Incredibly Easy Cheesecake

September 18, 2014 by Leave a Comment

cheesecake 2

  Overheard almost any night during dinner at my house are these words, “Momma, what’s for desert?”. It’s not a stretch for me to bust out a granola bar or a yogurt and pass something like that off as desert. Hey, I’m not Betty Crocker ok? I really enjoy making desert, but I simply just don’t make it that often. I think I should consider making it more often because if we’re being honest here, it’s such a great bribery tool!

“Moooooooom, I haaaaaaaaate carrots.”

“Well honey, you can eat them or you won’t get any desert.”

BOOM! I immediately feel like a boss. Yeah, desert can do that to a mom. The upper-hand can be yours with a proper desert offering.

Like say this cheesecake? Ok, ok. I must make a confession here. I have only ever made cheesecake the quick and easy way. You know the kind with whipped cream and cream cheese and not real baking involved. It’s good stuff. It’s just not real cheesecake. It doesn’t have that super creamy taste like you get with a real cheesecake.

I do understand that I’m hatin’ on every cheesecake I’ve ever made up until this point, but I’m ok with that.

cheesecake 1

 So this cheesecake here. It’s the real deal. But it’s actually easy to do. Mix some easy ingredients together and letting her go in the oven for a while and you have a foolproof cheesecake. So creamy and yummy that your kids will eat anything you feed them in order to have some of this! Well, most anything. Maybe not brussel sprouts. I have never been able to get any of my kids near those things. 

There are really just 4 ingredients plus your graham cracker crust. You can buy that thing and save some time or whip it up yourself. 

cheesecake

 My daughter was eating her a slice the other night and she requested strawberries on top. Unfortunately I was out, but I had some strawberry jam so we used that. You know what? It worked and it tasted just fine. We work with what we got around here.

I’m still not used to the oven here at our new home and it overcooks things a bit so the top of my cheesecake got a little dark. Keep an eye on yours as well.

Another little side note for you- this recipe made a TON of cheesecake batter and I ended up using the extra for small cheesecake muffins things. Just beware when you’re pouring into the crust. You may not need the entire bowl of batter. 

Be sure to share with me if you make this recipe!

Incredibly Easy Cheesecake
Four ingredients make a simple yet creamy cheesecake!
Write a review
Save Recipe
Print
Ingredients
  1. Unbaked Graham Cracker Crust
  2. 3 (8 oz) Packages Cream Cheese, softened
  3. 1 c. Sugar
  4. 5 eggs
  5. 1 and 1/2 tsp Vanilla
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°.
  2. Cream the cream cheese and eggs together by adding an egg at a time slowly.
  3. Add sugar and vanilla to that.
  4. Pour into the graham cracker crust.
  5. Bake for 1 hour until the center is set. Let cool completely.
Notes
  1. This recipe made a TON of cheesecake batter and I ended up using the extra for small cheesecake muffins things. Just beware when you're pouring into the crust. You may not need the entire bowl of batter.
Adapted from The Four Ingredient Cookbook
Adapted from The Four Ingredient Cookbook
Pennywise Cook http://www.pennywisecook.com/

Like this post? SHARE it!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Filed Under: Desserts Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Banana Cream Cheesecake

July 20, 2012 by 4 Comments

Happy FRIDAY pennywise cooks! May your day be filled with productivity and a little bit of fun, too. 🙂

It’s been just a little while since I shared a cheesecake recipe with you. I’m fond of cheesecakes to say the least. I’m not sure if it’s their creaminess or the fact that you can pair them with practically any sweet flavor that makes them so appealing to me. I’d eat them plain too.

There used to be this cheesecake shop where I used to live. Leonelle’s Cheesecakes. A slice was $2 and it was HUGE! A large cheesecake was $28 and the smaller versions were $19 and worth every single penny. They were low carb without any added preservatives or artificial gunk. He even used a natural sugar. Those were the best cheesecakes we’ve ever eaten. When we moved from that city and came back to visit, we found that his shop was closed. It made me sad. My husband and I would always grab one and eat the entire cheesecake in one night while watching a movie.

I guess it’s best that it’s no longer there…

I was talking to someone the other day and they told me about a banana cream cheesecake they had eaten recently. They raved about this cheesecake. My gears started turning and I knew I had to make one. You know me and my love of bananas.

I made a few changes to Kraft Foods’ recipe for Banana Cream Cheesecake. I adapted it to healthify it a bit. But believe me, it’s still incredible.

It starts off with white cake mix, egg, oil, and sugar made into this crumbled mixture. This is the crust. Never thought of using white cake mix as a crust before, but this was a great idea. It wasn’t cakey at all and tasted really good.

You press the crumbled mixture down into a springform pan to form the crust. Pardon my rippling fingerprints. You can make yours a little prettier I’m sure.

Next comes the nanners. This is really the only point in the entire cheesecake that bananas are involved. To be honest with you, I don’t really care for bananas being in there. I know, kinda weird huh? I have never liked real bananas being in my banana pudding. It’s a texture thing and it bothers me when the bananas get brown.

If you aren’t a banana person, I promise that this cheesecake would be just as amazing without them.

