mascarpone cheese – Oven Love

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites (No Refined Sugar, Grain-free and Gluten-free Options)

Natalie — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 17:35:28 +0000

I miss you guys! What’s happening? What’s new? How’s your pumpkin carving/Halloween costuming/PSL consumption going this year?

We are a bit of a Halloween-neutral family. We will dress up if there’s a party to go to, take the kids trick-or-treating, buy a few pumpkins and hit the fall festival scene, but we don’t love Halloween. We like it just fine, but it’s not our favorite holiday. I am always last minute with the costumes and the candy and what not. This year E had planned on being a ghost (BEST DIY COSTUME EVER, SCORE!) but changed his mind and now wants to be a plane (!!?!?! How do I make that!?!) So now the plan is make a cardboard plane, and then little L can go along and dress as a cloud. We’ll see if this plan actually goes forward.

Making these cheesecake bites provided me the perfect opportunity to continue procrastinating on the costumes this week. There was a last minute opportunity to bring a dessert to our house church and I wanted to make something pumpkin-y, but not TOO pumpkin-y, if you know what I mean. Dessert spreads can really be pumpkin overkill this time of year.

The first thing that came to mind was to pumpkin-ize this old recipe for chocolate-covered cheesecake bites. I remember really loving them the first time around and I thought they’d be a great bite-size party treat. I tweaked the recipe a bit and everything turned out perfectly. I love when that happens!

If you are grain-free or gluten-free, you can still make this recipe. Try Carrie’s grain-free graham crackers or Shauna’s gluten-free graham crackers. If you are dairy-free/vegan/paleo, I feel for you, I love you, but this one’s not gonna work for you. BUT, behold these amazing-looking vegan pumpkin cheesecake pops! They look very similar and would totally work for you, yay! Everyone’s tummies are happy.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites

Prep time

10 hours

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

11 hours

adapted from Handle the Heat makes about 36 squares

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 36

Ingredients

1 cup graham cracker crumbs (regular, gluten-free or grain-free as needed)
1 stick butter, melted and cooled
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
5 oz mascarpone cheese, at room temperature (substitute more cream cheese here if you prefer)
½ cup granulated sugar (I used coconut sugar, you could use date sugar as well)
½ cup plain yogurt or sour cream
½ cup pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
16 ounces chocolate for melting (refined-sugar free, if necessary)
4 tablespoons coconut oil
more crushed graham crackers, for topping

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8×8 square baking dish with foil and grease with butter or non-stick spray.
To make the crust: Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter in a small dish. Press mixture evenly into your pan and bake 8-12 minutes, or until light golden and fragrant.
Reduce oven heat to 325 degrees.
To make the filling: Beat cream cheese, mascarpone (if using) and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth, 2-3 minutes. Add in yogurt/sour cream, pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg and beat until just combined. Pour mixture over the crust and bake 35-40 minutes or until the cheesecake is slightly puffed and the center is set. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack.
Refrigerate until chilled (about 2 hours) then place in the freezer, 8 hours or overnight.
To coat: Once the cheesecake is frozen, lift it out of the pan and gently peel away the foil. Using a sharp knife, cut the cheesecake into 36 squares. Place in the freezer until you’re ready to dip them.
Melt the chocolate and coconut oil in the microwave or double-boiler until smooth. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet. Dip the squares, one at a time, in the chocolate. Let the excess drip off and place on the prepared sheet. Top with graham cracker crumbs, if using. Then refrigerate or freeze until the chocolate is set.
Trim excess chocolate, if necessary, and serve cold. Store in the refrigerator or freezer in an airtight container.

Sweet Cannoli Fruit Dip

Natalie — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Looking for something to do with that homemade ricotta?

Who am I kidding? None of you have made any ricotta since Monday. (If you have, I salute you and we are destined to be BFFs.) I must be the only crazy person with a fridge full of raw milk and an interest in cheese making.

But maybe you have some store-bought ricotta in your fridge that needs to be used?

Time to bust it out, people! We can work with that.

This dip is.. gah. So good.

This is basically a cannoli in a bowl. Tastes exactly the same. Dip anything you want into it- fruit, crackers/cookies/carbs of your choice, heck- spread it on a vegetable and just try not to eat it.

