Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Cake

Well, it is the end of the school year and I decided I wanted to make one last goodie this year to share with my colleagues. As I was looking through my Facebook feed today I came across a recipe from Cooking Panda that caught my eye, Blueberry Cheesecake. But it wasn't actually a cheesecake... instead a pierced cake with blueberry compote and a cream cheese topping. If you have read my recipes before you know that I can't just copy a recipe...I have to bump up the flavor. So here is what I came up with:

When I think of blueberry, the next flavor that comes to mind is lemon. So I decided that I would see if I could lemonize this blueberry cake.

*a sugar-free yellow cake mix
*3 eggs
*1 c. 2% milk
*1/3 c. vegetable oil
*a box of lemon sugar-free gelatin
*1 1/2 c. Fresh or frozen blueberries
*1/2 c. Splenda
*juice of 1/2 lemon
*2 shots of citrus vodka (optional)
*a box of lemon sugar-free pudding mix
*1 1/2 c. 2% milk
*8 oz. reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
*1/2 c. fat-free half and half
*1/2 c. Splenda

Start by mixing up the cake. Follow the package directions, adding the eggs and oil, substituting the milk for the water and adding in the dry gelatin mix to add the lemon flavor to your cake.

Bake in a sprayed 13 x 9 pan. My directions were to bake it at 325° for 35 minutes. It came out perfect.

While the cake was baking, I worked on the blueberry compote. You know...I am becoming a great fan of compote, especially as a topping. You can make one out of almost any fruit or combinations of fruit. In a small skillet, add your fruit, Splenda and lemon juice. Cook on a medium heat. The time depends on your fruit and how much you want your fruit to break down. It really is a personal preference. But even if you like your fruit really soft, it shouldn't take more than about 15 minutes. Just stir from time to time.

 If you like the flavor, add a little citrus vodka or maybe some lemoncello, just before you take it off the heat.

Remove the skillet from the hear and set aside allowing it to cool.

In a mixer with whisk attachment or in a medium bowl, add your pudding mix and milk and whisk well. Allow pudding to set up while waiting for your cake to come out of the oven. The pudding will be a little thicker than if you had made it according to package directions.

Once the cake is done, allow it to cool for about 5 minutes. Then take something with a small handle and poke holes all over the cake.

Pour/spoon the pudding on top of the cake and spread it around with a spatula. Spread it evenly making sure the pudding seeps down into the holes you made.

Allow the cake to cool even further. Once the cake and your compote have both cooled, spread the compote on top and place the cake in the fridge while you make the final topping.

Add your softened cream cheese and Splenda into your mixer with a whisk attachment. Turn your mixer on and slowly add the half and half.

(Note: the recipe from Cooking Panda called for heavy whipping cream. I think that would be absolutely wonderful, rich, thick and creamy. But, I didn't have any and so I substituted the half and half. Use what you have and experiment.)

You will probably need to scrape down the sides of the bowl to be sure and get the cream cheese and half and half well incorporated.  Once they are mixed, turn the speed up to medium high and mix for a couple of minutes.

If your mixture seems a little thin, you might want to put it into the fridge for a little bit to allow it a chance to thicken.

Spread the cream cheese mixture over the top, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

• This was a super easy dessert to make. At this time of year... what could be better than blueberries!

Also, just take note of this process and then let your imagination combine any number of flavors at different times throughout the year. This could be 20 desserts in one.

Raspberry Cupcakes

It has been a while since I have made some cupcakes.  A colleague of mine recently retired and so as most people do, we had a small retirement lunch in his honor.  I asked him what his favorite flavor was and he said "garlic".  I just didn't think that garlic cupcakes sounded very good, so I asked him for an alternate flavor; this time he responded "raspberry".

Once you understand about using sugar-free flavorings, like gelatin powder or drink mix powder, it really is just left up to your imagination to combine them in any number of ways to create new flavors.

