Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Cheesecake

I can't really take credit for this recipe. At all. I didn't make a single part of it. It wasn't even my idea. I'm pretty sure my only contribution was taking pictures. And eating. But it's so good that whether I had a hand in it or not, I've got to share it.

So my friends and I like the show Supernatural on the CW. And by like I mean completely and utterly obsessed. Show quoting, marathon watching, convention going (DallasCon!) obsessed. When Kelli suggested that we have a Supernatural Marathon weekend, I was totally game. Especially when we decided that dessert was most definitely involved. My vote was for pie (if you watch the show, you understand), while Tommy voted for cheesecake. So, of course, we made both. Sorry Sam and Dean (and Cas. And pie.), you might be the stars of the show, but this cheesecake was the star of the weekend.

Since Kelli doesn't do much in the way of baking, Tommy and I packed up half our kitchens (mixers, waffle irons, ingredients, and all), and took our baking and cooking shows on the road. Pretty sure the neighbors thought I was moving out with the amount of stuff I was hauling to the car. But it was so worth it. We fired up the mixer and the DVR and set off on a Supernatural baking adventure, with Tommy leading the charge, Kelli as sous chef, and me just playing paparazzi.

Layer upon layer of deliciousness. We're talking 8 layers here. EIGHT! In all their peanut butter and chocolate glory. 

Mountains of peanut butter cups. And surprisingly we only sacrificed 3. For quality control purposes only, of course. 

Oh the unveiling anticipation! Pretty sure we opened the fridge to check on it about 85 times in the 4 hours it took to chill.

Brownies + hot fudge + peanut butter cheesecake + brownies + peanut butter cheesecake + whipped cream + peanut butter cups + hot fudge = HOLY MOTHER OF YUM. And don't even try to calculate how many calories are in this. It's probably about a week's worth of the recommended daily amount. So we just won't talk about that.

We ate our slices standing at the counter. If no one was watching, I might not have even bothered with slices. I probably would have just taken a fork and dove in. But I'm a bit more civilized in the presence of company. (Well, that is if you can overlook me standing on a chair like a crazy person taking pictures.. That's just what happens when you invite a food blogger to a party.)

So, whether you're reveling in your fandom with good friends, or celebrating the upcoming Valentine's Day (with company or alone--either way works), this cheesecake is not to be missed! It's easy to throw together, practically no-bake, and honestly, we're probably not still going on that whole New Year's resolution thing, so what are you waiting for? You NEED this cheesecake.

Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake

Do you ever just not want to do something? You put it off, and hesitate, and find anything and everything else to keep from doing the one thing you just can’t bring yourself to do?

I was notorious for this in college. Around finals time, my house would be spotless because I’d much rather clean than study. A big paper due this week? I’ll just do all my laundry while I read over my notes. Oh, since I’m down here in the kitchen, I might as well start something for dinner. Now that dinner’s over, it’s time to wash every dish we own. Oh my laundry’s done. Well, now I have to fold everything and put it away. What? It’s midnight already? But I haven’t even started! Oh well. I’ll get to it tomorrow. And I’d start the whole process over the next day, finding bathrooms to clean and closets to rearrange, until finally, the night before the paper was due, I’d be busting out 15 pages at 3am, just praying I’d get it done in time for my 8am class, and cursing myself for waiting so long.

Well, here I am, almost 10 years later, still doing it. Meet my 15 page paper that was due last week.

Bailey’s Irish Cream Cheesecake. The perfect dessert to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. If you get it done in time.

I had every intention of making this well before St. Patty’s Day. I had all the ingredients. I had everything planned out. And I avoided it like the Plague.

I have a bit of a rocky relationship with cheesecake. We’ve never really seen eye to eye. I want a beautiful, creamy, delicious dessert. Cheesecake wants to crack like the Grand Canyon, no matter how many tips I try to keep it from happening. Water bath? Yep. Room temperature ingredients? Check. Turn the heat up then down? Done it. I’ve left the oven door closed while cooling. I’ve left it cracked. Short of a cheesecake rain dance, I’ve tried it all—to no avail. So I reeeeally didn’t want to make it, because I knew I’d just end up disappointed again.

But finally, I sucked it up and said, “Just do the damn thing. Get it over with.” So, even though it was already too late to post in time for the holiday, I did it. And guess what. Not a single crack! Not even a tiny one! Other than a couple air bubble dimples, the top was perfectly smooth!!

It was a St. Patrick’s Day cheesecake miracle! I’m not sure what tip ended up being the deal breaker, if it was the combination of all, or whether I just had the Luck of the Irish that day, but it actually, for the first time ever, turned out perfectly! And it tasted pretty darn good too. Totally creamy with just a hint of Bailey’s. I’m not even ashamed to admit that I ate a piece for dinner one night.

So these are all the tricks I used to create a perfect cheesecake. Not sure if any or all of them are the reason it didn’t crack, but I’m definitely trying all of them again next time to see if it really is fail proof or just a fluke!

