Olla-Podrida: food in jars

Showing posts with label food in jars. Show all posts

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Mini Lemon Cheesecakes in a Jar

One of the reasons that I made that tart and delicious homemade lemon curd earlier in the week (aside from the fact that I wanted to drizzle it on top of pancakes, waffles, biscuits, as well as using it as a spread on my morning bran muffin) was to make this recipe for mini cheesecakes. It is based upon one that I found on the same blog in which I found the curd recipe. I changed it up a bit by adding more lemon zest, and switching out the crumb crust for my own pretzel crust, my new favorite crust for almost anything sweet. Don’t feel that you need to do the same. You can switch out the same amount of pretzels for graham cracker crumbs, cinnamon graham crumbs, vanilla wafer crumbs, or gingersnaps, they all work equally well; it’s a matter of personal taste.

Personally, I don’t think there is anything cuter than food in a jar. Who wouldn’t want to grab and devour one of these adorable mini cheesecakes? An added bonus is that these can be made up to two days prior to serving, and stored in the refrigerator. When ready to serve, top with lemon curd, a spritz of whipped cream, and your favorite fresh fruit. Beautiful and delicious!

Mini Lemon Cheesecakes in a Jar

Adapted from My Baking Addiction

For the Crust

¾ cup pretzel crumbs

2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the Cheesecake

¼ cup granulated sugar
Zest of one Melissa's seedless lemon
1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, room temperature
1 large egg, room temperature
2 Tablespoons heavy cream

½ teaspoon vanilla

For the Garnish

1/2 cup homemade lemon curd

Whipped cream
Blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a small bowl, stir together pretzel crumbs, sugar, and butter. Press into the bottom of four Weck jars (I used these) or 1-cup ramekins (like these). To ease tamping them down into your small jars/ramekins, I suggest using a tart tamper – an invaluable kitchen tool. Bake for 6 minutes; remove to a wire rack to cool.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine sugar and lemon zest, and mix until the sugar is moistened and fragrant. Add cream cheese, and cream together until smooth. Add egg; beat well. Add heavy cream and vanilla and mix until smooth.

Pour batter into serving dishes, on top of the pre-baked crusts, about 3/4 of the way full. Place jars into a larger pan with high sides and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the sides of the jars.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until the edges are set. Do not overbake. Carefully remove the cheesecake jars from the water bath and place on a cooling rack to cool completely. Once the cheesecakes are completely cooled, place them into the refrigerator for at least 5 hours. Before serving, top each cheesecake with lemon curd, whipped cream, and berries.

Makes 4

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If you prefer something equally cooling, but less work, you might consider this refreshing Lemon-Lime Ice Milk.

This post is linked to:

Happiness is Homemade Sunday

What’s for Dinner Sunday

Dishing It & Digging It

Cooking & Crafting with J&J

Inspire Me Tuesday

Reader Tip Tuesday

Tuesdays with a Twist

The Scoop

Dream, Create, Inspire

Wonderful Wednesday

O My Heartsie Girls Wonderful Wednesday
Wine’d Down Wednesday

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Sunday, October 16, 2016

Deviled Ham Spread

If you're not familiar with the Tiny Book series, stop what you're doing, and head to your local bookstore or library immediately. This is a series of, so far, four books that are just too good to pass up. The series that includes Tiny Book of Teatime Treats, Tiny Book of Christmas Joy, Tiny Book of Pies, and the one I'm going to talk to you about today, Tiny Book of Mason Jar Recipes, is produced by the same wonderful people who bring you the Cottage Journal, Teatime, and Celebrate magazines. These books are absolutely not to be missed.

The series is new to me, and I stumbled upon these books quite by accident. Every time I go to the library, you just know that I have to look at the latest cookbooks. This one jumped out at me not only because of its cute small size, but also because it deals with food in mason jars, and I love food in mason jars, and think I must have every book published on this darling way of presenting food.

This book differs from a lot of them, however, in that it doesn't deal with just one subject, but with the general premise, and I like that. This book has beverages in mason jars, dips and sauces, salad and entrées, desserts, preserves, and gifts to make and give to people for the holidays. What a great idea that is. Not only does your recipient get a wonderful mason jar, but also the yummy contents within. As an added gift, including a copy of this book would certainly make the recipient over-the-moon happy.

I found a lot of recipes in this book that I want to try, but the first one that I did was one for deviled ham. As a little girl my mother used to give me deviled ham on crackers. Those of you who go back as far as I do (Horrors!) will probably remember deviled ham in those little packages with the little devil on them. Remember those? So trying the recipe for deviled ham spread was a no-brainer. This delicious spread did not last long. I'm just going to reproduce the page from the book here so that you can see the recipe and leave it at that. I cannot recommend this recipe or the book enough.

I served it on wheat rounds with some pickled cherries. Super yum!

This post is linked to: Wow Us Wednesday, Work It Wednesday, Wine’d Down Wednesday, Wake up Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things, Share Your Style, Coffee and Conversation, and Foodie Friday & Everything Else

Monday, April 11, 2016

Strawberry Cheesecake Trifles

In my intense determination to turn that sow’s ear of a Kentucky Butter Cake into a silk purse, figuratively speaking, I decided to take the globs of it that had fallen off in chunks during my attempt to extricate it from the pan, and make a couple of individual strawberry trifles. Success!

This is the easiest dessert in the world to prepare for which I have no particular recipe, but will try to do my best in offering one. Essentially, you alternate layers of liqueur-drizzled pound cake (of your own choosing), sweetened strawberries, and pudding.

It must be made ahead in order for everything to become fully saturated with juice from the strawberries, pudding, and to allow the liqueur to settle nicely into the cake. This recipe only makes three servings, because that is how far I could stretch the pudding. If you want to make more, just double, triple, or quadruple the recipe. Imagine what a fun dessert this would be to have stored in the cooler during a summer outing. Just pass the jars and pass the spoons. Delish!

Strawberry Cheesecake Trifles

1-1/2 cups sliced strawberries

1-2 Tablespoons sugar

Zest of one orange

1 3.4-ounce pkg. Jell-O Instant Cheesecake Pudding

2 cups whole milk

1 pound cake, cut into 3/4 inch cubes

1/4-1/3 cup Triple Sec (or any orange liqueur)

Spritz of whipped cream for garnish

You will need: 3 clean pint jars with lids

Place sliced strawberries into a medium bowl and add the sugar and zest. Stir to combine, and set aside to allow them to macerate.

Mix together the pudding mix and milk, whisking mightily until the pudding thickens. Place in refrigerator until needed.

Meanwhile, divide half of the pound cake cubes among the three jars. Drizzle the pound cake in each jar with about a tablespoon of Triple Sec, and lightly press down.

Give the strawberries a stir, and add a layer of them on top of the pound cake layer in each jar. Shake jar a bit to settle.

Top the strawberries with a healthy dollop of pudding, turning jar until all of the strawberries are covered.

Repeat the whole pound cake/strawberry/pudding thing one more time.

Put the lids on top of the jars and store in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or, ideally, overnight.

Serve topped with a dollop of whipped cream and pinch of orange zest, if desired.

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