TUXEDO SWIRL WHITE CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE (Dark Chocolate and White Chocolate Swirled in a White Chocolate Cheesecake)

This is a dessert that is easy, yet elegant and it has that "WOW" effect than any hostess loves.
Crust: 
1 cup (about 20) crushed oreo (or chocolate shortbread) cookies
6 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted
(you can also buy 2 pre-maid chocolate crumb crusts - Put it into a 8-inch springform pan and break it up, then add 6 tablespoons melted butter - mix it, then press the crumbs down to smooth.  Put it into the freezer to set while you make the filling for the cheesecake) 

Filling:
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/8 cup cold water

¼ cup boiling water

½ cup sugar, I use extra fine baker’s sugar
1 (8 oz package) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
8 oz. white chocolate baking bar, melted (reserve 3 tablespoons of the melted white chocolate)
1 cup whipping cream
½  teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla powder 

Chocolate Swirl:

4 oz. semi sweet chocolate for baking, chopped

3 tablespoons whipping cream

Whipping cream, chocolate sauce* and chocolate shavings** for garnish

Directions:

In small bowl, combine crust ingredients; mix well.  Press in bottom of 8-inch springform pan.  Set aside.

In small saucepan, pour gelatin over cold water; let stand 1 minute.  Add boiling water and sugar; stir over medium heat until mixture is hot and gelatin and sugar are dissolved.

In a heavy saucepan or double boiler on low heat, warm 3 tablespoons whipping cream.  Add chopped semi sweet chocolate.  Constantly stir until almost melted.  Remove from heat and continue stirring until smooth. It will finish melting as you stir it. Set aside.

In a heavy saucepan or double boiler, melt white chocolate on low heat, stirring constantly until it is almost completely melted.  Remove from heat and continue stirring until smooth.  It will finish melting as you stir it.

In large bowl, beat cream cheese and sour cream until creamy.  Gradually add melted baking bar, gelatin mixture , whipping cream and vanilla.  Beat until smooth.  Pour into crust lined pan. 

Spoon about 5 teaspoons full of the chocolate mixture onto the top of the cheesecake in a circular pattern.  Put a small dollop of the reserved white chocolate on each chocolate teaspoon dot.  Using a knife in a circular motion, gently swirl the chocolate mixture into the cheesecake.  Gradually add more dollops of the chocolate to make more swirls with the knife.  Continue to add more of the chocolate until your cheesecake has the desired amount of chocolate and swirls.

Cover; refrigerate 1 ½  to 2 ½  hours or until firm. 

Just before serving, run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake.  Carefully remove sides of pan. Garnish with whipping cream, chocolate shavings and chocolate sauce. Store in refrigerator. 

*To make chocolate sauce, melt 2 oz. semi sweet chocolate with 3-4 Tablespoons whipping cream.  Then drizzle it on the cheesecake to garnish it. 

**To make chocolate curls, use a peeler on some bar chocolate and peel.  It creates the chocolate curls for the garnish.

Ingredients

Cookie Crumbs in Food Processor

Cookie Crumbs ready for butter

mixing in butter

Crust

Cream and Chocolate to Melt

Melted Chocolate

White Chocolate Ready to Melt

Melted white chocolate 

gelatin over cold water

Gelatin mixture

Cream Cheese and Sour Cream

Cream Cheese Mixture

White Chocolate Filling

Dollops of Chocolate

With White Chocolate dollops on chocolate

Ready to Swirl

Swirling

Ready to Chill and Set

Thank You for Growing Our Children..End of the Year Teacher Gift for a Teacher who LOVES to GARDEN

I know this has nothing to do with baking or cooking, but my friend and I have been working on this for our children's Kindergarten teacher and I could not help but post this.
Items needed:
Foam Flowers (or foam to trace flowers)
pictures of each student
a circle scrapbooking punch (or just trace a circle and make a pattern)
a large pot
floral moss (from a craft store)
green tongue depressors (from a craft store)
rubber cement to glue the pictures to the foam
glue gun to glue the "stems" to the flowers
Gift Card to a local nursery
A few garden ornaments

STREUSEL CRUMBLE FOR PEACH DESSERTS

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, cubed

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup extra fine baker’s sugar (or granulated sugar)

¾ cup flour

1 teaspoon apple pie spice (or ¾ teaspoon cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon nutmeg)

½ teaspoon almond extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Mix sugars, flour and apple pie spice together in a medium sized mixing bowl.  With a fork or pastry blender, cut  in butter until it resembles coarse crumbs.  Add almond and mix well.  Transfer to a 9 X 9 inch baking pan.  In the preheated oven, bake for approximately 20 minutes, stirring every 8 minutes or so.  Bake until it is light brown and crumbles have been formed.  (When you stir it, it creates the crumbles).

