Cheesecake Stuffed Triple Chocolate Chunk Pudding Cookies

by giraffescanbake // May 30, 2014 // 50 Comments

Wow, what a tasty mouthful!

I made these cheesecake stuffed triple chocolate chunk pudding cookies on a whim, I felt like baking something and this was the first thing that came to mind with the stuff I had in the house. I love pudding cookies, I don’t think there’s any better cookie in the world. I was first introduced to them by Leah’s family, I was told their chocolate chip cookies are the best in the world and I wasn’t disappointed. After making their recipe a few times I branched out and started trying different things. Pudding cookies are wonderfully soft, they make for the perfect cookie texture!

Since making a peanut butter stuffed version of these cookies and making them about a thousand times (I’ll be making them again this weekend) I knew I had to change it up a little, cheesecake is the perfect thing to go inside a cookie isn’t it? I’ve also made a Nutella version of these so maybe I’ll post those up one day too.

This week’s post is being dedicated to my best friend, Leah. She is graduating Summa Cum Laude from Savannah College of Art and Design and I couldn’t be more proud of her (she’s also getting an academic achievement award). It’s an extra big deal because she’s been in college for a few years longer than most people, she originally went to Georgia Tech but after a few years there she realised it’s not what she wanted to so transferred to SCAD and since the schools are so vastly different not many credits transferred over, so she was more of less starting her college career over again! She’s done amazing things though and she is so good at what she does, so much so she already has a full time job in her chosen field, one she’s been working full time since January while also going to school full time – how she’s kept her straight A’s I will never know (SCAD is NOT an easy school, they work you to the bone!). So this weekend I am partying with her (as well as at Fiesta Friday of course) and celebrating her great achievements. I will be making the peanut butter stuffed version of these cookies for her party so it’s only fitting I post the recipe today

I have posted the base recipe for these cookies before but I’ll include it in this post too, I don’t know about you but I get easily confused jumping between blog posts to get parts of recipes! It’s a very simple recipe anyway so I have no excuse not to to type it up again! The most important ingredient for these cookies is instant pudding mix, which is pretty hard to get in the UK. I normally stock up on some when I’m in the US and take it back with me so I can have yummy cookies all year round! You can buy it on amazon though and you might even be able to substitute Angel Delight (I keep meaning to try this to see how it works, one day I will!). These cookies also are packed full of dark chocolate chunks and milk chocolate chunks (I actually used Galaxy Counters because I had some in the house) and of course cocoa powder – so really these are quadruple chocolate but I prefer saying triple (I’m set in my ways, I don’t know what to tell you haha)

I’ll be bringing these yummy cookies along to Fiesta Friday so I hope everybody likes them! After you’ve finished drooling over Angie’s yummy vegetarian dish, please do go check out the co-hosts Mr Fitz and Justine, their blogs won’t fail to inspire you!

And I hope I have time to bake this week otherwise I’ll be bringing cookies to the party three weeks in a row!

[recipe title=”Cheesecake Stuffed Triple Chocolate Pudding Cookies” servings=”18-24″]

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 box instant chocolate pudding (NOT sugar free or cook-and-serve)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
12 oz chopped dark chocolate
6oz chopped milk chocolate

For the Peanut Butter stuffing:

4oz cream cheese, full fat
1/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method:

Mix the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla together in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge while you make cookies
Mix the flour, bicarb and cocoa powder in a bowl and set aside
Combine butter, sugars, pudding mix and vanilla in a mix bowl. Beat until smooth and creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time until fully combined. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat until just combined, scraping down the sides to make sure all is incorporated.
Stir in chopped chocolate by hand until evenly dispersed.
Scoop about 2 tbsp of cookie dough per cookie and roll into balls. Place onto lined cookie sheet and flatten into disks. Take cream cheese filling out of fridge and spoon a small amount (about 1/2 tsp) into centre of cookie disks. Roll the cookie around the cream cheese filling, ensuring no cream cheese can be seen and roll back into balls (some may peek through, don’t worry about that too much). Place on cookie sheet with about 2 inches between each cookie, they shouldn’t spread too much but you want to leave plenty of room either way.
Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours, this will stop the cookies from spreading and flattening out too much.
Preheat the oven to 350F and bake for about 15 minutes, until cookies are just set around edges and tops.
Leave to cool on wire rack. They are great eaten when still warm though.

Notes

Store cookies in an air tight container and keep in fridge
You can flavour the cheesecake with whatever you like too, just stir in a couple teaspoons of jam or curd or replace the vanilla with another extract

[/recipe]

Strawberry Margarita Cheesecake Bars

by giraffescanbake // May 3, 2014 // 7 Comments

Strawberries. Lime. Tequila. Cheesecake. Perfect!

Cinco De Mayo is almost upon us and what better way to enjoy your celebratory margarita than in cheesecake form! I’m a huge fan of tequila, put it in a cocktail and I’ll be sure to love it, nothing beats a good frozen margarita though. Good margaritas are hard to find in the UK so I decided to make my own and put it in a cheesecake!

These are so creamy, so tasty and so good you’ll never want to drink a margarita again (but you definitely should, preferably while eating one of these bars!). They have a digestive biscuit crust with a hint of lime in it, a creamy lime and tequila cheesecake filling and a strawberry tequila mix swirled into it!

