[GrandPoppa]

My own concoction. Surprisingly Good!

Piña Colada Cheesecake

Crust:

1 heaping cup of sweetened flaked coconut (To cover bottom of 9 inch spring-form pan!)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Heat oven to 350°. Spread coconut on cookie sheet and place in oven to toast. Stir often to prevent over-toasting. (Only takes about 5 minutes.) Reduce oven temperature to 300°.

Place coconut in bowl, add the butter and melt in microwave. Thoroughly mix to coat all the coconut.

Lightly spray sides and bottom of a dark, heavy 9-inch spring-form pan with vegetable oil spray. Spread coconut/butter mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan and place in refrigerator to cool.

Cheesecake:

3-8 ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
¾-cup of granulated sugar
2-tablespoons cornstarch – (Helps minimize cracking!)
3-large eggs
1- teaspoon Vanilla extract
½- teaspoon LorAnn Gourmet Pineapple Flavor
½-teaspoon LorAnn Gourmet Coconut Flavor
½-teaspoon Rum flavoring
1-20 ounce can crushed pineapple
½-cup of sweetened flaked coconut – adjust to your preference!

Drain juice from pineapple and reserve for topping.

Evenly divide pineapple, adding half to the reserved juice. Squeeze or press the remaining pineapple to remove as much juice as possible. Add this juice to the reserve and save the squeezed pineapple for incorporating into the cheesecake.

Combine cream cheese, sugar, cornstarch and food coloring, mixing at medium speed in electric mixer until well blended. Beat in eggs, one at a time, on low speed until just blended. Do not over beat! Gently stir in vanilla, pineapple, coconut and rum flavors. Fold in coconut and squeezed pineapple.

Pour onto the toasted coconut crust and bake on center rack for 1-hour at 300°. (COOK SLOW, COOL SLOW!) No peeking! It won’t burn. After 1-hour, turn oven off and leave cheesecake in oven for another hour to cool slowly. If it must be removed to allow reuse of the oven, place where there is no draft and cover top of pan with a plate for at least an hour. After cooling to room temperature, refrigerate.

Note: To further reduce chances of cracking, I often wrap the bottom and side of the spring-form pan with aluminum foil and place in a roaster pan half-filled with hot water on the center rack of the oven.

Topping:

Reserved pineapple and juice.
2-tablespoons cornstarch

In a saucepan, combine pineapple, juice and cornstarch. Stir while heating, until mixture thickens. Cool to room temperature before spreading on top of chilled cheesecake.

[GrandPoppa]

I wasn't too crazy about the crust, but others liked it!

Pumpkin Cheesecake
With Walnut-Ginger Crust
And Caramel Sauce

From November 2004 issue of Yankee magazine
Judy Feagin

2 cups Gingersnap cookie crumbs
2/3 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
3 tablespoons plus ¾ cup sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted
3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
¾ cup brown sugar
5 large eggs
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
¼ cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice*
Caramel Sauce (see recipe)
Garnish: walnut halves

Preheat oven to 350°. Place cookie crumbs, walnuts and 3 tablespoons of sugar in a food processor and pulse 3 or 4 times, or until combined; add melted butter and pulse 4 or 5 times, or until crumbly. Wrap the outside of a 10-inch spring-form pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Press mixture into the bottom of the pan and 1 inch up the sides. Bake crust 8 to 10 minutes. Cool crust completely on a wire rack. Reduce oven heat to 325°

Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer at medium speed for 3 minutes, or until creamy. Gradually add brown sugar and the remaining ¾ cup sugar, beating 4 minutes or until well blended.

Reduce blender speed to low, add eggs, one at a time, beating just until yellow disappears. Add pumpkin, whipping cream and pumpkin-pie spice. Fold, until just blended. Do not over beat! Pour batter over the prepared crust.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until almost set (it will still jiggle in the center).
Remove from oven; run a knife around edge of pan. Cool on a wire rack 1 hour. Chill 8 hours or overnight. Garnish with walnuts and serve with caramel sauce.

Yield: 12 to 14 servings

*Note: If you don’t have pumpkin –pie spice, substitute 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground ginger, ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg and ¼ teaspoon allspice.

