Salted Caramel and Vanilla Cheesecake Recipe

This delicious salted caramel cheesecake with a shortbread cookie crust is really good!

The vanilla, shortbread and caramel flavors are wonderful together, their sweetness offset by a tangy sour cream topping and DELIGHTFUL sprinkling of salt. Set it on the table and witness a disappearing act that requires no slight of hand.

What else is great? It's a cheesecake with ricotta *and* cream cheese. This means it has a fluffier texture than cheesecakes that use only cream cheese and a smoother texture than those that use only ricotta.

Plus, if your cheesecakes often crack on the top despite loving care and precautions, the sweetened sour cream layer covers up everything beautifully. I'm definitely planning to use this trick on my next cheesecake malfunction.

What's not great? The original recipe uses the metric system, so the conversion results in unusual measurements (like 1.4 cups). I've made careful conversions below for those in the US.

This salted caramel cheesecake recipe makes a dessert that's rich without being too dense.

Salted Caramel & Vanilla Cheesecake Recipe

Adapted from cheesecake recipe at donnahay.com

Ingredients:

500g shortbread cookies (I used Keebler Sandies Shortbread Cookies. A 12.8 oz box is 363 grams, so you need 1.38 boxes)
1/2 cup (60g) almond meal

2/3 cup (150g) melted butter

1.4 cups (350g) ricotta cheese

2.2 8-oz blocks (500g) cream cheese

1 cup (175g) brown sugar

4 eggs

2 tablespoons Lyle's Golden Syrup (this UK product can be found at Whole Foods in US)

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup (250ml) half & half (also known as "single cream" or "pouring cream")

1 cup (240g) sour cream

1 tablespoon sifted powdered sugar

Caramel Sauce:

1 cup (250ml) half & half, (also known as "single cream" or "pouring cream")

1/4 cup (60g) butter, chopped into 1-inch pieces

1 cup (175g) brown sugar

Flake salt for sprinkling

Directions:

Process the shortbread cookies and almond meal in a food processor until coarsely chopped, then add the butter and process a bit more to combine. Press the mixture into a greased 8-inch or 9-inch springform pan lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F). Place the ricotta and cream cheese in an electric mixer bowl and beat for 5–6 minutes or until smooth. Add the sugar and beat for 3–4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the golden syrup, salt and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Combine well, and pour into the shortbread cookie crust. Place the cake pan in a baking dish. Pour enough boiling water into the dish to come halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes or until firm to the touch. Remove the vanilla cheesecake from the baking dish and let it cool. Refrigerate for about 3 hours in the cake pan.

Place the cream, sour cream, powdered sugar and remaining teaspoon of vanilla in an electric mixer bowl and beat until soft peaks form. Top the vanilla cheesecake with the cream, and either serve immediately or refrigerate overnight.

To make the caramel sauce: Place the cream, butter and sugar in a saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, bring to a boil, and cook for 5–7 minutes or until it has thickened. Set aside to cool.

To serve: Slice the vanilla cheesecake, drizzle with caramel sauce, and sprinkle with salt.

Enjoy!

BakerGal

Strawberries and Cream Popsicle Recipe

Mmm! Delicious frozen strawberries and cream popsicles!

These berries and cream popsicles are a quick and easy dessert to prepare, and can be made with any type of berry. They're not as sweet as the Cookies and Cream Popsicle Recipe I made recently, but are still full of flavor. In this recipe, I used homemade whipped cream for the base and added sour cream to give it a tangy bite (compared to Cool Whip and cream cheese in the Cookies and Cream Popsicle Recipe). You can substitute the strawberries for raspberries to get raspberries and cream pops.

This frozen strawberry dessert recipe makes delicious creamy berry pops.

Brutal honesty: I liked the Cookies and Cream Popsicles better. I think the creamy base was smoother, tastier and sweeter. My hunch is that homemade whipped cream does not freeze as smoothly as Cool Whip does. The next time I'm faced with hot weather, I'll have to whip up another batch of these cream pops using the Cool Whip base from the Cookies & Cream Popsicle recipe. I think it will result in a creamy popsicle with a smoother texture. More easy and delicious desserts! Exciting!

It's a quick and easy dessert recipe that's perfect for a hot day.

In other exciting news, I just got some land to plant a garden on (about 10 feet by 17 feet). It's getting cold out, but no worries - I planted some cold-weather vegetable seeds. Let's hope they grow into something before frost hits! Send optimism/heating lamps my way, please.

Berries and cream come together in this easy popsicle recipe.

Strawberries and Cream Popsicle Recipe

Makes about 18 dixie cup popsicles

1/2 cup sour cream

2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tsp vanilla
4 T sifted powdered sugar
1.5 cups strawberries or other berries (either fresh berries that you've mashed a bit, or frozen berries).
Additional powdered sugar to taste, as needed

3-oz dixie cups

Popsicle sticks

In a large bowl, beat the sour cream until soft. Add the whipping cream, vanilla, and sugar and beat on high with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Fold in the berries (I used frozen sweetened strawberries in syrup in one batch and frozen raspberries in another). Because berries vary in sweetness, and some frozen berries may or may not have added sugar, the batter may benefit from more sweetness; Give it a little taste and add more powdered sugar as needed. Pour/spoon into paper cups and add the popsicle sticks. Freeze the berries and cream pops for at least 4 hours, or until firm.

