Mini Cranberry Cheesecakes

For Thanksgiving each member of the family brings in a side dish or dessert. This time around I decided on mini cranberry cheesecakes. Here you go!

What you'll need:

 Cheesecake

-2 (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
-1/2 cup sugar
-2 eggs

-1 pack of OREO Cookies

-1/2 cup of butter, melted



Cranberry topping

-12 oz bag fresh cranberries
-1/2 cup orange juice
-1/4 cup lemon juice, fresh squeezed
-1 1/4 cup sugar

 First thing first,f grease or line cupcake tin with those little paper liners.

Crust:

-Take mixture and press about 1-2 tablespoons to bottom of cupcake mold.

Cheesecake filling:

-Beat together softened cream cheese, sugar and vanilla
-Beat in one egg at a time
-Fill in cupcake molds with filling.

Bake:

350F for 20 minutes until centers are almost firm, but not yet.

While cheesecakes are baking...

Toppings:

-In a saucepan mix all topping ingredients.
-Bring to a boil, then simmer until its a thick sauce.
-When done allow to cool completely.

When cheesecakes are done place in the refrigerator for 3 hours. When toppings is completely cool top each mini cheesecake.

 That's it! Simple, right?

It make 12 mini cheesecakes

Enjoy!

Conchas- Mexican Sweet Bread

As I pointed out earlier both my kids and boyfriend like to sit down with a little cafe con leche and a sweet pan for dipping. It took me a while, this would be my fourth batch but I finally found something that satisfied them. Conchas are a Mexican Sweet Bread that basically comes in pretty colors and a design that represents a sea shell.

What you'll need:

Sponge (Masa Madre)

1 cup flour, all purpose

1.5 tap active dry yeast

1 egg, beaten

1 cup warm water, won't need all

Dough

3.5 cups flour, all purpose

3/4 cup + 1/8 cup sugar

3 Tbsp butter

1 cup of eggs, beaten

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup warm water

Topping

1/2 cup of butter, room temp

2/3 cup sugar

1 cup flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

Shortening, as needed

For the Sponge:

-sift flour, add dry yeast and mix well

-create a crater in the center of the flour yeast mixture and mix in eggs

-add a couple tablespoons of the warm water to the container that the eggs were in and swish it around. Pour this into the sponge mixture.

- when dough starts to come together flour the work surface and knead.

-You can use a little flour to help knead.

-in the end you want to have a lightly moist dough.

- place in a bowl, cover and allow to raise till double in size, about 1-2 hours. Maybe longer or shorter but it MUST RAISE TILL DOUBLED IN SIZE.

Once your sponge has doubled you can make the dough

For the Dough:

-sift flour, sugar, and salt together and mix

-tear butter into pieces and put into dry mix

-tear sponge into pieces and add that to dry mix as well

-pour in beaten eggs

-add the water to the container the eggs were in and swish it around till its mixed with egg residue

-add that water to dough mix

-stir until it comes together in a rough ball

-flour your kneading surface and knead your dough on it until its smooth but not dry, this dough should be like the sponge, slightly moist

- place in a bowl, cover and allow to raise till double in size, about 1-2 hours. Maybe longer or shorter but it MUST RAISE TILL DOUBLED IN SIZE.

For the Topping:

-beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy

-stir in flour, this will make a play-doh like dough

-take half of the topping and add vanilla extract, add cinnamon to the other half. Knead until ingredients are incorporated well.

NOTE: You may change the topping colors and flavors are you wish. Color can be changed by adding 2-3 drops of food  coloring. Instead of using vanilla, and cinnamon try chocolate/strawberry Nesquik or cocoa powder

Shaping the Concha:

-you will make about 24 finished Conchas about the size of your palm or 16 large conchas if you make the dough balls bigger

-take a small amount of dough and roll it into a ball just a little bigger that a meatball, 2'" and place on a greased baking sheet about 3-4 inches apart

-with your fingers take a bit of shortening, I use vegetable shortening, and spread it on  top of your dough balls, this allows for topping to stick better

Now that you are done shaping the balls its time for the topping!

-take a small of topping and roll it into a ball then flatten it like a pancake.this should be about 1.5-2 in diameter, enough to cover the top of your dough balls.

-as you place the topping on the dough ball flatten the ball out into thick discs.

-When you are done doing all the toppings take a pizza cutter, sharp knife, or concha cutter and make a shell impression on the topping

-Cover, and allow the Conchas to double in size, about 1.5hrs

When ready PREHEAT oven at 400F, then LOWER the temp to 350F and bake for 10-15 mins. until toothpick comes out clean

ENJOY!!!

NOTE: this is a lengthy process so plan your time wisely. It took me 9am-5pm to make my first batch, after making them for a while I was able to shave off 1-1.5hours



Thanks to Lorena Lara for this amazing recipe and method, without her I'd be eating some real bad Conchas
Check out her video below( it's in Spanish) to see how they are made and what I mean by moist dough. I used this recipe for the dough but not the topping
Conchas Recipe Part 1, Part 2