Caramel Sauce:

½ cup butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
½ cup whipping cream

Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat; add brown sugar and corn syrup, then cook, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Gradually add cream, stirring constantly until mixture returns to a boil. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

Yield: 1 ½ cup

[GrandPoppa]

Use your favorite piecrust.

Because of my wife’s reaction to glutton, I use the following.

PUFFED RICE CEREAL PIE CRUST

2 cups puffed rice cereal (can use corn flakes or rice crispies if can be found without malt.)
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp butter

Spray a light coating of vegetable oil on sides and bottom of a 9-inch spring form pan.

Crush cereal or run through food processor.
Melt butter and add sugar. Combine all, and press into bottom (and sides if desired) of the spring-form pan. Chill well before filling.


BASIC CHEESECAKE

3 – 8 ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
¾ cup of granulated sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
3 large eggs
1 tsp imitation Vanilla flavoring, clear
21 oz. Can Cherry Pie Filling (use any kind of filling you like!)

Combine cream cheese, sugar and corn starch, mixing at medium speed in electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in vanilla. Pour mixture onto chilled piecrust. Bake at 300 degrees F., for 1 hour, then turn oven off. Do not open oven door! Leave in oven for another hour, to cool slowly! After cooled to room temperature, chill. Top with pie filling before serving.

Note: If desired, (3 packages cream cheese, ¾ cup sugar, 3 eggs)
Easily scales to: (2 packages cream cheese, ½ cup sugar, 2 eggs)
Or to: (4 packages cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, 4 eggs)
Would not worry about scaling vanilla or cornstarch!

[GrandPoppa]

CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE

Same as above, except:

Use 1 packed cup of brown sugar instead of ¾ cup of granulated sugar.

Melt 4 oz. semi-sweet bakers’ chocolate in microwave until soft. Careful, don’t burn it!
Stir good to remove all lumps. May need to heat more to completely melt! Add to the previously blended cake batter and mix thoroughly. Bake as above. Top with chocolate Redi-Whip.

[GrandPoppa]

Sounds good! Would like to have the recipe. Thank you.

[chort1313]

Strawberry Pie!
I usually cut the berries. This is borrowed from all recipes, and it is one of my very favorite desserts!

INGREDIENTS:
2 (8 inch) pie shells, baked
2 1/2 quarts fresh strawberries
1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup boiling water
1 (3 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DIRECTIONS:
In a saucepan, mix together the sugar and corn starch; make sure to blend corn starch in completely. Add boiling water, and cook over medium heat until mixture thickens. Remove from heat. Add gelatin mix, and stir until smooth. Let mixture cool to room temperature.
Place strawberries in baked pie shells; position berries with points facing up. Pour cooled gel mixture over strawberries.
Refrigerate until set. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

[ElaineHN]

Here's a SUPER easy one to make for family reunion or church potlucks ...

Dump Cake (or Easy Cobbler)

Dump one can cherry pie filling into a baking dish
Dump one can pineapple tidbits into the pan
Dump in a handful of chopped nuts
Stir
Dump one yellow cake mix (straight from the box) over the filling
Dot with butter/margarine
Bake at 350 till the cake mix is golden brown

Of course you really want to 'sprinkle' the cake mix fairly evenly over the cake, not just dump it all in one spot ... but don't worry about lumps or uneven spots ... the thin spots get yummy crisp and crunchy while lumps and thicker spots turn out a little more cakey-crusty.

You can double the recipe and use a large disposable roasting pan ... then you don't even have to worry about carrying your dish home ... just toss it!

[Jorelanu]

The gluten-free cheesecake sounds yummy. My grandmother can't have gluten either so I am always on the lookout for gluten-free recipes. Especially desserts, my grandfather makes all sorts of yummy regular food for her but almost never makes dessert.

Jore

[ElaineHN]

Here are a couple of good Peanut Butter dessert recipes ...

Peanutbutter Pie - http://www.gagirl.com/recipes/pbpie.html
Peanutbutter Pound Cake - http://www.gagirl.com/recipes/pbcake.html

Yumm! Elaine

[jll2375]

After reading all of these recipes I'm getting the urge to do some baking. I need desserts for 27 people (initial count - could be more) for Thanksgiving.