Tag: electric mixer

Skinny Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Cheesecake squares, lightened up with yogurt and light cream cheese, baked on a chocolate graham cracker crust drizzled with melted chocolate and topped with fresh raspberries.

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, you NEED to make this cheesecake!

A few years ago I first attempted my first cheesecake with yogurt, and
since then I never looked back. I adapted this from my very popular Strawberry Swirled Cheesecake^[1] with chocolate in mind, of course.

And since I always second guess myself when making skinny desserts, I gave this to some of my family members who couldn’t give a darn about calories or fat, and they loved it! So, if you need an idea for Valentine’s Day (or any day) give this dessert a try.

And just an FYI, if you need a fabulous breakfast idea, we LOVE these heart shaped chocolate chip banana pancakes^[2]!

If you want to make a super easy 2-ingredient dessert… chocolate covered strawberries^[3] always impress!

And if you’re a bread pudding lover like myself, and don’t mind splurging a few extra calories, I love this Dark Chocolate Chunk Bread Pudding^[4]!

PS- Fabulous fork says it all… dessert first! You can find this on Etsy, From Such A Time Designs^[5].

Skinny Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
gordon-ramsay-recipe.com
Servings: 9 • Size: 1 square • Old Pts: 4 pts • Weight Watchers Points+: 4 pts
Calories: 150 • Fat: 7.5 g • Protein: 5 g • Carb: 15 g • Fiber: 0.5 g • Sugar: 10 g
Sodium: 57.5 mg

Ingredients:

cooking spray
1/2 cup (50g) crushed chocolate graham cracker crumbs
1 tbsp light butter, softened
8 oz package reduced fat cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
6 oz fat-free vanilla Greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
2 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1 oz Baker’s semi-sweet dipping chocolate
18 raspberries

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick spray.

Mix together graham cracker crumbs and butter with a fork until mixed through. Press evenly into bottom of prepared pan.

Gently beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth using an electric mixer. Gradually beat in fat free yogurt, egg whites and flour., do not over beat. Pour over graham cracker crust.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool to room temperature then chill a few hours in the refrigerator.

Cut the cake into 9 slices. Melt the chocolate in the mircowave, 30 seconds at a time until melted, careful not to burn. Use a spatula to drizzle the chocolate all over the top of the cheesecake. Top each piece with 2 raspberries and enjoy!

References

^{^} Strawberry Swirled Cheesecake (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)
^{^} heart shaped chocolate chip banana pancakes (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)
^{^} chocolate covered strawberries (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)
^{^} Dark Chocolate Chunk Bread Pudding (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)
^{^} From Such A Time Designs (www.etsy.com)

Peppermint Meringues

Light and airy peppermint swirls. ‘Tis the season for all things peppermint, shopping and big wooly mittens, cookies and hot cocoa, and of course, cookie exchanges.

And what can be more symbolic this time of year than peppermint flavored cookies.

The taste of these meringues is somewhere between a cookie and a candy cane. I found out by accident that dissolving one into my morning coffee with a little whipped cream instantly makes me feel like I’m drinking a Starbucks Peppermint Latte. I bet it would be yummy in hot cocoa too!

Meringues are made with egg whites and sugar, so they are naturally low-fat and gluten-free. They can be flavored with different extracts to get different results, and baking them in different temperatures will yield different textures. Some of my favorites varieties include the Chocolate Chip Clouds^[1], Black and White Clouds^[2], and To Die For Coconut Cookies^[3].

These beautiful candy cane gems are colored with a paint brush and a little gel paste food coloring (available at Michaels) just before piping to give you the peppermint stripe. Completely optional of course, but it really makes the cookie. Always use metal bowls and beaters and be sure they are squeaky clean before making meringues to guarantee good results.

For more skinny cookie recipes^[4] to add to your cookie exchange this holiday season, click here^[5].

Thank you GLAD for bringing us this post. Learn more about Glad’s Mom Made Cookie Exchange program here^[6].

