RED VELVET CHEESECAKE COOKIES and STRAWBERRY SANTAS

We are not even in December yet but we are already in Christmas mood.  Last weekend, we put up our tree.  My daugher had to make cookies to share with her friends.  Our pick was Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies.  They are simply delicious.  We saved some of the cream cheese and sugar mix and made a side order of strawberry santas too.  We think our santas turned out a little "creepy" looking :-) but they were delicious just the same.

For the cake dough:

1 box red velvet cake mix

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 large eggs

1/2 cup cooking oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the cheesecake filling:
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the white chocolate drizzle:

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips, melted

Makes 10 giant cookies. 

You can make smaller cookies but we found smaller the cookies, the more difficult it is to wrap the dough around the cheese.

• For the cake dough: Combine cake mix and flour and set aside.  Mix eggs, cooking oil and vanilla extract.  Slowly add the flour mix until smooth.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap. The dough will be oily. Refrigerate for at least two hours.
• Prepare the cheesecake filling, using a mixer.  Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. If you are making 10 giant cookies, divide the cream cheese filling into 10 "balls" using a teaspoon or a scoop. place on a wax paper covered plate.  Place plate in the freezer and freeze for at least two hours.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Line a large baking sheet with baking paper
• To assemble the cookies, divide the cake dough into 10 equal amounts.  Flatten each dough in your hands. Place a piece of the cheesecake filling in the center and wrap the cookie dough around the filling. Gently roll into a ball and place on prepared baking sheet.  Repeat until all the dough is finished.
• Make sure you place only 3 cookies on the pan as they spread quite a bit during cooking.
• Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the cookies begin to crackle. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Remove from baking sheet to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.
• Melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl or over a double-boiler. Drizzle the white chocolate over the cooled cookies. Let the cookies set until the chocolate hardens.

Note: We saved a bit of the cheesecake filling to make strawberry santas.  I won't explain them because it is very easy to figure out from the picture.  For the eyes we used chocolate chips

PYRAMID CAKE WITH RICCOTA CHEESE

This is a very popular recipe in Turkey because it is easy to make and so very delicious.  No cooking is required.  Good for special occations.  The trick: it needs to be made ahead and stay in the freezer over night.  Banana is the most popular fruit for the middle but I also like strawberries or kiwi too.

1 egg
1/2 kg (500 gr) Riccota cheese

Social tea buscuits
1 cup icing sugar
1 package vanilla
2 medium size bananas
3 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted and then cooled)
1.5 cups cold milk
Chocolate syrup (I used Nestle's chocolate syrup for sundeas)

• For the cream mix together eggs, cheese
• Add icing sugar, butter and vanilla and continue to mix until smooth
• Take a big piece of aliminum foil (size of the cake you want to make) and spread on a smooth surface
• Line the aliminum foil with Saran wrap
• Put 1/3 of the cream on the wrap
• Dip biscuits in cold milk and remove from milk quickly and put them on the cream
• Repeat layers with cream and cookies
• Put bananas in the middle
• With the help of the Saran wrap fold into a triangle
• Cover with aliminum foil
• Leave in the freezer over night
• Take out of the freezer 1 hour before serving
• Cover with chocolate syrup and decorate as you wish
• Maybe at Christmas, write merry christmas on the side with red and green icing

BANANA MUFFINS FOR HALLOWEEN

Tomorrow is Halloween.  I made easy banana muffins, decorated with candy worms.  I used store bought icing.  If you are short of time, this is easy to whip up.   The bananas are mashed so, you it is not mushy which is the way we like them.

                          Makes 12 muffins 

1 egg
1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 1/2 cup flour
3 medium size very ripe bananas mashed
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup coursely gound walnuts (optional)

Vanilla icing (Optional)

• Spray or oil the muffin cups.  Sprinkle flour at the bottom or line with paper muffin cups
• Mix together the egg, sugar, and milk
• Add the milk, oil, salt and baking podwer and blend well
• Slowly add the flour and blend using a fork.
• Add mashed bananas, chocolate chips and optional walnuts
• Divide batter into the muffin cups equally
• Preheat oven to 350 and bake until golden brown.  Approximately 15 to 20 minutes. Top needs to be golden brown. You can test by sticking a wooden skewer in the middle of one, if it comes out clean, it is done
• Cool them before dekorating with icing and candies

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

CLASSIC FETA FILLED PASTRIES (POGACA)

There are certain foods from childhood that you hold special.  Nothing takes its place.  This is one of those.  Last night, I was watching a Turkish show on the internet.   They were having Pogaca for breakfast with Turkish tea.  I just had to have some.  I prepared "breakfast for dinner" for my family.  This recipe makes a lot of dough so, I made some plain ones to serve with some cold cuts as sandwich bread, flattened some and fried in a little bit of oil as well as Feta filled pastries.

