Easter Candy Leftovers..... Easter Hatched Cheesecake Bars!

 

Ok so what do you do with a house full of Easter treats and not enough people to eat them all????

Turn them into a scrummy afternoon tea.  This was not a perfect, gorgeous looking dish, but I ate it and it was fun, eye popping cute and sweet!

Enjoy something fun with your over stocked easter candy!

Easter Hatched Cheesecake Bars/Slice

2 Packets Oreos
25g Butter - melted
250g Philadelphia Cream Cheese (1 packet)
150ml Thickened Cream
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Tbsp Castor Sugar
1/2 Lime Rind & Juice - Optional
1 Tbsp Icing Sugar
1 cup Mini Marshmallows
1 cup broken Macaron Shells
1/2 cup small solid Eggs - cut in halves
Dozen approx Speckled MnMs

Place the Oreos in the food processor and process them into a medium crumb mix, then add your melted butter and pulse it through the crumbs until evenly distributed.

Tip out your buttered crumbs into a prepared lamington or brownie tin and press into a firm base, you can use the bottom of a flat bottomed glass to assist in the process in getting a firm flat base.

Place the tin with the pressed base into the fridge for 20 minutes to set.

Place your cream cheese into the (now clean) food processor and process until smooth and silky, then add your cream, vanilla and sugar and process further until it is all thick and creamy.  Add your lime (this is optional but used in the cheesecake to cut through the chocolate you will be adding later.  Place your mixture now into a clean mixing bowl and sift in the icing sugar.

Stir through the icing sugar, marshmallows and broken macaron shells.

Now pour your cheesecake mixture onto the base, smooth it out with your spatula, and then sprinkle more mini marshmallows on top, cut the solid eggs in halves and drop on the cheesecake with the speckled MnMs to decorate nicely with colour explosion! Note - the macaron shells may leach a bit of colour out.

Place back in the fridge for a minimum of 3 hours, I always suggest overnight for best results.

Lift out of the tin and cut into bite size pieces and serve (whilst still cold). 

HOPPY EASTER!

Cheesecake Supremo

Skimming through my photos in the past few days, I have noticed for a person that doesn’t turn to cheesecake very often (I much prefer the cake option given the choice, give me fudge, lemon, raspberry in a soft luscious cake any day) that since I have 3 close friends that have a love of cheesecake that I have become a bit of a cheesecakier! Yes that’s a word, Im sure of it!

A devine cheesecake I made 2 months ago was by http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/ and it was a Snickers Cheesecake and the cooking process that Jaime uses to bake them makes for a very silky soft cheesecake indeed!  I will blog you this one at a later date as silly billy me forgot to take a photo of the finished product… der! So I will just have to make it all over again for you all, darn shame that!

However in the meantime, I have discovered this Cheesecake Slice (or Bars in the US of A ) recipe, also from http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/ that I have baked a few times now and everyone loves it!  It is a divinely delicious Cookie Dough Cheesecake Slice. Now who doesn’t love Cookie Dough? Just the words Cookie Dough make me go all gooey.  I find that by just adding an extra 250g (if you buy the double packet) of the cream cheese that you can almost double the slice to enable you to share it with friends! Even better because your friends will love you for it and you get to share the calories around!!

Trust me with all your heart when I say the words “This recipe is super duper easy”.

Cookie Dough Cheesecake Slice

Biscuit Base: 1 Packet Digestive Biscuits - processed into crumbs
5 Tbsp Unsalted Butter – melted

Cheesecake Filling:
250g packet Cream Cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup Castor Sugar
1 large Egg, room temperature
1 tsp pure Vanilla Extract

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:
5 Tbsp Unsalted Butter - room temperature
1/3 cup Brown Sugar – firmly packed
3 Tbsp Castor Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla
3/4 cup Plain Flour
1 cup Chocolate Chips (I used Cadbury chips as the cooking choc ones are bitter)

Preheat oven at 160 degrees.

Place biscuits into the food processor and pulse until they have become crumbs, melt butter and pour into the food processor on the crumbs and pulse until combined. Then tip the mixture out into a well lined pan (20 x 30cm or 20 x 40cm) with foil or baking paper. Press down the crumb mixture firmly into the pan. Bake in oven for approx 8-10 minutes, remove and cool.

Next to make the cheesecake filling, place the cream cheese and castor sugar in the electric mixer and mix them on medium until well combined, then add in the egg and vanilla. Once this is whipped up nicely, scrap it into the pan on top of the crumb base that has cooled down from being baked.

Final stage is to make the cookie dough, put the butter and both castor and brown sugars into the electric mixer and cream them together until sugar dissolved.  Add in the salt and vanilla whilst mixing, and finally add the flour and do not over mix this. Remove from the mixer and stir through the chocolate chips (the mixer won’t really like them add into it whilst it is running).  Using a teaspoon or fingers, take small teaspoons size chunks and drop all over the top of the cheesecake filling in the pan. This should make a patchy/rustic appearance.

Put into the oven and bake for approx 30-40 minutes, until the slice is set and the cookie dough is golden.  If the top between the cookie dough gets a melted butter appearance in the cracks, just dab it out with paper towel to keep it firm and set.  Set on a cooling rack, once cool, place into the fridge. Pull out the entire slice from time, and cut into even squares or rectangles. Serve cold.

Lemon Crumb Squares are Devine!

I have been on a personal mission for 2011 and that has been to cook my way through the world’s greatest blogger (in my eyes), it is www.thepioneerwoman.com.

This Lemon Crumb Squares was another fabulous recipe I took on and you need to try it, its easy and absolutely delicious!!  Especially if you love lemon curd, it’s a must.

Cudos to The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond on another brilliantly devised recipe!

Creamy Lemon Crumb Squares

1 &  1/3 cup Plain Flour

½ tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking Powder

125g Butter – room temp

1 cup Oats

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

½ cup Lemon Juice

Zest of 1 Lemon

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. In bowl mix butter and brown sugar until well combined.   Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder.   Then add the oats and flour to the butter mixture and mix well.
Using a lamington tin, press half of crumb mixture into the bottom of a greased and floured pan.

In a separate bowl mix together condensed milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest until it is a golden creamy delicious concoction. Spread on top of the bottom layer of the crumb mixture. Top with the other half of the crumb mixture, crumbling it over the creamy lemon (do not press this time).

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Allow pan to sit on counter for 30 minutes after baking. Cut into squares and refrigerate for a couple of hours or until cool. Best served cold.  If it lasts it will keep for 4-5 days in the fridge, but I bet it doesn’t last anywhere near that long!