My First Cheesecake....

I am not sure why I had the idea in my head that cheesecake was so terribly tricky and difficult to make, perhaps it was from watching too many episodes of the golden girls when I was younger?......or maybe that is where I got an appreciation for the decadent dessert.....after talking to one fine lady in the library Ms. Helen gave me her recipe for cheesecake and mentioned how easy it was.....not too surprised, but she was right!

Royal Cheesecake:

CRUST
- 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 5 TBSP butter
- 2 TBSP granulated sugar

FILLING
- 3 8oz packages of cream cheese
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract

TOPPING
- 1 can cherry pie filling

Blend first three ingredients together; press firmly against bottom of spring form pan.....I was so excited to be using my spring form pan for the first time....I have had one for years, but feared making cheesecake so there is has sat in my cupboard, then packaged for the trip to California over 3 years ago, and finally after kicking some dust off of it it has been christened with royal cheesecake!

Blend filling ingredients using an electric mixer....this takes several minutes.....doing this is a great test to determine the quality of your hand mixer....mine is not so great as it took some elbow grease as well to get all the lumps out......but then again what do you expect for a mixer that was purchased some seven years ago for the whopping price of $9.99......who am I to complain....it works......although I have to admit I was secretly hoping that it would burn out and "force" me into an upgrade.....all in due time!

Pour filling into crust and bake in a preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes.....I baked mine for 40 minutes and probably could have taken it out about 5 - 7  minutes earlier.....next time I experiment!  Chill thoroughly and garnish edge with pie filling.....

I of course had to slice off a sliver.....it was delicious, rich, and totally worth every bite!  I wrapped it up and put the remaining cake in the freezer....I am thinking next time company comes over I am set! As you can see the crust was a little crumbly....I am thinking this is due to the fact that I couldn't wait until it was cooled thoroughly to slice into it!

~Enjoy!

Cinnamon Spice Muffins...

As you will quickly notice these are very similar to the banana nut muffins.....just slightly altered for those you are not too wild about bananas.....

When preparing the apples cut them into small 1 inch cubes and simmer in a pan with the apple sauce, lemon juice and spices....it will smell so darn good....almost like apple pie.....but not quite.....


After the apples are soft I mashed them with a potato masher to get an even consistency, then added them to the rest of the muffin batter.  Which can easily be mixed while the apples are simmering....dry ingredients first, then get the eggs, sugar, and milk together....let the apple mixture cool before you add it to the rest of the wet ingredients, the last thing you want to do is end up with in omelet in the middle of one of the muffins.....mix all together and spoon into greased muffin tins and bake for 30 minutes in 350 degree oven.  If you read the banana nut blog then you are well aware of the walnut/sugar mixture that I used as a topping to get a nice crunchy muffin top....I had some left over so I used that on these ones as well....I think it worked!

~Enjoy!

Cinnamon Spice Muffins
5 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 scoops of vanilla protein powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp coriander
1 tsp salt
5 in season apples (I used Gala - this time)
5 cap fulls of lemon juice
2 snack packs of apple sauce
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1 cup brown sugar