Cake Batter Cheesecakes made Light

For my book discussion last week I made these and mini cinnamon rolls. I wanted to make them less fattening so I tweaked the recipe a little bit. I think they turned out pretty good.

Cake Batter Cheesecakes
adapted from Cassie Craves

24 servings, 3 WW points with Oreo crusts
2 WW points without Oreo crusts

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24 Reduced Fat Oreos, optional
16 ounces Fat Free cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup Fat Free sour cream
2/3 cup Sugar Free yellow cake mix
2 tablespoons rainbow sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Prepare cupcake pans with paper liners. Place a whole Oreo in each cupcake liner if you are using the Oreos. In a bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the cream cheese for 3 minutes on medium speed until smooth. Add in the sugar and mix for 2 more minutes. Add in the vanilla and mix. Slowly pour in the lightly beaten eggs on medium low speed and mix to combine. Add in the sour cream and mix on medium low speed. Be careful not to over mix the cheesecake batter. Sift the cake mix over the bowl with the cheesecake batter to remove any lumps. Stir in 2 tablespoons sprinkles. Fold in gently.

Using a cookie dough scooper or a 1/4 measuring cup, place cheesecake batter on top of each Oreo, if using. Bake the cheesecakes at 275 degrees for 30 minutes. Once they’re done baking, chill them in the refrigerator overnight before serving.

New York Style Cheesecake Mousse

The library recognition dinner was this past Friday and whoever wanted to bring a dessert could. Of course I jumped at the chance to make dessert. After talking it over with my co-workers they thought I should make cheesecake. But I wanted to try something new and when I saw this recipe in the January 2012 Taste of Home magazine I knew I needed to try it. I'm sure the library people are glad they are my guinea pigs. These babies turned out fantastic. I wanted to find clear plastic shot glasses to serve it in but I couldn't find any. I thought it would be really pretty but since I couldn't find what I wanted I used cupcake liners. I quadrupled the recipe since I was taking it to a rather large party. But I shouldn't have quadrupled the crust part because I have a ton of that left. I should have been able to make 48 but I was only able to make 38. The recipe below is for 12 servings.


New York Style Cheesecake Mousse
from the January 2012 Taste of Home magazine

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1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. grated lemon peel
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
4 tsp. sugar
2 T butter, melted
Sliced fresh or thawed frozen strawberries, optional

In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, confectioner's sugar, vanilla, and lemon peel until fluffy. Fold in the whipped cream. Divide among 12 dessert dishes or cupcake liners. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Meanwhile, combine cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter in a bowl until combined. Press to a 1/4 in. thickness on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely. To make these look pretty I put the mousse in a pastry bag with a star tip and piped it into the cupcake liners. Then I sprinkled them with the graham cracker crust and placed half a sliced strawberry on top.

Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecakes

For my friend Kris's wedding I'm going to be making cheesecakes. So a week or so ago I decided to try out a couple different recipes. The cheesecake with the strawberry on it is white chocolate strawberry but I wasn't happy with the end result and won't be posting a recipe until I have perfected it. It tasted good, it just wasn't what I had imagined. But the cookie dough ones were awesome. So so so so sooooooooo goooooood!!!!! These babies are sinful good.




Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecakes
adapted from My Kitchen Cafe

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For the Crust:

2 sleeves cinnamon graham crackers, finely crushed
1/2 stick of butter, melted

For the Filling:

4 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
3 Tbsp. Flour
1 Tbsp. Vanilla
4 eggs

For the Cookie Dough:

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup caramel topping
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoon water or milk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups mini chocolate chips

For the cookie dough: In a medium bowl, combine the butter, caramel, and sugars for the cookie dough. Add the water (or milk), vanilla and blend. Mix in the flour, salt and 1 cup chocolate chips. The dough will be fairly soft. Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out the cookie dough and place them on a wax paper lined plate or baking sheet. Place them in the freezer to harden while making the rest of the cheesecake.