 The first step is to enhance the sugar-free cake mix:

• yellow sugar-free cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 c. vegetable oil
• 1 c. 2% milk
• 1/2 c. non-fat yogurt
• 1 box of sugar-free raspberry flavored gelatin powder

Add in the box of flavored gelatin.  This is of course where you have the option of using any flavor you or your guests might like.

Mix together well.

 For these cupcakes, I decided to add a filling of raspberry jam.  So to start with, I added about a half of a scoop of batter to the cupcake liners in my muffin tin.

You can coordinate your jam flavor to your cupcake flavor.  Mix and match; there are a lot of flavor combinations.

 Put about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of sugar-free raspberry jam in the center of each cupcake.  Next fill up the cupcake liner.  I know that most recipes only tell you to fill the liner 2/3 or 3/4 of the way full.  But if you would like a full, almost overflowing cupcake, you need to fill the liner almost to the top.  You won't get a full 2 dozen cupcakes, but those you have will be big and beautiful.

Bake according to the package directions.  After removing from the oven, cool for a few minutes in the muffin tin.  After a few minutes, remove to a cooling rack and cool completely.

Now comes the fun part; the icing/frosting.  What do you think is the difference between icing and frosting?  I guess that I have always just used them interchangeably.

I wanted to make the frosting raspberry as well.  It just so happened that I had a half a can of chocolate and a half a can of vanilla sugar-free frostings left from some other desserts.  So, I mixed them together and added another box of sugar-free raspberry gelatin powder and beat them together well.

I used a piping bag and a pretty tip to swirl the frosting on, but I didn't go all the way to the edge since I wanted the pretty deep pink color of the cupcakes to show.

The lunch was wonderful and everyone enjoyed the cupcakes...even if they weren't garlic flavored!

Cake Sugar Cookies

You know those amazing, soft, pillowey, cakey, sugar cookies that you can get at your local superstore?  When the different holidays roll around, they always have them out with the appropriate colored frosting.  As I strolled through a few days before St. Patrick's Day, those luscious cookies with the beautiful green icing were calling me.  I resisted and made some of my own when I got home.

 So you get those cakey cookies by using a cake mix.  All you need to do is follow the package directions:

• sugar-free cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 c. oil

All you need to do is eliminate the water.

 You will notice that the batter will be obviously thick; although it won't quite be as stiff as regular cookie dough.  My daughter and I wanted to get into the St. Patrick's day spirit and added some green food coloring to the batter -- about 3 or 4 drops did it.

 Spray your cookie sheets and preheat your oven to 365 degrees.  In order to handle this sticky dough, you should wet your hands.  This will allow you to roll the dough into balls.








Once you have the dough in balls, use your fingers to flatten them out to around 1/4" thick.  Bake for 7 minutes.  Cookies will be pretty soft.  Allow them to sit on the cookie sheet for a few more minutes before you move them to a cooling rack.

 To frost the cookies, I used a half of a can of sugar-free vanilla frosting.  Again, in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, we added about 10 drops of green food coloring to the frosting.

(FYI:  since the sugar-free cake mix only comes in yellow and not white, we had to add some yellow food coloring to our icing to make the greens compatible)

Enjoy these soft cookies for any holiday or season with the coloring of your choice.  It's the perfect irony...Sugar-free  sugar cookies!

Cocoa Cream Pie

My mom makes a great cream pie.  I remember eating warm coconut cream pie as a kid... amazing!  My husband is always talking about the cream pies that his grandma Rebecca used to make.  I wish I would have been able to try them.  I guess that cream pies are just something that I have never tackled for fear that they wouldn't come out.  I have always just taken the instant pudding mix way out and made non-cook pies that way, and they are good... just not amazing.

