Photo by ourlifetastesgood.blogspot.com

Sopapilla CheeseCake Bars recipe is inspired by a Mexican donut that is made from leavened wheat dough and butter. When fried it puffs up leaving a hollow center. This recipe is great because you get all the yummy goodness without all the work! Gotta love that!

We were watching TV the other night and someone said they have Mexican food for their Christmas dinner, and that started up Madison's cravings! So I decided to surprise her on Friday with an appetizer dinner of different Mexican foods

This dessert went perfectly with our themed meal, and the recipe sounded so simple I had to give it a try!  It is best to make this up a day ahead, but if you don't have that kind of time, it is still yummy as long as it has some time to cool in the fridge

Sopapilla CheeseCake Bars

By Life Tastes Good
Published 12/22/2012

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) cans Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
• 1 (8 ounce) pacakges Philly Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup sugar, divided
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13x9" baking dish with cooking spray. Open 1 crescent roll package and unroll into bottom of greased dish - press the seams together seal.
2. In a blender or food processor, combine 8 ounce cream cheese, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 egg, and 1/2 cup sugar until well combined. Spread the mixture evenly over the dough in the baking dish.
3. Open the 2nd can of crescent rolls and unroll onto a piece of parchment paper. Press seams together to seal.
4. Pick up parchment paper and lay, dough side down, onto cream cheese filling. Remove parchment. If you don't have parchment - no worries - just unroll onto top of cream cheese filling, being sure to cover it and try to pinch the seams together. Don't make yourself crazy trying to close the seams - it will bake up nicely either way.
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Combine the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon. When you remove the cheesecake from the oven, evenly sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the top of the dough. Allow to cool and then refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Enjoy!

Yield: 12-15 Servings
Prep Time: 15 mins.

Cook time: 30 mins.
Total time: 45 mins.

recipe inspired by allrecipes.com Sopapilla CheeseCake Bars

Mini Apple Donut Skewers with Salted Caramel Dipping Sauce

LOVE these little apple donuts and don't even get me started on the caramel sauce! Oh my goodness it is SO good!

Growing up I remember my mom being a big fan of caramel. I guess I get my caramel addiction from her.  If I have to have an addiction I'm glad it's to caramel! Thanks mom! I just need to make sure I get an extra workout in  to keep all this caramel from sticking

Mini Apple Donut Skewers with Salted Caramel Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup white sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour 

1 medium sized granny smith apple - peeled, cored, and chopped

short wooden skewers

Topping

• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 24 mini-muffin cups.
2. Mix 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in the sour cream and milk, then mix in the baking soda, salt, and flour until just combined. Then fold in the apples pieces. Fill the prepared mini muffin cups about half full. I use a cookie scoop to measure out the batter.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the tops are lightly golden, 15 to 20 minutes.
4. While muffins are baking, place 1/4 cup of melted butter in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together 1/2 cup of sugar with the cinnamon. Remove muffins from their cups, dip each muffin in the melted butter, and roll in the sugar-cinnamon mixture. Let cool. Skewer 2-3 donuts on each wooden stick and serve with the caramel dipping sauce.

Caramel Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 1/4 cups heavy cream - warmed

salt to taste

In a heavy weight saucepan over medium heat, heat the sugar until it starts to melt and brown. This will take at least 5 minutes - maybe a little longer. Stir constantly so you don't burn the sugar (that would be bad). Once your sugar is starting to look a little brown and turning into crystallized chunks then you can add the butter. Keep stirring! Stir until you have a beautiful caramel colored smooth sauce. Be patient. It is worth the effort! Once you reach the smooth, caramel colored sauce remove the pan from the heat.  Be sure the cream is warmed all the way through. Add the cream about 1/4 cup at a time and stir until well combined. Keep adding until all the cream is combined.  Salt to taste and enjoy the rich, smooth, creamy goodness. 

note: if the cream is not sufficiently warmed you may end up with chunks in your sauce. Not to fear - just put it back over mid-high heat and stir until all chunks are dissolved.

My little buddy is 14 today. I'm told that is 72 in dog years. He definitely isn't as young as he used to be. He sleeps most of the day and is very cranky if he doesn't get fed exactly at 5:30. He's been in diapers for several months now and is using them more and more, but he still likes to romp around from time to time. ♥ him

Happy Birthday, Fluffy!

