Lovin' From the Oven

Cheesecake pops

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Finally, my last post of the Thanksgiving treats that I made. These were an absolute delight and everyone loved them. Why? Well, as I figured.. everyone loves cheesecake, but no one wants to finish their own slice. So why not make them into individual bites and top it off with a stick? I mean, the best food are the ones on sticks. I then dipped the individual cheesecakes into melted chocolate and then whatever topping I desired. My batch consisted of toffee pieces, walnut bits, and a variety of sprinkles. How marvelous! I used the recipe from a Daring Baker’s challenge a couple months ago:

Cheesecake Pops
Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor
makes 30–40 pops

5 8-oz pkgs cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream

boiling water as needed
thirty-forty 8-inch lollipop sticks

1 lb chocolate, finely chopped
2 tbsp vegetable shortening
assorted decorations: chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees (optional)

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil. In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream. Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes. Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight. When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety. Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

I only made 3/5 of this recipe and ended up with like 60 pops and baked it in an 8×8 square pan. This recipe makes A LOT. I would recommend cutting it down by a half, if not more than that. This recipe was also quite time consuming, so you have to be patient and start these early if you are making them for an event.

Pumpkin Bars

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Even with all this pumpkin baking, I still have about 3 cups left in my refrigerator. What is a girl to do with all this pumpkin?

This is my favorite pumpkin recipe that I’ve found so far, and it’s even semi healthy! They are super moist with just the right amount of spice. They always come out perfectly from the oven and I’ve never had a problem baking them.

Pumpkin Bars
– 1 cup flour
– 2/3 cups granulated sugar
– 1 teaspoon baking powder
– 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/8 teaspoon salt
– 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
– 1 cup canned pumpkin
– 2 slightly beaten egg whites
– 1/4 cup cooking oil
– 1/4 cup water

Directions
Spray a medium-size baking pan with nonstick coating; set aside.
Combine flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and cloves in a medium bowl. Stir in pumpkin, egg whites, oil, and water until thoroughly combined. Spread batter into prepared pan.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack.
Cut into bars

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

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Pumpkin Whoopie Pies. Everytime I say that, people respond with, “…. what? …” Yes, I said it, whoopie pie. What are whoopie pies anyway? Well, it’s a two-layer filled cake, a cake/cookie consisting of two layers with a moist filling sandwiched in between. In this case, its a pumpkin cake cookie with a maple cream cheese frosting. The cookie was okay, very cake-like. But the filling? A-MAZ-ING! The best cream cheese frosting that I’ve ever had. Actually, it was probably because of the authentic Canadian maple syrup that I used from the leaf shaped bottle with a red cap. Hooray for Canadian syrup!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! (Trust me, I’ve baked a ridiculous amount of goods for Turkey day, so expect more posts to come)

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Cream Cheese Filling

Pumpkin Whoopie Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 TBSP cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground fresh nutmeg
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup canola oil
3 cups chilled pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare to baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk to sugars and oil together. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk to combine thoroughly. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined.
Sprinkle the flour mixture over the pumpkin mixture and whisk until completely combined.
Use a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism to drop healing TBSP of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on the pan while you make the filling. They will look more like mini cakes then cookies, so don’t panic about that.

Maple Syrup Cream Cheese Filling

3 cups powdered sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3 TBSP maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth with no visible lumps. Add the cream cheese an beat until combined.
Add the powdered sugar, maple syrup and vanilla and beat until smooth. Be careful no to overbeat the filling, or it will lose structure.

To assemble:
Turn half the cooled cookies upside down. Pipe filling (about a TBSP) onto that half. Place another cookie, flat side down, on top of the filling. Press down slightly so that the filling spread to the edges of the cookie. Repeat until all the cookies are used. Put the whoppie pies in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to firm before serving.

Adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

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