As with so many of my new recipes, this one came across my Facebook Feed, from someone named Andrea Green in Love Yourself Healthy:  Granny's Cocoa Cream Pie    So I thought I would give it a try.  It came out pretty good if I do say so myself, although I am not sure I will put it in the amazing category yet...  maybe I need to "practice" a few more times.  I'm sure that my husband would not complain, he mostly enjoys being the guinea pig.

• 1 refrigerator, prepared pie crust  or 1 recipe for a 9" pie crust
• 1/2 c. cocoa powder
• 1/4 c. cornstarch
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 c. Splenda granulated
• 1/4 t. salt
• 2 c. milk (2%)
• 1 t. vanilla

 I know that we have discussed pie crusts before.  And I love to make my own pie crust, it really isn't that hard.  But there is nothing wrong with using a refrigerator, roll-out pie crust from time to time to speed things up a little.  Even when using a prepared crust, you can take just a couple of minutes and fancy it up a bit by fluting the edges.  Fold under the edge so that the pie crust is a little thicker along the edge.  Just press your thumb between your thumb and forefinger of the other hand.  Work your way around the entire pie and ...  voila!

 Prick the bottom of the pie crust with a fork to allow the steam to escape and bake according to the package directions, or according to your pie crust recipe.  Set the cooked pie shell on a cooling rack while you prepare the cream filling.

 Separate eggs.  Save the whites if you would like to make a meringue for the top of your pie, or if you would like an egg white omelette for breakfast tomorrow.
Beat egg yolks and add to a heavy-bottomed saucepan along with Splenda.  I decided that it was most helpful to mix these with a whisk.

 Add the cornstarch, cocoa and salt, then whisk together.  Begin to heat over medium-high heat.

 While stirring, gradually add milk.  Continue to stir constantly, cooking until thick, beating it smooth.  The recipe said that this might take from 10-15 minutes.  It didn't take that long, and it thickened rapidly, so don't walk away!  Don't quit stirring!
As soon as it thickens, remove from heat and pour into the pie shell.

Put in the fridge to chill.  One of things that I remember from my mom, making cooked puddings, etc., was that she was always trying to prevent a "skin" from forming.  So I used some plastic wrap and gently pressed it on the top of the filling before I set it in the fridge.  It will take an hour or so for the pie to chill.  Then just gently pull the plastic off.

You can serve this with whipped cream, either homemade or store bought or as previously mentioned, you can make a meringue from your egg whites and top the pie.

I think this is a great easy recipe and my husband didn't even know it was one of my  Sugar Free  recipes!

Crustless Hot Fudge Pie

I had some friends over for lunch the other day and was looking for a new and easy dessert.  I looked through some recipes that I had seen and written down; I settled on this one.  It had come across in a shared format on my FB feed.  I found it at the following link.  It took no time at all to mix up and we were able to eat it warm.

• 1 stick I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, softened
• 1 c. Splenda
• 2 eggs
• 1 t. vanilla
• 3 T. cocoa powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/2 c. flour

Cream butter and Splenda for 3 minutes.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix in well.  Finally add the dry ingredients and stir until combined.  (This recipe originally called for 1 t. salt.  It was just a little too salty for my taste, so above I have reduced the amount to 1/2 t.)

 It doesn't look like much batter, but is enough for this small pie.  It will make 6 regular size dessert pieces.  Spray an 8" pie plate and pour in the mixture.

 Heat oven to 335 degrees and bake for 30-35 minutes.  Allow to cool for just a few minutes.  You will want to eat it warm.

I just happened to have some sugar-free ice cream in the freezer...  It was the perfect addition to make it very delicious!

Christmas Goodies

Well, we had to address this issue sooner or later.  Christmas goodies...or more specifically, Christmas chocolates.  Ever since I remember, my mom made two kinds of candy at the holiday time:  Marshmallow Cream Fudge and Martha Washington Fudge.  Honestly, it just wouldn't be the holidays with these two candies.  Sure, she made some other things as well...peanut brittle among them and so far as the reviews go, that was great too.  But I didn't ever like it much, so I have always focused on the chocolate.

