Cookie dough cheesecake

I never had cookie dough cheesecake before. So when my son asked me to make one for New Years party, i was reluctant to make it. But, we love all kinds of cheesecakes, and we love cookies, so I decide to give it a try. I combined my standard vanilla cheesecake recipe, with my cookie recipe, and hoped for the best. How bad could it be?
Its buttery graham cracker crust, smooth, creamy cheesecake with chocolate morsels, cookie dough snuggled in, and garnished with whipped cream. Its comfort food, and my son loves it with a glass of milk. I prefer  the cup of coffee with it.
To make it, start with cookie dough.

For cookie dough:
112 gr butter (1 stick)
140 gr sugar
150 gr flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla
150 gr. mini chocolate chips
In a medium bowl, beat room temperature butter with sugar until creamy. Add vanilla, and egg. Mix few more minutes. Add flour, and chocolate chips, mix until thoroughly combined. Refrigerate for 15-20 min. Roll cookie dough into small balls. They should be the size of the walnut. Put them in refrigerator while you make the rest.

For the crust:
2 cups of graham cracker crumbs
6 tablespoons of melted butter
2 tablespoons of brown sugar

Mix graham cracker crumbs with sugar. Add melted butter, mix well and press onto the bottom and sides of 9 inch baking pan. Bake for 10 min, at 325F/162C. Cool.

For the cheesecake:
3 packs (226 gr each) room temperature Philadelphia cream cheese
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 can (397 gr) condensed milk
100 gr. mini chocolate chip cookies

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), on low speed, beat the cream cheese until smooth (about 2 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating them well (about 30 seconds) after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add condensed milk and vanilla. Mix until everything is combined, but try not to incorporate to many bubbles. 

Pour half of the filling over the crust, and place cookie dough balls in it. Add chocolate chip cookies to other half of the batter, mix, and pour over cookie dough. Bake in a 325F/160C oven for 45 min. The edges of the cheesecake should be puffed but the center still a little wet and jiggle when you gently shake the pan. Do not over bake it, it will crack.
Refrigerate until chilled, preferably overnight. Serve with whipped cream and vanilla.

Snowflake cookies

Merry Christmas everyone :)
I hope you enjoyed the holidays with your family and friends, with good food, drink, and lots of laughter.
You probably exchanged gifts with loved ones.
I baked my gifts :)
Many, many of them. I had so many snowflake cookies, that I did not know where to put them anymore. Thats why this will be a blog post with the most pictures you have ever seen.
They are just adorable, and it was to hard for me to resist.

For these light sugar cookies, I used recipe from Make bake celebrate. 

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Mix softened butter with sugar. Add an egg, and vanilla and beat a little bit longer. Start adding flour, and mix until you get nice, soft dough. 

Preheat oven to 350F/180C and line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Roll the dough between two peaces of parchment paper.

Cut out cookies. I used snowflake cookie cutters, but you can do any shape. Just dust them with the flour, so they dont stick to the cutter. Gather the leftover dough, kneed a bit, and repeat the process, until you use it up. Transfer snowflakes gently to the baking sheet, and freeze them for a few minutes. Bake them for 7 min if you want them really light, and a 1-2 min longer for golden color.

Cool them completely before you start decorating them with the royal icing.

Recipe for dark chocolate sugar cookies comes from Baking a moment. And for that cookie, you will need. 

1  1/2 cups of flour

1/2 cup dark cocoa powder

1/2 cups butter

1 tablespoon of oil

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch 

1 egg

1 teaspoons vanilla 

In large bowl, sift together flour and cocoa powder. Set aside. 

Cream the butter, oil, and sugar until fluffy and pale, about 5 min. beat in the egg and vanilla.

Add flour and mix until thoroughly combined. 

Roll the dough between two peaces of parchment paper. Cut shapes using the cutters of your choice, and place them on the cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake them for 10 min at 375F

Cool  completely before decorating. 