Peppermint Meringues
gordon-ramsay-recipe.com
Servings: 30 • Size: 3 cookies • Old Points: 0 pts • Points+: 1
Calories: 21 • Fat: 0 g • Carb: 5 g • Fiber: 0 g • Protein: 0.5 g • Sugar: 5 g
Sodium: 6 mg

Ingredients:

    • 3 large egg whites
    • 3/4 cup sugar
    • 1 drop peppermint concentrate or 1/2 tsp pure peppermint extract
    • Red gel-paste food coloring

Directions:

Preheat oven to 175 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Fit a pastry bag with a small open-star tip (such as Wilton M1). Set aside.

Place egg whites and sugar in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer. Set bowl over a pan of simmering water, and stir gently until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm to the touch, 2 to 3 minutes.

Transfer bowl to an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Mix in peppermint concentrate.

Using a new small paintbrush, paint 2 or 3 stripes of red food coloring inside the pastry bag. Fill bag with 1 to 2 cups meringue. Pipe small (3/4-inch-high) star shapes onto prepared baking sheets. Refill bag as necessary, adding food coloring each time.

Bake cookies until crisp but not brown, about 1 hour 40 minutes. Shut the oven off and leave in the oven for 30 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks then place in a sealed container.

Makes 90 – 100 small cookies.

Adapted from Martha Stewart^[7]

References

^{^} Chocolate Chip Clouds (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)
^{^} Black and White Clouds (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)
^{^} To Die For Coconut Cookies (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)
^{^} skinny cookie recipes (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)
^{^} click here (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)
^{^} Glad’s Mom Made Cookie Exchange program here (r1.fmpub.net)
^{^} Martha Stewart (www.marthastewart.com)

The Hummingbird Bakery gingerbread men

Goodtoknow TV

Free & easy recipe video: Watch new how-to recipe videos with goodtoknow and Woman’s Weekly see all videos >

You don’t have to use a gingerbread man cutter with this Hummingbird Bakery recipe, but it’s so much fun to decorate each one individually! Leaving the dough to rest overnight makes the cookies better the next day.

Ingredients

For the cake:

400g plain flour
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tsp ground ginger
2tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp salt
180g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g soft dark brown sugar or dark muscovado sugar
1 egg
125g black treacle

For the royal icing:

1 egg white
½ tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
310g icing sugar, sifted
food colouring, optional
gingerbread biscuit cutters
a baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper

Method

For the cake:

Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
Put the butter and sugars in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and cream on slow speed until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat in the egg and treacle, scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Turn the mixer back down to slow speed and slowly add the flour mixture a couple of tablespoons at a time, stopping often to scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Once an even dough has formed, take it out of the mixer, divide into 3 and wrap each piece in clingfilm.
Leave to rest overnight in the fridge.
When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F) Gas 3.
Take the dough out of the fridge and leave to soften for about 10 minutes. Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and roll out the dough to a thickness of about 4 mm with a rolling pin. Cut out shapes with the biscuit cutters. Arrange the cookies on the prepared baking trays and bake in the preheated oven for about 10–15 minutes.
Leave the cookies to cool slightly on the trays before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

For the royal icing:

Beat the egg white and lemon juice together in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk). Gradually start adding the icing sugar, mixing well after each addition to ensure all sugar is incorporated. Whisk until you get stiff peaks. If the icing is too runny, add a little more sugar. Stir in a couple of drops of food colouring, if using, and decorate the cookies.

This recipe is taken from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook by Tarek Malouf and The Hummingbird Bakers
Photography by Peter Cassidy
Published by Ryland Peters & Small
Text © Tarek Malouf and The Hummingbird Bakers
Photography copyright Ryland Peters & Small

By The Hummingbird Bakery

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Nutritional information

Guideline Daily Amount for 2,000 calories per day are: 70g fat, 20g saturated fat, 90g sugar, 6g salt.

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