White Chocolate Strawberry and Lime Cheesecake Bars

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Want to be a hero at your next gathering? Make these cheesecake bars. The combo of lime, strawberry, and white chocolate is outstanding. The bars are creamy, slightly tart, really really good, oh, and super easy to make. You don't even have to turn on the oven. Feel free to keep that info to yourself and just bask in the praise and adoration from the lucky recipients of these bars.  Big pay off for minimal effort...pretty perfect!

White Chocolate Strawberry and Lime Cheesecake Bars

printable recipe

For the filling:
6 ounces high-quality white chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup chilled whipping cream
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Zest of 2 small limes
1 cup thinly sliced strawberries

For the crust:

1-1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

Method:
Line 8x8x2-inch square baking pan with foil, extending over all sides. Mix all the crust ingredients together. Press firmly into the prepared pan. Chill for about 15 minutes in the freezer or 1 hour in the refrigerator.

Place the white chocolate into a microwave safe bowl. Put your bowl in the microwave and heat for about 1 minute. Stir. (Your chocolate will not look melted until you stir it.) If still lumpy, heat in 15-30 second intervals until it stirs smooth and creamy. Do not overheat or chocolate will burn and be unusable. Set aside while you make the filling.

Beat whipping cream in medium bowl until peaks form, set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in the sugar, lime juice, and lime peel, beat until smooth. Beat in the melted white chocolate. Fold in whipped cream in 2 additions. Gently fold in the sliced strawberries. Spread the mixture onto the prepared graham cracker crust. Smooth the top with an off-set spatula or knife. Chill until filling is slightly firm, at least 2 hours. Using the foil, lift cheesecake out of pan. Cut into 9 pieces for large bars. Garnish with chocolate curls and sliced strawberries, if desired.

These cheesecake bars would make the perfect Valentine's dinner dessert!

Rice Pudding

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I don't know if I've ever shared that I have a deep love for pudding. Not the kind that comes from a box on the Jello aisle and certainly not that goop that's in a cup and requires no refrigeration. *shudder* I'm talking about the real deal. cooked milk and eggs, kind of pudding. That's the kind of pudding that I adore. When I was about five I ate almost an entire bowl that my mom had made for our family of (at that point) five. In my defense, she did say there was pudding in the kitchen and I could have some if I wanted some. As it turned out, I wanted more than she had planned on me eating. Oops. Sorry to the rest of the family...That's one of my earliest pudding eating memories, and me love for it has carried over to adulthood.
My mom is a very skilled pudding maker. She makes all kinds and all are wonderful. She's been know to turn skeptical sons-in-laws into pudding converts. One of my favorites is her rice pudding. I've had many versions of rice pudding but my mom's is still the best one I've ever eaten. It's super easy but does cook for a long time. Trust me it's completely worth the hour and a half cook time. If you think you don't like rice pudding, give this one a try and I'll bet you'll be a convert too.

Rice Pudding
Serves about 6 (or one really hungry pudding lover!)

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup of rice
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups whole milk
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

METHOD:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together in an 2 quart oven safe bowl or pot. Place into the oven and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Stir the pudding after the first 25 minutes, then stir 2-3 more times until the rice is tender and the pudding has a thick, creamy consistency. If you want the skin over the top, do not stir during the last 20 minutes of baking. Allow the pudding to cool. Then refrigerate until cold through.
*I don't like raisins cooked into pudding. For me they plump up too much in the pudding and...yick, not for me. If you like them, then by all means put them in! You can eat the pudding warm, but I think it gets even better if it has a chance to chill down.

Pita Bread

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This year I plan on trying to become a better bread baker. I'm not much for making New Years resolutions, if you do that's great, but I never found that they are a real force for true change in my life. Goals, yes we all need them but deciding on January 1st to revamp everything is not realistic for me. Plus who needs the added guilt of not living up to something that sounded great on January 1st. Usually by February 1st I realize that I've already failed at 90% of what I'd resolved to do...blah... Anyway if you do make New Years resolutions, then more power to you. I plan on making a lot more bread this year and sharing it here...we'll see how that goes!

If you've every bought pita bread at the grocery store, then you know that it's hit or miss. It can fall anywhere between soft and light to tough and dry. More often than not I found it to be dried out and not very tasty. Pita is a simple bread to make. It's very similar to making pizza dough and just like homemade pizza dough, it tastes fantastic. A couple of months ago my sister convinced me to give making pitas a try. After eating some of her homemade pita, I knew there was no going back to that usually dried out store bought version. These are pillow-y soft and  oh so tasty. They are great for sandwiches, but I really like them cut into triangles served with hummus or bean dip.

Pita Bread
source:The 75th Anniversary Edition of The Joy of Cooking Cookbook 

INGREIDENTS:
3 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 packages (1 1/2 tbsp) active dry yeast
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 1/4 cup water, room temp.

METHOD:
Combine flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the butter and water. Mix together, about one minute. Knead for about 10 minutes by hand or with the dough hook on low to medium speed until the dough is smooth, soft, and elastic. Add flour or water as needed; the dough should be slightly tacky but not sticky. Don't add too much flour or the pitas will not puff well. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and turn it once to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise at room temp until doubled in volume, 1 – 1 1/2 hours.

