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

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Sincere Pumpkin Patch Spicy Cheese Ball

Extra sharp cheddar and cream cheese can be flavored with a variety of herbs and spices and rolled up ball- or log-shaped for a savory appetizer that will be a welcome addition to any party table. For added interest, roll your cheese ball in chopped pecans or walnuts.

Food Lust People Love: This pumpkin-shaped spicy cheese ball is a great addition to any Halloween or Thanksgiving party table.


If you’ve been reading along for a while, you might have noticed something.  I didn’t have a single Halloween post until last week’s Muffin Monday.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy Halloween.  In fact, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, when my girls were little, I was chief organizer and instigator of Halloween celebrations in our little neighborhood in the small oilfield town of Macaé, Brazil.

When we lived in Kuala Lumpur, we took part in trick-or-treating by joining another neighborhood’s festivities since no one went door-to-door in our mostly local area.  We parked on the route, decorated the trunk of our car and gave out candy.  But since the girls left home for university and I started the blog, my Halloween decorating and baking has dropped off significantly, although I still join my friends to give out candy if I happen to be in KL for Halloween.  It’s such fun to see the children in costumes.

Trunk-or-Treat - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia circa 2010


This week’s Sunday Supper theme is Halloween Finger Foods and since I don’t have little ones at home, I decided to go savory instead of sweet by making a spicy cheese ball that would be a great addition to any Halloween party table.  Goodness knows there will be enough candy already.

Like Linus from the comic strip Peanuts, I like to think that the Great Pumpkin will come to the most sincere pumpkin patch (or buffet table) and bring gifts for everyone.  He might even be tempted by this cheese ball.  It is most sincerely cheesy.

Ingredients
13 1/4 oz or 375g extra-sharp orange cheddar cheese
8 oz or about 225g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 small bunch chives (Mine was about 1/2 oz or 15g)
1 jalapeño (Mine was about 3/4 oz or 20g)
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon smoked paprika plus extra for decorating, if desired
2 tablespoons plain yogurt

For decoration: One broccoli stalk - with leaves, if possible
To serve: Crackers of your choice or bread

Method
Grate your cheddar cheese into a large mixing bowl. Finely mince your chives and garlic. Cut the stem end off of the jalapeño and remove the seeds, if you want to add just a little spice. If you like spicy food, by all means, leave the seeds in. Mince the jalapeño finely.



Add the softened cream cheese, the chives, garlic, jalapeño, smoked paprika and plain yogurt to the cheddar cheese.


Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.



Line a small round bowl with cling film and heap the cheese mixture in it.  Press down with a spatula so the cheese fills the bottom of the lined bowl completely. Cover with the cling film and round out the top with your hands.  It’s like playing with Play-Do again.


Set the covered cheese ball in the refrigerator for several hours so it will stiffen back up.  I ended up leaving mine overnight because I got busy with other projects.

Remove the cheese ball from the bowl but leave it covered with the cling film.  Press the ball into a pumpkin-like shape.  Remember that pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes so don’t get too hung up on complete roundness or perfection.

Use your thumb to make grooves in the ball from top to bottom.



When you are satisfied that it looks like the best pumpkin you can manage, unwrap the cling film and use a soft paint brush to brush a little smoked paprika in the grooves to enhance the look.


Cut the stem off your broccoli, keeping a couple of leaves attached, if possible.  Cut what will be the top of your pumpkin stem at an angle.  Set the stem on top of your cheese pumpkin ball and push it in just a little.   Is that not the cutest thing!?



Serve with crackers or bread, and don’t forget to put out a knife so that folks can cut a piece off and spread the cheese ball.

Food Lust People Love: This pumpkin-shaped spicy cheese ball is a great addition to any Halloween or Thanksgiving party table.

Enjoy!


Still wondering what to make for your Halloween party? Sunday Supper is here to help with a great list of finger food recipes!

Spooky Snacks and Starters

Tasty Trick-or-Treats


Pin it! 

Food Lust People Love: This pumpkin-shaped spicy cheese ball is a great addition to any Halloween or Thanksgiving party table.
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Monday, May 11, 2015

Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins #MuffinMonday

Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins are sweet muffins made with fresh blackberries, small chunks of cream cheese and lemon zest. They are perfect for breakfast or snack time. You wanna put a glaze on ‘em, go ahead, but they don’t need it.

