Strawberry White Chocolate Cheesecake Bites

This recipe is for 24 mini cheesecakes.

(Adapted from this recipe from www.thatskinnychickcanbake.com)

Ingredients

Crust:

• 2 tbsp butter (melted)
• 2 tsp fine sugar
• 3/8 cup graham cracker crumbs
• pinch of salt (NOTE: omit the salt if you’re using salted butter)

Filling:

• 1 pkg cream cheese (softened)
• 1/4 cup fine sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp white chocolate chips (melted)
• 1 large egg

Topping:

• 1/4 cup white chocolate chips (melted)
• 24 fresh strawberry slices

Directions

1. Line a mini cupcake pan and preheat oven at 315°F
2. In a small bowl, mix cracker crumbs, butter, sugar, and salt to make the crust. Spoon about 1 tsp of crust into each cupcake liner.
3. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla with a handmixer on low speed until blended. Don’t overbeat the mixture.
4. Add the egg to the mixture and beat on low speed until blended.
5. Slowly pour the melted chocolate into the mixture and beat on low speed until blended. Scrape along the side of the bowl to ensure that the ingredients are blended well.
6. Pour the mixture over the crust, distributing evenly among the cupcake liners.
7. Bake for about 16 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.
8. Let the cheesecakes cool before adding the toppings. Pour a few drops of melted chocolate on top of each cheesecake, and then add a slice of strawberry on top.
9. Refrigerate before serving. (Or freeze the cheesecakes if you don’t plan on serving them within the next 2 or 3 days.)

Strawberry Matcha (Green Tea) Macarons

Happy Valentine’s day! Today, I’m sharing my strawberry matcha (green tea) macaron recipe. The matcha flavor offsets some of the sweetness of the macaron shells, and when combined with just a hint of strawberry flavor in the filling, these macarons are so perfect. This is definitely my favorite macaron recipe so far. What’s your favorite?

green food coloring

strawberry icing

sandwich bag for piping

sifting

macaron batter

piped macaron batter

matcha powder

strawberries

If you’re new to making macarons, please also read my previous post for some tips and tricks.

Here’s what you’ll need to make strawberry matcha macarons:

(This recipes makes about 56 macaron shells; that’s 28 filled macarons)

Macaron shells:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 3/4 cup ground almonds
• 3 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 large egg whites (room temperature)
• 2 tsp matcha powder
• 3 drops green food coloring

Filling:

• 3/4 cup icing sugar
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 tsp strawberries (roasted and mashed)

Directions:

Macaron shells

1. Line two medium baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a food processor, process ground almonds and icing sugar for about a minute. Scrape along the inside of the food processor in between to ensure that there aren’t any large clumps and that the two ingredients are mixed well. (Special thanks to my friend, Goodies & Kitsch, for generously giving me her food processor. While you’re here, you should go check out her awesome blog.)
3. In a medium bowl, sift the almond mixture.
4. In a small bowl (be sure to use a bowl that’s not too shallow), whisk the egg whites with a handmixer on medium-low speed for about a minute until light and fluffy.
5. Increase the speed to medium-high and continue to whisk the egg whites until medium-stiff for about 2 minutes. (If you turn the bowl upside-down, the egg whites don’t slide out.)
6. Gradually add granulated sugar to the egg whites while continuing to whisk on medium-high speed for another 2 minutes.
7. Gradually fold the egg mixture into the almond mixture, adding only about 1/3 of the egg mixture at a time.
8. Add matcha powder and fold.
9. Add green food coloring and fold again. (I use liquid food coloring, but most people recommend gel or powder-based food coloring. You should use whatever you’re comfortable with.)
10. Transfer the batter into a piping bag. (Or if you’re frugal like me, you can use a medium sandwich bag instead and just cut a tiny corner of the bag to pipe.)
11. Pipe batter onto baking sheets. Try to pipe small rounds that are just under 1 inch wide and at least 1/2 inch apart.
12. Preheat oven to 325°F. Let the batter sit at room temperature for about 15 to 20 minutes.
13. Turn the oven down to 300°F and put the baking sheets into the oven for 7 minutes.
14. Rotate the baking sheets and bake for 8 minutes.
15. Remove the baking sheets from the oven and allow the macaron shells to cool.

Filling:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Rinse 2 large or 3 medium strawberries, hulled and cut into halves.
3. In a small oven-safe glass pan, bake strawberries for about 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Let the strawberries cool before draining the strawberry syrup. (NOTE: You can save and refrigerate the strawberry syrup to use later on pancakes or cheesecake.)
5. Mash the strawberries and drain the excess syrup. You only need about 2 1/2 tsp of mashed strawberries.
6. In a small bowl, cream the icing sugar and butter. (I use a single whisk attachment on my handmixer and whisk on low speed.)
7. Whisk in vanilla extract.
8. Whisk in strawberries.

~
Sandwich just a small dab of filling between two macaron shells – you can pipe the filling or just gently spread the filling with a spatula.

Are you tired yet? 🙂 Yes, that was quite a bit of work, but just look at this:

strawberry matcha macaron

Trust me, it tastes just as good as it looks.

Try this recipe and let me know how it goes for you. 🙂

Low fat strawberry chocolate cupcake recipe

Baking is one of my favourite hobbies. Sadly, not everyone wants to eat my baked goods because they’re worried about their health (tsk tsk). 🙂 From my several years of baking experience, I’ve found that there are lots of unhealthy ingredients used in baking that can be easily substituted with healthier alternatives and they still taste good.

For instance, butter used in cakes and cookies can be substituted with unsweetened applesauce in many cases.

Another great example: most pie recipes tell you to mix butter or oil with cookie crumbs to make pie crust. Eww. Try using 1 to 2 egg whites with cookie crumbs instead. (Seriously, it still tastes great and you don’t get the nasty pool of grease that oozes out from the crust after it has been baked.)

Below is a recipe that I’ve used recently. It’s a combination of a few recipes that I’ve collected over the years and I’ve add some of my own personal tweaks here and there.

Enjoy!

Low fat strawberry chocolate cupcakes

(makes a dozen cupcakes)

Cupcake:

• 1 cup flour (can use whole wheat)
• 1 cup sugar (can use brown sugar)
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup skimmed milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 medium egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt

Icing:

• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 3 fresh strawberries
• ~ 1/2 cup icing sugar
• Optional: a dab of cream cheese if you want to make a Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

It’s baking time!

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a cupcake pan with a dozen cupcake liners.
2. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg first and then whisk in the other wet ingredients.
4. Create a well in the dry ingredients, then slowly pour and stir the wet ingredients in. Mix well.
5. Pour the mixture evenly into the cupcake liners.
6. Bake cupcakes for about 10 minutes, rotate the pan and then bake for another 10 minutes. Test the cupcakes by inserting a toothpick in the center. The cupcakes are ready when the toothpick comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from the oven and allow them to cool in room temperature for about 20 minutes.

Now to prepare the icing. 🙂

1. In a medium bowl, beat whipping cream until light and fluffy.
2. Puree strawberries and stir them in with the cream.
3. Gradually stir in icing sugar to thicken the cream.
4. Optional step: You can add a dab of softened (room temp) cream cheese.
5. Refrigerate the icing for about 1/2 an hour before adding on top of cupcakes.

There’s more!

You can add half a fresh strawberry on top of each cupcake to make them look fancy too.