- Room temperature ingredients: I let everything sit out on the counter overnight to make sure there was no chill at all on them.
- Jayme of Delectable Deliciousness used a tablespoon of cornstarch to help it stay together.
- Jamie from My Baking Addiction suggested putting the springform pan in an oven bag to ensure no water gets in. I’ve had these turkey sized oven bags in my pantry for YEARS, so I tried it, and with the bag protecting the pan, I was able to bring the water bath higher up the sides than I would with just foil.
- I baked it until the sides were set, but the middle still jiggled a bunch. (It helped me to picture the cheesecake like the Target logo—as two rings surrounding a circle in the center. I turned off the oven when the outside circle didn’t jiggle, but the middle ring and the center circle still moved a bit.)
- I turned the oven off and let it cool, without opening the door at all, for exactly an hour. Then I took it out and set it on the counter. I ran a sharp knife along the edge to loosen it from the pan so it wouldn’t stick, then let it cool until it was just barely warm to the touch on the bottom before putting it in the fridge to chill overnight.

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Pecan Crust

November’s here, and with it comes the start of all the holiday baking! It’s a good thing I have all those goodies to look forward too, because I’m definitely not looking forward to the nasty weather that winter brings with it. Gone are the bright colors on the trees and the crisp hoodie weather I love so much. In just a matter of a few weeks the view outside my back window has gone from gorgeous to gloomy, I finally had to break down and put on an actual coat, turn the heat on in my house, and I was not happy the first morning I had to scrape frost from my windshield. I cringe every time the weatherman hints at freezing temperatures and the possibility of the first snow of the season. And I heard Christmas songs played in a store the other day. Oh no. Not yet. I’m not ready yet! Fall passed me by before I got to fully enjoy it! So I’m holding on for dear life to the flavors of fall. You might snow on me, but you’ll never take my pumpkin away!

Cookies and Cream Mini Cheesecakes

Cookies and Cream Mini Cheesecakes
From Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
Makes 30

42 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped
2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 275F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Drizzle eggs, at bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie filled cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate (in tins) at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

Note: I topped my mini cheesecakes with a swirl of whipped cream and a mini Oreo cookie. You could also crumble up a couple regular sized cookies and sprinkle the crumbs on top of the whipped cream as well.

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Do you ever wish you could go back in time to a younger age? A time with less responsibilities and stress? Even if only for a weekend? I know I do. All the time. This past week, I got my wish. For three days, I was 17 again. My best friend, Dani (she's the one on the left), came back to visit for a few days after moving to Texas over a year ago. It was a weekend full of sleepovers, movies, junk food, and of course baked goods. The first thing she said to me after she booked her flight was, "So you're making cheesecake, right?" How could I say no?

I've known Dani since elementary school, and we, along with our other best friend, Kelli (in the middle above), were inseparable from high school on. We've done everything together: from concerts to camping trips, road trips, and vacations. We spent 16 terrifying hours together on a Greyhound bus to Virginia Beach, and got robbed in the parking lot of a casino in Mississippi. We've been to auditions for American Idol in both Cleveland and Memphis, (Dani auditioned. I was moral support.) and let me tell you--sleeping in the Browns Stadium overnight is not the most pleasant thing in the world. But it was one hell of an experience. The three of us, we're practically family. I call their parents Mom and Dad, and I feel more at home in their houses than I do in mine half the time. We don't even hesitate to just walk in to each others homes and head straight for the fridge for a snack. And our Christmas/New Year's celebration tradition? We put Santa to shame with our gift giving. It takes hours to open all our gifts. Seriously. I spend more on them than anyone in my family. And it's a tradition reserved only for us. No one else is allowed to partake. No boyfriends, no family. No one. And none of us see anything wrong with that. Through the years, there have been good times and bad, but no matter what, there's always been us.

With Dani coming to visit, and specifically requesting cheesecake, I finally had the perfect reason to try the Cookies and Cream Mini Cheesecakes from the Martha Stewart Cupcake book. I had toyed with the idea of making these a couple weeks ago, but that plan fell through when I accidentally ate most of the package of Oreos before I even bought the rest of the ingredients. Not sure how that happened.... I swear I only took like 1 or 2, and suddenly, the package was empty. But I wouldn't let myself do it this time! This package was to bake with! Okay, maybe I cheated a little and had 1 or 2, but that's all!

The recipe was so easy to put together. I made them on Saturday so they would be ready when the girls came over on Sunday. The actual making of the cheesecake took under an hour from start to finish, but then they had to cool overnight, so I didn't get to test them out right away. That's the only thing I don't like about cheesecake. There's no instant gratification with it. But the rest I'm perfectly okay with. We had these as dessert after dinner--our usual pasta, while we watched movies (the very appropriate 13 Going On 30, about a 30 year old that still thinks she's 13) and attempted to play board games. The girls seemed to like them (they had seconds, and maybe even thirds), and I sent an entire cupcake tray back to Kelli's with them the next afternoon. By the time I rejoined the party after work that night, the whole thing was gone, so I guess they were a hit with everyone!

We spent the rest of the weekend doing exactly what we would have been doing 10 years ago--sleeping over at Kelli's, stuffing ourselves full of junk food, staying up all night, and watching hours and hours of Backstreet Boys videos. Seriously. We watched like 5 hours of BSB on Tuesday night alone. And we still had more to watch, but it was already 5 o'clock in the morning, and we had to take Dani back to the airport by noon! So much may have changed in our lives, but for those 3 nights, we forgot all about the stress of our lives, and we were 17 again.