Easy No-Bake Cheesecake with Huckleberries

I've been away for a few days because we are visiting my wonderful (seriously) in-laws up in the wilds of Northern Idaho.  I do mean Northern too, since we are only about 25 miles from the border of British Columbia.  It is truly beautiful up here and we have had a great trip already.

We have enjoyed spending time together as a family and in doing simple things - being outside, boating on a lake, fishing, riding horses and 4-wheelers, playing on a trampoline and playing with the dogs, listening to the cows, driving on country roads, and visiting local attractions.  We even had a campfire so Aidan could make s'mores and both boys caught their first fish!

Among all these things, we even got rained out a couple of days and used the time to enjoy a movies and games as well as some delicious recipes.  I'll be sharing a crock-pot lasagna recipe in the near future, but I wanted to tell you about this truly delicious and simple dessert in time for any last minute Father's Day ideas.

My mother-in-law got this recipe from another family member for a no-bake Cherry Cheesecake, and since my husband is such a fiend for huckleberries, and his Mom always makes sure to have some on hand, we decided to top the cheesecake with a warm concoction of huckleberries instead. 

The pie itself is light and fluffy and would be wonderful with most any topping your little heart - or that of any Dad in your life - desires.  Happy Father's Day!  

Easy No-Bake Cheesecake with Huckleberries

For the crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar

Mix together and press into a 9-inch pie pan, in the bottom and up the sides.  Set aside and make filling.

For the pie filling:

1 8-oz package of cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups cold whipped cream or Cool Whip

Beat all three ingredients together well, until light and fluffy.  Place in prepared pie crust.  Chill at least 1 hour. Serve with cooled huckleberry topping (below).

For the topping:
3 cups huckleberries, frozen or thawed
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar

Stir together well in a saucepan over medium heat.  Bring to a simmer and allow to thicken.  Once thickened, place in a heatproof bowl and allow to cool.  Serve over cream cheese pie.

TWD: Chocolate Cheesecake

While I realize that it isn't Tuesday anymore, here I am finally posting my Chocolate Cheesecake from this past week's recipe choice by the lovely Tea Lady at Tea and Scones for Tuesdays with Dorie. The silly thing about being late is my reason why. I actually made this and had the pictures all ready about two weeks ago. I literally just lost track of the days this week and Tuesday came and went without my even realizing it. One of the interesting things about working from home and having my son out of school right now is that I just can't seem to keep anything straight.

So, here we are, its Saturday, and I'm late, late, late. Which I hate. Oh well, I guess this is why there is that saying about being better late than never.

I really enjoyed this cheesecake and actually had it for dessert on my wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago. I decided to make the hot fudge sauce Dorie suggests in the introduction notes, using her recipe in the back of the book. I also swapped out the graham cracker crust for an Oreo crust and topped each serving with a little whipped cream as well for good measure. Since I didn't have anywhere to take the cheesecake, and no need to eat an entire one by myself since my hubs isn't a fan (he had Huckleberry Pie for his anniversary dessert) I halved the recipe and made two small 4-inch cheesecakes. It is nice that Dorie says the cheesecake keeps well in the freezer too - now I have another one waiting for me when the mood strikes.

The surprising thing for me about cheesecake is that I still prefer closer to the 'original' (like the Toffee Cheesecake I made last year) instead of a chocolate cheesecake. I'm not sure why. When I do need a great recipe for a chocolate version though, this one will definitely be first in line.

Daring Bakers: Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I happen to love cheesecake, so I was excited by this choice. I knew I would want to do something different with it though and therein was the challenge for me. I couldn't make up my mind. I made a toffee cheesecake a while back for Tuesdays with Dorie which was insanely good, but I didn't want to just do the same thing here.

I finally decided on a chocolate crust, substituting homemade chocolate wafer cookies, a vanilla bean flavored cheesecake batter, and topping it off with some small strawberries brushed with a little warmed strawberry jam for extra sweetness and shine.

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

I also decided, in honor of the Blogging for Babies event, to make my cheesecake in my mini loaf pan as individual bar sized cheesecakes. It was fun and easy. To save on frustration with attempting to remove the cheesecake bars from the pan I just made a mini 'sling' out of parchment paper to place in each cavity. If you don't have a mini loaf pan you could easily do the same thing with muffin tins.

This cheesecake was very good and was easy to work with, but I have to admit that my favorite cheesecake recipe, hands down, is still the one from Dorie Greenspan. I dream of that cheesecake - the flavor, texture and ease of preparation, are all perfect in my book.

You can visit the Daring Bakers at their new home at The Daring Kitchen to see more amazing cheesecakes!

TWD: Tall & Creamy Toffee Cheesecake

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Laurie for starting this amazing group. As she already knows, this is my weekly therapy session and I don't know where I would be without it! Thank you so much to all of you who come here each week and leave comments. There really aren't words to express how much it means to me. I hope that the coming year is a joyful, peaceful and prosperous one for all of you! I also want to thank Dorie for such an amazing book with such a wonderful array of not only recipes, but stories and insight and ideas that a group like this can be formed around. At our house, this is the go-to book for all ideas and is commonly referred to as The Big Baking Book by my five year old, who loves to flip through the pages and tell me things we should make. I know that this book will be an heirloom and well loved and used for years to come.

