No Bake Nutella Oreo Cheesecake Cups

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For my son's first birthday party we decided to just do a dessert bar.  One of the desserts that made the cut were these killer Nutella Oreo Cheesecake cups that I saw on My Baking Addiction.  Because we had like 12 different desserts, I made them pretty small, as you can see in the picture, but it was perfect for getting to try everything.  If you are doing it for a dessert spread, then you could get about 12 small servings out of this.  If you are like me and don't want anything more than to dive into a pool of this filling, then make 6 larger cups :)  This even converted my non-sweets lovin' husband to nutella, he was sold!

I really can't say much more about the amazingness of these other than go.  Just go.  Go and make them right now, you won't be sorry!  They were by far the favorite dessert provided at the party, so much so, that I was requested to make them for another family member's surprise party.  They were a hit there too.

NO BAKE NUTELLA OREO CHEESECAKE CUPS
(Adapted from My Baking Addiction's No Bake Nutella Cheesecakes)

Makes 12 small cups (for like a dessert sampler) or 6 larger ones

Ingredients:

• 24 oreo cookies
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened 
• 8 ounces frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup nutella spread

Topping:

• 4-5 crushed oreos for sprinkling (optional)
• whipped cream (optional)
• shaved chocolate (optional)

Directions:

1.  Crush the 24 oreo cookies in a ziploc bag or in a food processor until coarse ground.  Evenly distribute cookie crumbs between the cups.
2. In a medium bowl, use a hand mixer to beat the cream cheese, nutella, and vanilla together until lightened, smooth, and fluffier.  
3. Using a spatula, carefully fold in the whipped topping into the nutella and cream cheese mixture until it is well combined and there are no more streaks.
4. Pipe or spoon the filling into the prepared cups on top of the oreo crumbs., dividing evenly.  
5. Right before serving, top with whipped cream, oreo crumbs, and chocolate shavings.  Serve cold.

Pumpkin Pie Frozen Yogurt Sandwiches with Nutella Swirls

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What to do with a cupboard finally stocked with pumpkin puree, and an open container of Greek yogurt that needs to be used?  Make ice cream sandwiches of course!  OK, maybe that is a far leap.  I am just dying to make pumpkin something, and searching and searching through all my fellow bloggers incredible pumpkin recipes, was not making my decision easy, or even possible.  I was asking my husband what sounded good and read him off options and he thought ice cream sounded good.  I had made frozen Greek yogurt pops before, had seen the idea of the ice cream sandwiches using graham crackers, which I saw somewhere, but I can't remember where now.  Long story short...through all my angst about not being able to decide on a recipe, I managed to make this one up.

Pumpkin Pie Frozen Yogurt Sandwiches with Nutella Swirls

Makes 9 servings

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups fat free plain Greek yogurt
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 Tbs. honey
• 3 Tbs. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp. ground allspice
• 1/2 cup nutella spread
• 9 graham cracker sheets

Directions:

1. Line a 8x8" baking dish with foil and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl combine yogurt, pumpkin, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and mix well.
3. Break the graham cracker sheets in half, so you have 18 squares.  Place 9 squares in the bottom of the lined baking dish, doing whatever necessary to cover the bottom (I had to trip a few off, and turn a few different ways to get them to all fit).
4. Pour the yogurt mix over the graham crackers, spreading evenly.
5. Warm the nutella in the microwave for 10-20 seconds until it is loose enough to drizzle.  Drizzle it evenly over the yogurt mix, and using a knife, swirl it in to the yogurt mix.
6. Top with the remaining 9 graham cracker squares and place in freezer until set, 2-3 hours.
7. Remove the frozen sandwiches by lifting the foil out.  Using a large, sharp knife, cut along the edges of the graham crackers, making 9 squares.  Eat immediately or wrap individual sandwiches in wax paper and return to freezer.

Our Little Guy's First Birthday Party

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The dessert spread...strawberry with homemade pound cake, funfettie and devils food cupcakes with butter cream frosting, no bake nutella oreo cheesecakes, gluten/dairy free brownies, two kinds of macarons, monster cookie dough truffles, and on the very left, pie crust fries. 

