Elephants & Mangoes: Walking It Off at Kepong Metropolitan Park

Elephants & Mangoes: Walking It Off at Kepong Metropolitan Park

$475 Valentine's Day Cash Giveaway! | Love Bakes Good Cakes

$475 Valentine's Day Cash Giveaway! | Love Bakes Good Cakes a really great giveaway!!  Just at the right time!!

Celebrating All She Cooks' Blogiversary with a $200 PayPal Cash Giveaway | Love Bakes Good Cakes

Celebrating All She Cooks' Blogiversary with a $200 PayPal Cash Giveaway | Love Bakes Good Cakes Hope

I hope everyone will celebrate 'All She Cooks" one year anniversary, share the love. Congrats for a year of awesome recipes and giveaways and commenting back to her readers!! Woooohhhoooo!!!!!!



Bea

Chocolate Almond Cheesecake with Biscotti Crumble
        The glasses I made these in were actually old glasses that had candles in them and me being the savvy little saver that I am thought...hmmmm..I might use these for something. I was really thinking more like a mixed drink than a dessert but what the hell. One is as good as the other, right? Dessert? Liquor? Who really cares anyway? So I was trying to think of using some of the cream cheese I had and I am not a big fan of just plain cheesecake so I thought I would try to make a pudding. Well sort of. It turned out very smooth and really delicious so I will call it a moussing that is not quite a mousse and not quite a pudding but somewhere in between. It is creamy and not to sweet. So here we go, this come from my website that is currently under construction at www.secretsfrommyapron.com. Some of my friends had asked me for the recipe and here is what I did. Feel free to tweak it to meet your own needs. It is very easy to make it almost sugar free by using the fat free cream cheese, sweetener and very dark chocolate in your ganache, sugar free cookies to crumble on top. If you are a diabetic then this would be an option for you. I have made chocolate ganache with fat free milk as that is my preference if I am just drinking milk. Usually with my high fat desserts, I know it sounds kind of loopy but it works for me. So please enjoy!

8oz Philadelphia 1/3 Less Fat Cream Cheese
1c Heavy Whipping Cream
1c powdered sugar (or to taste)
1 tsp Almond Extract (or to taste)
1c Chocolate ganache
1/2c Chocolate Temptations Cream Liqueur
Almond Biscotti or cookie of your choice
Chocolate Curls
I beat the cream cheese until fluffy, then beat the heavy cream to soft peaks not quite stiff and on low mix the two together.
In a separate bowl mix the chocolate ganache and the liqueur together and pour about 1/2 inch into clear glasses, the ones I have hold about 2/3 cup. Now lightly spoon the almond cream cheese over the liqueur so it does not splash. Place in fridge for about an hour to set up and then sprinkle with crushed Almond Biscotti Cookies and chocolate curls.
This makes 6 to 8 glasses or small bowls. If you don't want the liqueur then you can thin the ganache into an almost honey consistency. I love the liqueur, it gives it that little something extra that just compliments the almond flavor.

Cannoli~ A La Pistachio

Cannoli~ A La Pistachio

I have always loved trying cannoli, the only thing was I hated the filling! So I thought I really like the idea of it but it was like getting a waffle cone and putting something nasty in it. So I thought okay let me just go to the trusty little internet and OMG.. well now I was totally confused. Do I bake? Fry? Then there is the is wine issue, to wine or not to wine. Some do some don't. Of course the ones adding the wine say you need it, but the ones not using it say don't. Is there any point to it? I didn't have wine, I do have alcohol free wine but isn't that just juice after all? I didn't have any molds so I had to wrap aluminum foil around my fingers  (actually I used the dowel I had for an arts project). Now for the filling..I looked in the fridge and had cream cheese and leftover fat  free small curd cottage cheese that my Sis left here.
So here goes, I had stopped by the grocer and they wouldn't sell me any empty shells so I just had to bite the bullet and make my own, decided to bake and not use wine until my molds arrive in the mail. I posted my recipe  for this so here is the link should you care to take on this mission! It actually turned out very tasty. I have just gotten my molds and am about to make my second attempt and will fry instead of bake. Cannoli are so simple actually I am now ashamed I did not try them before. I just never could get over the ricotta that made all the Italians gush and then to add chocolate chips I did not think sounded good with the cottage cheese so I went with chopped pistachios. Hope you enjoy! http://realwomenofphiladelphia.com/user/recipe/4280431/cannoli-a-la-pistachio