Food Lust People Love: Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins are sweet muffins made with fresh blackberries, small chunks of cream cheese and lemon zest. They are perfect for breakfast or snack time. You wanna put a glaze on ‘em, go ahead, but they don’t need it.



The last time I made blackberry muffins with cheese, we were still living in Egypt and they were savory with goat’s cheese and thyme. The blackberries added little bites of sweet that were very welcome and worked beautifully with the goat’s cheese.

This time I decided to go sweet, but not too sweet since, remember, these are muffins, not cupcakes. But I still felt the need to add a little something extra and cream cheese is perfect. We put it in savory dishes; we add it to cheesecakes and other desserts. Delicious either way.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
2 eggs
Zest 1 lemon
3 1/2 oz or 100g cream cheese
3 1/2 oz or 100g fresh blackberries

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin tin by lightly rubbing it with oil or use non-stick spray to coat or lining it with paper liners.  When I am baking with cheese, I tend to forgo the papers because the cheese can stick to it.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Then whisk the milk, oil and eggs together in a smaller mixing bowl.

Cut the cream cheese into cubes and add them to the flour mixture. Stir well to coat.


Cut the large blackberries in half or thirds, leaving any little ones whole.

Set aside 12 pieces for popping on top of the muffins before baking and put the rest in the flour bowl. Once again, stir well to make sure the blackberries are coated with flour.



Add your lemon zest to the dry ingredients and stir again.


Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ones and fold until just combined.



Divide the batter between the muffin cups and top with the reserved blackberry pieces.



Bake in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Food Lust People Love: Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins are sweet muffins made with fresh blackberries, small chunks of cream cheese and lemon zest. They are perfect for breakfast or snack time. You wanna put a glaze on ‘em, go ahead, but they don’t need it.


Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes in the pan then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Food Lust People Love: Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins are sweet muffins made with fresh blackberries, small chunks of cream cheese and lemon zest. They are perfect for breakfast or snack time. You wanna put a glaze on ‘em, go ahead, but they don’t need it.


Enjoy!

Pin Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins!

Food Lust People Love: Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins are sweet muffins made with fresh blackberries, small chunks of cream cheese and lemon zest. They are perfect for breakfast or snack time. You wanna put a glaze on ‘em, go ahead, but they don’t need it.
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Thursday, April 16, 2015

Lemon Blueberry Van Halen Bundt #BundtBakers

This Lemon Blueberry Van Halen Bundt is a rich and buttery pound cake, filled with cream cheese and blueberries then drizzled with a lemon cream cheese glaze.

Food Lust People Love: This Lemon Blueberry Van Halen Bundt is a rich and buttery pound cake, filled with cream cheese and blueberries then drizzled with a lemon cream cheese glaze.



If you are a fan of Van Halen, you’ve probably discerned that my contribution for this month’s Bundt Bakers is a pound cake, so I'll elaborate further to say it's flavored with lemon and stuffed with blueberries. There’s also cream cheese and blueberry jam right up in there.

It’s not “an old time, long lost recipe” but one I adapted off of my friend Jenni’s blog, Pastry Chef Online, who in turn adapted it from an original recipe by a certain Miss Patsy. And while I don’t know Miss Patsy, I’m going to hazard a guess from her name that she is “home grown and down home, “ so the renaming of her pound cake is maybe appropriate, if you don’t think too hard about the rest of the Van Halen lyrics. As Jenni has proven myriad times, this recipe is easily adaptable and a great jumping off place for buttery rich pound cakes of various flavors.

This month our theme for Bundt Bakers is Hidden Surprises so, even after adding all the lemon, I couldn’t leave Miss Patsy’s recipe well enough alone; I had to try and put something inside. I chose blueberries and cream cheese, which sounded like a great idea, until the filling sunk. And that is when I added a glaze to the instructions because I had to hide it again. If you don’t mind the look of a blueberry upside down Bundt, leave off the glaze because it was delicious. Rather ugly actually, but definitely delicious. On the other hand, a lemony cream cheese glaze is never a bad thing. Your call.

