A Mexican Dessert - Pay de Queso

So... my mom, Aurora, is an English teacher in Mexico and she told her students about my "cooking blog", they brought some recipes for her so she would send them to me and I am supposed to choose one or two recipes to share here... I feel bad picking just one or two, I am just excited they wanted to participate and they liked the idea about me blogging their recipes... I don't like the idea of leaving anybody out so I am going to try to mention all the "participants" by name... and the recipes I got were:

• Capirotada (Mexican dessert, it's kind of a "bread pudding" type of thing) by Maria Fernanda.
• Very Berry-licious smoothies by Ana Graciela Villarreal
• then I got a recipe by Cesar Ofreb Guzman but it didn't really have measurements so... yeah... I am skipping that one, thank you anyway Cesar! 
• Tilapia topped with anchovies (I think that's what it is and the recipe sounds really good) by Andrea Peña
• Garlic Spaghetti by Juan Manuel Bautista
• Cheesecake by Josue Medina
• Potato pellets (I guess it's like a potato cake, something like that, sounds really good!) by Felipe
• Another "cake recipe" by Gerardo Daniel Rodriguez, but I think he used Cesar's recipe without measurements and just added "some chocolate" to it... mmm doesn't sound like a cake would really come out of it... thanks anyway Gerardo.
• Strawberry cream (yummy) by Lizbeth Mendez
• Chocolate bread pudding by Cesar Armando Orozco
• Spanish style Chicken paella - It didn't have the name of the person who submitted the recipe... sorry!
• Chocolate cookies by Daniela Montejano
• Cornbread by Yohanna
• Cream Cheese Dip with Jalapeno and Ham by Alexa Rodriguez
• Chocolate biscuit by Elisa Cadena
• Chocolate Chip Cookies by Marlen Benavides
• Chocoflan (I love this dessert!!) by Melissa Arizoca
• Mango Pie (yum) by Liliana Figueroa
• Hot Cakes by Pamela Mejia
• Flautas (Mexican Chicken taquitos)  (no name of the person who submitted)
• Enmoladas by Leopoldo Guerra

 My mom was really pushing the "capirotada recipe" I am not a big fan of bread puddings, so this is not my choice... but I think I'll just share the cheesecake recipe today (it's a Mexican version of the American cheesecake)


PAY DE QUESO

Ingredients: 
For the crust:
1 Graham cracker crust (for Mexican version use "Galletas Marias" - Marias crackers which you can find in the "Hispanic Foods Aisle") just mix two cups of cracker crumbs with 1/3 cup of melted butter until well combined. Press mixture firmly onto bottom and sides of a 9" pie pan. Refrigerate until ready to use.
For the "cheesecake"

1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
1 12 oz. can of evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
6 oz. of cream cheese 

Elaboration:
 - Preheat the oven at 350 F. Blend the milks, eggs, cream cheese and vanilla for about 1 minute, pour over prepared crust. Bake for about 45 minutes or until center is almost set. Enjoy!

Thank you Josue for sharing this delicious recipe! I will probably be trying some of the other recipes soon and hopefully sharing them in the future.

© Paloma King

Easy dessert - Cheesecake Cookie Cups

Good morning everybody! I hope you are all doing good today, hopefully had an enjoyable weekend and I also hope this week goes better than the previous one for all of you... and us!

We had colds and runny noses (isn't that great?) around our home last week, having a 3 yr. old and an 8 month old doesn't help make "colds" any better, they don't sleep well and especially the 3yr. old gets pretty cranky during the day when she is not feeling well. So... Saturday I felt tired and not very much into baking a whole lot but I still wanted to enjoy something sweet and homemade. Hubby suggested getting a box of brownie mix but naah! I still wanted to make something different, so I went online! (gotta love how easy it is to get recipes nowadays!) and I found this wonderfully easy and delicious recipe (from Nestlé)... I hope you like it too:

Cheesecake Cookie Cups:

Ingredients

* 1 pkg. (16.5 oz.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Refrigerated Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar Dough
* 2 pkgs. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, room temperature
* 1 can (14 oz.) Sweetened Condensed Milk
* 2 large eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 can (21 oz.) cherry pie filling (I used strawberry pie filling because I do not like cherries but I still wasn't a big fan of the pie filling on top, I will be definitely using fresh fruit next time and just macerate it with sugar minutes before adding it on top, but you can just follow the original recipe if you like canned pie filling)

Directions
PREHEAT oven to 325° F. Paper-line 24 muffin cups. Place one piece of cookie dough in each muffin cup.

BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookie has spread to edge of cup.

BEAT cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, eggs and vanilla extract in medium bowl until smooth. Pour about 3 tablespoons cream cheese mixture over each cookie in cup.

BAKE for additional 15 to 18 minutes (I baked it for the whole 18 in my electric oven) or until set. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Top each with level tablespoon of pie filling. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

And the best part: Enjoy with a cup of coffee, cold milk, hot chocolate or what you prefer! Hubby and I had coffee of course, he is not a big fan of cheesecake but he loved these... so... give them a try!

And again, remember to send us your coffee related pictures to: love.for.coffee@gmail.com so we can display them on our Coffee Friday... of course we'll give you (and your blog) credit! 

Paloma.