Tag Archive | Cream Cheese

Cream Cheese Pumpkin Bars

Plated Pumpkin BarsAs soon as the air starts to get crisp and the leaves start to turn, I start dreaming of my favorite fall recipes; hearty soups and stews, apple cider, and wedges of these gloriously amazing pumpkin bars. What makes these bars extra special is that they a cross between a pumpkin cake and a pumpkin pie. These pumpkin bars are so good that they were once heroically saved during a fire that accidentally ignited while I was camping in Yellowstone National Park with friends. Everyone was scrambling to put out the fire but several of the guys screamed for us to save the pumpkin bars, something we still laugh about to this day. As the guys put it afterward, “Thankfully, no pumpkin bars were harmed in the fire.” I hope you enjoy these as much as my family does.

Cream Cheese Pumpkin Bars

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup cinnamon applesauce
  • 2 (15 ounce) cans pumpkin
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Frosting:

  • 8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese, softened
  • 1 stick butter, softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 3 cups powdered sugar

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Beat the eggs and sugar together for several minutes until nicely whipped and creamy.

creamed egg and sugar

Add the applesauce, pumpkin, and vanilla and beat until well incorporated.

Added pumpkin

Gradually add the flour and the rest of the dry ingredients until well blended.

finished mixture

3. Pour batter into a greased jelly roll or sheet pan (15×10″).

Batter in pan

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a fork comes out clean. If you don’t have a jelly roll or sheet pan or you prefer thicker bars, you can also bake in a 9×13″ for 25-30 minutes.

Pumpkin bars baked

***Allow bars to cool completely before frosting.***

4. Frosting: Whip together the cream cheese and butter. Add the vanilla and lemon juice. Gradually whip in the powdered sugar and beat until the mixture is a thick frosting.

Combined frosting

5. Frost the cooled bars and serve immediately. Enjoy!

Plated Pumpkin Bars

Crab Rangoon Dip

Crab Rangoon DipI cannot get enough Crab Rangoon. Also known as crab wontons, traditional crab rangoon is made by filling an egg roll wrapper with cream cheese, crab, and green onions, pinching to make a little fan and frying until golden and delicious.Traditional Crab Rangoon So if you adore crab rangoon as much as I do then you will go crazy for this crab rangoon dip, which requires no frying and takes just a few minutes to throw together. I’ve made it for dinner and office parties, girls’ nights, and potlucks and always gets rave reviews, even from those who claim they don’t care for crab.

Crab Rangoon Dip
*This recipe was adapted from a Pampered Chef recipe.
16 Servings

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • dash of salt and pepper
  • 1 cup swiss cheese, shredded
  • 1 14 oz. jar sweet and sour sauce (I doubled the original amount listed cause I felt it needed more but if you prefer less sweet and sour sauce then feel free to adjust to suit your taste)
  • 8 ounces imitation crabmeat, roughly chopped
  • 1/4 cup green onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 bag of pita chips or preferred dipping chip

Directions: 

1. In a small bowl, combine cream cheese, minced garlic, and salt and pepper and blend until smooth. Add half of the crabmeat and swiss cheese and combine.

Bowl of cream cheese mixture

2. Spread mixture into the bottom of a 1-2 quart baking dish.

Spread cream cheese into a baking dish

Sprinkle remaining crab meat over cream cheese.

crab meat over cream cheese

Pour sweet and sour sauce over the top and microwave uncovered 4-6 minutes.

Sweet and sour over cream cheese

3. Remove from microwave and garnish with green onion. Serve with pita chips for dipping.

Crab Rangoon Dip

There couldn’t be an easier or tastier dip!

Copycat Cinnabon Cinnamon Bun Rolls

Cinnamon RollTo me, Cinnabon cinnamon bun rolls go hand-in-hand with flying and airports. There’s something about the stress of flying that just melts away with that first bite of ooey-gooey-goodnesss of one of their cinnamon rolls. I honestly think more peace treaties would be signed if Mrs. Cinnabon showed up with a tray of these babies. Unfortunately, I can’t have them unless I am travelling since there aren’t any Cinnabon stores in Charleston. Not to fear! A copycat recipe to the rescue. I’ve made this recipe about a dozen times and have never not had at least one person beg for the recipe and/or tell me that the dang thing was literally the best cinnamon roll they’d ever eaten. So instead of being a copycat recipe, it might actually beat the Cinnabon brand but you be the judge. This copycat recipe is from Todd Wilbur’s Top Secret Recipes Cookbook with a few modifications. I’ve also included directions for using either a bread machine or making by hand.

