Tagged:  cream cheese

Directly from tropical Cuba, Guavas & Cream Cheese is a unique dessert. Don’t know about you, but I wasn’t aware of this dessert until I discovered Cuban cuisine.

The fresh guavas are stewed with sugar and topped with cream cheese in individual serving bowls. It’s as easy as that!

Make this unique dessert and it’ll be the hit of your next dinner party – Buen Provecho.

Prep time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4 to 6

Ingredients:
8 to 12 ripe guavas
1 to 1-1/2 cups water
1 cup unbleached, granulated sugar
6 ounces whipped cream cheese
6 to 8 sprigs of fresh mint leaves

1. Wash and dry the guavas.

2. Cut each guava in half; remove and discard inner pulp and seeds.

3. Place the guava halves, hollow or concave sides-up, in an 8-quart sauce pot.

4. Cover the guavas with enough water so that it rises up the fruit halfway.

5. Bring them to a boil and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes.

6. After 10 minutes, sprinkle the sugar evenly over the guavas.

7. Cook on low heat, uncovered, until sugar has turned into a thick syrup. Cool completely.

To assemble:

1. Place 4 guava halves in each individual glass or porcelain serving bowl.

2. Divide the cooled syrup evenly among each serving.

3. Cover each bowl with plastic wrap and chill at least 2 hours or overnight.

4. At serving time, add 1 teaspoon whipped cream cheese to each guava half. Garnish mint leaves.

Text & Photograph ©2012 Nancy DeLucia Real

Seasonal, fresh strawberries combined with tart rhubarb make an exquisite and beautiful topping for this cheesecake. Because I love sweet and sour flavors so much, strawberry rhubarb desserts are my favorite. Entice everyone when you set this bright cheesecake on your sweet table.

Active prep time: 15 minutes
Bake time: 55 minutes
Inactive prep time: 5 hours or overnight refrigeration

For the Crust:
1½ cups finely ground Maria cookies*
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.

2. In a 2 or 3-quart mixing bowl and using a fork or pastry cutter, combine the ground cookies with cinnamon and melted butter until uniform.

3. Transfer the mixture to a 9-inch spring form pan: spread the crumb mixture evenly, pushing it up with fingers along sides of pan to rise ¾-inch high.

4. Gently pat and flatten the crumb mixture at bottom and at sides of pan; set aside.

For the Cheesecake:
Three 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a 5-quart mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with the sugar and one egg until mixture is smooth.

2. Beat in the remaining eggs, one at a time; stir in the vanilla extract.

3. Pour cheesecake batter over crumb mixture in pan.

4. Set pan on a rack placed in center of oven and bake 50 to 55 minutes or until cheesecake is light golden brown and begins to crack at sides.

5. Turn off oven and leave cheesecake to set for 30 minutes.

6. After 30 minutes, transfer cheesecake to counter, cover with foil and let cool 2 hours (do not remove cheesecake from spring form pan).

7. Refrigerate the cheesecake 5 more hours or overnight (it’s best to make cheesecake one day ahead).

For the Strawberry Rhubarb Filling:
2 cups diced fresh strawberries
1¼ cups diced fresh rhubarb (about 2 medium stalks)
½ cup granulated sugar
1/8 cup cold water and 1 teaspoon cornstarch (mixed together in a cup)

1. Combine the strawberries, rhubarb and sugar in a 2 or 3-quart saucepot.

2. Bring to a boil and cook on medium heat for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.

3. Set heat on low and cook for 3 more minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking.

4. Stir in the cornstarch mixture; cook and stir 1 more minute until thickened.

5. Transfer the filling to a glass or porcelain bowl, cover and cool on a counter. After cooling, refrigerate about 1 hour or overnight.

To serve: Remove sides of spring form pan from cheesecake. Set the cake with pan bottom on a large platter, spoon the strawberry filling over its top and serve individual slices.

*Note: Maria cookies are round, sweet biscuits. Each biscuit has perforations or holes and the name “Maria” engraved on its top surface.

Text & Photograph © 2011 Nancy DeLucia Real

During the week before Thanksgiving I usually make pumpkin bread. This year, I reinvented this Autumn coffee go-with. I made a traditional pumpkin cake with an added cream cheese filling. Some of the white flour has been substituted with whole wheat flour. And, although I eliminated the oil, this dessert is still moist and scrumptious. Serve this “no fuss” cake for Thanksgiving – and don’t forget the coffee!

Prep time: 20 minutes
Bake time: 40 to 50 minutes
Makes: One 10-inch cake

FOR THE CREAM CHEESE CAKE FILLING:
One 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg

1. In a 2-cup mixing bowl and with a hand mixer, beat together the cream cheese, sugar and egg.

2. Set aside until ready to assemble into the raw cake batter.

FOR THE CAKE:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
One 15-ounce can pumpkin
1 cup nonfat, plain yogurt
4 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (4 ounces) Dulce de Leche*

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease and flour an 10-inch round spring form pan and set aside.

2. In a 4-cup mixing bowl, combine the flours, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and allspice; set aside.

3. Meanwhile, in a 2-cup mixing bowl, using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar and egg; set aside.

4. In a 3 or 4-quart mixing bowl, mix together the pumpkin, yogurt, eggs, sugar and vanilla on low speed.

5. Gradually add the combined dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and beat at low speed until the batter is uniform, about 1 to 2 minutes.

6. Pour half of the pumpkin batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly with a spatula; set aside.

7. Spoon the cream cheese mixture evenly over batter in pan followed by remaining half of pumpkin batter. Make sure the top pumpkin batter layer covers the cream cheese mixture evenly.

8. Place springform pan with batter on a rack positioned in center of oven and bake 40 to 50 minutes.

9. After 40 minutes, check doneness of cake by inserting a pointed knife in its center. If knife has sticky batter around it, bake cake for an additional 5 minutes. Check doneness once more. Knife inserted should come out clean. If not, bake another 5 minutes.

10. Cool cake completely in spring form pan on counter.

11. If making a day ahead, cover pan with aluminum foil and refrigerate. Remove cake from refrigerator 2 hours before serving.

FOR THE CAKE GARNISH:
5-Minute Sweetened Whipped Cream (found in our recipes, under Desserts, Creams & Sauces)

1. When cake is completly cook and at serving time, remove sides of spring form pan and set cake on a platter (do not remove cake from pan bottom). 

2. Serve individual pieces of cake on your guests’ plates, topped with a drizzle of dulce de leche and the whipped cream.

*Dulce de leche is a caramel sauce from Argentina and can be found in Latin American supermarkets. It is usually packaged and sold in a 15-ounce glass or plastic jar.

Text and Photographs ©2010 Nancy DeLucia Real