1 cup warm milk

1 cup warm water
1 cup oil
1.5 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon yeast

1.5 teaspoon sugar

4 - 5 cups flour

Fillig
250 gr. Feta Cheese
1 egg white (save the yolk for glaze)
4 table spoon finely chopped parsley (optional)

Glaze
1 egg yolk
Sesame seeds (optional)

• Add 1.5 teasoon of sugar to 1 cup of warm mik.  Stir.  Add yeast and stir again and set aside for 15 minutes to allow the yeast to rise
• Prepare the filling by grading the Feta cheese and mixing with the rest of the filling ingredients
• Put 3 cups of flour in a big bowl.  Make a little dent in the middle.  Add water, oil, salt and the yeast and start mixing to start forming a dough. 
• Continue to knead and add flour to get a soft dough
• Cover and set aside for 2 hours
• When ready, use my easy method (rather than rolling it out and cutting out pieces; although that is certainly an option) by taking small pieces of dough and flatten it in your palm.  Add a teaspoon of the filling and close it over (see the collage at the bottom)
• Put them on a lined pan
• Mix egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of cold water and brush a bit on each of the pogacas
• Sprinkle sesame seeds
• Preheat oven to 350
• Cook until golden brown (approx. 45 minutes)

THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving dinner at my house is a tradition.  Menu is always turkey, stuffing, peas, mashed potatos, mashed turnip, borek, salad.  There are other things that change a little bit year to year.  Desert is always brought by other family members.  I forgot to take pictures of the table I set but I took a picture of a cake I bought.  I thought it was very nicely decorated.  Happy thanksgiving!

PUFF PASTRY WITH CREAM FILLING

This is an easy dessert made with puff a pastry.  Much better than store bought version not just in taste but also in cost.  I used a puff pastry dough (meaning it requires to be rolled out) but I recently discovered that I can buy puff pastry in a box that comes already rolled out.  My guess is it'll be too thick to try for this recipe but if I do decide to try it, I'll post separately.

1 package of puff pastry (please see picture of the package below)

2 cups (500 gr) milk

2 egg yolks

85 gr sugar

1/2 cup (60 gr.) corn starch

40 gr. butter

1 package vanilla

1 package dream whip

1/2 cup milk (60 gr)

To decorate: Icing sugar, Strawberries and Chocolate sauce (store bought version for ice cream topping)

• Roll out the puff pastry as thin as you can without breaking it
• Cut into equal sized rectangles (each will make a top and a bottom). 
• Preheat oven to 350 and bake until golden brown
• Prepare the "cream" filling by mixing 2 cups milk, 2 egg yolks, 1/2 cup corn starch and 85 gr. sugar together and cook on medium heat until it thickens.  If you get lumps, you can use a hand mixer to remove them.  I found it cooks without any lumps if you continually mix it during cooking.  Remove from heat and set aside.
• Mix a package of dream whip with 1/2 cup milk until it thickens and mix into the pudding.
• Put 1 layer of pastry, 1 tablespoon filling, 1 layer of pastry.  Continue until your pastry is all done.  I had a bit of filling left over.  We ate it like a pudding.
• Decorate with icing sugar, strawberry and chocolate sauce like the picture
• Let it rest in the fridge for a couple of hours.  Then enjoy!

KIDNEY BEAN AND CHICK PEA SALAD

This is a quick salad that you can serve with just about anything.  Great with barbeques.  Nice and colourful too.  Good choice for a pot luck.

1 large can chick peas

1 large can of kidney beans

1 medium sized red onion

1 large green pepper
Sauce: salt, vinegar and olive oil

• Drain and rince the chick peas and kidney beans
• Wash and dry green pepper and slice them lengthwise
• Peel and cut onions
• Prepare the sauce by mixing all the ingredients
• Mix everything together in a bowl and serve.