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