What better way to welcome holidays than a big smile on kids face. And believe me Cheesecake always does the trick. But to make mom’s life easy here is a cool and instant way to make some colorful cheese cake pops. The flavor I will use is fresh strawberry and mint. This recipe is great to use for Cooking or play date with kids. This could turn out to be a very interesting and yummy project with you little ones.

Preparation time: 60 minutes (includes refrigeration time)

Servings: 4

Kitchen instrument: Microwave, blender, hand mixer

Difficulty level: 2/10

Ingredient:

-         4-5 fresh strawberries

-         2-3 mint leaves

-         I tsp strawberry essence

-         1 tsp mint essence

-         500gm cream cheese. (2 portion of 250gm each)

-         1 cup sugar or 3/4 cup sweetener

-         1 cup of white chocolate instant melt

-         Sprinklers of your choice.

-         1 packet of plain crackers – Graham or Marie (10 to 12 pieces)

-         10-12 lollipop sticks (alternatively you can use edible biscuit sticks)

Preparation:

1.      Using blender, make fine powder of crackers.

2.      In a mixing bowl, whisk cream cheese, cracker powder and sugar.

3.      Whisk them well until sugar/sweetener is completely mixed. I use high speed hand mixer.

4.      Make two equal portion and take out each portion in a separate bowl.

5.      Make tiny pieces of 2 strawberries and add it to one portion of cream cheese mixture.

6.      Add strawberry essence and mix it well with a whisk.

7.      Add finely shredded mint leaves and mint essence to another portion and mix well.

8.      Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

9.      Make small balls out of the mixture and insert lollipop sticks in the middle.

10. It will now look like lollipops.

11. Now using directions, melt the instant chocolate melts.

12. Dip each lollipops into the chocolate and add sprinklers of your choice.

13. Let it stand for 5-10 minutes.

14. Your cheese pops are ready to serve.

Tips:

-         The cream cheese mixture can be very sticky to form balls. This is why you would want to refrigerate it before forming balls. You can freeze it for less time to speed the process. You can use the same recipe with different flavours. Also, instead of mint leaves, you can actually add pieces of mint candies and this will add crunch to it. I have used white chocolate here but you can use dark or brown chocolate.

Remember our Chocolate Pie recipe? May be this season let's try to create the fusion to get closer to the traditions. Add Pumpkin to our dessert and make it festive speciality.

Ingredients:

-          3 packets of Oreo cookies or any other cream filled chocolate cookie. Chose from your favourites.

-          1/4 cup butter melted

-          Instant Jell-O chocolate pudding

-          2 cups cold milk

-          White and dark Chocolate slab

-          Heavy whip cream

-          200 gm cream cheese softened

-          1 cup canned or fresh pumpkin puree

-          1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

-          1/2 cup sugar

-          2 cups of cool whip

Preparation:

-          Crush 2/3 of cookies finely and mix it with butter.

-          Press the mixture firmly into bottom of 9 inch pie plate.

-          Mix white and dark chocolate and warm it in microwave until semi liquid.

-          Add 1 cup of whipped cream to this and stir it well.

-          Pour it over the pie crust and spread evenly.

-          Let it stand for 10 minutes.

-          Now for the second layer, beat cream cheese, pumpkin, and sugar.

-          Add 2 cups of cool whip and Whisk it as necessary.

-          Pour it over the first layer of chocolate and spread evenly.

-          Refrigerate it for 3-4 hours.

-          While serving you can top it with Cool Whip.

Ingredients:

 

-          Phyllo Dough sheets

 

Fresh Dough

 

-          3 cups of all purpose flour(Maida)

-          1/4 tea spoon salt

-          1 cup water

-          4 spoon oil

-          1 teaspoon cider vinegar

 

Filling and Glaze

 

-          250 gm of unsalted Butter

-          100 gm chopped walnut

-          50 gm chocolate chips

-          Instead of walnut and chocolate chips you can use just Pistachio

-          1 tea spoon cinnamon powder

-          1 cup white sugar

-          1/2 cup honey

-          3/4 cup water

-          2 tea spoon lemon juice

 

Preparation:

Fresh Dough:

 

-          Mix dough ingredients and knead a soft dough.

-          Cover with plastic wrap and let it set aside for at least 2 hours.

-          After two hours, make 10-12 pieces out of the dough.

