Showing posts with label cream cheese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cream cheese. Show all posts

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Smoked Salmon Potato Stacks

If you are looking for a change from crackers and bread as a base for canapés, may I suggest sliced potatoes? They work particularly well with cream cheese and smoked salmon. Check out my deliciously adorable smoked salmon potato stacks! It's a delicious combination. And naturally gluten-free.



I have a confession to make. Sometimes I have neither crackers or bread. But I almost always have potatoes. Panfry a few thick slices and you've got the perfect base for the spread of your choice. 

I created this recipe a few years back for Appetizer Week. Since then I've served potato slices with many other toppings but you can't beat this classic combination.

Smoked Salmon Potato Stacks


Quick to make ahead and quick to assemble, your party guests will love these easy to eat finger food.

Ingredients
2 potatoes (Together mine weighed about 13 3/4 oz or 390g.)
Olive oil
5 oz or 140g cream cheese at room temperature
4 tablespoons plain yogurt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper
Tiny piece purple onion 1/3 oz or 10g
6 oz or 170g thinly sliced smoked salmon
Chopped parsley, mint or fennel fronds to decorate, optional

Method
Peel your potatoes and slice them into rounds about 1/4 inch or 6mm thick. I got about 10 or 11 good slices from each potato and discarded the end bits, which would have been too small to match the rest.



Drizzle a little olive oil on a non-stick griddle pan and cook your potatoes in batches until they are browned on both sides and cooked through. Set aside to cool.



Mix the cream cheese, yogurt and lemon juice together in a small bowl and give it a generous few grinds of black pepper.



Thinly slice your purple onion.



Put the cream cheese mixture in a Ziploc bag and cut a small corner off so you can squeeze it out.

Share the cream cheese mixture out between the cooked potato slices, reserving just a little bit to garnish.



Cut the smoked salmon slices into skinnier pieces and roll them up. Set two or three small rolls on the cream cheese mixture.



Finish with another small dab of the cream cheese mixture and top with a sliver of the purple onion. If you like onion and know your crowd does too, feel free to put more.



Sprinkle with chopped parsley, mint or fennel fronds to decorate, if desired.



Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.



Enjoy!


Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Cherry Blueberry Cheesecake Bundt for #BundtaMonth



While I was in Houston for a week visiting family, I decided that it would be a good time to bake my Bundt for April’s BundtaMonth because 1. Time would be short when I got back to Dubai and 2. I had been invited over for dinner and 3.  I found this lovely Bundt pan in my cupboard.


As I might possibly have said to my BundtaMonth friends, you know you have too many baking pans when you forget you own something as pretty as that!   (Disclaimer:  I will completely deny even possibly saying that if anyone brings this to my husband’s attention.  Because: One can never have too many baking pans.  Am I right?)

Our BundtaMonth hosts, Lora and Anuradha decided that our theme this month is cherries!  Since they are frankly hard to find fresh at this time of the year in Houston, I decided to go with dried cherries and add in some fresh blueberries to join them.  This Bundt has three layers:  Cream cheese pound cake batter, followed by a cream cheese filling based on the cream cheese layer in this great recipe from fellow BundtaMonth member, Anita from Hungry Couple,  and then another layer of the pound cake batter.  Then, to top it all off, a drizzled cream cheese glaze.  I took it over to my little sister’s house for dinner and her youngest son fawned over it lovingly until it was time for supper.  Then they all had healthy (not healthy!) slices for dessert.  I tell you true:  Like baking pans, there is no such thing as too much cream cheese.  

Yes, it was already cut!  Because I had to take photos.  I gave the cut slices to my elderly neighbor
who was sick with bronchitis and needed love and sugar. 

Ingredients
Cake batter:
2 cups or 250g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 225g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
6 ounce or 170g cream cheese (at room temperature)
2 cups or 450g sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
Zest of a lemon

Cheesecake filling:
8 oz or 226g cream cheese (room temperature)
1 egg
1/4 cup or 55g sugar
1/4 cup or 30g flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup or 100g dried cherries plus a few extra for decoration
1/2 cup or 75g fresh blueberries plus a few extra for decoration

Glaze:
2 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup or 30g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-4 teaspoons milk

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your Bundt pan by spraying liberally with non-stick spray and then coating with a little flour.

The filling is very easy.  Add all the ingredients, except the cherries and blueberries, to your mixing bowl and beat until smooth and lump free.



Fold in your cherries and blueberries.  Cover with cling film and refrigerate until needed.



