Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

I can't believe that I haven't shared this recipe with you yet! Because this recipe is my specialty. This is the one that started it all. This is the first desert I made for Game Night, and it was a hit.

And the best part is, it is so easy, and it's a total crowd pleaser!

Not to mention, it's Oreos, and it's cheesecake. What could be better?

I decided to make this batch Halloween-y, because Paige-y Paige gave me this wonderful batch of Halloween Oreos, and I only ate a few of them before using them in the cupcakes. See how much self-control I have?

Your ingredients: Oreos, sour cream, sugar, vanilla, eggs, and cream cheese

First, line all your muffin pans with cupcake liners and put a whole Oreo into the bottom of each one, like this.

Now, beat your cream cheese, add in the sugar and beat, add in the vanilla and beat, then the eggs, then the sour cream. At this point it looks very cheesecake-ish and delicious.

Stir in the chopped-up Oreos by hand. Mine looks orange because of a little food coloring magic, but yours will look white with delicious Oreo flecks.

Spoon the mixture evenly into your cupcake liners and bake for 22 minutes, until the middle doesn't jiggle. Take them out and them cool on a wire rack.

Look how cute and orange they are!

I am going to give you the recipe halved, because the first time I made this I wound up with an obscene amount of these, like 40 cupcakes. So I almost always half the recipe, but sometimes it messes with my brain trying to look at the full recipe and half it. Let's just say that it doubles well- really well.

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

Makes about 18 cupcakes

From Handle the Heat

1 lb. cream cheese, softened

2 eggs, lightly beaten, room temperature

24 Oreos, 18 whole and 6 coarsely chopped

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

dash of salt

Preheat your oven to 275°. Line standard muffin tins with cupcake liners, put a whole Oreo in the bottom of each one.

Beat the cream cheese until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary. Add the sugar a little at a time, beat until combined. Add the vanilla, beat until combined. Pour in the eggs a little at a time until combined. Beat in the sour cream and salt until combined.

Stir in the chopped cookies by hand. Pour the mixture evenly into cupcake liners. Bake for 22 minutes, until the middles don't jiggle. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool.

Pumpkin Salted Caramel Blondies

Hooray, getting over my prejudice towards pumpkin deserts! And hooray for me overcoming my fear of making caramel!

 

Making caramel is scary- all the watching, the monitoring, the constant fear of burning- it's one of the scariest aspects of baking (see also: assembling layered cakes). That's why I've never done it before, even though I love salted caramel, I mean I LOVE salted caramel.

 

But my dad was in town this weekend so I had to go big or go home.

 

 

And guess what... I did it. And this stuff tastes awesome. And you know what else? That's not even the whole desert! I also made this deliciousness that the sauce just goes on top of.

 

So please make these, and I hope you're enjoying Fall as much as I am!

 

Your ingredients: Flour, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, salt (I finally got to use my fancy sea salt!), Baking Soda, butter, brown sugar, an egg, vanilla, pumpkin puree, Caramel Sauce

 

Whisk together your flour, cinnamon and nutmeg

 

Cream together the butter and brown sugar, then add the egg and vanilla, then the pumpkin puree, then add the flour mixture slowly until just combined.

 

Spread half the batter evenly in the pan, bake it for 10 minutes. Pour on some caramel sauce, spread the rest of the batter on top, and bake for 30 more minutes. When you take it out of the oven sprinkle some sea salt on top.

 

Serve it warm with some of that caramel sauce drizzled on top- you can use store-bought sauce if you put some sea salt in it, but you should make this sauce, because it was easy and it's delicious, and cutting open a vanilla bean and scraping out the seeds made me feel like probably the most fancy, professional baker ever. And it's gorgeous. Look at it.

 

Pumpkin Salted Caramel Blondies

From Baked Bree

2 cups flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 sticks butter, softened

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup pumpkin puree

Sea Salt and Vanilla Bean Caramel Sauce

 

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9x9 square pan.

 

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt.

In an electric mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar for about 2 minutes, until fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla, then the pumpkin puree. Add in the flour mixture slowly until just combined.

 

Spread half the batter evenly into the pan, then bake for 10 minutes.

 

Pour caramel sauce over the top, then spread the rest of the batter on top. Bake for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

 

 

 

Pumpkin Poundcake with Cinnamon Glaze

I was all set to tell you a story about how my friend (and future co-teacher what-what!) Paige's mom's pumpkin cookies changed my blah attitude towards pumpkin deserts.

But that was before the missing baking soda. Remember how I don't like to stray from the recipe at all? Well, as I was stacking up ingredients, I realized the baking soda box was gone. "Baking soda," I said. "Where is it?"

"Oh sorry," said the Husband. "I used the last of it trying to clean the dishwasher."

What ensued was me freaking out, and him trying to get me to find a substitute, and saying "That's how I cook," and me snapping back, "Well I'm not cooking I'm baking, and I don't like improvising, and I'm already using canola oil instead of vegetable oil!!"

To which he quietly replied, "They're practically interchangeable," and I said, "BUT THEY'RE NOT THE SAME THING."