-          Roll each into thin sheets using some dry flour.

-          You can stack it over each other by just sprinkling some dry flour or corn starch on top r each sheet.

-          You can either use them fresh or freeze them.

Filling:

-          Chop walnuts into the blender

-          Add chocolate chips

-          Keep aside in mixing bowl

 

Glaze:

-          In a sauce pan, mix water, sugar, lemon juice and honey.

-          Bring it to boil until sugar is melted.

-          Keep it on the stove for another 5 minutes stirring well.

-          Keep aside and let it cool.

 

Baking:

-          If you are using frozen sheets, make sure they are completely thawed before using them.

-          Place 4-5 dough sheets each brushed with butter on the bottom in the baking tray.

-          Now sprinkle the walnut and chocolate chip mixture on the top evenly.

-          Repeat one more time with another 4 sheets of dough and mixture.

-          Top it for last 4 sheets of the dough.

-          You can add 5 to 10 sheets as per your choice of layers.

-          Cut the pastry into Small Square or diamond shaped pieces without removing any piece out of the tray.

-          Now bake it at 325 degree for 1 hour.

-          After removing from the oven pour the glaze (syrup) immediately with a spoon evenly on the tray spreading evenly on baklava.

-          Let it cool completely before serving.

-          You can store it in the refrigerator for later use.

 

Tips: Cover phyllo sheets with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work. Also, make sure you butter the sheets thoroughly.

Ingredients:

-          250 gm of pitted dates finely chopped or coarse in blender

-          4 table spoon butter

-          1&1/2 cup brown sugar

-          1 cup wheat or Maida flour

-          2 teaspoon baking powder

-          1/2 tea spoon salt

-          1/2 cup milk

-          1&1/2 cup black coffee(light as per your taste)

-          2 table spoon chopped walnuts

-          Ice-cream of your choice

 

Preparation:

-          Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F.

-          Have a baking tray ready.

-          Whisk 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 tea spoon salt, baking powder and flour in a mixing bowl.

-          Slowly add, 2 table spoon butter, dates, walnuts, and milk in mixing bowl while stirring.

-          Stir it until it forms thick batter.

-          Now pour mixture into the baking tray.

-          Mix rest of the sugar, butter, coffee in a sauce pan and boil it until sugar is melted.

-          Pour it over the batter.

-          Place it into the oven for 30-40 minutes.

-          Pudding will look dry on the top with gooey on the sides.

-          Scoop or cut into pieces and serve it hot in a bowl with scoop of ice-cream as a side.

-          I would use Vanilla or light flavoured ice-cream to cut some bitterness of coffee.

Ingredients:

-          1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

-          2 cups of heavy whipped cream

-          1 Pineapple can or 1 fresh pineapple. Keep two slices apart and crush rest of them

-          Pineapple flavor

Preparation:

-          Mix condensed milk and heavy whipped cream in a mixing bowl.

-          Mix it properly.

-          Now freeze the mixture for 5-6 hours.

-          Take out of the freezer and now churn the mixture until it’s completely liquid.

-          Add few drops of pineapple flavour.

-          Add crushed pineapple. If you are using can pineapple, make sure you have drained all the liquid before adding.

-          Now pour the mixture into freezer safe serving bowl.

-          Decorate the top with rest of the pineapple slices either cut into small triangles or square pieces.

-          Freeze it overnight.

-          When ready, scoop it out and serve.

Ingredients:

-          3 packets of Oreo cookies or any other cream filled chocolate cookie. Chose from your favourites.

-          1/4 cup butter melted

-          Instant Jell-O chocolate pudding

-          2 cups cold milk

-          White and dark Chocolate slab

-          Heavy whip cream for topping

Preparation:

-          Crush 2/3 of cookies finely and mix it with butter.

-          Press the mixture firmly into bottom of 9 inch pie plate.

-          Mix white and dark chocolate and warm it in microwave until semi liquid and pour it over the pie crust and spread evenly.

-          Let it stand for 10 minutes.

-          Now for the second layer, mix the pudding mixture with milk, and whisk it as necessary (you can have single layer pie too).

-          Pour it over the first layer of chocolate and spread evenly.

-          Again, let it stand for 10 minutes.

-          Now crumble rest of the cookies and mix it with whip cream.

-          Spread it evenly over the top of pie.