Copycat Cinnabon Cinnamon Bun Rolls
Makes approximately 2 dozen cinnamon rolls

Dough: 

  • 1 cup warm milk
  • 1 package active dry yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/3 cup butter, melted
  • 4 cups bread flour (bread flour works best but I’ve used all purpose in a pinch and they still turn out great)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup white sugar

Filling: 

  • 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/3 cup butter, softened

Icing: 

  • 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
  • 1/4 cup butter, softened
  • 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions: 

1. BREAD MACHINE METHOD: Dissolve yeast and warm milk. Dump rest of ingredients into your bread machine. Create a little well in the center and pour in yeast milk. Start the dough setting on your bread machine.

Ingredients in Bread Machine

1. BY-HAND METHOD: In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm milk and let sit for 5 minutes to allow yeast to activate. Add the sugar, margarine, salt, and eggs and mix well. Add flour in gradually and mix well. Flour your hands and knead the dough into a large ball. Put in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

2. After dough has finished rising, roll out on a lightly floured surface. Helpful Tip: You’ll need a large area so I always clear off and scrub an entire counter top in my little kitchen to work on. Roll out to approximately 21×16″.

Ball of Dough

 

Rolled out dough

3. Now it’s time to fill the dough! Pour the melted butter over the dough and sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on top or the butter. Use a fork or spatula and sort of swirl the three together to combine a bit. FYI, I’ve tried combining in a bowl first and while it’s less messy the filling basically turns into a sticky paste and doesn’t spread well.

Filling on dough

4. Roll up dough and filling from the longest end closest to you up to the end furthest away from you.

Rolling up dough

Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut 1 1/2″ slices and place on a greased baking sheet. If you want more rolls then cut thinner slices or if you want giant rolls cut thicker slices. Just be sure to watch them while they’re in the oven as it will impact baking time.

Cutting rolls

Sliced rolls on pan

5. Cover cinnamon rolls and allow to rise, almost doubling, for 30 minutes to an hour.

6. Preheat oven to 400°F. Once the rolls are done rising, bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until light golden brown.

Baked cinnamon rolls

7. While rolls are cooling, mix together icing ingredients.

Mixed Icing ingredients

8. Spread over the warm cinnamon rolls and enjoy!

Iced Cinnamon Rolls

Hello World! We come to bring you peace and yumminess.

Cinnamon Roll

These are great eaten right away or reheated later. Just zap in the microwave for 10-20 seconds and enjoy!

Reuben Ring

My Dad and I were chatting the other day about favorite family recipes and my Mom’s Reuben Ring came up. We immediately started reminiscing about that delicious recipe my Mom discovered at a Pampered Chef party she went to. It has all the amazing flavors of a Reuben sandwich—corned beef, tangy thousand island dressing, and sauerkraut—but instead of plain bread it’s wrapped up in a flakey crust. There was even one hot summer night where several families met at a musical in the park and my Mom baked and carefully transported a Reuben ring for dinner in the park. We remembered it tasting better than ever before and being gobbled up in no time at all. Some recipes have a wonderful way of becoming family memories and my Mom’s Reuben Ring is certainly one of them! Here is her adapted recipe originally created by The Pampered Chef.

Reuben Ring

Reuben Ring

Ingredients: 

  • 3/4 cup thousand island dressing
  • 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 cups sliced deli corned beef, chopped
  • 1 (11 ounce) can sauerkraut, drained (Make sure to squeeze out any excess liquid)
  • 1 1/2 cups Swiss cheese, shredded (reserve 1/2 cup for sprinkling on top prior to baking)
  • 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 (8 ounce) cans crescent rolls
  • 1 egg, beaten

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a medium bowl, mix together cream cheese and thousand island dressing.

Thousand Island

Add the corned beef, sauerkraut, 1 cup of Swiss cheese, parsley, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Mix together until evenly blended. Set aside.

Filling Mixture

Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray. To create the ring, I suggest laying a small bowl in the center of the baking sheet to use as a guide.

Cereal Bowl

 

Remove crescent rolls from package and separate into triangles. Lay 8 of the triangles around the bowl with the base of the triangle laid along the bowl and the points of the triangle going outward.

First layer of triangles

 

Take the remaining 8 triangles and lay in between the triangles.

2nd layer of triangles

 

Remove the bowl and spoon the filling mixture along the thick interior.

Filling laid out

 

Fold the points over and pinch on to the inside of the ring.

Ring

 

Brush with the beaten egg, sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup of cheese on top, and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the crescent dough is golden and crispy.

Reuben Ring

Now that looks pretty enough to hang on your door…or eat for dinner! 😛

Reuben Ring