I wish that I could tell you that I had amazingly found a way to make both of these candies sugar free...but alas, I just don't think it is possible.  If you caught my earlier post about the fudge disaster gone right, you know that I did give it a try, but Marshmallow Cream Fudge is so dependent upon the structure of the sugar to make the candy.  And then there is Martha Washington Fudge.. a strange name I know, and I have no idea why it is named that, only that my mom got the recipe in the early 70's from a friend and neighbor.  This fudge is made specifically with a large quantity of powdered sugar...and well, we have discussed the powdered sugar issue before.

So this year, just as every other year in the history of my life, I have made these two decadent desserts to give out to friends and family and have tried to limit my consumption.  It is hard, but since my surgery, I do have to be mindful, or my tummy will not be happy with me.

Surely, there is a way to make some decadent chocolate candies for the holidays and stay in the sugar-free zone...Why, "Yes" Virginia, There Is!

A few years ago, Oreo Balls appeared on the scene.  Our family was introduced to these amazing tidbits of decadence one Christmas Eve by one of my nephew's girlfriends.  I didn't have words... and then when I found out how easy they are to make... well that is one winning combination.  Then you can use your imagination and the combination of different cookies and chocolates...Oreos and white chocolate chips...Nutter Butter cookies and milk chocolate chips... mint Oreos and white almond bark with peppermint extract... you get the idea.  Now, earlier this year, when I discovered the sugar-free Oreos, these Oreo Balls were the first thing that popped into my mind... I just can't tell you how excited I was; my family would probably tell you that I kind of lost it.

So without further ado:

•  2 packages of sugar-free Oreos  (you need two packages to equal the number of cookies in a regular package)
• 1  8oz package of reduced fat cream cheese
• 1 8oz package of sugar-free chocolate chips
• 1/4 stick of paraffin, shaved

 Start by putting all of your cookies into the food processor.  (Well, maybe you can eat 1 or 2)  Pulse until the cookies become fine crumbs.
Of course, if you don't have a food processor, you can always put them into a large zip bag and pulverize them with your rolling pin... you may want to actually do this if you need to relieve a little stress.

 Let your cream cheese sit out for a bit and soften.  Add it in chunks to the food processor.  Use the pulse at first to start to incorporate the cream cheese into the cookie crumbs.  You will know that it is ready when it all comes together in a large ball of dough.

 Empty the dough out onto a large piece of plastic and wrap it up tightly.  Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

 Line a cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper.  Use a small spoon or melon baller and make small balls.  You will want to roll them in your hands to make them smooth.  Do it fairly quickly, as you don't want the dough to warm up too much.  These will be pretty rich, so I think you will want to keep the size fairly small.

Put the sheet of balls into the freezer to allow them to harden slightly, so that they won't melt in the warm chocolate.
In a double boiler, or a glass dish over a pan of simmering water, add the chocolate chips and the shaved paraffin. (I use a vegetable peeler to shave it.)  Allow the chocolate to melt and then stir well until smooth.
Remove the pan of Oreo balls from the freezer.  I like to use a toothpick to dip the chocolates.  I also like to tilt my bowl forward to make the chocolate deeper in the bowl.  Once you have dipped them, set them back on the paper to set.  Work quickly so that the dough does not start to soften.
Return them to the freezer to set; this will happen quickly.  You can store these in the freezer or in the refrigerator, although I don't think they will last too long!




So as I was trying to think of some other fun goodies I could make and keep in the sugar free zone, I started thinking about turtles.  If you have read some of my other posts, you will remember that I do really love caramel.  Why couldn't I use some of the sugar-free caramel ice cream topping with some pecans and then dip them in the sugar-free chocolate chips.

Using a piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet, I put a small spoonful of the caramel and then added 3 or 4 pecan halves.  I then placed them in freezer to harden.  Well, that's what I thought would happen.  Sometimes these items don't react exactly like we think they should.  While the caramel did get thick and a little stiff, it didn't "harden" like regular caramel does.

