Peaches and cream coffee cake

Somehow, a few weeks ago, the conversation in my office turned to the fact that I hadn't baked in a while. And then there were suggestions of what I should bake. The end result stemmed from a comment about the coffee cake at a local restaurant, Peaches.

I love finding recipes for things made at restaurants (more on those later, like Chipotle's cilantro lime rice). So when I did a quick search and found this pretty coffee cake on the Betty Crocker website, I was sold.

I made it for my coworkers, and it was easy and delicious. And got gobbled up FAST. The only complication I had was when it came to overlapping the strips of dough ... I don't think I really succeeded at that part. I ended up just kind of pulling some pieces over other pieces and crossing my fingers that it would all work out. But I can tell you that it didn't really matter - the peach pie filling covers it up, and it tasted amazing.

The cake part of this recipe was light and buttery, and the cream cheese filling and peach pie filling added just the right amount of sugary sweetness. I usually don't taste subtleties like lemon juice, but in this recipe, I did, and it added a perfect touch of tang and tart to the doughy, sweet rest of the cake. I can't wait to make this with other flavors of pie filling, too - I'm thinking cherry might be next :)

Ingredients:
Cream Cheese Filling
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Coffee Cake
1 package (3 oz) cream cheese
1/4 cup firm butter or margarine
2 cups Original Bisquick® mix
1/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 can (21 oz) peach pie filling
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, if desired

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 425°F. Grease cookie sheet with shortening. In small bowl, beat all cream cheese filling ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth; set aside.

2. In medium bowl, cut 3 oz cream cheese and the butter into Bisquick mix, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until particles are the size of small peas. Stir in milk. Place dough on surface sprinkled with Bisquick mix; roll in Bisquick mix to coat. Shape into ball; knead 8 to 10 times.

3. Roll or pat dough into 12x8-inch rectangle. Place on cookie sheet. Spread cream cheese filling down center of rectangle. Make cuts, 2 1/2 inches long, at 1-inch intervals on 12-inch sides of rectangle. Fold strips over filling, overlapping strips. Mix 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon; sprinkle over top.

4. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden; cool 10 minutes. Carefully place on serving platter. Spoon pie filling down center of coffee cake. Sprinkle with walnuts. Serve warm or cool. Store covered in refrigerator.

Source: Betty Crocker

Mini-cheesecake brownie bites

I stumbled on a new-to-me cooking and baking blog a few months (it's one of the ones I recently added to the blog roll) ... and watch out, blog world: I'm hooked.

I had promised a co-worker that I would bake - I hadn't baked in a while, and I have a reputation to uphold. I wanted a recipe that would be different but easy to make with ingredients I had on hand, and I had several of Joelen's recipes to choose from. I heart this recipe further because it was super easy to modify in to a reduced fat version. The boxed brownie mix that I had - Duncan Hines - provided a way to make the brownies lower fat by using only one egg and reduced water, as well as substituting unsweetened applesauce for vegetable oil. I also used reduced fat cream cheese.

I LOVE these bites, and I was not alone in my assessment. I will make them over and over again - they're a great snack or party food, and they're a nice size for a touch of rich, chocolate-y goodness without a load of calories.

Ingredients
1 package fudge brownie mix
Ingredients for brownie mix
1 block cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare muffin pan by spraying the inside of each well with cooking spray.

Pour prepared brownie mix in each well.

In a small bowl combine the remaining ingredients.

Carefully top each brownie well with the cream cheese mixture.

Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until done

Source: What's Cooking, Chicago?

Strawberries and Cream Dessert Squares

These bars taught me that I need to stop baking when I get home from work late at night. I was rushing to get the crust part done and misread the instructions, overcooking the crust by a few minutes. Alas, they were still yummy, and they were a super easy way to make a tasty dessert with one of Florida's seasonal fruits.

Layers of deliciousness.