Set a rack in the lower level of the oven and place a pizza or baking stone on the rack. Preheat the oven to 450°F for 45 minutes. (If you do not have a pizza or baking stone, preheat the oven, place an inverted baking sheet on the rack, and heat the baking sheet for 5 minutes.)

Meanwhile, punch down the dough. Divide equally into 8 pieces, and roll the pieces into balls. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.

On a very lightly floured surface, roll out each ball of dough into a thin round, about 6-8 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch think. Place as many dough rounds as will fit without touching each other directly on the hot surface.

 I can only do one at a time on my stone, but they bake so quickly it's not  a problem. Using a spray bottle of water, I lightly spritz the top of the dough rounds. You don't have to do this but I think it helps make the dough puff a little better.  Bake until the dough rounds puff into balloons, about 3 minutes then bake 30 seconds to 1 minute longer. Immediately remove the breads to a rack to cool. If you leave the pitas in the oven too long, they will become dry and will not deflate to flat disks. Repeat with the remaining rounds.

Notes:
Roll the pitas out thin but not so thin that they tear or they won't puff well. I found that if I rolled mine about 6 inches in diameter they puffed better than the larger rounds. There's a little bit of a learning curve on rolling and getting them into the oven. My first one stuck to the pizza peel and came out wonky. By the third one I had it down. I spritzed the pitas with a little water after I put them in the oven. The ones I spritz seemed to puff a little better than the first 2 that I didn't sprtiz. They cook really fast so keep an eye on them.

My first one had a few issues!

Ahhh pita perfection!

2012 Half Baked Top Ten Recipe Round-up

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 Here's a look back at the 10 most popular recipes here on Half Baked from 2012.

1.

 Apple cinnamon pull-apart bread

2.

 Chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes

3.

Best cocoa brownies with peanut butter frosting

4.

 Pecan pumpkin butter

5.

Make and freeze biscuits

6.

Pumpkin cheesecake swirl muffins

7.

 Molten deep-dish chocolate chip cookies

8.

Tomato pie

9.

Lemon thyme cake

10.

Apple pie oatmeal

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White Chocolate Peppermint Popcorn

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The official name of this popcorn is white chocolate peppermint, but I refer to it as Christmas crack! Salty/sweet is my idea of the perfect combo in a treat. When I first saw this recipe I knew the white chocolate and popcorn would make a tasty match but wondered how the peppermint candies would be in the mix. Oh. My. To die for! The peppermint makes this not only an incredibly munch-able treat but what's more Christmas-y than candy canes?? So go snatch those candy canes off your tree, pop some popcorn and dig in!

White Chocolate Peppermint Popcorn

INGREDIENTS:
16 oz. white chocolate chips or candy melts
1/2 -3/4 cup finely ground peppermint candies
4 quarts of popped popcorn (about 1/2 popcorn or two bags of microwave popcorn, with no butter)
1 1/2  teaspoon kosher salt, if popcorn is unsalted

METHOD:

Place candy canes or peppermint pieces into the bowl of a food processor fitted. Process until the candy is very well ground up.

Melt white chocolate in microwave, at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.
Place popped popcorn in large bowl. Mix half of the ground peppermint candies into the melted white chocolate. Pour the white chocolate peppermint mixture onto the popcorn. Stir well.
Sprinkle on the remaining half of the crushed peppermint and mix it into the popcorn.
Pour onto wax paper lined baking sheet or silicon mat.

Allow the white chocolate to set up. When hardened, break apart.
Store in airtight container.

Packaged in baggies tied with ribbon, this popcorn makes a great Christmas food gift...if you can give it away before you eat it all yourself!

This blog post is linked to these link parties:
Tidy Mom: I'm loving it Friday's
Simply Designing 

German Chocolate Cookies

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This time of the year is crazy for everyone. I don't have time for a long post but I wanted to get these cookies posted before Christmas. They are a basic sugar cookies filled with German chocolate frosting. If you are looking for a new cookie to add to your Christmas cookie tray, these cookies will not disappoint!

German chocolaty goodness!

German Chocolate Cookies

No-Chill Sugar Cookies

Source: The Adventures of Sweet Sugar Belle  (adapted)

Yield: about 2 dozen 2-in. sandwich cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon coconut extract 

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

In large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Mix flour, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Do not chill dough. Divide dough into 2 balls.
On floured surface, roll each ball into a circle approximately 12 in. diameter x 1/8 in. thick. Using a 2 inch round cutter, cut out as many cookies as possible. Dip cookie cutter in flour before each use. Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet 8-11 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.

German Chocolate Filling
source: Taste of the South Dec 2012

INGREDIENTS:
4 oz semi- sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
Place chocolate, nuts, and coconut in a small bowl. Set aside. In a small sauce pan butter and cream. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate mixture. Stir until the chocolate is melted. Allow to cool to room temperature.
Put about 1 teaspoon chocolate coconut filling on the flat side of one cookie, and top with another cookie to make a sandwich. Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with confectioners sugar. Can be stored up to one week in an airtight container.