  Well, the day finally came.  Our youngest son's 1st birthday party!  I went ALL out for our older son's thrid birthday party, which you can see here.  That was only a month ago, and I was still exhausted from that one, so I decided to scale back and just do a dessert party.  If you haven't figured it out already, I love making desserts.  I had a list a mile long of ideas.  What you see in these pictures has been pared down from a much longer list than what it started, and things I had every intention of making got cut from the menu even up to that day, once I started putting out the food, seemed like it would be too much.  I was right.  Just for kicks, I was going to have caramel popcorn, then downgraded that to buttered popcorn, then dropped it all together.  I was also going to do chocolate and caramel dipped hard pretzels, those didn't make the cut either.  It was good though, there was a ton as it was.

The first thing I need to do is give a huge thanks to Larry Berger Photography for the incredible photos taken at the party, I am so thankful to have a photographer as a father! (As are his non photo-shy grand kids).

Secondly, I am not in any way creative, and all the cute signs and printables were the Little Peanut the Elephant Customized Printables package from.  Fantastic product, wonderful customer service, and they have hundreds of party package designs. I couldn't find the shop on Etsy at the moment, but the link goes to their blog.

These cute little swirly suckers I got from the Oriental Trading Company, and added some of the printable labels from the Dimpleprints pack.  Absolutely perfect for the theme.

Labels from Dimpleprints, lollypops from Oriental Trading Company

As with any party, the food is the biggest attraction, second to our birthday boy.  Below are some of the most insanely delicious and uber chocolatey fudgy brownies I have ever had.  Not only that, but they were gluten and dairy free!  We had several family members with dietary restrictions, and I think I can happily say, that with these, they did not feel like they were missing out on anything, because they were insanely delicious!  I will be doing a recipe post on these later, but the recipe was from Katrina over at Gluten Free Godess.  I will never make regular brownies again.

The lovely green and orange gems pictured below are my Andes mints macarons (green) and my boysenberry jam filled macarons (orange).  The orange ones also worked great for those on a gluten or dairy restrictive diet. 

These are my go to favorite for those that don't have much of a sweet tooth, like my husband.  Of course, I covered half of them in cinnamon sugar, but these are homemade soft buttered pretzels with either salt or cinnamon sugar topping. Went great with the circus theme too!

In the back of the picture you can see a container on the left with little wrapped candies, those are my peppermint salt water taffy's I made as well.

Here is a drool worthy close up of the cinnamon sugar pretzels...I won't lie, was I pretty proud of how they came out.

 Here we have a dessert for the non chocolate lovers--homemade pound cake (King Arthur Flour inspired)    with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.  I think it is one of my new favorite desserts.  Simple, light, refreshing, and just yummy.

I love nutella, I had to have a nutella dessert, and in fact, I had several.  I worked very hard though to whittle it down to one.  I decided on this no bake nutella oreo cheesecake cup.  It was slightly adapted from My Baking Addiction's  No Bake Nutella Cheesecake recipe. If you like nutella, or cheesecake, or oreos...this is your dessert!  My husband isn't a big fan of any of those things, and he was just loving these to pieces!

I adore King Arthur Flour's website, blog, recipes, and products.  I follow them on Facebook and was fortunate enough to see a post a few weeks ago about Pie Crust Fries.  I saw that and I immediately put those on my list of things to make for the party.  I mean really, how cute is this??  Covered in cinnamon and sugar, put in fry containers I got on the Oriental Trading Company's site, and with labels from Dimpleprints. 

We had so much (even after cutting back and not making everything), that I got to send everyone home with to-go containers (yes, I have a pack of take out containers from Sam's just for this reason) full of goodies.  I love being able to share the foodie love.  And...I do not need to be left alone with all these goodies!  That would be so bad for the diet....

Now, on the the highlight of the party.  Our photo booth!  I was good, I didn't plan any silly games, or much of anything at all, but the one thing I had to have was a "photo booth."  I decorated an area in our house, bought some silly mustache props and some clown noses, and made (yes, you can ask, I made them do it) everyone take a turn taking some funny pictures.  I am so glad that I did, because they are absolutely priceless!!!  I am going to be polite and only post pictures of us, but let me tell you, every photo of every guest was just fantastic and priceless!


