Makes 6 muffins
Ingredients:
- 3 Light whole-wheat English muffins
- ½ cup Ragu® pizza sauce (low sugar!)
- ½ cup low moisture, part-skim, shredded mozzarella cheese
- ¼ cup green bell peppers, sliced
- ¼ cup yellow bell peppers, sliced
- ¼ cup red bell peppers, sliced
- 7 pitted black olives
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Spray a cookie sheet or baking rake with cooking spray.
- Slice the whole wheat English Muffins length wise and place on baking sheet.
- Spread the pizza sauce lightly on each English muffin
- Sprinkle each muffin with reduced fat mozzarella cheese.
- For toppings:
- To make the mouth of the pizza face, slice green pepper and yellow pepper length wise and make a smile on each muffin.
- To make the nose of the pizza face, slice the black olives in half and place one piece on each muffin
- To make the eyes of the pizza face, slice the red pepper into small pieces and place on top of each muffin. Next place a small slice of green pepper or yellow pepper above the red pepper eye. Cut small pieces of a black olive to make the inner dot on the eye.
- Bake pizza smiles for 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbling.
No-Bake Spiderweb Cheesecake
Ingredients:
For the Crust:
Canola oil cooking spray
18 ounces chocolate wafers (2 packages), finely ground (4 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon coarse salt
For the ganache:
4 ounces semi/bitter-sweet chocolate (preferably 61%), finely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
For the Filling:
32 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, cold
Directions
Make the crust: Coat a 10-inch springform pan with cooking spray. Mix wafers, sugar, butter, and salt in a medium bowl. Pat mixture into a pan, pressing firmly into bottom of pan (I used the bottom of a water glass) and all the way up the sides. Cover, and refrigerate until ready to fill.
Make the ganache: Place chocolate in a food processor. Bring cream to a simmer in a small saucepan, then pour over chocolate. When chocolate starts to melt, process until smooth. Reserve 2tablespoons ganache for decorating, and spread the remainder evenly on bottom and all the way up sides of crust. Cover, and refrigerate until ready to fill.
Make the Filling: Beat cream cheese with a mixer (standing or hand) on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low, and slowly add sugar and salt. Raise speed to med-high, and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in lemon juice.
Whisk cream until medium-stiff peaks form. Whisk 1/4 of the whipped cream into cream cheese mixture, then fold in remaining whipped cream. Pour filling into crust, and spread evenly. Gently tap bottom of pan on counter to release air bubbles.
Transfer reserved ganache to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4-inch round tip. Starting from the center of the cheesecake, pipe a spiral, spacing about 1/2-inch apart. Pull the tip of a pairing knife in a gentle curved line from the center of the spiral to outer edge. Wipe knife clean , and repeat every inch or so to form a web.
Cover and freeze for at least an hour or overnight. Serve and garnish with scary spiders!
And, for the girly girls in your life, we've got the Bright Stars Multi Language Placemat AND the Tummy Tee that's filled with sugar & spice & everything nice - which you can obviously see is all pink! This pink-tastic recipe for funfetti sugar cookies will be a crowd-pleaser for any occasion!
Softbatch Funfetti Sugar Cookies
Yield: 15 medium cookies
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Total Time: 2+ hours, for dough chilling
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Total Time: 2+ hours, for dough chilling
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons clear imitation vanilla extract (real vanilla extract may be substituted)
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons corn starch
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt, optional and to taste
3/4 cup sprinkles (jimmies)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons clear imitation vanilla extract (real vanilla extract may be substituted)
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons corn starch
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt, optional and to taste
3/4 cup sprinkles (jimmies)
Directions:
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugar, egg, extract, and beat on medium-high speed until well-creamed, light and fluffy, about 5 minutes (or use a hand mixer and beat for at least 7 minutes). Do not shortcut the creaming process; make sure dough is very light in color and fluff, stop to scrape down the sides of the mixer as necessary.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, optional salt, and mix until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Add the sprinkles and beat momentarily to incorporate, less than 1 minute, or fold in by hand.
- Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form heaping two tablespoon mounds (I made 15). Place mounds on a large plate, flatten mounds slightly with your palm, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 5 days, before baking. Do not bake with warm dough because cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line two baking sheets with Silpats, or spray with cooking spray. Place mounds on baking sheets, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet). Bake for 8 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just beginning to set, even if undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center. These cookies should not turn golden or brown at all and should stay white. Do not bake longer than 9 minutes for soft cookies because they firm up as they cool (The cookies shown in the photos were baked with dough that had been chilled overnight, allowed to come to room temp for 15 minutes, and were baked for 8 minutes, with trays rotated at the 4-minute mark). Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling.
- Store cookies airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored airtight in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
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