Apricot Cheesecake

This Apricot Cheesecake was a holiday dessert, requested by the kids. The recipe is nothing original, just a remake of this popular one, with minor adjustments to suit our tastes.

It's a simple Graham cracker crust, with sour cream topping, infused with apricot jam/pulp. However, the repetition of the apricot motif makes it burst with flavor: the cream cheese gets a generous swirl of pulpy apricot cooked in wine, and an apricot rose sits on top invitingly.

Minor differences: I used Splenda™ instead of sugar; cooked the dried apricots in white wine and pureed to get the pulp for swirling into the cream cheese as well as the sour cream topping.

This cheesecake froze well. I insisted on putting away half of it in the freezer to be enjoyed at another time. Simply thaw in the fridge overnight.

Apricot Strawberry Blackberry Jam Cookies

Sugar. Butter. Flour.

Just three basic ingredients and umpteen variations to make yummy goodies.

This time, I went with Flax Oil Omega Butter Light, with a combination of Splenda and demerera and granulated white sugar, regular all purpose flour, plus egg yolks, of course. The texture came out more or less like shortbread cookies.

Jam filling is the fun part. Jars of homemade home-canned jams made from fresh u-pick berries were sitting in the pantry.

I don't have a consistent standardized recipe for these jam cookies, but it's hard to go wrong with these basic ingredients as long as we keep an eye on the consistency and proportions. I prefer to chill the dough before shaping and baking.

Ingredients
3/4 cup Smart Balance ™ Omega Butter Light
¼ cup sugar
2 Tbsp demerera sugar
2 Tbsp Splenda
1½ cups all purpose flour, plus or minus to make the dough not too sticky
2 egg yolks

Cream the butter, sugar and egg yolks; then fold in the flour till it comes together and forms a dough. Refrigerate for about half an hour. Bake in a 375°F oven for about 10 minutes till the edges turn brown.