Oreo Cheesecake Bites

INGREDIENTS:
36 Oreo Cookies, divided
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) butter
4 packages (8-ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 large eggs
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
4 ounces white chocolate

HOW TO MAKE: 

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with foil, with ends extending over sides. Finely crush 24 Oreo cookies. Melt 1/4 cup butter; mix with crumbs. Press onto bottom of prepared pan.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar with mixer until blended. Add sour cream and vanilla; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each just until blended. Chop remaining cookies. Gently stir into batter; pour over crust.

Bake the cheesecake for about 35-40 minutes or until the sides are set and the center is almost set. Cool completely on a wire rack in the pan.

When the cheesecake is completely cooled, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. When chilled, remove the cheesecake using the foil overhang and cut the cheesecake into bite-sized pieces. Place the cheesecake bites on a wax or parchment paper-lined baking tray. Melt the semisweet chocolate and white chocolate in separate bowls (I use the microwave on 50% power, stirring frequently). Pour the melted chocolate into a ziploc bag, one for the semisweet chocolate, one for the white chocolate. Snip a small corner off the corner of the bag and drizzle the chocolate over the cheesecake bars. Chill the bars until ready to serve. Alternately, the drizzled bites can be frozen in an airtight container for up to a month. Let them defrost in the refrigerator and serve chilled.

This recipe is so easy to make and tastes really good. I didn't have any problems with this. Just make sure you bake it long enough and let it cool completely before you try and take off the foil. Enjoy! 

Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake

INGREDIENTS: 


* 2 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened to room temperature
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1/4 tsp vanilla
* 2 eggs
* 1 graham cracker crust (9 inches)
* 21 oz can of blueberry pie filling




HOW TO MAKE: 


In a bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add eggs and mix. Pour mixture into pie crust. Drop 1/2 cup of the pie filling on top and swirl with a knife. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until middle is almost set. Chill for 2 hours. Top with the rest of the pie filling when served.


So, this is an extremely easy cheesecake to start out with if it's your first experience making a homemade cheesecake. It's a smaller cheesecake so the baking time is shorter and comes out nearly perfectly each time. Just make sure your cream cheese is softened enough before mixing otherwise the batter will be lumpy and the baking won't come out as well. An electric mixer is best to use but you can mix by hand if needed. Enjoy!! 

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake Cake

Before you get too awe inspired, this wasn't my cake. Close, but not that proffessional looking. :) Same idea, though. This was actually the picture from Cheesecake Factory that I got inspiration from and went on a hunt to duplicate this using different recipes that I found online. To my surprise, it turned out pretty darn good. It looks hard but it really isn't. It was super fun to put together and by far my most ambitious recipe. Give it a try! It's DELICIOUS!!!

CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPE:

*Chocolate Cake Mix (I wish is were something more home made but since i wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, I wanted to make this as simple as possible. However, if you have a recipe for chocolate cake, feel free to use it)


PEANUT BUTTER CHEESECAKE RECIPE:

* 4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 4 eggs
* 2 tablespoons flour
* 1/2 cup sour cream
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 16 Reese's cups, chopped (plus 4 extra for topping)

PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING RECIPE:

* 1/2 cup butter
* 1 cup creamy peanut butter
* 4 cups confectioners' sugar
* 1/3 cup heavy cream

CHOCOLATE FROSTING RECIPE:

* 1 Betty Crocker Chocolate Frosting (again, trying to make it as simple as possible)


HOW TO MAKE IT:

Bake chocolate cake according to directions on box (using 2 nine inch round pans). Cool and set aside.

For the cheesecake, you'll need to make it the day before serving since it needs to cool in the refrigerator overnight. And if you've never made a cheesecake, don't be overwhelmed! It's much easier than you think. Just follow the simple steps below:

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Beat cream cheese (softened at room temperature) and sugar until smooth.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.
4. Add flour, sour cream and vanilla.
5. Pour half of batter in 9" springform pan (sprayed very generously with pam).
6. Sprinkle chopped Reese's on top.
7. Pour remaining batter over the Reese's.
8. Bake at 425F for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 225F and bake for an hour. (This 2 different heat seatings worked wonderfully! My cheesecake didn't even crack!)
9. Cover and chill cheesecake in the refrigerator overnight.

On the day you're ready to assemble, make the peanut butter frosting. In a large bowl, beat butter and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Slowly beat in 1/2 of the confectioner's sugar. Mix in 1/4 cup of the cream. Beat in the remaining confectioners' sugar. If necessary, add a little more cream or milk until the frosting reaches a good spreading consistency.

Now that you have all the components ready, now it's time to assemble. Start with one layer of chocolate cake. Spread some peanut butter frosting on the top of the cake. Next, take out the cheesecake, remove the springform sides, take a long piece of string and cut the cheesecake in half (lengthwise so you end up with two, thin round pieces of cheesecake). Place one thin layer on top of the peanut butter frosting. Next add more peanut butter frosting on top of the cheesecake. Place the second chocolate cake layer on top. Spread the remaining peanut butter frosting on top of the chocolate cake topped with the last layer of cheesecake (you can use the picture for reference).

When all the layers are in place, take a very sharp knife and trim off any edges that are sticking out so that the side of the cake is smooth. My cheesecake ended up wider than the chocolate cake so I trimmed that off to make it even. Now it's time to frost. Simply frost the top and sides of cake with chocolate frosting. It'll take the whole container. Finally, sprinkle chopped Reese's on top and drizzle melted peanut butter over the Reese's.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes for everything to set and you're ready to serve!! So rich and tasty!!!!

Lemon Cheesecake Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS:

*4 1/2 tsp butter
*1/2 cup crushed graham crackers
*1/2 cup sugar plus 1 tbsp sugar
*1 1/4 cup cream cheese
*2 large eggs
*grated rind of 1 large lemon
*2 tsp lemon juice
*1/2 cup sour cream
*4 tbsp flour
*2 small lemons (sliced for decoration)

FOR CRUST:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line muffin pan with 12 paper liners.
Melt butter in microwave. Add crushed graham crackers and 1 tbsp sugar. **You may want to double the graham cracker recipe since it didn't really make that much** Divide cracker mixture among paper liners. Press down with spoon. Chill in the refrigerator.

FOR LEMON CHEESECAKE:

Place 1/2 cup sugar, cream cheese (at room temperature-makes it much easier to mix) and eggs in large bowl. Beat til smooth. Add lemon rind, lemon juice and sour cream. Mix. Add flour. Mix well.

Spoon batter into paper liners. Bake for 30 minutes or until set (but not browned). Cool for 20 minutes then move to plate or wire rack. When the cupcakes are fully cooled, chill in refrigerator for at least 3 hours. Decorate cupcakes with twisted lemon slice.


***So this recipe is fairly simple. However, it needs about 2 more tsp of lemon juice since it wasn't very "lemony" tasting. If you want to make the cheesecake more lemon looking, just add a few drops of food coloring. Or, you can even add a layer of lemon glaze on top after the cupcakes are cooled. Just mix together lemon juice, lemon zest, a little sugar and cook over a low heat. Add a tiny bit of cornstarch to make it just thick enough to resemble a watery gel then pour over cupcakes. You can even add yellow food coloring to give it a nice, bright color. Enjoy!!***