To decorate cookies, you will need royal icing.

Mix 250 gr of powder sugar with 1 egg white, and few drops of lemon juice. You can use pasterised egg whites.
It should have the consistency that is good for piping. If its to hard to pipe, you need to add few more drops of lemon juice. I used Wilton tip #2 , for these snowflakes. Make sure your icing is covered with wet cloth all the time, because it crusts easily. Decorate as desired. 

Let the icing set for at least one hour. 

Package them in cellophane bags for gifts, or use them as a decorations for Christmas tree :) 

Candy cane melting moments

Have you ever tried melting moments?
They do literary melt in your mouth. Its a short bread cute name cookie, and its taste relies on a good butter. Please, do not make it with shortening or margarine, you will ruin it. They are elegant, refined,  lovely, delicate, and for me they are the perfect Christmas cookies. Its not just tenderly melting cookie that I love. I love the filling. And you can really go crazy here. I cant decide which one I love the most.
Nutella?
Strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream?
Lemon curd? Chocolate ganache? Raspberry, passion fruit?
Possibilities are endless, whatever you like, goes well with it. These I made with crushed candy canes. Well its the season, so we are hoping that Santa would like them too ;)


For candy cane frosting:
250 ml. heavy whipping cream
250 gr. white chocolate
1 tablespoon of butter
6 peaces of crushed candy cane
peppermint extract to your liking

Heat the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat. Just bring it to a boil, and pour it immediately over chopped chocolate. Let it stand for a few minutes. Stir gently until chocolate is melted and smooth. Add butter, stir until it melts and cool it in the fridge for two hours. You can even make it a day ahead.


For the cookie:
350 gr. room temperature butter
150 gr. sugar
350 gr. flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
 1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream butter, sugar  and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add flour sifted with cornstarch and fold it into the mixture. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a large star shaped piping nozzle. I used Ateco tip 827. Pipe rosettes on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. You should be able to pipe it easily. If its hard, worm up piping bag with your hands for a min, to soften up the butter. Cool piped cookies in refrigerator for about 30 min before baking. You can skip this step, and bake them right away, but they will hold their shape better if cooled.
Bake at 350F/180C for about 12-13 min. They should be pale golden.

While your cookies are cooling, whip the ganache in which you have added peppermint extract. Whip until its frosting consistency. Be careful not to overwhip, it will turn into the butter. Add crushed candy cane, and pipe the frosting on one cookie. Gently sandwich it with another one. Sprinkle them with powder sugar, and enjoy.

Munchmallow

Please scroll down for english :)

Jos na pocetku meseca sam isprobala recept za igru kuvarijacije tj. recept za munchmallow.
Iskreno, nisam bas mislila da ce biti toliko slican originalu a kamo li jos bolji od njega. Rezultat me je oborio s nogu. Da ne pominjem odusevljenje mog deta. Pravili smo ih zajedno, tako da je i on dobio svoju vrecicu za spricanje i biskvitne podloge. Nisu bas svi ispali savrsenog oblika, ali smo se Rasa i ja dobro zabavili.
Zaista su laki za napraviti, kolicina je ogromna, tako da je ispalo jako puno kolacica i razdeljeno jako puno slatkih paketica. Niko od nasih prijatelja nije mogao da poveruje, da to nije onaj stari, dobri, munchmallow iz prepoznatljive plave kutije i srebrno-crvenom folijom uz koji smo svi odrasli.
Jedina izmena koju sam napravila je dodatak djumbira umesto cimeta u biskvitni deo. Cimet bas i ne volim puno, osim kada radim kolace sa jabukama ili bundevom, a djumbir je zaista fantasticno legao uz biskvitnu podlogu.
La casa de vainilla, hvala za odlican recept :)

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Munchmallow

For cookie dough:

1 tablespoon of cacao, 440 gr. flour, 100 gr. sugar, ½ teaspoon of salt, ¾ teaspoon baking powder, pinch of baking soda, pinch of cinnamon or ginger, 220 gr. butter, 3 eggs.