Prepare the crust by mixing the graham crackers and the butter in a bowl. On a cookie sheet place 18 to 20 jumbo foil cupcake liners. Place about two tablespoons of crust mix in each cup and press down over the bottom and a little bit up the sides. Set aside.

For the filling:

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.

Beat the cream cheese and sugar until blended. Add the sour cream, vanilla, and flour; mix well. Add eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.

Take out the cookie dough balls and get ready to assemble the cheesecakes. Place a couple tablespoons of cheesecake batter into each foil cup. Place two cookie dough balls on top of the batter. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of mini chips evenly between the foil cups . Fill each cup almost to the top with remaining cheesecake batter. Break up the remaining cookie dough balls into small pieces and evenly distribute between the cheesecakes.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the centers are almost set. Let cool and drizzle with caramel and melted chocolate.

Sit back with one of these babies and a tall glass of milk and enjoy every sinful, delicious bite.


This is what the inside of the cheesecake looks like. These are making me drool.

Chocolate Cheesecake Covered Strawberries

I'm not sure I can describe how decadent and scrumptious these not so little babies are. You take a sweet strawberry wrap it in rich cheesecake and dip in milk chocolate goodness. Am I making you drool yet? I have been toying around with this concept for awhile. Strawberries are great dipped in chocolate so why not kick it up a notch and put cheesecake in the mix as well. Oh my my my were these great for Valentines day. My co-workers loved them and so did I. These beauties are fairly simple to make they just take about four steps.

1. Make the cheesecake.
2. Cover the strawberries in cheesecake.
3. Freeze the cheesecake covered strawberries.
4. Dip them in chocolate.

Not to difficult you just have to give yourself enough time. I recommend making the cheesecake the night before and doing the rest the next day.


Chocolate Cheesecake Covered Strawberries
a Lacey original

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For the cheesecake:

2 sleeves cinnamon graham crackers, finely crushed
1/2 stick of butter, melted
4 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
3 Tbsp. Flour
1 Tbsp. Vanilla
4 eggs

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix together the crushed graham crackers and the butter until moistened. Press into a 9X13 pan. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Beat the cream cheese and sugar until blended. Add the sour cream, vanilla, and flour; mix well. Add eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Pour over the graham cracker crust.

Bake for 45 minutes or until center is almost set. Let cool. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

This cheesecake recipe is my favorite. I found it on Kraftfoods.com a couple of years ago. It calls for you to bake it in a 9X 13 pan but I have used a springform pan and it always comes out beautifully.

How to cover the strawberries:

2 containers of strawberries, washed and dried

Take the cheesecake and put it in a bowl. Crumble it up. Using clean hands take some of the cheesecake and start molding it around the strawberry. Keep doing that until the strawberry is covered 3/4 of the way up. You want some of the strawberry to show and you don't want to cover the leaves. Repeat until all the strawberries are covered. Place them on a baking sheet covered with wax paper or a silicone mat and put them in the freezer for about an hour.

How to dip the strawberries:

2 packages milk chocolate chips
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Place one package of the chips and one Tbsp. oil in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second intervals, mixing after each interval until chocolate is melted and smooth. Take the strawberries out of the freezer. Dip each strawberry in chocolate. It's okay to leave a little of the cheesecake showing at the top. Place back on pan. Repeat until half of the strawberries are covered. Place back in freezer and melt the remaining chips and oil using a different bowl if necessary. Dip the rest of the strawberries. Store in the refrigerator.

Mini Reese's Cheesecakes

I checked out a cookbook from the library by Pillsbury called Easy As Pie. The one recipe I flipped to right away was called Candy Bar Pie and oh did it look good. I had most of the ingredients I needed except the candy bars and with the big storm that hit running to the grocery store was out of the question. So I improvised. And I made them mini. I really like the hold in your hand small bite desserts. I can have one or two without feeling totally guilty.