Then I turned on Rick Astley and decided, aloud, to turn my attitude around. I had been looking forward to baking this cake all week. I finally learned a trick to foil my dastardly oven (Literally, because putting foil over my cakes and breads makes them cook evenly, LIKE MAGIC). So I put on a smile and made myself happy.

And then I promptly left brown sugar out of the ingredients picture. But don't worry, because that long story brought you here. To this wonderful, beautiful, spicy fall cake that even sounds impressive.

And after pulling my perfectly baked cake out of the oven, I turned the bundt pan over, and in an unprecedented event, it came out PERFECTLY. It didn't stick at all- it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, and I called the Husband in and he danced with me and so the story has a happy ending.

Make this cake. The end.

Your ingredients: Flour, sugar, brown sugar (pretend it's there), baking soda (pretend it's there), pumpkin puree, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, ground cloves, vanilla pudding mix, powdered sugar, and vegetable oil.

First, whisk together the brown and white sugar and the oil. Then whisk in the eggs one at a time.

In a seperate bowl, whisk together the flour, spices, baking soda, vanilla pudding mix, and salt- it smells delicious and spice-y.

Alternately add the pumpkin puree and the flour mixture to the sugar-oil-egg mixture. Whisk together until smooth. Be aware that if you're not a huge fan of the smell of just plain ol' pumpkin, this is not a good time for you. But don't worry, it all comes together.

Pour it into your greased bundt pan and bake! I greased mine with Baker's Joy spray, which is pretty awesome in my opinion.

And if you're lucky the cake comes out looking like this- HOLY MOLY that's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

YUM.

Pumpkin Pound Cake with Cinnamon Glaze
Adapted very slightly from Baked Bree

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup oil
3 eggs
3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3.3 oz pkg. vanilla pudding mix
15 oz. can pumpkin puree
Glaze:
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
3 tbsp. water
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350°. Grease a bundt pan.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the two sugars and the oil. Then whisk in the eggs one at a time.

In a seperate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices, salt, and pudding mix.

Whisk the pumpkin puree into the sugar-oil-egg mixture, alternating adding it and the flour mixture until all is combined.

Pour the batter into the bundt pan, smooth and even it out, and then bake it for 60-65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes before turning the pan over to get the cake out. Let the cake cool completely on a wire cooling rack.

For the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar, water, and cinnamon. Pour over the top of the cake once it has cooled.

Cream Cheese Filled Snickerdoodles

I'm about to confess something to you, and that's that I've never successfully made a cookie that didn't come from a box. And I didn't realize this phenomenon until last night when I made these. Remember The Great S'Mores Cookie Fail of 2011?

It all started out okay, except that it's been a very long week and I was sort of already tired and apathetic. And these didn't seem very hard. And the Husband said that I shouldn't tell you about my failure, since one pan of the cookies came out okay. "Just take pictures of the ones that turned out nice," he said.

But no. I have to be honest with you guys- otherwise what kind of blogger am I? So one pan turned out pretty and delicious and looking like this. And one pan turned out burnt.

To be fair, I have a crappy oven that hates me and wants me to fail. If you have a good relationship with your oven, you probably won't have any problems at all.

Your ingredients: flour, sugar, baking soda, cream cheese, cream of tartar, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and butter.

So first, mix together cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla, put it into a small bowl, cover it and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. It's delicious.

For your cookie dough, cream together your butter and sugar, then add the eggs and vanilla. Then, add the flour, cream of tartar until it looks like this- like a cookie dough!

In a small bowl, mix together sugar and cinnamon. Then stop and take a minute to think about how sugar and cinnamon together is never, ever wrong.

Alright, here's the hard part- okay, not hard. Just complicated.

Get a small disk of cookie dough, flatten it. Dollop some cream cheese onto it. Get another small disk of cookie dough, flatten it, put it on top, and pinch the whole thing closed. Now, roll it in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Repeat.

Refrigerate the cookies for 15 minutes, then bake them for 8 minutes.

They're very yummy- that is, if they don't get burnt. But I have faith in you. You'll be able to avoid my mistakes.

Cream Cheese Filled Snickerdoodles
From Cookies and Cups
Cream Cheese Filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
Cookie Dough:
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 3/4 cup AP flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
Also, 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon

Beat together the cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, and 2 tsp. vanilla until combined. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°.

In an electric mixer, cream together the butter and 1 1/2 cups of sugar until fluffy. Add in the eggs and 1 tsp. vanilla, then add the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Mix on low until a dough forms.

In a small bowl, mix together the remaining sugar and cinnamon.

To make each cookie, flatten out a tablespoon of dough, then put a spoonful of cream cheese in the middle, then place another flattened tablespoon of dough on top of it. Pinch the edges closed, then roll the cookie in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Refrigerate the cookies for at least 15 minutes, then bake for 8 minutes on a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet.

Nutella Cheesecake Brownies

When I pulled these out this morning to photograph, I said, "I will not eat one. I will take pictures, put them back in the pan and go on with my morning."