So, after melting some of the chocolate chips with some shaved paraffin, I just used a spoon to add some chocolate to the tops of the turtles.  I did leave the pecans peeking out of the side.  Another few minutes in the freezer and I used a small icing spatula to flip them over.  Again, the caramel wasn't completely hardened so this took a little finesse.  I then added some more of the melted chocolate on the other side and returned to the freezer for one last time.
It was necessary to store these in the fridge or freezer to keep the caramel as thick as possible until ready to eat.  Now these taste really good, but I think if I make them again, I will start with the chocolate on the wax paper first, and build them up from the bottom;  chocolate, caramel and pecans, chocolate.  This will be a way to keep the caramel encapsulated.  I still think they will need to be stored in the fridge.



The last treat I tried was a peanut butter cup.  Flipping through my cookbook, I found where I had written in a copycat recipe for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  I have had this recipe for more than 20 years, so I am not sure where I got it, or who passed it along to me before the internet was a reality.

•  8 oz Hershey's chocolate (this original recipe called for a Hershey's chocolate candy bar--I substituted the sugar-free chocolate chips; this makes the peanut butter cups a little less sweet than what you might be used to)
• 1 1/2 c. peanut butter  (I use Peter Pan; this has a little sugar in it, but I am sure that you could use a natural one and add a little Splenda to get some sweetness)
• Cupcake-full-size or mini -- cut the larger cupcake papers down a bit  (I decided to make them using the small mini cupcake papers in a mini muffin tin and didn't worry about cutting down the papers)

So the trick to making these treats is to melt some of the peanut butter into the chocolate.  Melt your chocolate with 1/2 c. of the peanut butter.  You can use a double boiler or you can melt in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, stirring until melted and smooth.

 Put a spoonful of the melted chocolate into the bottom of each cup.  Be sure to only use half of your chocolate mixture.  I then put the pan in the fridge and allowed the chocolate to get hard again.

 In the meantime, put the last cup of peanut butter in a glass bowl.  You can set the peanut butter on a double boiler or just another bowl of warm water, or you can microwave for a few seconds until you can stir it and it has a "pourable" consistency.
Put one spoonful of peanut butter in each cup.  Return to fridge and let the peanut butter set up.

Reheat/Remelt your remaining chocolate mixture.  Add an additional spoonful as the top layer.  Return to fridge one last time to allow chocolate to set up.

I declare these a complete success!  As I mentioned earlier, they aren't quite as sweet, but they are very good!  With the peanut butter in the chocolate, they will soften a little more quickly so store in the fridge.  When you have them out to serve, I don't think they will last long enough to have to worry about them getting messy...but if they do melt a little, I don't think anyone will have trouble just licking the paper!

Who said you can't enjoy some indulgent goodies at Christmas time!

Jam Oatmeal Cookie Bars

The other day I was preparing some food to take to a colleague and his wife.  He had a knee surgery scheduled and a few days beforehand, his wife broke her leg.  So they were neither one in the position to be cooking.  I made them a couple of casseroles to put into the freezer until needed and since I had the ingredients to make these scrumptious cookie bars, I made them as well.

Unfortunately, I am not sure where I got this recipe.  The one thing I do remember is that according to the recipe you could use any flavor of cake mix and match it up with a great flavor of jam.  Since our sugar-free cake mixes only come in yellow and chocolate, I made a change to the recipe and have added a box of sugar-free Jell-o powder mix to change the flavor of the cake to coordinate with your flavor of jam.