These have a mild peanut butter flavor and I really liked the crust. The crust needed to be thinned out a bit but other than that I thought they were tasty. I want to make this using the Snickers candy bars instead because I think they would be really good.

Mini Reese's Cheesecakes
adapted from Pillsbury's Easy As Pie Cookbook

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1 package of 2 refrigerated pie crusts
2 8 0z. packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup sour cream
1/3 creamy peanut butter
12 mini Reese's cups, the new ones sold in a bag
1/4 cup Reese's peanut butter chips

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees

Spray a mini muffin pan with cooking spray.

Lightly flour your work surface and place the pie crusts on top. Using a rolling pin thin out each pie crust. I left my rolling pin at the library so I used a cup but it didn't work so well and my crusts were a little to thick. Using a round cookie cutter cut out as many rounds as you can. Re-roll the scraps and cut some more until you have 24. Shape the rounds into the mini muffin pans. Place a mini peanut butter cup in 12 of the holes and in the other 12 place a few of the peanut butter chips. You can use all peanut butter cups but I wanted to make some without chocolate.

In a mixing bowl cream together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add each egg one at at time until well blended. Add sour cream and peanut butter beating until mixture is smooth. Using a small scoop or spoon fill each muffin cup with the batter.

Bake for 20 minutes.


I had left over batter so I took two ramekins and sprayed them with cooking spray. I filled each 1/2 full with the batter. I added some peanut butter cups and filled them up the rest of the way with the rest of the batter. I baked them for 30 minutes.

Headed to Arizona and Cheesecake

Tomorrow I am headed to Arizona to visit my best friend Jessica and meet her two month old son Noah. I am really excited and really worried since we were hit by a blizzard in the past two days. I'm flying out of Midway and flights were coming and going so I am hopeful. I don't even mind a delay as long as I can leave tomorrow. The weather there has been in the 70's. Yesterday during our blizzard it was 85. Heat wave here I come.

For the past few months I have been in a baking mood. Baking for me is a form of therapy. It makes me happy and I like to share my creations with others. If I didn't I would weigh much more than I do now. I didn't have to work yesterday due to our blizzard so I baked all day. I made three different cookies and peanut butter fudge. The recipes will be coming shortly, I just have to upload my pictures from the camera. A job for my husband. Instead I'll talk about cheesecake.

What's not to love about cheesecake? With plain you can dress it up with so many incredible toppings. But I'm not picky when it comes to cheesecake I love all variations. I adapted the cheesecake recipe below from Bakerella. I love her. She will not steer you wrong.

Mini Cheesecakes (made your way)
adapted from Bakerella
makes about 12 mini cheesecakes

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Crust

1 sleeve cinnamon graham crackers, processed in a food processor to make crumbs or place in a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to crush them
1 stick butter, melted

1. In a bowl mix together graham cracker crumbs and butter until moist.
2. Line a 9X13 pan with parchment paper making sure to have excess paper to lift the cheesecake out of the pan.
3. Press crumb mixture into pan.

Filling

3, 8 oz packages of softened cream cheese, light works good if you are trying to cut back on calories and fat
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla

1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Cream together cream cheese, sugar, and flour until light and fluffy.
3. On low add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg.
4. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until just combines.
5. Pour over graham cracker crust and bake for 45 minutes to an hour.
6. Remove from oven and cool.
7. Once cool lift cheesecake from pan using the parchment paper.
8. Using a medium size round cookie cutter or basic shape cut out mini cheesecakes and place each on a cupcake liner. Save the scraps to eat or eat as you cut. I won't tell.

For toppings anything goes: I used cherry pie filling, Hershey caramel kisses, and caramel ice cream topping. I left a few plain.


For my co-workers birthday I used three different sized round cookie cutters to create this three layer mini cherry cheesecake. To help hold the top layer to the middle layer I stuck a decorative toothpick in it. I think it turned out pretty cute.