Then its time for the cream cheese mixture. It’s a little runny, even after reducing the amount of milk from the original recipe. But that doesn’t matter because it still bakes up correctly.

Here is it out of the oven! I could just dive right in with my fork right now. It could have cooked another 5-10 minutes I’m convinced, but it was practically done. I’ll add the additional time to the recipe for you.

I’m in love. With a cheesecake.

*cue the teasing “so why don’t you marry it”*

I will, thank you.

Banana Cream Cheesecake
Recipe Type: Dessert
Author: Adapted from Kraft Foods’s Recipe
Ingredients
  • 1 White Cake Mix
  • 2 Egg Whites
  • 2 Whole Eggs
  • 3 Tbsp Oil
  • 2/3 c. Packed Splenda Brown Sugar, divided
  • 2 Bananas, Sliced
  • 1 Package (8 oz) Fat Free Cream Cheese
  • 1 Package (8 oz) 1/3 Less Fat Cream Cheese
  • 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
  • 1 c. Skim Milk
  • 1 and 1/2 c. Thawed Whipped Topping
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Reserve a cup of cake mix. Mix the remaining cake mix with 1 egg, oil, and 1/3 Splenda brown sugar with a mixer. (will be crumbly) Press into a greased round springform pan or 9×13 baking dish to form the crust. Top with bananas.
  2. Beat cream cheeses and remaining sugar with mixer. Add the reserved cake mix, 2 egg whites, last whole egg, and lemon juice. Beat for about a minute, then add the cup of milk. Batter with be thin. Pour onto crust and smooth top.
  3. Bake 45-60 minutes or until the center is almost set. Cool and then refrigerate at least 4 hours.
  4. Top with whipped topping and refrigerate leftovers.

Like this post? SHARE it!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Filed Under: Desserts Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Loaded Potato Cheesecake

June 25, 2012 by 2 Comments

Aside from my sweets, potatoes are my other downfall. Give them to me in any form possible and I will eat them happily. When I was pregnant with both my girls, I craved nothing but potatoes. All I wanted was fries, mashed potatoes, and mostly fully loaded potatoes. You know, the ones slathered in a pound of artery-clogging butter, a double donkey dollop of daisy, and of course massive amounts of cheddar cheese and bacon. There is just nothing that compares to this kind of happiness.

Besides cheesecake….

Which brings me to my epiphany. I sat there looking at leftover potatoes on my counter. I have a tendency to let them go bad so I vowed to use them up somehow, someway. And I always have cream cheese on-hand. I thought to myself, are there savory cheesecakes? And if so, are there loaded potato cheesecakes? I began a mission on “The Google” as my sister calls it, to see if there had ever been such a recipe. I mean come on, cream cheese makes mashed potatoes delicious so why not build the potatoes into the cream cheese and call it a savory cheesecake?

To my utmost surprise, I could not find a single recipe for Loaded Potato Cheesecake. What is the world thinking? Cue the gears a turnin in my noggin’. I got out my handy dandy notebook and began this recipe.

And what do you know? It actually turned out incredible!!! This simply doesn’t happen to me on the first time y’all. It just doesn’t.

Not me. Not ever.

I will try something 5-10 times before getting it right. I guess the moons have aligned and the kitchen gods decided to cut me some slack and save my sanity because this one turned out just right. One of my main concerns was the crust. I was so sure that it was going to end up really soggy. But no, It turned out just right and just makes each bite perfect.

This may never happen again so enjoy!

Loaded Potato Cheesecake
Recipe Type: Appetizer, Main, Vegetable
Author: Pennywise Cook
This savory dish is a great twist on everyday cheesecake. Impressive and tasty at the same time!
Ingredients
  • 1 and 1/4 c. Ritz Crackers, Crushed
  • 1/3 c. Shredded Cheddar Cheese + 1/2 c. + 1/4 c.
  • 3 Tbsp Butter, Melted + Additional 2 Tbsp, Melted
  • 2 Packages Reduced Fat Cream Cheese, Softened
  • 3 Medium Red Potatoes (about 3 cups), washed, chopped into bite-size pieces and boiled until soft
  • 1 c. Reduced Fat Sour Cream
  • 2 Eggs, at Room Temp
  • 3 Green Onions, Chopped
  • 4 Pieces Bacon, Cooked and crumbled
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a small bowl combine Ritz Crackers, shredded cheese, and 3 tbsp melted butter. Press into a greased 9″ springform pan. Set aside.
  3. Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time, beating cream cheese after adding each egg.
  4. Add in sour cream, salt, and 2 tbsp melted butter. Combine well. Gently fold in potatoes, green onions, bacon, and 1/2 c. shredded cheese.
  5. Pour into pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Then Reduce heat to 225 and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
  6. In the last 10 minutes, top with additional shredded cheese and allow to melt.
  7. Cool and serve!
Notes

As you can see, I tried to lighten it up as much as I can. While some things just won’t work in reduced fat form, this dish does not taste like it contains anything healthy at all!

It’s a crowd pleaser for sure.


Like this post? SHARE it!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Filed Under: Main Dishes, Sides and Vegetables Tagged With: , , , ,