I have to admit it.
I didn't want to go to town to the grocery store.
I know, shocking much?
Especially since I love going to the store, even when the nearest store is 7 miles away. sigh
Actually I wanted to go to the next big city, which actually has two grocery stores, but it's 30 miles away and while I do need to shop, I'm feeling lazy.
But enough about me.
It was NPA last night and it was also a birthday night as well. And I knew that one of the birthday people was a major chocoholic.
But since my A/C is still not functioning, I'm not baking what I wanted to make.
However...
I had these Chocolate Cups in the pantry and I seem to remember from my distant past, well not that distant, but still...
When I used to live elsewhere we would make a 'mock' cheesecake up and it was good. Maybe it didn't have the same mouth-feel as a baked cheesecake, but it was still a pretty darn good dessert.
So I decided to recreate it. Or at least make some.
How badly can you screw up cream cheese?
This turned out to be a three spatula, two spoon recipe as well, sigh.
I guess you're wondering why this was a three spatula, two spoon recipe?
Let me tell you a story. It's short, but sweet.
I had to scrape down the sides of the bowl as the cheese and milk were mixing. Well, I licked that spatula, I had to make sure it tasted good. So the next time I scraped the bowl, I had to get a fresh spatula. And I could not help myself, I licked that one too. By this time I was running out of clean spatulas. So, I restrained myself from licking the third spatula when I scraped the bowl sides. I just took a spoon out of the drawer and tasted. Then I did it again, with a fresh spoon. By the time it was finished I still had the third spatula, un-licked, until I scraped all the filling into a piping bag, then I licked it, after spreading a little of the filling on to a graham cracker.
I called it all lunch.
And that's why this was a three spatula, two spoon recipe.
Recipe:
2 8 oz. packages of Cream Cheese, softened ( I use the full fat cream cheese)
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 teaspoon Lemon Extract (I used my own Home Made Lemon Extract)
1 teaspoon True Lemon crystallized lemon
Whip all together, scrape down the sides a couple of times to make sure the cream cheese is all incorporated.
(That's spatula number one there, I scraped the bowl and then had to taste the filling.
And it was good, but the spatula ended up in the sink to be washed.)
and then either pour into a Graham Cracker Crust or do as I did,
fill up some Chocolate Dessert Cups and place into the fridge for a few hours to set up.
I was going to serve these with some Chocolate Caramel sauce, but the sauce became an offering to the Kitchen Goddess. In other words, my great idea didn't work.
But I did have a can of Cherry Pie filling in the cupboard so I just brought some cherries to the party and let everyone place a cherry or two on top.
Just a few of the offerings, we do have fun here.
Santa even made an appearance. No pineapple this time though.
**** I also wanted to pass on a tip or two here as well. I use Wilton piping bags, and since I'm not as coordinated as I could be, I place the bag in a tall glass, or in this case the bottom of martini shaker,
and proceed to fill the bag. If I'm having a day where I'm especially coordinated, I can do the pastry chef deal and hold it in one hand while I fill it up with the other, but that does not happen often.
And I also found a really great 'cheat' for the lemon juice in my recipe. It's called True Lemon and is basically crystallized lemon juice. I use it in my ice tea and am playing with it for seasoning in dishes in place of salt.
I didn't want to go to town to the grocery store.
I know, shocking much?
Especially since I love going to the store, even when the nearest store is 7 miles away. sigh
Actually I wanted to go to the next big city, which actually has two grocery stores, but it's 30 miles away and while I do need to shop, I'm feeling lazy.
But enough about me.
It was NPA last night and it was also a birthday night as well. And I knew that one of the birthday people was a major chocoholic.
But since my A/C is still not functioning, I'm not baking what I wanted to make.
However...
I had these Chocolate Cups in the pantry and I seem to remember from my distant past, well not that distant, but still...
When I used to live elsewhere we would make a 'mock' cheesecake up and it was good. Maybe it didn't have the same mouth-feel as a baked cheesecake, but it was still a pretty darn good dessert.
So I decided to recreate it. Or at least make some.
How badly can you screw up cream cheese?
This turned out to be a three spatula, two spoon recipe as well, sigh.
I guess you're wondering why this was a three spatula, two spoon recipe?
Let me tell you a story. It's short, but sweet.
I had to scrape down the sides of the bowl as the cheese and milk were mixing. Well, I licked that spatula, I had to make sure it tasted good. So the next time I scraped the bowl, I had to get a fresh spatula. And I could not help myself, I licked that one too. By this time I was running out of clean spatulas. So, I restrained myself from licking the third spatula when I scraped the bowl sides. I just took a spoon out of the drawer and tasted. Then I did it again, with a fresh spoon. By the time it was finished I still had the third spatula, un-licked, until I scraped all the filling into a piping bag, then I licked it, after spreading a little of the filling on to a graham cracker.
I called it all lunch.
And that's why this was a three spatula, two spoon recipe.
Recipe:
2 8 oz. packages of Cream Cheese, softened ( I use the full fat cream cheese)
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 teaspoon Lemon Extract (I used my own Home Made Lemon Extract)
1 teaspoon True Lemon crystallized lemon
Whip all together, scrape down the sides a couple of times to make sure the cream cheese is all incorporated.
(That's spatula number one there, I scraped the bowl and then had to taste the filling.
And it was good, but the spatula ended up in the sink to be washed.)
and then either pour into a Graham Cracker Crust or do as I did,
fill up some Chocolate Dessert Cups and place into the fridge for a few hours to set up.
I was going to serve these with some Chocolate Caramel sauce, but the sauce became an offering to the Kitchen Goddess. In other words, my great idea didn't work.
But I did have a can of Cherry Pie filling in the cupboard so I just brought some cherries to the party and let everyone place a cherry or two on top.
Just a few of the offerings, we do have fun here.
Santa even made an appearance. No pineapple this time though.
**** I also wanted to pass on a tip or two here as well. I use Wilton piping bags, and since I'm not as coordinated as I could be, I place the bag in a tall glass, or in this case the bottom of martini shaker,
and proceed to fill the bag. If I'm having a day where I'm especially coordinated, I can do the pastry chef deal and hold it in one hand while I fill it up with the other, but that does not happen often.
And I also found a really great 'cheat' for the lemon juice in my recipe. It's called True Lemon and is basically crystallized lemon juice. I use it in my ice tea and am playing with it for seasoning in dishes in place of salt.
Thanks for this!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.
Deleteneeds more chocolate.
ReplyDelete