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups or 285g flour
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/4 cups or 450g sugar
1 1/8 cup or 255g unsalted butter, softened
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup or 60ml whole milk
1/4 cup or 60ml cream
1/4 cup or 60ml fresh lemon juice

For the filling:
2 1/2 oz or 70g cream cheese, cold
1 3/4 oz or 50g fresh blueberries, plus a few extra for decorating, if desired
1/4 cup or 80g blueberry jam

Optional lemon glaze:
1/2 cup or 60g icing sugar
1 1/4 oz or 35g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2-3 teaspoons milk

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 10-cup Bundt pan by greasing and flouring it or using the non-stick spray that has flour already in it.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a bowl and set aside.

Measure your milk, cream and lemon juice together in a measuring cup and stir well. It's going to kind of thicken and get all sour creamy/buttermilky and that's a good thing.





In the bowl of your stand mixer or with electric beaters, cream the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add in the vanilla and then the first egg.



Beat well until combined. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula and add the other two eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.





Add in half your flour and beat well, followed by half your liquid mixture and beat until thoroughly combined.





Scrape the sides of the bowl well and continue beating, adding the balance of the flour and then the balance of the liquids, along with the lemon zest. Beat well.

Spoon two-thirds of your batter into the prepared Bundt pan. Use a spoon to make a very shallow channel in the batter.




For the filling, cut the cream cheese up into small chunks and mix lightly with the jam and fresh blueberries.




Spoon your filling into the channel.



Then top it with the balance of the batter and smooth it out.




Bake in your preheated oven for about 45-50 minutes or until the top is nicely golden and the Bundt begins to just pull away from the sides.



Let the Bundt cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

This is not a thing of beauty



The filling will probably sink to the bottom of the pan, which becomes the top of the cake, making an upside down blueberry cream cheese topping. Which, as I mentioned, while delicious, is not particularly attractive. At least in my opinion. If you’d like to hide it with a glaze, whisk all the glaze ingredients together, adding just enough milk to get it to the consistency you'd like, and then drizzle it (or use a piping bag) to decorate the top of the Bundt.

If you've added the glaze, top with a few blueberries, if desired.


Food Lust People Love: This Lemon Blueberry Van Halen Bundt is a rich and buttery pound cake, filled with cream cheese and blueberries then drizzled with a lemon cream cheese glaze.
Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: This Lemon Blueberry Van Halen Bundt is a rich and buttery pound cake, filled with cream cheese and blueberries then drizzled with a lemon cream cheese glaze.

Many thanks to our host this month, Anshie of Spice Roots for a great, if somewhat vexing, theme and for all the work it takes to host. Have a look at how the rest of our group handled the Hidden Surprises challenge:


#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.


Pin this Lemon Blueberry Van Halen Bundt! 

Food Lust People Love: This Lemon Blueberry Van Halen Bundt is a rich and buttery pound cake, filled with cream cheese and blueberries then drizzled with a lemon cream cheese glaze.







Monday, January 26, 2015

Cream Cheese Banana Pecan Muffins #MuffinMonday


Sweet ripe bananas and soft cream cheese combine to make the best muffins! Add in a goodly number of toasted pecans and these are the perfect breakfast or snack. 

If you’ve ever had a look at my blog roll in the left hand column (assuming you aren’t on a mobile device, and then I don’t know where it goes!) you’ve likely noticed one link called Kelli’s Kitchen. That’s my friend, Kelli’s blog. She was blessed with a grandmother who loved to cook and bake and who was delighted to have little hands helping her in the kitchen as she concocted her culinary magic. Kelli often shares her Nana’s best-loved recipes but just last week, she published one for an Old-Fashioned Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread that she adapted from Southern Living Magazine. I love that Southern Living tried to make the banana nut bread healthier, using some whole wheat and reduced fat cream cheese, but Kelli did Kelli and made it more delicious. Even as I read her post, I knew that I would have to recreate that old-fashioned banana bread in muffin form.

Those sweet bananas and cream cheese may sounds like an unusual combination, but let me assure you that they are divine together. This may be my favorite sweet muffin so far in all my years of Muffin Monday.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup or 190g flour
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 medium-sized bananas (Peeled, mine weighed a little more than 8oz or 230g together)
4 oz or 115g cream cheese, softened
1 large egg
1/3 cup or 75g butter, melted then cooled
1/4 cup or 60ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups or 140g pecans, toasted

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C.  Fill the muffin pan with liners or grease it really well with butter or non-stick spray. In case you are coveting them, my pretty liners were a gift from my elder daughter. They came from Crate & Barrel.