Ingredients:

Crust
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg

Filling
1 cup white vanilla baking chips (6 oz)
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

Topping
4 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 cup water
10 to 12 drops red food color, if desired

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom only of 15x10x1- or 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. In large bowl, stir cookie mix, butter and egg until soft dough forms. Press evenly in bottom of pan. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

2. In small microwavable bowl, microwave baking chips uncovered on High 45 to 60 seconds or until chips are melted and can be stirred smooth. In medium bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Stir in melted chips until blended. Spread mixture over crust. Refrigerate while making topping.

3. In small bowl, crush 1 cup of the strawberries. In 2-quart saucepan, mix sugar and cornstarch. Stir in crushed strawberries and 1/3 cup water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils and thickens. Stir in food color. Cool 10 minutes. Gently stir in remaining 3 cups strawberries. Spoon topping over filling. Refrigerate 1 hour or until set; serve within 4 hours. Store covered in refrigerator.

Source: Betty Crocker

Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

A few months ago, I issued a call for help.

Two blog followers responded, and they responded in a yummy way :)

I made these bars for a coworker's birthday in November. Another coworker made peach cobbler, so it was a battle of the fruits in the office :)

The only problem I had with this easy dessert was that I refused to get my tiny food processor out to make the graham cracker crumbs. Instead, I used the old "pound a plastic bag with a rolling pin" method. When I asked Lisa, who provided the recipe, if she had ever had problems with the dessert being super crumbly (almost to the point that it seemed that this was a cobbler, too), Lisa said the only time she'd had a problem was when she hadn't used a food processor to get the graham cracker crumbs.

Lesson learned, and now shared.

These bars went fast - and I think they'll be a perfect addition to any gathering. I'm picturing a summer picnic ...

Ingredients

6 Tbsp. butter, melted
2 cups  graham cracker crumbs
2 pkg. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup  sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp.  vanilla
1 jar (10 oz.) blueberry jam or preserves
1 cup  blueberries

Directions

Heat oven to 350ºF.

Mix butter and graham crumbs in 13x9-inch pan; press onto bottom of pan. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Beat cream cheese in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Add sugar, eggs and vanilla; beat until well blended. Stir jam in jar until softened; spread evenly onto crust. Top with berries, then cream cheese mixture.

Bake 30 min. or until slightly puffed. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Source: Kraft Recipes

Fruit dip ... aka Fluff

My good friend Jen is getting married this summer, and I was lucky enough to be able to fly to Ohio for her bridal shower and bachelorette party a few weeks ago. For both shindigs, the bridesmaids were contributing different things, and since I was flying in the day before and would have access to my mom's kitchen, I volunteered to bring the low-maintenance snack of fruit dip to the bachelorette party. It was being held at a winery, so we were bringing crackers, cheese, veggies, fruit, etc. ... and fruit dip seemed like a natural (and innocent) addition to me.

I had searched for fruit dip recipes on allrecipes.com, and several of them jumped out at me. For the party, though, I went with a simple and sweet recipe - three ingredients=how could you go wrong?


My little brother helped me make the dip, basically doing all the work while I did prep work for our dad's birthday cake (to be discussed in a future post!). Within minutes, he was done mixing together the ingredients, and we threw the dip in the refrigerator, where it stayed until it was time to leave for the bachelorette party.

Little did I know my harmless fruit dip would become the focus of my dear friend Sara's life and the joke of the night.

It might have had something to do with the wine the non-pregnant party goers were enjoying, but the fruit dip was brought out a few hours in to the evening and promptly named "Fluff." This quickly spun off in to a language of it's own, with Sara threatening to kick the fluff out of people, asking them to back the fluff off and then telling everyone they needed to put Fluff on whatever they were eating. My innocent fruit dip suddenly became brownie dip. I think she would have dipped carrots in it if she had thought of it. We played the game Apples to Apples, and Sara managed to find a way to work a "Fluff" card in to the game. The girl - and the dip - could not be stopped.

Fluff has grown in to a hugely popular fruit dip. It even has it's own Facebook page. Sara continues to use it in her every day vocabulary.

Ingredients

* 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
* 1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow creme
* 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the frozen whipped topping, marshmallow creme, and cream cheese. Mix until smooth. Serve chilled.