The best part about this strawberry margarita cheesecake bars recipe is they’re so simple to make, much easier than a whole cheesecake and you don’t have to worry about any cracking. The hardest part is probably making up the fresh strawberry mix, which is really quite simple it just takes the longest. You bake them for about 45 minutes until puffy and lightly browned at the edges, you don’t want to over bake this! Actually, the hardest part is probably waiting for them to chill and then stopping yourself eating up the whole pan (I won’t judge you if you do, ’tis the season!).

Why not make up a batch of these this weekend and then take them into work on Monday. Your coworkers will love you and you’ll get to enjoy a cheeky margarita during the work day! Of course, if you live in the UK you’ll just have to eat them all up yourself (shame) since Monday is a bank holiday! These aren’t just great for Cinco De Mayo, they’re a great summery dessert all round!

[recipe title=”Strawberry Margarita Cheesecake Bars”]
Ingredients

For the crust:

300g digestive biscuits
180g unsalted butter, melted
135g caster sugar
1/2 tbsp grated lime zest

For the strawberry mix:

450g fresh strawberries, hulled and roughly chopped
2 tsp cornflour
1 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp tequila

For the cheesecake filling:

900g full fat cream cheese, room temperature
2 eggs
100g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp tequila
Juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp grated lime zest

Method

Preheat oven to 180C/350F and line a 13×9″ brownie pan with foil so there’s plenty of foil overhang.
Make the strawberry mix first so it has plenty of time to cool. Toss the chopped strawberries in the cornflour and then place in a small saucepan. Add the tequila and sugar and heat on medium, stirring frequently. Heat for about 20 minutes. The juice in the strawberries should make enough liquid, but if it starts to get dry and stick to the pan too much add 1 or 2 tbsp of water. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
To make the crust, put the digestives in a food processor and make into fine crumbs. Add to a bowl with the melted butter, sugar and lime zest and stir to combine. Press crust mix into the pan, bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool.
To make the cheesecake filling, beat all the filling ingredients using a hand or stand mixer until smooth and creamy. Spoon the filling onto the cooled crust and spread out evenly.
Spoon big dollops of the cooled strawberry mix on top of the filling and then swirl into the cheesecake using a knife.
Bake for 45 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned
Cool in the pan on wire rack for about 30 minutes then move to the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours.
Remove the cheesecake from the pan using the foil and cut into squares.

Notes

If you’re in the US and can’t get your hands on digestives, graham crackers will be just as good
If you’d like to make a smaller pan, just halve the recipe and use a 9×9″ square pan
You’ll probably have plenty of strawberry mix left over, store this in a tupperware to eat with the cheesecake or it’d be great on ice cream!
Store in the fridge, covered for up to 5 days

[/recipe]

Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

by giraffescanbake // April 26, 2014 // 9 Comments

Ridiculously gooey, fudgy brownies swirled with rich cheesecake, there’s only one word for these – AMAZING!

These cheesecake swirl brownies have to be my favourite brownie creation so far, if I had to eat one brownie for the rest of my life it would be these ones, no contest! I think I perhaps underbaked these a little and that’s why they were so decadently gooey but I wouldn’t change a thing and you shouldn’t either! The texture is perfect and melts beautifully with the creamy cheesecake

The brownie base for these is an adapted version of the cocoa brownies recipe, they’re still made with cocoa but I upped the eggs to make them moister (is that a word?!). I also added baking powder to give them a little rise and increased the butter to keep them fudgy! They’re then stuff full of chunky chopped chocolate, meaning they just ooze chocolate with every bite! I think I like this adapted recipe even better, but maybe that’s the cheesecake talking!

The cheesecake is a nice simple cheesecake mix, very rich and creamy making it the perfect brownie partner. And all you need to do is mix up the cheesecake ingredients and swirl it into the brownie batter. I find the best way to do this is run the back of a dessert spoon in lines down the brownie batter making little trenches, pour the cheesecake into the trenches and then use a knife to run lines in the opposite direction. Then you bake them until you have cheesecake brownie heaven! I adore this cheesecake swirl brownie recipe and I hope you will too!

[recipe title=”Cheesecake Swirl Brownies”]
Ingredients

For the brownies:

225g unsalted butter
500g caster sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla
160g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
190g plain flour
200g chopped dark chocolate

For the Cheesecake:

225g cream cheese, room temperature
80ml sour cream
115g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 large egg, room temperature

Method

Grease and line 9″ x 13″ brownie pan and preheat oven to 180C/350F
For the brownies, melt the butter with the sugar in microwave in 30 second intervals, until all is melted, stirring between intervals. Allow to cool slightly
Add the cooled melted butter and sugar to a mixing bowl. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.
Add the cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and flour and beat until all combined.
Stir in the chopped chocolate and spread batter into the pan.
To make the cheesecake, beat together all the cheesecake ingredients until smooth.
Make trenches (4 or 5) along the length of the brownie batter using the back of a dessert spoon and fill each trench with the cheesecake mixture. Run a knife in rows the opposite way to the trenches to “swirl” the cheesecake into the brownie batter
Bake for 30 minutes
Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then transfer to the fridge too cool before cutting into squares

Notes

Bake for about 40 minutes if you want a less gooey, underbaked texture.
Store in the fridge, they will last about a week in a sealed container (but you’ll be lucky if they last a day once people taste them!)
It’s important to make sure the butter isn’t too hot when you add the eggs or they’ll start to cook!

[/recipe]