This is my wonderful husband, and our rambunctious but darling three year old.  He wears that clown nose and funny glasses with just a little too much ease :)

 

**Note--After discussions with my husband as to whether or not our kids should be pictured on the blog, we decided we would, but I have removed any personal information from the pictures for safety reasons, so if there is an area in a picture that looks a bit funny, it is because of my poor photo shopping job, and in no way the photographer's doing.**

This would be me and my hunny doing our photo booth photo.  Can't make everyone else do it if I refused to, right?  I am a good sport like that.  The background for the photo both is just tablecloths cut lengthwise and strung from our chandelier to the wall.  The banner is another great printable from the party pack from Dimpleprints.

Must have one of the whole family!  The birthday boy was more interested in eating the mustache than wearing it, but what do you expect? 

Since we did a photo shoot last week for the birthday boy, in which I made a two layer cake with butter cream frosting for him to destroy in his pictures, I decided to cheap out on it for the party.  I just took a cupcake and covered it in whipped cream.  I figured it would be an easier mess to clean up.  I think he knew that he got cheated, he wasn't very in to making any mess.  Good for me, bad for the photo ops.  Thank goodness for that photo shoot the week before!  Mess or not, he was still a very happy little guy with his cupcake.

The hardest part of the party was trying to convey to our three year old that these presents are not for him, that he can not "help" his brother by opening them all for him, and that the gifts inside are not his, but his brother's.  This is him do his "sad walk."  In other words, he was MAJORLY pouting.  His brother was not particularly concerned about it it seems.  More interested in the hangers.  We are still trying to convince the elder one that these new toys are his brothers and not his...not going well.

Well that was pretty much the party.  Eating, pictures, birthday cake for the birthday boy, and presents.  Short(ish), sweet, and simple (kinda).  I had a blast planning it, loved all the different desserts I got to make, and enjoyed getting to share the big milestone of the youngest having his first birthday with all of our family that came. 

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Cheesecake Frosting

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My son's 1st birthday party is next week so I am starting to work on desserts for the party.  Coincidentally, the party is a dessert-only party.  Thought I would make it easier on myself since I went all out on my 3 year old's birthday party last month (see pictures here).  I saw a recipe for no-bake nutella cheesecakes from My Baking Addiction and really wanted to make those, which I still might, but then I thought, how good would a lighter version of that cheesecake filling be as a frosting for chocolate cake?  Well let me tell you:  Really good!  The frosting takes like  5 minutes to make, I will definitely be using it again.  Combine that with a boxed devil's food cake mix and some oreo cookie crumbs, and this is one classy dessert with no effort at all!

For me this made 70 mini cupcakes, but depending on how much frosting you use, it may need to be doubled.  I used mini cupcake liners from Wilton that I found at target.

MINI CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES WITH NUTELLA CHEESECAKE FROSTING
(Adapted from My Baking Addiction)

Ingredients:

• 1 box devil's food cake mix, prepared as instructed on box
• 3/4 cup nutella spread
• 1 (8 oz.) block cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 16 oz cool whip, thawed
• 5-6 oreo cookies with the cream center removed

Directions:

1. Using the prepared cake batter, fill mini muffin tin cups 3/4 full.  Bake at 325 degrees F for about 12-14 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
2. For the frosting, in a medium bowl mix cream cheese, nutella and vanilla until well combined and smooth, using either a spatula or hand mixer.
3. Add the cool whip and fold in until there are no streaks remaining.
4. I used a piping bag to add the frosting to the cupcakes, but a ziploc bag with the corner cut will work great too.
5. Crush the oreo cookies and sprinkle over frosting.
6. Store in refrigerator until ready to eat.

Nutella Dipped Frozen Banana Bites

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Unfortunately, I still have even MORE bananas that need to be used. So more thinking ensued...what else is like chocolate and cookie butter?  NUTELLA! Everything is better with nutella. So I also made nutella dipped frozen banana bites with an oreo cookie crumble on top, because really, oreo's rock too! Since I have destroyed my teeth eating the whole chocolate dipped bananas I had, I have cut these into small pieces and put them on the sticks that I would have put the banana half on. Now they are much easier to eat and friendly on the teeth.