Because sometimes I can justify eating the slices I cut out to photograph. Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars? It's got dough in it... it's like a biscuit! Orange Mango Bars? Fruit! There's fruit in it! Everyone eats fruit for breakfast!

But there is nothing good to say about eating a brownie at 8:13 AM. Except that.... it's delicious and I'm pretty sure my day's going to be slightly better because of it. In fact, I'm changing my tune.

I have lots of good things to say about eating a Nutella Cheesecake Brownie at 8:13 AM while simultaneously blogging and raving to Backstreet Boys' "Masquerade." You need it in your life.

Your ingredients: Devil's Food Cake Mix, eggs, butter, vanilla, cream cheese, powdered sugar, Nutella

First, mix together the cake mix, 1 egg, and melt one of those sticks of butter and throw it in there too. It'll look like this. Press that evenly into the bottom of your pan.

Next, beat together the cream cheese and nutella until it's creamy. Add the eggs, the rest of the butter melted, and vanilla.

Now, beat in the powdered sugar a little at a time until it's thoroughly mixed. It looks slightly more delicious.

Now just pour that on top of the pressed cake mix, and bake! It comes out looking like this and smelling like chocolate heaven.

Mmm, look at those delicious layers.

Nutella Cheesecake Brownies

From Lovin' From the Oven

Bottom Layer:

1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix

1 egg

1/2 cup butter, melted

Top Layer:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup Nutella

1/2 cup butter, melted

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 16 oz. box powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan.

In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix, 1 eggs, and butter. Press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan.

In an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese and Nutella until creamy. Add in the eggs, vanilla, and melted butter and combine. Add in the powdered sugar a little bit at a time until the mixture is thoroughly combined. Pour the mixture on top of the cake layer and spread evenly.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, until it is set. It's supposed to be gooey, so don't overbake it.



Orange-Mango Bars

Ta-da! Something else new and different! It's fruity! Sure, it's still a bar, but it's a deliciously sweet and fruity bar. As you can probably tell from the photo, it's been raining here off and on for the last week or so, and I'm pretty tired of it.

So we needed something for desert this week that was sunshin-y!

Your ingredients: Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, oranges, and a mango- ingredient arrangement this week by The Husband, who was very proud of himself.

Mix together some flour, sugar, and butter until it looks dough-y and ready for being a crust. Then press it into the bottom of a foil-lined 9x13, and bake for 15-20 minutes, until it's golden brown.

Squeeze all 3 of your oranges out, then squeeze some mango juice into a bowl, add some more sugar, flour, and the eggs, until it looks like this.

Then pour it on top of the crust and bake some more! It's that easy! Don't worry, the middle will still be very jiggly when you pull it out of the oven- it will set as it cools. Yum, yum.

Orange-Mango Bars

Adapted from From Apples to Zucchini

Crust:

2 cups flour

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

Filling:

Fresh-squeezed juice from 3 orange, about 3/4 cup

Juice of 1 mango

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 9x13 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.

In an electric mixer on low speed, beat together the crust ingredients until they look like a soft dough. Press it evenly into the bottom of the pan and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.

Mix together the juices, eggs, remaining flour and sugar until thoroughly combined. Then pour the mixture over the crust and bake for another 22 minutes or so. The middle will still be very jiggly, but it will set as it cools. 



Peanut Butter Pretzel Tart

Sorry people, I got a little blog-lazy this week. I wanted to make something a little different this week. I feel like every week I'm shoving something cheesecake or in bar form down your throat.

So, voila! Something different. And it has peanut butter!

Except that when I wait to take the picture (because I'm lazy) this is all that's left of it.

Yeah, it's delicious.

Your ingredients: Peanut Butter, Pretzel sticks, butter, heavy cream, vanilla, cream cheese, brown sugar

So first, crush up your pretzels, then blend in the brown sugar, then mix it together with the melted butter.

Then press it into your tart pan and bake it. As you can see I didn't bake mine long enough, AS USUAL. So DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO. That's why my crust is all disintegrated in that picture up there.

While your crust is cooling, make your filling. Mix together your softened butter, peanut butter, and cream cheese. Then the brown sugar. 'Till it looks like this.

Then whip up your cream and vanilla (ignore that whisk, I was too lazy to clean out my bowl but it literally takes forever and a lot of muscle unless you use the mixer)

Then just fold those two together....

And spread it onto your crust! Refrigerate... and get tasy peanut butter goodness! Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Pretzel Tart

From Cake Duchess

2 cups broken pretzel sticks

1/2 cup brown sugar

6 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled

3 tbsp. butter, softened

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup heavy cream, chilled

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°.

Finely crush your pretzels, mix in 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. In a bowl, mix together the crushed pretzels with the melted butter. Press into a tart pan then bake for about 18 minutes. Set out to cool on a rack.

In an electric mixer, mix together the cream cheese, peanut butter, and softened butter until creamy. Add in the remaining brown sugar and mix until combined. In a seperate bowl, beat the heavy cream and vanilla until it looks fluffly, like whipped cream. Fold the two mixtures together, then spread onto your crust.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.