For the cake batter, in a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.


In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth.


Add the sugar, either a third at a time, beating well after each addition, or in a slow continuous stream as you are beating.


Continue beating on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 3 - 5 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.



Add the vanilla and lemon zest and beat until incorporated.


Add in half the flour mixture and beat again.


Add the rest of the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated.


Pour half the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.


Spoon on the cherry blueberry cream cheese filling and spread it around the pan.


Top with the remaining cream cheese batter.


Bake for about 55-65 minutes in your preheated oven or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.


Allow the cake to cool in the pan for at least 15- 20 minutes before trying to remove it.  It should start to pull away from the sides of the pan as it cools.

To remove it, place a wire rack upside down on the cake and invert the cake pan to release the cake.  Allow to cool completely before adding the glaze.


While your cake is cooling, chop your extra decoration cherries and set aside.


In a small bowl, combine your first three glaze ingredients and then add the milk, starting with just 1 teaspoon.




Continue mixing well and adding milk one teaspoon at a time until you reach drizzling thickness.  I ended up adding only 3 teaspoons to mine.


When your cake is completely cool, add the cream cheese glaze to a small baggie and cut the corner off.  Squeeze out the glaze slowly and drizzle it all over the cake.



Stud it with bits of cherry and whole blueberries to decorate.



Enjoy!



BundtaMonth


And check out my fellow bloggers beautiful cakes:

If you'd like to add your cherry Bundt for April, here are the rules:

- Simple rule: Use any cherries (or any part of the cherry) – and bake us a Bundt for April
- Post it before April 30, 2013.
- Use the #BundtAMonth hashtag in your title. (For ex: title should read #BundtAMonth: Chocolate Cinnamon Bundt)
- Add your entry to the Linky tool below
- Link back to our announcement posts.

Follow Bundt-a-Month on Facebook where we feature all our gorgeous bundt cakes. Or head over to our Pinterest board for inspiration and choose from over 350 Bundt cake recipes.


Thursday, March 21, 2013

Jalapeño Popper Grilled Cheese Sandwiches



Way back in February, I was minding my own business when a certain post from Katherine at Eggton arrived in my inbox.  It was witty and fun, much like Katherine herself, and the recipe was for a tasty grilled cheese sandwich made with cheddar and cream cheese and ham.  It gave me a scathingly brilliant idea!  (Anybody else grow up watching Hayley Mills in the Trouble with Angels movies?)  How about a jalapeño popper grilled cheese sandwich, I immediately said to myself, using bacon instead of her ham and adding in jalapeños and garlic?  And, ooh, oooh, I could serve them with avocado halves filled with ranch dressing!  Yes, I could!  I had all the ingredients on hand so it didn’t take me long to answer that question.  I kid you not, jalapeño popper grilled cheese sandwiches are fabulous!  I hope you will agree.  I share this recipe along with many thanks to Katherine for the inspiration.

Ingredients
4 oz or 115g grated cheddar cheese
4 oz or 115g cream cheese (at room temperature)
1-2 tablespoons butter (at room temperature) for buttering bread
6-7 slices smoked bacon
1/2 - 1 fresh jalapeño (depending on how hot you like it)
1/2 large clove or 1 small clove garlic
6 slices sandwich bread

Optional for serving: ranch dressing and avocados

Method
Fry your bacon until crispy then drain it on a paper towel.  Using a sharp knife, chop the bacon into small pieces



Slice the jalapeño in half, removing the membranes and seeds, if you don’t like things too spicy, leaving them in if you do.  Mince your jalapeño and garlic very finely.

As you can see, I left the seeds in, but we are gluttons for spicy punishment.

Mix your cheeses together with the minced jalapeño and garlic.



Add in the chopped bacon and stir well.



Butter one side of each slice of bread. Lay out a piece of cling film on your work surface then place the bread so the buttered side is on the cling film.  (One piece of cling film per sandwich.)


Put a third of the jalapeño popper cheese filling on three of the slices of bread.  Close the sandwiches with the remaining slices, making sure to leave the buttered side out.


Fold the cling film over and gently press down on the sandwich.


Grill on your griddle pan, until the cheese is all melted and the bread is nicely toasted on both sides.




Serve each sandwich with some ranch dressing to dip.  Extra points if you serve the ranch dressing in a half avocado.



Enjoy!



If you are a fan of jalapeño poppers, you might also enjoy this jalapeño popper chicken chili. (Link in the caption.)

Jalapeño Popper Chicken Chili