In a food processor mix cold butter cut in pieces with sugar, and the rest of the dry ingredients. Add eggs, and process until rough ball forms. Put it into the zip lock bag, and let it rest in the refrigerator. Take the dough out of the fridge and out of its package, give it a short warm-up. Roll out thin and cut out cookies.
Bake at 374 for ten minutes.

For marshmallow:

120 ml. water, 4 tablespoons honey, 320 gr. sugar, 2 tablespoons gelatin, 4 tablespoons cold water, 4 egg whites, 1/2 tablespoon vanilla.

Mix water, honey and sugar and let it boil for a few minutes until bubbles form.
Mix gelatin with 4 tablespoons of cold water. After the gelatin has softened, add it to the hot sugar mixture and mix until dissolves.
In a mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks and while the mixer is on low, slowly pour in the hot gelatin mixture. Increase the speed and beat until white and thick. The volume should double in size and should form between soft and firm peaks.
Put the mixture into a piping bag with plain round tip (Ateco 804).
Pipe in the middle of each cookie until you use all of the cookies and marshmallow mixture.
Let them sit at room temperature at least two hours, to get firm and dry a little bit, then cover them with chocolate glaze.

For chocolate glaze:

300 gr. chocolate, 9 tablespoons oil

Fill bottom of double boiler with water and place on low heat. Place coarsely chopped chocolate and oil in the top of double boiler over hot (not boiling) water and allow it to melt. Do not cover.
Using a chocolate fork or regular fork, hold 1 cookie at a time above bowl of chocolate glaze. Spoon glaze over cookie, letting excess drip back into bowl. Transfer to a wire rack set over a baking sheet.

Mirisljave kiflice (Crescent Cookies)

Please scroll down for english :)

Verovatno svako od vas ima barem neki recept za fine prhke kiflice. Sa bademima ili bez, sa kokosom, vanilom, limunovom koricom. Ove su sa kokosom, djumbirom i naribanom narandzinom koricom.
Iako nisam veliki ljubitelj suvih kolaca, ovo mi se zaista jako svidelo, jer je miris neodoljiv i tope se u ustima.
Jako brzo se pripreme i sto bi rekla moja mama, najbolje od svega je to, sto nakon svega imate da perete samo jednu posudu.
Ovog puta sam ih samo posula prah secerom, jer nisam imala puno vremena da bilo sta drugo uradim, ali mislim da bi se ukus narandze savrseno uklopio sa cokoladnom glazurom.


Potrebno vam je:
200 gr. putera
250 gr. brasna
50 gr. secera
100 gr. kokosa
par kasika soka od narandze
pola kasicice djumbira u prahu
naribana korica od jedne cele narandze

Dobro umutite puter sa secerom, dodajte kokos, djumbir, narandzinu koricu i par kasika sveze iscedjenog soka narandze. Trebace vam tek toliko da se smesa fino poveze. Uzimajte komadice testa velicine oraha, i razvaljate na dlanu malu kobasicicu. Savijte u oblik kiflice i pecite ne duze od 15 min na temeraturi od 170C.
Prohaldite i svaku uvaljajte u prah secer.


















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200 gr. butter
250 gr. flour
50 gr. sugar
100 gr. finely shreadded coconut (you can find it in whole foods store)
few tablespoons orange juice
half a teaspoon of dry ginger
grated zest of 1 orange

With hand mixer beat sugar and butter until creamy. Stir in flour, coconut, ginger, grated orange zest and beat until well mixed . Mix until just blended, and if it is dry, add a few spoon of the orange juice.
Form the dough into balls and roll each piece into cylinder and form into crescents.
Bake at 350F not longer than 15 min. Cool on the baking sheet and roll in sifted powdered sugar.