This is less a recipe, more a guideline, so I apologize, but it is kind of use what you need, and that's the right amount.  If you don't have a Trader Joe's where you live, then I am truly, truly, sorry.

IF YOU LIKE THIS RECIPE, PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO PIN IT :)

NUTELLA DIPPED FROZEN BANANA BITES

Ingredients:

• ripe but not mushy bananas

• nutella spread

• Popsicle or lollypop sticks

• a few oreos, crumbled

Directions:

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Peel the desired amount of bananas and cut them into about 3/4" slices, discarding the very ends.
3. Place banana slices onto popsicle or lollypop sticks by skewering them width wise. For the lollypop sticks I used, I fit 3 slices on each (See picture, left).
4. Place them on the parchment lined tray and freeze for an hour at least.
5. When ready, scoop out the nutella into a shallow bowl. If needed, microwave for 10 seconds, or until it is slightly runny.
6. Using a knife, spread the nutella on all sides of the bananas and place back on tray. If the spread will not stay on, the bananas need to go back in the freezer for a while.
7. Before it hardens, sprinkle the bananas with crushed oreo crumbs to coat.
8. Place back in freezer until hardened, and then store in freezer until ready to eat. Once they are frozen solid, they can be wrapped in parchment or wax paper and put in a ziploc bag to keep them fresher

Food Review: Merely Sweets--Brea, CA

Pin It Now! On the recommendation of my brother, my family and I went down to Merely Sweets Bakery in Brea, CA since we were right down the sidewalk at Farell's Ice Cream Parlor.

Picture from Kat's 9 Lives blog

When you walk in, it is a very clean, contemporary, somewhat stark design that really allows the desserts to shine.  They were displayed very nicely, with a few cakes, several kinds of cupcakes, a few cookies, and a beautiful display of macarons. They had much less out than I thought they would for a bakery, but I don't know if that is because it was a late sunday afternoon and they were running out, or they just only have a few items.

I am a die hard nutella fan, so when my husband saw they had a nutella cupcake, he pretty much had that ordered right off the bat...he knows me well :)  My brother was going on about macarons earlier that day, even lent me a book on making them, so I had to try one to see what it was all about.  I got the salted caramel macaron.  In the picture below from Kat's 9 Lives, you can see what the salted caramel macaron looks like, it is the one on the bottom left.  It was wrapped up in a nice little bag all by itself, very cute.

The nutella cupcake was wrapped in an individual box and they were both put it another bag.  The prices are a bit high, but for artisinal sweets, I guess it is expected.  Here is the nutella cupcake, photo also from Kat's 9 lives. 

I lovingly protected my stash all the way home.  This is what it looked like when it went in the box, but when I got home and opened it, even though it hadn't tipped over in the box or anything, the frosting had split and completely slid off.  That was disappointing.  I decided to blow all my remaining calories for the day, and indulge in my treats since I didn't know how they would keep.  I started with the macaron.  First off, I LOVE caramel.  The first bite was heavenly!!  It was salty, sweet, and very caramely.  I was so sad I only had one.  The shell was crisp on the outside, slightly chewy on the inside, and I was hooked on macarons right then and there.

With the bar set so high, I was looking forward to the cupcake, even if the frosting did slide off.  I unceremoniously put it back on, grabbed a fork, and dug in.  This is where my happiness ends.  Having eating many, many, many containers of nutella, I know what it tastes like.  I can honestly say that I could not discern a lick of nutella taste from the cupcake or the frosting.  The cake was kind of dense, not a very fine crumb, and not as chocolaty as I would have imagined.  The frosting is where the worst offense was though.  It was like a mouth full of grainy, sugary, shortening laden paste.  It had no chocolate flavor, absolutely no nutella flavor, and it was not flavored of anything really other than sugar and butter or shortening (not normally a bad thing, if there is some other flavor to go with it).  It was so unpleasant, I was so bummed.  I ate it only because I spent almost 3 bucks on it.  Wasn't going to waste the money.

I really expected more from a bakery that looked as nice as this.  The presentation on everything was beautiful.  The macarons where to die for.  The nutella cupcake though, such a disappointment.  It is very possible that it is just my opinion and expectations for frosting, but when you say nutella, in my opinion (and this is all this is), it should taste like nutella, not a mouth full of sugar with no other discernible flavor. 