The cute little crackers pictured are actually made with some spent grain from Mr. Nick’s homebrewing adventures. They are dark and lovely and perfect vessels for dipping. Grahams or waffle cookies would be lovely, too.

If you’d prefer a smoother dip, keep adding cream until it’s as thin as you like. I like it thicker, with an almost cookie-dough-consistency- you could probably roll it up and make it into truffles if you wanted to. Umm, yeah- let’s definitely do that.

(I just realized that this looks eerily similar to my white bean cookie dough– there are no beans in this, I promise! And tastes better, if you ask me. Probably because there are no beans in it?)

Put this one on your list.

Sweet Cannoli Fruit Dip

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

10 mins

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Appetizer, Snack, Dessert

Ingredients

8 oz ricotta cheese (try my homemade recipe here)
4 oz mascarpone cheese (you can sub cream cheese if you need to)
2 tablespoons honey
¼-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon vanilla
zest of ½ an orange, plus more zest for topping
2-4 tablespoons heavy cream
¼ cup mini chocolate chips, plus more for topping
sliced fruit, crackers, etc for dipping

Instructions

In a stand mixer, combine ricotta and mascarpone cheeses and blend until smooth. Add honey, cinnamon, vanilla, orange zest and 2 tablespoons of the heavy cream and mix to combine. If the dip is still too stiff, add more cream 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach your desired consistency. Scoop into a bowl and serve.
If you have any leftovers, store in the fridge- it should keep for a week or so.

Mini Strawberry Ricotta Galettes

Natalie — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:42:00 +0000

Have you ever tried to type something with one hand (like a blog post, for instance) while nursing a baby, hoping that you can clear your mind and get some thoughts down before your toddler wakes up? This is probably my fifth attempt in three days to do so and I’m almost positive I’ll be interrupted by something in the next few minutes. How do you mamas of 3, 4, 5+ babies do it all?

But I will soldier on- you guys deserve some attention, too!

Say hello to my second round of mini galettes this week. To follow up my savory breakfast galettes, I present something a little sweeter- but not too sweet. These galettes are made with a layer of ricotta, a drizzle of honey and topped with beautiful fresh strawberries. I know I’ve lived in the South for a few years, but I still can’t believe strawberries are in season this early down here. I’m a lucky lady.

If you are a person who doesn’t like overly sweet treats, this one’s for you. You can eat it for breakfast or dessert, depending on your mood. I like it served hot with an extra drizzle of honey on top- I’m sure I would have added some ice cream or whipped cream, though, if we had any on hand. This is another great choice for brunch as well- perhaps Easter brunch?

If you don’t like the idea of the ricotta cheese, you can substitute mascarpone cheese or cream cheese as well- just make sure the cream cheese is very soft and spreadable so you don’t tear the pie dough.

I hope this recipe gets you excited for spring. Spring is my second favorite season, ya’ll (after Fall, which is the best of the best)! Spring means strawberry picking, birds chirping, playground equipment that isn’t burning hot, slightly fewer annoying bugs, sidewalk chalk, fruit in my water when I feel fancy, toenail polish, asparagus and green, green grass. Spring for the win!

Eat one of these before spring is over.

Mini Strawberry Ricotta Galettes

Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

1 hour

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Breakfast

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 batch pie dough (You need enough for a single crust. See this post for my pie crust comparison- http://ovenlove.blogspot.com/2011/05/pie-crust-comparison.html – Note: a store-bought crust may not make as many galettes.)
1 cup ricotta cheese
4 tsp honey
12-16 strawberries, rinsed, hulled and sliced
1 egg, beaten
coarse sugar and fresh cracked pepper for seasoning
honey, mascarpone cheese, whipped cream or ice cream for serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Separate your pie dough into 4 sections. Roll each section into a small circle, about ¼ inch thick. Place your dough circles onto the prepared baking sheet.
Spread each circle with ¼ cup ricotta cheese, leaving about an inch of dough around the edge. Drizzle the ricotta with 1 teaspoon honey per galette and layer with strawberry slices. Fold up the edges of the dough, sealing the dough up around the filling. Brush the dough with the beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar and black pepper.
Bake the galettes for 25-30 minutes until the crust is golden. Serve hot with a drizzle of honey, a dollop of mascarpone cheese or whipped cream, or a scoop of ice cream.