Helping daddy with the taxes

Banana Cheesecake Donut with Caramel Sauce

  On a recent trip to a local restaurant we enjoyed a Fried Banana Cheesecake for dessert. Right away Madison and I decided we must duplicate it at home - it was so amazing!! She had a great idea to bake our donut muffin recipe in her fancy donut pan.  Then we'd cut them in half - hollow them out and fill them with a delicious banana cheesecake concoction.  Drizzle that with a homemade caramel sauce and it should be very close to the restaurant's dessert. Sounded like a plan to me!!  We set out to do just that and we were able to make a very tasty substitution of that yummy dessert! Be warned - it is dangerously good!

Donut

Ingredients

1/2 cup white sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour 

Topping

• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

Mix 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in the sour cream and milk, then mix in the baking soda and flour until just combined. Fill each section of the donut pan, evenly, with the batter.  I had enough batter to fill each section about 1/2 way with batter to yield 3 donuts.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray fancy donut pan with cooking spray. I imagine you can make this in a cupcake pan as well if you don't want to run out and buy a fancy donut pan

Bake in the preheated oven until cooked through - about 20 minutes. Use a toothpick to test for doneness.

While donuts are baking, place 1/4 cup of melted butter in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together 1/2 cup of sugar with the cinnamon. Remove donut and dip each in the melted butter, and roll in the sugar-cinnamon mixture. Let cool.

Caramel Topping (make while donuts are baking)

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups heavy cream, heated

Directions

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in sugar and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is caramel brown in color. It is important to make sure the butter/sugar mixture is a dark brown caramel color. This will take some patience. Trust me it will start to brown just keep on stirring. The butter will separate from the sugar after it starts to brown and that is a good sign - you are almost there!  At that point lower the heat and continue stirring until it is a nice dark caramel color.  When you reach the beautiful caramel color then you can add the warmed heavy cream slowly - about 1/4 cup at a time - stirring constantly. Bring the mixture to boil (keep stirring) for about 3-5 minutes then remove from heat and let cool.

Cheesecake Filling

Ingredients

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 banana

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/3 cup whipped cream (I used Cool Whip)

Directions

Place cream cheese, sugar, banana. and lemon juice in a blender or a mixing bowl and mix until smooth (I prefer using a blender for this - it gets it very smooth). Fold in whipped cream until incorporated.  Give it a taste and adjust flavors to your liking. Chill in freezer for 30 minutes. Then store in the fridge until ready to use.

Assemble

Take a cooled donut and slice it in half. I like to cut it on the diagonal - it looks nice

     

Now hollow out the center of each half being careful not to poke any holes in the donut. This next step is very important, so don't leave it out! This is when you gobble up all the donutty goodness you just scooped out of the center - yummmm (don't leave that part out!)

I like to pipe in the filling, but you can spoon it in - fill each half with the cheesecake filling

All that is left is to drizzle with some of the delicious caramel sauce. If the sauce has cooled too much be sure to warm it in the microwave just a little bit

Enjoy!

Donut Muffins

Back to the hospital this afternoon. Sadly I didn't have time to make the S'mores cupcakes, so I made the next best thing Donut Muffins!

These tasty little morsels are soooo easy to make!  But be careful the batter doesn't have eggs, so you might be tempted to eat too much!!  If you do,  you will for sure get a bellyache! Of course, I'm just guessing about that!

I wouldn't know that from experience! NO!

I adapted this recipe from the Allrecipes Donut Muffins

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour 

Topping

• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 24 mini-muffin cups.
2. Mix 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in the sour cream and milk, then mix in the baking soda, salt, and flour until just combined. Fill the prepared mini muffin cups about half full. I use a cookie scoop to measure out the batter.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the tops are lightly golden, 15 to 20 minutes.
4. While muffins are baking, place 1/4 cup of melted butter in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together 1/2 cup of sugar with the cinnamon. Remove muffins from their cups, dip each muffin in the melted butter, and roll in the sugar-cinnamon mixture. Let cool and serve.

You might also like this recipe from The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch for Baking Donuts! These look amazing!!