I would definitely go back for the caramel macarons, but I won't be buying any cupcakes any time soon.

Nutella Oreo Truffles

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Having made homemade nutella the day before, I was then presented with the dilemma of what to do with all that nutella.  Make truffles of course!  I had some fantastic oreo truffles at a family get together on fourth of July, and thought that those may be something that could work with the nutella instead of cream cheese (we don't eat a lot of cheese products or dairy products in our house for the most part).  So I said what the heck, and went to work.

These did not come out as moist as the ones with cream cheese, they were more cake-like than truffle like.  I think that can be remedied by adding more nutella (my homemade nutella was not as thin in consistency as store bought, so if you use store bought, that may help negate having to add extra).  Moist or cakey, they were still tasty!  Not too strong on the hazelnut flavor, but if you were real adventurous you could stick a whole toasted hazelnut in the center.

Here is the recipe, adjust the amounts to suit your desired consistency.

Recipe:

Makes approximately 49 truffles

11 oz homemade nutella spread or store bought (adjust amount for desired consistency)
1 15 oz package oreo cookies
14 oz semi sweet-chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, or dark chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

Directions:

1. In a food processor, process the oreo cookies in to a fine crumb.
2. Add in the nutella and process until the mix comes together.
3. Using a 2 tsp cookie scoop, scoop out the mix (make sure to press it into the scoop well), release the mix into your hand and compress and roll into a ball.  Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. Once all the mix is rolled out, melt the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second intervals until melted.
5. Using two forks, roll each ball in the chocolate, remove excess, place back on lined cookie sheet.  
6. When finished, sprinkle some crushed oreos over the top if desired.
7. Place in fridge to set.  Store in fridge.

Nutrition (as written):

Calories: 106 cal
Fat: 6 g
Carbs: 14 g
Protein: 1 g
Fiber: 1 g

Homemade Dark Chocolate Nutella Spread

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Here is another confession--I was buying jars of nutella, and eating it straight out of the container with a spoon.  No time to pass go, or spread it on anything that has redeeming health qualities.  Nope.  Straight from the jar.  And man, when I got to the bottom, it was no joke.  I would scrape, lick, and scoop every last morsel of nutella goodness out of that jar.

Then sadness....I couldn't find it on sale, I couldn't find coupons.  I could not justify the $3.50 for a little jar that would last me not enough days.  Then one day, I saw on pinterest, "Homemade nutella."  Really?  Could it be?  Can it be possible to make it at home.  Well I am here to tell you that yes it is.  I modified the recipe I found on Seemingly Greek to develop this recipe.

Granted, it isn't quite as silky smooth, and not as sweet (if you use milk chocolate it probably would be), but it has such a wonderful, fresh hazelnut flavor, and rich chocolaty goodness, I am quite satisfied.

This is currently slated to be used to make my next endeavor....nutella oreo truffles.  Yes, you heard right.  Nutella. Oreo.  Truffles!  How could you go wrong, right??  Well, I'll let you know :)

In the mean time, here is the recipe.

Recipe:

Makes 15-16, 2 Tbs servings (about 600 grams or 23 oz total)

2 cups (240 grams) hazelnuts, toasted and peeled (I used Trader Joe's large hazelnuts)
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup dutch process cocoa powder
6 oz (or however much you need to get the consistency you want) evaporated 2% milk
1 Tbs refined coconut oil, or another flavorless oil
1.65 oz Trader Joe's 72% cocoa chocolate bar (or any kind of chocolate you want), melted
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

Directions:

1.  Toast hazelnuts on the stove top in a dry saute pan over medium low heat until slightly browned and fragrant.  Do not burn.
2. Peel the skins from the hazelnuts and place in food processor.
3. Pulse with the coconut oil until it is finely ground.
4. Add remaining ingredients, but start with only about 3 oz. of the milk.  Add more to get the desired consistency.
5. Blend in food processor until smooth and mixed and desired thickness.
6. Store in air tight container in the fridge.  
7. Enjoy on toast, in graham crackers, fruit, or just by the spoonful!

I am not sure how long it lasts in the fridge with the evaporated milk in it, but if anyone knows, feel free to drop it in the comments.