Sunday, June 12, 2011

Cheesecake Mini Wraps

 

          I was watching Guy Fieri on the Food Channel Network quite a while ago and he had made something called Chinese Cheesecake.  I fell in love with this idea of making a fried cheesecake roll.  I made it his way following the instructions and using the egg roll wrappers.  They turned out ok but I felt I could do better and didn't care for the size of the egg roll wrappers.  After a bit of experimenting I came up with this method and version.


You will need to purchase ice stick trays to make this the same way I did.  I found my trays some time ago at The Dollar Tree and they came in a two pack.  I looked online and they do not offer them and my local store is going through a remodel so I don't know if they have them again.  I looked on the internet to find the ones I have and came up with this link on ebay Ice Stick Trays  If you want to fill all of the trays at once, I used six trays for this recipe and had a little left over not enough to fill a whole other tray.  You will also need a deep fryer for this.  You cannot shallow fry in a pan because the filling thaws and expands and will burst.  I also make savory appetizers using the ice stick trays and won ton wrappers but that is for another day.

Cheesecake Mini Wraps

Filling:
2 8 oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl add cream cheese and with an electric mixer beat at medium high until fluffy.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the remaining ingredients and beat again at medium high until smooth. You may have to scrape the sides again and beat a little more to incorporate. 

Place mixture into a gallon size bag to pipe into trays.

Cut a small diagonal cut in one of the corners for piping.

Spray each tray with cooking spray for easier removal.  Pipe the filling just like the picture not filling completely about 3/4 full.

 
I flavored these with lemon pie filling.  I put the filling into a quart bag and again, made a small diagonal cut to pipe out onto the cheesecake.  Another really good flavor is strawberry (I use the same as filling used at a donut shop, it is smooth and has no chunks).


Make a line across the top of the cheesecake with the flavoring.

Put plastic wrap on top of each tray and stack.  Place in freezer until completely frozen.  I usually let them set overnight.  Remove from trays one tray at a time a time and cut sticks in half.  Work quickly.  Put all of the halved sticks into a freezer bag and place back into the freezer.

Remove from trays one tray at a time.

Cut in half.

Place in freezer bag and back into the freezer.

You are now ready to wrap your cheesecakes.  You will need a package of won ton wrappers (found in the produce section of your grocery store), an egg and two teaspoons of milk and a pastry brush.  In a small bowl mix egg and milk together.

I work with four wraps at a time.


Brush all four sides of each wrapper with egg mixture.

Remove a small portion of the sticks leaving the rest in the freezer (they thaw quickly).  Place a stick flavor side down on each wrapper.

Fold sides up

Brush the top and bottom with egg mixture.

Roll up.


This is what they look like.

Place on waxed paper on a cookie sheet and place in freezer and freeze at least two hours.
When you are ready to cook the wraps.  Heat a deep fryer to 350 degrees and cook until just brown or until the cheesecake insides start making a spitting sound.  Remove from oil onto paper towels and then onto a cooling rack.  Sprinkle with powder sugar.

I add a dozen at a time to the fry basket.  Fry until they are this color (about a minute or so) or until they start spitting (you will know this sound when it happens, that is the best I can describe it).



 They come out bit size and has just the right amount of cheesecake to flavoring ratio.  They disappear quickly at parties.  After all, cheesecake you can eat with your hands, what's better?  By the way, I haven't had luck with chocolate, it doesn't freeze right and I don't know why.  Lemon and Strawberry are favorites.

Place all unused mini wraps in a freezer bag in the freezer until you are ready for more.  If you are making different fillings, make sure to label the bag to know which flavor is which.  It is convenient to have these ready and on hand to whip up a little dessert bite.

3 comments:

  1. What a wonderful idea! I can't wait to try these beautiful little morsel! Here's tip for freezing chocolate, once you've made the cheesecake filling, take half and add melted white chocolate chips to the cream cheese filling. Set aside the white chocolate mix and melt chocolate chips, let cool to room temperature and mix into white chocolate mix. You will see it firm up before your eyes. You can pipe a chocolate log or mix the two like you did your lemon. There should be no problem when it comes to deep frying. Good luck! Happy baking!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The wedding date is swiftly approaching, and you are searching for the comfort food recipes that makes the best wedding cakes in Portland. Of course, you can get online and look at websites that some of the bakeries have with picture galleries, but most bakeries won't have that option. You will need to physically visit the ones you are interest in so you can look at the ones they have in progress, as well as tasting their samples.

    ReplyDelete