Serve with peach desserts such as peach cobbler, peach pie, or white chocolate peach pie swirl cheesecake.

PEACH SAUCE FOR WHITE CHOCOLATE PEACH PIE SWIRL CHEESECAKE

Ingredients:

1 cup peeled sliced peaches (fresh or defrosted frozen)

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

¼ teaspoon apple pie spice (or 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg)

¼ - ½ (depending on the sweetness of your peaches) cup extra fine baker’s sugar

2 teaspoons flour

Directions:

Peel and slice peaches.  Add peaches to a blender or a food processor and puree.  Puree until smooth.  Add sugar, almond extract and apple pie spice.  Blend until combined. Gradually add the flour. Chill, then serve with White Chocolate Peach Pie Swirl Cheesecake. 

One Cup of Peaches

Peaches Pureed

Pureed and Mixed

All Mixed with the teaspoons of flour

Ready to Serve

Served on White Chocolate Peach Pie Swirl Cheesecake

WHITE CHOCOLATE PEACH PIE SWIRL CHEESECAKE

Crust: 
1 cup (about 20) crushed shortbread cookies
6 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted
(you can also buy 2 pre-maid shortbread crusts - Put it into a 8-inch springform pan and break it up, then add 6 tablespoons melted butter - mix it, then press the crumbs down to smooth.  Put it into the freezer to set while you make the filling for the cheesecake) 

Filling:
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/8 cup cold water

¼ cup boiling water

½ cup sugar, I use extra fine baker’s sugar
1 (8 oz package) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
6 oz. white chocolate baking bar, melted
1 cup whipping cream
½  teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla powder 

Peach Pie Swirl:

1 cup peeled sliced peaches (fresh or defrosted frozen)

1 packet gelatin

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

¼ teaspoon apple pie spice (or 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg)

¼ - ½ (depending on the sweetness of your peaches) cup extra fine baker’s sugar
a few drops of yellow food coloring

Whipping cream and apple pie spice for garnish

Directions:

In small bowl, combine crust ingredients; mix well.  Press in bottom of 8-inch springform pan.  Set aside.

In small saucepan, pour gelatin over cold water; let stand 1 minute.  Add boiling water and sugar; stir over medium heat until mixture is hot and gelatin and sugar are dissolved.

Peel and slice peaches.  Add peaches to a blender or a food processor and puree.  Puree until smooth.  Pour peach puree into a small saucepan.  Chill for 10 minutes.   

In a heavy saucepan or double boiler, melt white chocolate on low heat, stirring constantly until it is almost completely melted.  Remove from heat and continue stirring.  It will finish melting as you stir it.

In large bowl, beat cream cheese and sour cream until creamy.  Gradually add melted baking bar, gelatin mixture , whipping cream and vanilla.  Beat until smooth.  Pour into crust lined pan. 

Pour packet of gelatin over peach puree.  Let sit 1 minute.  In a small saucepan, add sugar and cook on low until gelatin dissolves.  Add almond extract, cinnamon, and nutmeg to the peaches. 

Spoon about 8 teaspoons full of the peach mixture onto the top of the cheesecake in a circular pattern.  Using a knife in a circular motion, gently swirl the peach mixture into the cheesecake. Save any extra peach mixture to use as a topping.

Cover; refrigerate 1 ½  to 2 ½  hours or until firm. 

Just before serving, run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake.  Carefully remove sides of pan. Garnish with whipping cream and shake some cinnamon or apple pie spice on the whipping cream. Serve with Peach Sauce and Struessel Crumbles (click on Link for Recipe). Store in refrigerator. 

Ingredients

Ready to Make Crust

Crust

one cup of fresh sliced peaches

peach puree

White Chocolate Chip ready to melt

Melted White Chocolate

Gelatin over cold water

Gelatin and sugar mixture

cream cheese and sour cream 

cream cheese and sour cream mixture

gelatin over peach puree

cooking peach puree

peach puree mixture before food coloring

peach puree mixture with food coloring

teaspoon dollops of peach ready to swirl

swirled and ready to set and chill

With Peach Sauce

Struessel Crumbles 

With Peach Sauce and Peach Struessel Crumbles