Sweets For the Sweet!

Doesn't everyone just love the sweet stuff? Of course, sweet comes in many different forms. There are dessert-worthy sweets, sweet drinks, sweet snacks, candy, breakfast-type sweets, cold sweets, warm sweets, warm and cold sweets (such as warm brownies topped with ice cream), sweet-and-sour, the sweet-and-salty combination, etc. So many wonderful possibilities!

The first recipe is a beautiful and delicious icebox cheesecake topped with berries. The second recipe is a banana bread recipe that is super quick and easy due to the fact that you make it with a yellow cake mix. The final recipe is a savory watermelon recipe. I'm not going to lie, the watermelon recipe might not be everyone's cup of tea. Some people don't like to have their watermelon messed with. But I thought it was fantastic!

I hope you like them as much as we did!


Icebox Cheesecake

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 (8-oz.) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 baked Butter Cookie Crust or baked Pretzel Crust (recipes below)
4 cups assorted fresh berries, pitted cherries, or sliced fruit
1/2 cup seedless blackberry jam
1/4 cup orange liqueur or orange juice

Directions:

Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Fold in whipped topping and vanilla; spoon into prepared crust. Cover and chill 8 hours.
Arrange fruit over cream cheese filling. Stir together jam and liqueur; drizzle over fruit.
Variation: Mascarpone Pie: Substitute 1 (8-oz.) container mascarpone cheese for cream cheese, 1/4 cup granulated sugar for powdered sugar, 2 cups whipped cream for whipped topping, and 1 baked Chocolate Butter Cookie Crust for Butter Cookie Crust. Prepare recipe as directed.

Butter Cookie Crust

Makes one 9-inch pie crust
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups butter cookie crumbs (about 1 1/2 [7.25-oz.] packages)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
Directions:

Stir together all ingredients; firmly press crumb mixture on bottom, up sides, and onto lip of a lightly greased 9-inch pieplate. Bake at 350° for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack, and cool crust 1 hour or until completely cool before filling.
Note: For testing purposes, we used Pepperidge Farm Chessmen Cookies for butter cookies.

Pretzel Crust

Makes one 9-inch pie crust
Ingredients:
2 cups finely crushed pretzel sticks
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup melted butter
Directions:
Stir together all ingredients; firmly press crumb mixture on bottom, up sides, and onto lip of a lightly greased 9-inch pieplate. Bake at 350° for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack, and cool crust 1 hour or until completely cool before filling.

Source: Southern Living, JUNE 2008
Notes: I made a butter cookie crust (because I had a tin of butter cookies left over from Christmas that I wanted to use up). It was a rich and delicious pie crust. This dessert was fantastic. Oh, and I used orange juice instead of orange liqueur. However, I would change two things next time. First, I forgot to grease my pie plate before putting the crumb mixture in to form the crust. The result? It was soooo hard to get out of the pie plate. That meant that my beautiful cheesecake didn't look too pretty once it actually got served up because I had a dickens of a time getting it out in one piece (sadly only one serving actually came out in one pretty piece). Second, I put the berries on top of the cheesecake about an hour before we served it. The result? The berries got juicy and the juice ran and bled into the pretty white of the cheesecake. Instead, I would either put the berries on top right before cutting the pie, or (preferably) I would cut the cheesecake, and spoon a desired amount of berries right on top of each serving. So, at least the pie was gorgeous to begin with and it was scrumptious when we ate it (even though it could have been prettier at that point in time!). Oh, and I got a little crazy because I wanted to get rid of my cookies and I made way too many crumbs and I had enough for an extra pie crust. I also had extra whipped topping. Soooo...I made a packaged mix of banana cream pie pudding and put it in the extra crust and topped it with the extra whipped topping. It too was super yummy.


Banana Nut Bread using Yellow Cake Mix

Ingredients:

1 (18.5 oz) box yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil or applesauce (your choice--it tastes great both ways)3-5 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix mashed bananas with eggs, oil or applesauce, cake mix, and nuts. Pour into 2 greased and floured loaf pans or a bundt pan* and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes, then move to a wire rack and cool completely.

You can creat a glaze with water or milk and powdered sugar which can be poured over the cake/bread when it has cooled completely. Do not pour the glaze over a warm cake or it will soak in.

Note: Bundt pan, bake for approzimately 45 minutes.

Source: I had a roommate about 4 years ago who made this all the time. I asked her for the recipe and she simply told me that she found it online. I did a Google search and found a number of recipes. This one was the simplest and most straight forward. It is awesome. I usually make it in a bundt pan because it looks so nice with the glaze on it. I also like to get creative with the nuts. Don't feel like you can only use pecans or walnuts. This bread is awesome with sliced almonds and chopped macadamia nuts as well.

 

Above: 3/22/14 Update: This one is still a favorite!

Watermelon, Mâche, and Pecan Salad

Prep: 20 min., Bake: 7 min., Cool: 15 min. Mâche, a tender heirloom variety of lamb's lettuce, has a slightly sweet, nutty flavor, but the salad is equally good prepared with baby lettuces.

Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

3/4 cup chopped pecans
5 cups seeded and cubed watermelon
1 (6 oz) package mâche, thoroughly washed
Pepper Jelly Vinaigrette (recipe below)
1 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet, and bake at 350 degrees for 5-7 minutes or until lightly toasted and fragrant. Cool on a wire rack 15 minutes or until completely cool.

Combine watermelon and mâche in a large bowl; add vinaigrette, tossing gently to coat. Transfer watermelon mixture to a serving platter, and sprinkle evenly with pecans and cheese.

Pepper Jelly Vinaigrette

Prep: 10 min. This is also terrific drizzled over a summery trio of sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, and onion.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup pepper jelly
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon grated onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

Whisk together first 6 ingredients. Gradually add oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking until blended.

Source: Southern Living, July 2008

Notes: We couldn't find any mâche, so we decided to completely skip this ingredient. As stated in the recipe, if you can't find this ingredient, baby lettuce works. I would also say that baby spinach would work as well. But this salad was lovely and satisfying even without the lettuce. The flavors are very complex. The combination of sweet and salty is wonderfully unique. The people who tried this recipe at our barbecue were split. They either loved it or hated it. I loved it...so it's on my blog!