Measure your flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl and give them a good stir to mix.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mash your bananas and softened cream cheese together with fork.



Add in the egg, butter, milk and vanilla and mix well.

Complete the batter by pouring the liquid ingredients into the dry ones and fold until they are just combined. You should still see a lot of dry flour.



Chop your pecans roughly and put aside a generous handful for topping. Fold the rest of the pecans into the batter.



Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups.



Sprinkle the tops with the reserved chopped pecans.



Bake in the preheated oven about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.



Allow to cool for a few minutes in the muffin pan and then remove to a rack to cool completely.



Enjoy!








Wednesday, July 30, 2014

No-Bake Berry Cheesecake #NationalCheesecakeDay

Despite the richness of the ingredients, this no-bake cheesecake tastes light and fresh, especially with sweet summer berries on top and the crunchy oat-y crust underneath. 

Happy Cheesecake Day! Today I am celebrating with a fabulous group of food blogger friends and we have cheesecakes and cheesecake related recipes galore for you! Make sure to scroll to the bottom of this post to see all the links.

I don’t have a problem turning the oven on when it is summertime and temperatures are soaring. If I want to bake, I’m going to bake. (I offer into evidence, this week’s vibrant pink beet cornbread muffins. That said, when it’s not necessary to heat up the kitchen, I am grateful. This week I’m on Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands and we are having brilliant summer weather. Some edibles are produced on the island, notably Jersey Royal potatoes and fresh super creamy dairy products from the famous Jersey cows, but much of it is imported from either France or the United Kingdom by ferry. A couple of weeks ago, one of the boats ran aground so supermarkets are struggling to fill their shelves with the now limited incoming stock. Such are the vagaries of island life but the shortage meant that I couldn’t find enough raspberries to cover my cheesecake. Feel free to increase the amount of berries and completely cover yours.

Ingredients
For the crust:
11 Hobnobs or other crunchy cookie or biscuit (6 oz or 170g by weight)
1/3 cup or 75g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 1/2 teaspoons sugar
Pinch salt

For the filling:
1/2 cup or 120ml heavy cream
8 oz or 225g cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup or 60g confectioners' or icing sugar
1/2 cup or 125g Greek yogurt (full-fat)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch salt

For topping:
1 cup fresh berries (or more to cover the cheesecake)
Optional garnish: one sprig of mint

Method
Put your Hobnobs or similar cookies in a plastic bag and use the side of meat tenderizing mallet or a rolling pin to crush them into fine crumbs.



Put them in a small mixing bowl and add 4 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar and a healthy pinch of salt. Pour in the melted butter and mix thoroughly.



Cut a piece of waxed paper or parchment to fit your nine-inch or 23cm square springform pan.


Press the buttery crumbs evenly onto the bottom and up the sides.




Using the whisk attachment of your stand mixer or electric beaters, whip your cream until stiff peaks form.

Check out the color of my Jersey cream! It is so full of fat that it whips extremely quickly and is pale yellow, almost like butter.

If you are using a stand mixer, transfer the whipped cream to another bowl because you will need that one again for the next step. If you are using electric beaters, proceed accordingly.

Beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar, yogurt, vanilla, and a pinch of salt until smooth.



With a rubber spatula, gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.



Pour the mixture into the crust.


Spread it around evenly, making sure to get it right into the corners.

Cover and refrigerate until firm. Mine took just a couple of hours.

Top with fresh berries of your choice and perhaps a sprig of mint for contrast.

Carefully remove the sides of your springform and pour some Champagne for the celebration.


Cut into slices, making sure each person gets some side crust. Try not to fight over the crunchy corner pieces.



Enjoy!


Are you a lover of cheesecake? This is your day! Start celebrating!

Baked Cheesecakes: No Bake Cheesecakes: Cheesecake Beverages: Cheesecake Cookies and Bars: Cheesecake Desserts and Treats: Frozen Cheesecakes and Treats: