#cream cheese
Strawberry Cream Cheese Pastries
All Natural Red Velvet Cupcakes
- ¾ cup beet puree (directions follow)
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 1/2 teaspoons rice vinegar
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 stick butter (8 tablespoons), at room temperature
- ¾ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (not bleached flour)
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon natural cocoa powder (not Dutch Process, or dark cocoa powder)
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a standard muffin tin with paper cupcake liners. Empty the food processor of the beet puree (see below). Measure out ¾ cup of beets and add it back to the food processor fitted with the steel blade attachment. Save any extra beet puree for another use. Add in vinegar and lemon juice (if you didn’t already add it when you were pureeing the beets), followed by the rest of the ingredients. Pulse the mixture a few times until the batter is smooth. Scoop mixture evenly into cupcake liners.
2. Bake for 18 minutes, or until the cupcakes in the center spring back up when touched. Remove cupcakes from the pan and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Frost with cream cheese frosting (I used a large pastry bag and a large star tip—Wilton 1M).
roasted beets
2 medium beets, or 1 large beet, scrubbed and rinsed
1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Fill a small roasting dish with ½ inch of water. Place beets in the water, and cover with a piece of parchment paper and a large piece of aluminum foil. Roast for 60-90 minutes, or until the beets are very tender to the point of a knife.
2. When beets are cooled completely, peel, and cut into large chunks. Place in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Process for 2 minutes, or until extremely smooth. If the beets need a little moisture to help them along, you can add the lemon juice and the vinegar from the recipe above, and then just don’t add it later.
cream cheese frosting
- 1 8 ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon pure almond extract
Beat all ingredients together with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy.
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Baked Cinnamon Bun Donuts with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze
Ingredients:
For the Donuts
- 1 c all-purpose flour
- 4 tbsp white sugar
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp cinnamon (add more if you like cinnamon or want a stronger ‘cinnamon bun’ taste)
- ½ tsp salt, optional (I omitted)
- 6 tbsp buttermilk
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp butter, melted
Yields: 6-7 donuts. Pans vary by size but this is not a “huge” recipe. Double or triple, or halve (beat the egg and then divide in half) the recipe as desired. For the extra bit of batter, rather than waiting for my one donut pan to come out of the oven, I made two small muffins in a muffin pan with it. It took about 15 minutes for the muffins to cook through.
For the Glaze
- ½ c (or more) powdered sugar
- 1-2 tbsp cream cheese, softened
- ½ tsp vanilla extract (use more if you like a stronger vanilla flavor)
- ¼ tsp+ cinnamon, optional
- 1-2+ tsp Water, Milk, Half & Half, Cream, Heavy Cream, Vegan Milk, etc. (I use half & half)
Directions:
For the Donuts
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees and lightly grease or cooking-spray the donut pan (or muffin tin).
In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon (and salt).
Add buttermilk, egg, vanilla and melted butter. Whisk or stir to combine.
Use a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip (or a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off) to pipe the batter into a 6-donut pan. Or just be extra neat and do this with a spoon which is what I did.
Bake 8 to 11 minutes in the preheated oven, until doughnuts spring back when touched or until dough is set. Donuts will not be golden brown, but should be springy. (I always underbake my baked goods but in my oven, these took a good 10-11 minutes to fully set up)
Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan, about 5 minutes.
For the Glaze
While donuts are baking or cooling, make the glaze by combining powdered sugar, room temperature softened cream cheese, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and milk/cream/water. Whisk or stir to combine, adding the liquid, one teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency is achieved.
Dip the donuts into the glaze while warm (or cool).
Add a final dusting of cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar, or cinnamon-sugar mixture; sprinkles, or other extras at end, as desired.
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Reo red velvet cream cheese cookie from Uppercrust Bakery in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I don’t see many red velvet desserts in Asia so when I saw this I knew I had to try it and it did not disappoint. It was so moist and soft and sweet. I loved it so much I got it twice.
