I have never held "exactness" high on my list of things to be appreciated - especially when it comes to food, cleaning and organization. Flexibility - yes! Now there's a word I can put on the "appreciative" list!
And this recipe cuts to the heart of it - it is easy on the budget, easy on the need for not one drop of high fructose corn syrup, easy on sweet cravings, easy to modify and so easy I've never written a recipe card for it!
I just made a batch sitting at the computer - my son brought me the ingredients and I mixed it up (he could have too - but I munched while mixing ;) ).
Take a block of cream cheese (ANY amount will do) - drop it into a bowl (the bowl in my photo was a bit too small for the 3/4 block of cream cheese I had). Let it come to room temp. When it is close to room temp you could microwave it for just a few seconds (yes, this is one of those rare times I *might* go turn the circuit breaker on for the microwave and use it for the 15 seconds).
Once warm, add in an equal amount of powdered sugar. A tsp of your extract of choice (tonight was almond extract - we've also used vanilla extract) - or larger proportions of other flavors, in quantities to suit your taste: cut up strawberries, 1/4 part powdered cocoa (or melt some chocolate into it), peanut butter in varying quantities - whatever YOU want.
[caption id="attachment_1004" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="unmixed - almond extract, sugar and cream cheese!"]
[/caption]Stir to your desired consistency. The thing with cream cheese is that it is hard to stir until the powdered sugar is mixed into it - so start with the powdered sugar and pull in sections of the cream cheese at a time - or just use a blender (lick the beaters!!!).
[caption id="attachment_1005" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="ready to go!"]
[/caption]MMMM. Yum!
Spread on your serving platter of choice - tonight will be homemade, gluten-free pumpkin bread (we ran out of glaze for it so we made the frosting to put on our slices ;) ). Graham crackers, muffins, cupcakes - or whatever you like!
Now, this version is not particularly overly sweet - it will NOT be as sweet as the hot fudge topping ;) The nice thing though is that you can mix up this basic batch - starting with the minimal of flavorings and sweeteners - and increase your sweeteners and flavoring in small quantities until you reach the amount you like. Then just make a mental note of how you liked it and make it that way later! For example, if I want something sweet, I will do the sugar about 1 1/2 times the amount of cream cheese. Or I will do slightly less and add some honey. Fruit always makes it sweeter.
You can also substitute apple juice concentrate (easy equivalence: 3/4 cup of any juice concentrate is equal to 1 cup of sugar) - but it makes it runnier, so this is best done if you're going to be adding other dry or thicker ingredients - like cocoa and peanut butter ;)
Yes, I am making my own cream cheese upon occasion, but whenever it goes on sale for $1/block or less, I buy it - organic or not! Frankly, it's just better on the TIME budget that way! But any more than that and I make it.
No comments:
Post a Comment