

Double Chocolate Italian Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Crust Ingredients:

1 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons sugar

Cheesecake Ingredients:

32 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
4 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
6 ounces bittersweet (or semi-sweet) chocolate, melted and cooled to just above room temperature
6 ounces white chocolate, melted and cooled to just above room temperature

Glaze Ingredients:

8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Instructions:

1. Combine crust ingredients in a mixing bowl. Pour mixture into a greased 9-inch spring form pan and press flat. Wrap the bottom and outside of the pan with foil. We recommend two layers of extra-wide heavy-duty foil. We also use a rectangular piece of cardboard (4-6 inches long and 2-3 inches wide) placed between the latch (on the outside of the spring form) and the foil, to prevent the latch from piercing the foil.

2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Put softened cream cheese, whipping cream, softened butter, and sugar in a large bowl. Mix at medium-low speed just until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time and mix on low speed until blended.

3. Divide cream cheese mixture evenly into two bowls. Add melted bittersweet chocolate to one, stirring to mix. Add melted white chocolate to the other, stirring to mix.

4. Pour white chocolate cheesecake batter into prepared pan, smoothing into a flat layer. Gently spoon bittersweet chocolate in a layer over the white chocolate batter. Place spring form pan in a large shallow roaster or broiler pan. Fill pan with an inch of hot water.

5. Bake 60-80 minutes or until edges are puffed and top looks dull and is dry to the touch. Center should move slightly when side of pan is tapped. Turn off oven. Let cheesecake stand in oven for an hour. Cool to room temperature; refrigerate overnight.

6. Make glaze by melting chocolate and butter over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in corn syrup. Allow glaze to cool slightly (to about 80 degrees).

7. Remove sides from spring form pan. Place cheesecake on a wire rack over a baking sheet or counter top. Pour glaze over top and sides of cheesecake, spreading with a spatula. Refrigerate until set. Slice into 16 pieces. Store in refrigerator or freeze for longer storage

**Recipe from Tammysrecipes.com

The Ultimate Cheesecake

** Tastes way better than the photo makes it look!

You have probably stopped looking at this blog since nothing new has happened in about 4 months. Being pregnant and having morning sickness has really made me hate food which makes me sad. I've only cooked a handful of times in the past 4 months and really have not done any baking. But every year for my friends birthday I bake her a cheesecake. I thought about not doing one this year, but I really love her so I sucked it up and made
Tyler Florences Ultimate Cheesecake!

It looks like an ordinary cheesecake, but it's not! The cake part has lemon zest in it which really enhances all of the flavors and the crust has cinnamon in it, which makes it to die for! I will be putting cinnamon in every cheesecake crust from now on! And the cheesecake is made with a pint of sour cream which makes it so smooth and creamy. All of the flavors combined and the creamy consistency really made this one of the top cheesecakes I've made or tasted!

I gave my friend her cheesecake along with macerated strawberries to top it with. And then I made her cut it up so we could eat it and we all loved it! Her 5 year old son kept saying yum while he ate it, so you know it has to be good!

For the recipe, click HERE!

Chocolate Cheesecakes

It's calling your name...(insert your name here) Eat Me, Eat Me!!!

It's a good thing that all of my friends love cheesecake, I get to try so many different flavors and combinations! My friends birthday was last month, so in keeping with tradition of baking them a cheesecake I made mini cheesecakes! I have seen these mini graham cracker crumbs crusts made by Keebler and decided to use them. I used the same recipe for my Cheesecake Nibbles found HERE , but I used the pre-made crusts instead of making my own. For the chocolate layer on top of the cheesecakes I used a chocolate ganache recipe. These were so easy to make and make a great gift!

Chocolate Ganache:

½ Cup semi sweet chocolate chips
2 Tablespoons heavy cream

Place chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and heat in 30 second intervals until melted and smooth. Stir in heavy cream until shiny and smooth. Spoon ganache over each cheesecake.

P.S. If you make these cheesecakes, give them to your friend and find out that she can't eat chocolate because she's breastfeeding and chocolate upsets her baby, she can just peel the chocolate layer off and give it to her husband!

Cheesecake Nibbles

Tracy Wanting To Eat Them!