Source: allrecipes.com

Pumpkin Spice No Bake Cheesecake

I saw this recipe on a Katie's blog and really, really, REALLY wanted to try it. I just had no idea when I would make it, especially with all of the great pumpkin recipes I've found and made so far this year.

Fear not - I found a reason to make it :) While I home for a few days, my little brother and I were searching for a dessert that would be easy to polish off in a few days (my parents and brother are the only ones still in the house on a regular basis, so gone are the days of a cake disappearing in a mere day or two). We were also baking cookies for Operation Baking Gals, so we weren't entirely sure we wanted to make another thing in the oven.

Enter the no-bake pumpkin cheesecake. Delicious, and I wasn't worried about starting the holiday weight struggle early with this light, sweet dessert.

Ingredients:
8 oz 1/3 less fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1/2 cup pureed pumpkin (canned is fine)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (Katie substituted 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp allspice)
1/4 cup brown sugar, unpacked
8 oz Cool Whip Free, thawed
9 inch reduced fat Graham Cracker Crust

Directions:
In a large bowl using an electric mixer, whip cream cheese, pumpkin, vanilla, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and brown sugar for a few minutes until fluffy.

Add Cool Whip and whip until smooth.

Spoon mixture into pie crust and chill for a few hours (it took at least three hours for us to have it hold form), until firm.

Source: Katie's blog

Cream Puff Dessert

My 26-year-old brother was never really interested in cooking or baking while we were growing up in the same house.

Then he went to college, and all of a sudden he was the culinary king of his dorm, apartment, social circle.

He'd come home for breaks and share his recent triumphs, test experiments on us and suddenly became quite the expert in the kitchen. On one trip to our sister's, we went on a grocery store mission and came back armed to make bacon-wrapped shrimp on the grill. This kid does not mess around. Now he lives in Colorado (much closer to Meg's west than my east!) and we don't get to see or taste his latest creations.

While his adventures were mostly centered around cooking, he did pass along a fantastically yummy dessert recipe. Our dad requested this basically every time my brother was home from college, and finally my mom got the recipe. I asked for the recipe, too, and remember making it for my dormmates - needless to say, it was a hit. I hadn't made it in quite some time but made it again a few months ago, and it was every bit as delicious as I remembered it.

Ingredients:
1 stick margarine
1 cup water
1 cup flour
4 eggs
2 small boxes of instant pudding (vanilla, chocolate, banana, coconut cream and butterscotch work well)
1 8 oz. package cream cheese
3 cups milk
1 container whipped cream (optional)

Directions:
Bring water and margarine to a boil.

(I transfer the boiling water and margarine to my mixer at this point and then ...)

Mix in flour until it forms a stiff ball.

Beat in eggs slowly.

Spread in bottom of greased 9x13 inch pan.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

When cool, mix pudding, milk and cream cheese together.

Pour into shell. Top with whipped cream if desired. May also garnish with shaved chocolate.

Source: My brother

Cheesecake Cookie Bars

I've made these before and got rave reviews. This batch, though? I really had no reason to make these. I just felt like baking, and in my defense, I had a coupon for the cookie dough. Thus, this batch was born. And sent to work with Tim. Where they LOVED them. One of Tim's coworkers even asked if I would marry her.

I don't think my baked goods have ever prompted a marriage proposal.

I also love this recipe because it requires so few ingredients. You really can't go wrong.

Ingredients:

2 packages (18 ounces each) refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough (I've found these almost work better with generic cookie dough instead of name brand)

2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened (I use reduced-fat cream cheese)

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 13X9-inch baking pan. Let both packages of dough stand at room temperature about 15 minutes.

2. Reserve three-fourths of one package of dough. Press remaining 1-1/4 packages of dough evenly onto bottom of prepared pan.

3. Combine cream cheese, sugar and eggs in large bowl; beat until well blended and smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture over dough in pan. Break reserved dough into small pieces; sprinkle over cream cheese mixture.

4. Bake 35 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.

Source: Famous Brand Name 3 Books in 1: Cookies, Bars and Muffins