Keksici sa malinama i bademima

Nisam veliki ljubitelj keksica, mozda zato sto vise volim kremaste kolace, ali ovima nisam odolela. Prhko testo sa bademima i finim punjenjem od bele cokolade, svezih malina i badema.
Kremu je najbolje pripremiti dan ranije, da bi fino ocvrsla. Ja sam bila malo nestrpljiva, prohladila je na brzaka u frizideru i umesala bademe, pa je prvih nekoliko sati bila pomalo mekana. Par kasika mi je ostalo i sutradan je bila sasvim fina i cvrsta, pa je zato najbolje napraviti je dan ranije i naknadno umesati kasiku po kasiku samlevenih badema dok ne postigne zeljenu gustinu. Nakon toga spojite keksice i uzivajte :)


Testo:
230 gr. putera
50 gr. secera
2 kasike kisele pavlake
300 gr. brasna
8 kasika samlevenog badema
malo naribane limunove korice
kasicica vanile

Krema:
200 gr. bele cokolade
100 gr. malina
1 kasicica soka od limuna
8 kasika mlevenih badema

Prvo pripremite kremu od malina. Cokoladu polako otapajte na pari. Maline izgnjecite viljuskom, procedite od semenki kroz cedku i dodajte im kasicicu limunovog soka. U otopljenu cokoladu umesajte pire od malina, kratko mutite zicom dok se ne ujednaci i ostavite u frizideru dok ne ocvrsne.
U ohladjenu kremu dodajte sitno samlevene bademe. Za cvrscu kremu dodajte vise badema.
Za testo, puter penasto umutite sa secerom, vanilom i limunovom koricom. Dodajte kiselu pavlaku, pa polako umesajte brasno i samlevene bademe.
Razvaljajte na povrsini posutoj brasnom, vadite zeljene oblike i pecite na 180C 10-15 min. Keksici bi trebali ostati svetli.
Ohladjene kekse spajajte kremom od malina i pospite prah secerom.
.

Uvrnuti keksici

Znam da ce Jasenka ovim keksicima biti odusevljena cak i vise nego ja, jer je pravi majstor za fine kekse. Jednostavno se pripremaju, testo moze da stoji par dana u frizideru i pece prema potrebi, a arome mogu da variraju zavisno od onog sto volite. Meni se kombinacija sa narandzom svidela vise od klasicne vanila-cokolada kombinacije, ali mislim da bi bilo fino i sa dodatkom kafe, kokosa, badema...a izgleda im je neodoljiv :)


Beli deo
250 gr. brasna
60 gr. gustina
100 gr. secera u prahu
225 gr. putera
1 kasicica vanile
malo naribane narandzine korice

Za tamni deo
200 gr. brasna
50 gr. gustina
100 gr. secera u prahu
55 gr. kakaa
225 gr. putera
1 kasicica vanile
I jos
bele secerne mrvice za dekoraciju

Priprema
Za belo testo, umutite puter sa secerom, vanilom i narandzinom koricom, pa dodajte suve sastojke. Izmesajte dok ne dobijete glatku masu.
Isto uradite i sa tamim delom.
Ostavite u frizider da odmara 15ak minuta.
Belo testo podelite na tri dela i to isto uradite i sa tamnim. Rukama poravnajte komadic belog testa i tamnog testa, ne bi li dobili pravougaonik 17×12cm.
Na beli deo, stavite crni, presecite na pola, pa stavite jedno na drugo, tako da dobijete cetiri sloja. Malo poravnajte, ponovo presecite na pola, stavite ponovo jedno na drugo tako da dobijete 8 slojeva testa.
Rukama malo oblikujte testo u uzani pravougaonik pa polako uvrcite testo kao kada istiskavate mokar peskir.