My sister found this recipe years ago and these cheesecake nibbles are amazing! They are so quick and easy and you can dress them up a thousand ways! I made them for a Girls Night Out but they are also great for showers. My best friend April also makes them often, so I bought some mini foil cups from her to make them. I have actually never made them this small, but they were fun!

** The recipe says that it makes 36, but I only got 25.

Ingredients:
36 vanilla wafers
10 oz pkg Nestles Swirled white and choc morsels
2 pkgs (8 oz ea) cream cheese, room temp.
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Place 36 2-inch foil bake cups on baking sheet(s) with sides. Place one vanilla wafer, flat side down, on bottom of each cup. Place 5 to 6 morsels on top of each wafer.
Beat cream cheese, sugar and flour in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla extract; beat well. Spoon heaping tablespoons of cream cheese mixture into each bake cup ( I used a medium ice cream scoop for this).
Bake 15 to 17 minutes or until just set and not browned. Remove from oven to wire rack. While still warm, top cheesecake with more morsels. Morsels will soften but retain their shape. Cool completely. Top with fruit or whatever you want! Cover and refrigerate.

Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake

I love that my friends love cheesecake, that means lots of experimenting! I have started a "tradition" (I guess) of making my friends cheesecake for their birthdays. Melanie requested lemon raspberry cheesecake so here it is. The recipe is from myrecipe.com. The graham cracker crust was a little soggy and the cheesecake was very lemony. Everyone loved it! Melanie said that this cheesecake tasted almost like the version made by the Cheesecake Factory. Oh my gosh! I think that is the best compliment ever!!!

Ingredients

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
5 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
3 tablespoons sugar
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 pint fresh raspberries

Preparation

Combine graham cracker crumbs, butter, and 3 tablespoons sugar. Press into bottom of an 8-inch springform pan; set aside.

Beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add 1 1/2 cups sugar and next 3 ingredients, beating until blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with raspberries; pour remaining batter over raspberries. Bake at 325° for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until cheesecake is almost set. Turn oven off, and partially open door; leave cake in oven 1 hour. Remove from oven; run a knife around edge of pan, and release sides. Cool completely on a wire rack. Cover and chill 8 hours. Store in refrigerator.

Makes 10 servings

Mango Cheesecake

First of all I have to pat myself on the back because this is the first cheesecake that I have made that didn't crack!!!! I'm not sure why it didn't or what I did different but I'm very proud of myself.
Now my story-Every year for my friends birthday I bake her a different cheesecake. This year I picked Mango Cheesecake because I have never had or cooked with mango. I had a small piece of the cheesecake and it was very creamy and everyone said that it didn't taste like a normal cheesecake, it was better! I made the basil syrup and only one person really liked it, so I probably won't make that again (although it smelled amazing) and I used a grahm cracker crust instead of the biscotti. The recipe is Giada's from the Food Network website.

Mango Cheesecake:
8 ounces biscotti
3/4 cup butter, melted
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese, room temperature
2 cups mango puree
4 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
Basil Lemon Syrup:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 packed cup fresh basil leaves


For the Mango Cheesecake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Wrap the outside of a 9-inch springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides with 2 layers of heavy-duty foil. Finely grind the biscotti in a food processor. Add the melted butter and process until the crumbs are moistened. Press the crumb mixture over the bottom (not the sides) of the prepared pan. Bake until the crust is golden, about 15 minutes. Cool the crust completely on a cooling rack.

Blend the cream cheese and ricotta in a food processor. Add the mango puree, eggs, and sugar and pulse until the mixture is smooth.

Pour the mango mixture over the crust in the pan. Place the springform pan in a large roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and moves slightly when the pan is gently shaken, about 1 hour 30 minutes. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack to cool for 30 minutes. Place in the refrigerator and cool completely, at least 8 hours and up to 2 days.

For the Basil Lemon Syrup: Place the sugar, water, and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat and cook until the sugar is dissolved. Cool the syrup completely. In a food processor combine the basil and the cooled syrup. Pulse until the herbs are finely chopped. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve.

Slice the cheesecake and place on a serving plate. Drizzle with the syrup and serve.