Sweet Treats!

Hobby of the Day: Baking!

The PTA (parent/teacher association) at my school is having a bake sale.  Tomorrow evening our older students are having a spring concert and therefore the PTA thought it would be a nice idea to sell some delicious treats.  I'm all for that.  So I signed up, seeing that baking is one of my favorite past time hobbies. If ingredients weren't so dang expensive I would do it A LOT more than I currently do. Plus, since I gave up sweets for lent it makes baking really hard!

What did I bake?

Mini oreo cheesecake cupcakes and of course, chocolate chip cookies! It was very hard for me not to eat a few bites...I know I know, salmonella.

 My new cookie sheet, it works SOOO much better than my old ones. 

Enter Mini oreo cheesecakes- Gary's not on a sweet lent diet so he was able to partake in the goodness that is. Yes, thank you Martha Stewart!

Sugar and cream cheese mixture

 

 

Chopped up Oreos, it calls for 12, I may have added a few extra

Baking at 275 degrees for 22 min, rotating at the half

Cooling in the in fridge....note my favorite Naked Juice and Ragu pasta sauce

Recipe: Thanks to good old Martha Stewart and her cupcake book! LOVE IT!

Ingredients

• 42 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 whole and 12 coarsely chopped

• 2 lbs cream cheese (or 4 8oz boxes) room temperature

• 1 c. sugar

• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

• 4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten

• 1 c. sour cream

• pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Drizzle in eggs, a big at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly (I use a 3 tbs. cookie scoop) among cookie-filled cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes.  Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely.  Refrigerate (in tins) at least 4 hours, or overnight before serving.