OR if you want a base that is even thicker and sweeter and freezes into a soft solid, you can use the "cream" recipe from Cookies and Cream Popsicles - I haven't tried it with berries, but I have a hunch that it will be tasty.

Berries and cream pops make a delicious frozen strawberry dessert.

Fall is here now, so no more popsicles!
BakerGal

Easy Cookies and Cream Popsicle Recipe

These cookies and cream Oreo pops should hold a special place in your "Cool Whip recipes" file.

These Oreo pops are a WIN!  They're delicious, and criminally rich compared to last week's melon popsicles. Basic popsicle recipe: Oreos and cool whip get into a delicious brawl. You freeze the action and eat it.

This recipe is also a good way to let out some frustration and sooth the nerves. Step first: Smash up a bunch of Oreo cookies. Step last: eat popsicles until you feel better. All around great program for emotional repair, should you need any.

Cookies and Cream Popsicle Recipe...a creamy popsicle that's easy to make.

In any case, these Oreo pops turned out wonderfully and my guests were very happy.  They disappeared quickly, too (the cookies and cream popsicles, not the guests). Reasons? 1) Delicious, and 2) Cool Whip's mystery ingredients keep them bite-ably soft, so you can chow down instead of nibbling patiently.

This Oreo popsicles recipe is an easy cool whip dessert that tastes delicious.  

Not all dixie cup popsicle recipes make pops that are easy to get out of the dixie cups. With these ones, it's simple: You just grab the edge of the dixie cup and tear it away.

Cookies and Cream Pops Recipe (Oreo Pops)

Adapted from peanut butter oreo popsicle recipe at passthesushi.com
1 container cool whip, thawed
8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
18-22 Oreos (more or less...just follow your heart)
1T sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
3oz dixie cups and popsicle sticks or plastic spoons
OR popsicle molds
Makes about 20-24 3oz popsicles

Put the Oreo cookies in a ziplock bag and destroy them with something until they're broken into medium-large chunks. Put all of the chunks in a pasta strainer that has pretty big holes in it, and sift out the fine cookie dust. Save the dust for later. Sifting helps you in two ways: 1) It keeps the "cream" part of the popsicle from turning gray when you mix everything together, and 2) You can save the fine dust for decorating the top of the pops before you freeze them.

Stick the cream cheese in the microwave if you need to soften it up a bit more. Then, put it in an electric mixer with sugar and vanilla and whip until smooth. Fold in the Cool Whip, then fold in the cookie chunks.

Fill your popsicle molds or dixie cups. I used 3oz paper dixie cups, and the mixture was thick, so I had to carefully fill the cups to avoid trapping air bubbles (as a result, this recipe takes longer to make than last week's pour-n-freeze melon popsicles). Add the popsicle sticks or plastic spoons - the batter is thick enough to hold them up - then pour fine cookie crumbs on top of each popsicle and press down a bit so they stick.

Freeze these for at least 4 hours for best results, though they'll never get rock solid. To remove the dixie cups, just peel them off.

This Cookies and Cream Popsicle Recipe makes a delicious, creamy popsicle.

If you liked this recipe, you might also like these other two popsicle recipes:

Fresh Melon Popsicle Recipe

Berries and Cream Popsicle Recipe

Enjoy!

BakerGal

Melon Popsicle Recipe (Paleo)

The variety of melons in this recipe makes for bright, colorful fruit pops.

These colorful popsicles look so cheerful! At least, they did...until they started melting into puddles during my photo shoot. Eight fruit pops were harmed during the production of this blog post...

Watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, and a hint of citrus -- that's all it takes to whip up a batch of cool and colorful frozen treats for the afternoon. This melon popsicle recipe is so easy and so quick to make. It would be tons of fun for kids to try.

For the cantaloupe and watermelon, I used lemon juice and threw in a little zest, too - so refreshing! I did the same with lime for the honeydew pops. My personal fave? The cantaloupe pops. They had a smoother texture than the other two melon ice pops.

These healthy popsicles are easy to make and use 100% fruit.

These fruit popsicles appeal to a wide range of specialty eating needs. There's no added sugar, which makes for a very healthy popsicle. And, because they are made from 100% fruit, they count as vegan popsicles and paleo popsicles. They are versatile, too: you can use any kind of melon. They key for good melon popsicles is that the melon be very ripe, and that you process it into an extremely smooth puree.

Melon Popsicle Recipe

1 melon (watermelon, cantaloupe, or honeydew)
4 tablespoons of lemon or lime juice per honeydew-size melon (optional)
Popsicle molds (or popsicle sticks & 3 oz Dixie cups, or ice cube trays with toothpicks)

1. Process melon and citrus juice in blender or food processor until completely smooth.
2. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze for at least 4 hours.
3. If you are using Dixie cups, freeze until slushy and somewhat thick, then stick popsicle sticks in and continue to freeze until solid.

The quantity of melon ice pops this makes depends on the size of the fruit and the size of the molds you are using. Dixie cups are great for this project because you're not going to run out. The honeydew melon made about 24 3oz servings, the cantaloupe made about 12 3oz servings, and the watermelon made so many servings it would have been ridiculous to count them.

You can add sweetener if your fruit isn't ripe (up to 1/2 cup granulated sugar or equivalent sweetener per melon should be plenty). I found that sugar was overkill for already ripe fruit, so you might as well keep it healthy.

Summer isn't over yet (at least not here!), so enjoy the last of it while you still can and try making some of these delicious melon popsicles!

BakerGal