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Valentine’s Day Cheesecake

January 29, 2017

Today we’re making a Valentine’s Day Cheesecake to commemorate one of the cheesiest holidays of the year! 😀

My favorite springform pan

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 Valentine's Day Cheesecake
Servings
nine inch cheesecake
Ingredients
Crust
Cheesecake
Servings
nine inch cheesecake
Ingredients
Crust
Cheesecake
Instructions
Crust
  1. Preheat oven to 300 F.
  2. Crush graham crackers into a very fine crumb with a rolling pin or a food processor. I recommend the food processor to get the crumbs as fine as possible (finer crumbs = more workable crust). Mix in melted butter and cinnamon until mixture resembles wet sand.
  3. Press crust into an un-greased 9" springform pan. Make sure to press the mixture up the sides of the pan as well. Bake for 12-15 minutes, then let cool. If some of the crust at the top of the pan crumbles off, simply press the crumbled pieces into the bottom of the cheesecake crust.
Cheesecake
  1. Mix cream cheese in a stand mixer on medium speed until completely smooth - about 2 minutes. If lumps appear, the cream cheese is likely too cold - simply heat the bowl if possible or remove the cream cheese and heat in the microwave until cream cheese is room-temp/slightly warm.
  2. Slowly add in 1 cup sugar and mix until combined. Add in eggs, one at a time, until fully combined. Mix in sour cream and vanilla.
  3. Scoop out 1/3 cup batter for red heart, 1/3 cup batter for pink border, 1/4 cup batter for black outline, and 1 T. batter for white dots in eyes. Color batter appropriately.
  4. Pour un-colored cheesecake batter into cooled crust, then spread out until smooth. Pipe over design with colored batter. Wrap outside of cheesecake pan with 2 layers of aluminum foil to prevent water from entering pan, then place foil-wrapped cheesecake pan into large oven-safe pan. Place pan in oven, then pour in water to go halfway up side of pan. Bake for 70-90 minutes or until the top of the cheesecake looks set and the cheesecake jiggles slightly on top.
  5. Carefully remove cheesecake from oven - I like to scoop out some water before removing pan from oven to make it easier to carry. Let cool for 20 min, then refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Enjoy!
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Cakes

Valentine’s Day Brownie Box

January 24, 2017

What’s better than a box of chocolates from your s/o on Valentine’s Day? A box of brownies from yourself 4 weeks before the romantic holiday! ? But really, these brownies are so tasty that I wanted to give you guys plenty of time to plan ? Enjoy!


Print Recipe
 Chocolate Brownies
Servings
brownie "chocolates"
Ingredients
Servings
brownie "chocolates"
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease an 8" x 8" pan with cooking spray. Line the pan with a parchment paper sling, then re-grease lightly.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together melted butter, sugar, and vanilla extract. Stir in eggs until combined, then gently fold in cocoa powder. Finally, mix in flour, baking powder, and salt.
  3. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-25 min, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let brownies cool in the pan, then refrigerate to chill completely. This will make it much easier to cut the brownies cleanly with cookie cutters.
  4. Once brownies are chilled, remove from pan and cut with cookie cutters. Decorate with frosting and sprinkles, place in mini cupcake liners, and arrange in chocolate box.
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Brownies, Candy/Confections

Fortune Cookies

January 20, 2017

Happy early Chinese New Year!! ? Celebrate with these homemade fortune cookies!

Printable PDFs galore!

Also, bonus tip! These cookies will get soft and chewy if not eaten within 3-4 hours. If you plan to make these ahead of time, store them in an air-tight container. When it’s time to serve, toast them in a toaster oven or a regular oven set at 350F for about 2-3 minutes, just until they’re warmed. Let cool, and they’ll get crispy again! 😀

 

Print Recipe
 Fortune Cookies
Servings
Ingredients
Servings
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 F and line a baking sheet with a silicone mat OR lightly grease a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Place fortune cookie template beneath mat/parchment paper.
  2. Beat together egg whites, vanilla extract, almond extract, and canola oil together until foamy.
  3. In a serarate bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Stir into wet ingredients, then mix in water. Color a small portion of batter pink if desired.
  4. Spoon out about 1 T of batter for normal size fortune cookies and spread over template OR 1/2 T for mini cookies. Cookies should just barely translucent. Add sprinkles/pink batter if desired, then bake for 8 min (normal cookies) or 6 min (mini cookies). Keep an eye on them and take them out when golden brown around the edges.
  5. Immediately flip cookies over and place fortune below center line of cookie face-down. Fold cookie in half, then drape over a cup/bowl and fold. Let cool.
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Cookies