After last week's butterscotch excursion I just couldn't seem to let go of that brown sugar depth of flavor - not that I ever do anyway - but as I was making the Tall and Creamy Cheesecake, chosen by Anne of Anne Strawberry I decided I had to play around with the flavor a bit. I knew that this cheesecake recipe was going to be good, but when I served it to our friends on Christmas Day the immediate WOW from all at the table was a nice gift to get.

To play with the flavors of the cheesecake I made the following changes and additions.

First, I made 1 1/2 times the crust amount because I really love a lot of crust. I didn't want to go overboard and double the recipe, but I did want a bit extra that originally called for - that is just preference though.

The major change I made to the recipe was to divide out, at the very beginning, 1/3 cup each of the sugar and cream portions of the cheesecake. I substituted dark brown sugar for that 1/3 cup portion and combined the cream and brown sugar in a small sauce pan and let it boil, then simmer together until nice and golden, thick and syrupy to make a kind of toffee syrup. I set this aside to cool completely before moving on to the rest of the cheesecake. From there, I just followed the regular directions, up until the point of adding in the vanilla, at which point I also drizzled in the toffee syrup. I used sour cream for the remaining portion of cream or sour cream in the recipe.

I really love the creamy, golden color that the toffee flavor added to this cheesecake. I also made Peabody's toffee sauce and added some pecans to it to spoon over the top of the cheesecake. All I can say was that I think I could drink that toffee sauce for breakfast, lunch and dinner (did I mention I used to just eat straight brown sugar from the bag when I was little? Yeah. It is an obsession).

This cheesecake was by far THE BEST CHEESECAKE we have ever had. Not only the texture, but the flavor and ease of making the recipe, now put this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe in the running as my favorite recipe so far. I am still a chocoholic at heart, so the Gooey Chocolate Cake hasn't quite been unseated yet, but this cheesecake comes very close.

Make sure to head on over to see all the other amazing creations put together by my Tuesdays with Dorie friends.

Daring Bakers: April Challenge - Cheesecake Pops

It's that time again! The fabulous Daring Baker's are once again flooding the foodosphere (I have no idea if that is a real word, but it's late, and there you go). This time it is with lovely little Cheesecake Pops. Yup, yummy goodness of baked cheesecake, scooped, dipped, dressed up and on a stick. What's not to love, right? Right.

As you can imagine, with this past week has been busy with the roundup for the Blogging for Babies Event (and don't forget to check it out and vote for your favorites to help them win some prizes!). Then the March for Babies was held this morning and went really well - but more about that later. You're here for cheesecake, right? Right.

So, a lot of the DB's sounded like they had trouble baking the cheesecake, and I took my cue from them. I didn't deviate from the recipe, but partly by default and an uncooperative baby, ended up letting the cheesecake bake for about 60 minutes, when it still was just barely setting and then it actually had to sit in the water bath while it cooled til I could get back to take it out later - so, because that ended up being perfect (lucky for me and those 40 oz of cream cheese the recipe calls for). The cheesecake consistency was the perfect for scooping. I would say my only "complaint" if any was my utter clumsiness in actually trying to get these babies into a good shape. I used my 2 oz scoop and even weighed them just to be safe, but they were so soft I couldn't work them into nice round balls (or any other shape for that matter). Once frozen there was no shaping either. So, I just scooped and let it take its own rough shape. So, while I'm sure that my Cheesecake Pops aren't the prettiest out there, overall I'm very pleased with how they turned out.

I chose to dip mine in bittersweet chocolate and red candy melt (from Wilton) with a layer of graham cracker underneath. The big surprise (for me anyway) was the fact that I liked a couple that I left with just the graham cracker (no other coating) the very best. I guess I'm a cheesecake purist or something.

So, here you go. The recipe with a few notes from me in italics. Thank you to our lovely hostesses this month, Elle at Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah at Taste and Tell. I thought their challenge and recipe was absolutely inspired and definately a challenge. Thanks again!

As always, don't miss out on what all the other Daring Bakers and Alternative Daring Bakers have offered up this time around. Seriously, go check it out!

Cheesecake Pops
Makes 30 – 40 Pops (I got closer to 30 at the almost exact weight of 2 oz)

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ cup heavy cream

Boiling water as needed

Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks

1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)

Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes. (Mine baked for about 60 minutes until it was pretty set if not completely firm and barely golden - as I mentioned above though, I ended it taking it out of the oven and not getting to take it out of the water bath until it had pretty much cooled completely. I think that actually worked in my favor because I was firm and well set, but not browned. It was either end up burning it before I could take it out of the oven though, or take it out before it was completely done. So, there you go, lucky for me the carryover heat really did the trick).

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.
When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.