Bake or Break

Strawberry Icebox Pie

I've told you before about my grandmother's green metal recipe box. It's filled with handwritten and clipped recipes for amazing desserts. Some are very familiar, and some not at all. I found not one but three recipes for strawberry pie in there recently, yet I have no memory of her making even one. Still, I felt compelled to try a version of my own. I took some things I liked about each recipe, threw in some of my own ideas, and came up with this amazingly delicious pie.

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Cream Cheese Brownies with Toffee and Pecans

These days, my brownie love runs the gamut from the all-chocolate varieties to the kitchen-sink varieties. Essentially, I haven't met many brownies I haven't liked. These flavor-packed brownies are no exception. The first question usually asked about brownies is whether they are cakey or fudgy. The original recipe describes them as not too much of either one. To me, they're cakey. That works very well with the cream cheese topping to make them not seem so heavy.

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Spiced Pear Cake

On Christmas Eve, I was gathering everything we needed to make our big dinner when suddenly I realized that I hadn't planned a dessert. Really?!? I've been in heavy baking mode this month, but I had neglected to think of something special for Christmas. Sure, I had some leftover Deep-Dish Pecan Pie, but such an occasion warrants its own dessert. So, we made a trip to our neighborhood market to peruse the possibilities. Some ingredients procured and my fingers crossed, I whipped up this cake.

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Turtle Cheesecake Thumbprint Cookies

As someone who is a fan of cheesecake, chocolate, nuts, and caramel, it's no surprise that I would enjoy turtle cheesecake. Not the ubiquitous mass-produced kind, but the actual homemade variety. Cheesecake is not that difficult to make, but it is time-consuming. So, for the holidays, I thought it might be a grand idea to take all of those delicious elements and condense them into cookies. Boy, was I right!

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Pecan Cheesecake Pie

If you've been following the BoB happenings for a while, you may remember that I made a Pecan Pie Cheesecake a few years ago. It was, in a word, glorious. I love everything about it. If that dessert was cheesecake with a bit of pecan pie, then this one is pecan pie with a bit of cheesecake. That little layer of cheesecake adds a bit of unexpected creamy sweetness to traditional pecan pie.

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Strawberry Cream Cheese Bread

It's been a while since I made a quick bread. They're truly one of my favorite things to bake, although I don't seem to make them often. Anyway, I decided to take advantage of all the summer berries by making a simple bread with strawberries. Of course, what goes better with strawberries than cream cheese? Granted, I'm pretty much always looking for an excuse to use cream cheese, but this is truly a fabulous use for it.

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