Kobasicicu uvaljajte u mrvice, ako ih nemate moze i bez toga. Uvijte u prozirnu foliju svaku kobasicicu, ohladite, pa prema potrebi secite na ploske i pecite hladno testo u zagrejanoj rerni na 165C petnaestak minuta.
Ja sam radila pola mere, jer ih od ovog ispadne jako puno. Napravljeno testo mozete drzati u frizideru nekoliko dana i peci prema potrebi. Prilikom pripreme, nemojte raditi sa premekanim puterom, da bi testo bilo sto prhkije.

Chocolate chip cookies

Please scroll down for english :)

Cookies i ja do sada nismo imali srece. Kad god sam ih ranije pravila, nisu ispadali dobro. Bilo je i cudno i smesno jer sam mogla da napravim bilo koji kolac ili tortu a ove keksice nikako. Sada su konacno onakvi kakvi trebaju da budu i otkrila sam par gresaka koje sam uporno ponavljala. Puter mi je ranije bio mnogo meksi nego sada a i uvek sam ih duze pekla od onog sto je pisalo, jer su bili tako mekani kada ih izvadim iz rerne. Vratila bi ih, ali su zato bili prepeceni, tvrdi i ronili su se. Sada sam ih ostavila mekane i kada su se ohladili bili su savseni.









































170 gr. putera
140 gr. smedjeg secera
140 gr. obicnog secera
2 cela jaja
2 kasicice dobre vanile
310 gr. brasna
1 kasicica sode bikarbone
250 gr. cokoladnih kapljica


Rernu ugrejte na 175C. Puter izvadite iz frizidera pola sata pre pripreme i umutite sa secerom i vanilom.
Mutite par minuta dok ne dobijete finu kremastu masu, pa dodajte jedno po jedno jaje. Umesajte prosejano brasno sa sodom bikarbonom. Kada se testo ujednaci dodajte cokoladne kapljice. Kasikom za sladoled stavljajte gomilice testa na pek papiru i ohladite pre pecenja u frizideru tridesetak minuta.
Pecite 10-14 minuta. Kolacici ce biti gotovi kada im se ivica blago zazalti.
Kada ih izvadite iz rerne bice mekani, samo ih ostavite na plehu da se prohlade, za to vreme ce ocvrsnuti.
Ingredients:
170 gr. butter
140 gr. sugar
140 gr. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
310 gr. flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
250 gr. chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 175C/350F.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter. Add the white and brown sugars and beat until fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in eggs, one at a time, making sure to beat well after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat until incorporated.
Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and beat until incorporated, adding the chocolate chips about half way through mixing.
Using ice cream scoop make cookies on the prepared baking sheets.
Cover and refrigerate until firm (about 30 minutes).
Bake about 10-14 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges. Cool completely on wire rack.

Pahulje

Kako sam se samo odusevila kada sam shvatila da je ova glazura odlicna za iscrtavanje keksica. Pocela sam jednog jutra i nisam mogla da prestanem. Svaka nova pahulja je bila drugacija, bas kao i kod pravih kod kojih je tesko pronaci dve iste. Uzivala sam crtajuci ih, gledajuci ih. Jedina mana je ta sto nismo imali srca da pojedemo ni jednu.

Keksici
450gr. brasna
1 kasicica praska za pecivo
250gr. putera
200gr. secera
1 jaje
1 kas. mleka
malo vanile
malo ekstrata badema ili narib. limunova korica

Dekoracija

250gr. prah secera
1belance

Ugrejte rernu na 190C.
Umutite puter sa secerom, dodajte jaje, kasiku mleka, vanilu, ekstrat badema i mutite jos malo. Dodajte prosejano brasno i prasak za pecivo, umesite, i ostavite par sati u frizideru.
Razvaljajte, secite zeljene oblike i pecite 7-9min. ili dok se ivice ne zarumene. Dobro ohladite pa tek tada dekorisite.
Za dekoraciju, umutite prah secer sa belancetom i sarajte po zelji spricem sa nastavkom br.#1 ili 2.