For this recipe, I had a jar of sugar-free raspberry jam.  Smucker's makes several sugar-free flavors and you can get a few flavors in generic form.  As we have talked about before, fruit has natural sugars, but I looked on the label and this is really sugar free jam.  So this is a true  Sugar-Free  recipe.  For the whole recipe, you need the following ingredients:

• sugar-free yellow cake mix
• sugar-free Jell-o powder
• 2 1/2 c. oats
• 3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, melted
• 1 jar sugar-free jam

So as I mentioned above, this time I had a jar of sugar-free raspberry jam and some raspberry Jell-o.  In the past, I have made peach, orange and strawberry.  So far, I have always matched my flavors.  But I think some coordinating would be good as well; lime-strawberry, orange-pineapple, strawberry-peach...well, I could go on and on.

 Heat oven to 365 degrees.  Grease or spray a 13 x 9 pan.  Stir together the cake mix, gelatin powder and oats.  Stir in melted butter until mixture is crumbly; just make sure everything is moist.  Measure out 3 cups of the mixture and press it evenly in your pan.

 Spread the entire jar of jam evenly over the mixture base.  Then, sprinkle the remaining crumbly mixture evenly over the top.  Use the palm of your hand and gently press crumbs into the jam.  Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.  Mixture will not look completely done when you remove it from the oven because the jam is so warm.

Cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack.  Cut into squares.  If you have trouble waiting until it is cool...it will taste wonderful... you just won't be able to pick it up and you will have to use a fork... not that there is anything wrong with that...  just sayin'!

Note:  This recipe does make enough for a 9 x 13 pan.  Since I was making for a friend, I divided mine and made half for him and half for us.  That is why you only see a square pan in the picture.

Sugar Cookies

I know, I know....Just the idea of  "sugar-free"  sugar cookies sounds like an oxymoron; but it can actually be done.  I came across this recipe a couple of years ago and have been making my favorite holiday decorated cookies and so far, everyone seems happy with the outcome.  Even my daughter's friends at college really like these cookies.  I am not sure where I got this recipe, and although I have searched the internet and found a couple that were similar, I did not find this exact one.

• 1 c. (2 sticks) I Can't Believe It's Not Butter
• 3 c. Splenda
• 2 eggs
• 4 t. vanilla
• 3 c. flour
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. salt

Start by beating the butter in a large mixing bowl.  Add the Splenda a little at a time and beat well.  Once you have incorporated the Splenda into the butter, add the eggs and vanilla. 

 One thing you will notice after you beat the wet ingredients together, is that the batter will almost look separated and not as well incorporated as a normal cookie dough.  Don't worry...it will mix well once you add the dry ingredients.





Next add the dry ingredients.  Stir in your dry ingredients using a wooden spoon or spatula.  Notice that the dough looks like it might need more moisture to fully pull together; but no.  After you have incorporated all of the dry ingredients, use your hands to do the final mixing and it will come together in a great, smooth dough.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator for a couple of hours to chill.

After the dough is chilled, flour your surface and roll out dough to about 1/8 inch thick.  You can make them a little thicker if that is more to your liking.  You may want to work with about half the dough at a time, as this makes quite a few cookies.  Use your favorite cookie cutter shapes, depending on your holiday or occasion.  You can continue to take the trimmings from your shapes and re-roll your dough to use it all.  Put shapes onto a sprayed cookie sheet.  Bake at 325 F. for 8 minutes.  Allow to sit on the pan for a few additional minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely.

Your cookies need to be completely cooled before you decorate them.  The best thing I have found to decorate with and keep your cookies sugar free is Pillsbury Sugar-Free Vanilla Frosting.  This frosting lends itself well to food coloring and you can certainly then put your different colors into small zip bags and snip off the corners to use as piping bags.  You can always add a couple of drops of milk to the frosting if you feel like it is a little thicker that what you like or what you are used to using.  Use a small amount of icing and milk to thin it down if you would rather have a glaze for your cookies.  Just be sure to add the milk a little at a time and stir until you get the consistency that you are happy with.
Note:  At this point, you can add sprinkles in one of the many varieties that exist; but just remember that the sprinkles will add a small amount of sugar to your cookies.