No-Bake Cheesecake Bites with a Raspberry Drizzle, Part II

Yesterday I shared how to make some scrumptious no bake cheesecake bites. Now it's time for the sauce (and the redemption of some raspberries).

It is unbelievably simple. And it totally did the trick! My raspberries went from being too tart to tolerate, to tasting like a raspberry should: sweet with a hint of sour. This raspberry sauce elevates the plain cheesecake bite to a whole new level.

And while I'm working with raspberries, feel free to use whatever fruit you have on hand (or just want to try). The possibilities are endless!

All you'll need is --
· 1/2 cup sugar
· 1/4 cup water
· 12 oz. raspberries

Place sugar and water in a small saucepan over high heat. Stir, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, and simmer until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. (Basically you are making a simple syrup, but instead of equal parts sugar and water, you are doubling the sugar. Perfect for "too-sour" raspberries!)

Once the syrup is cooled completely, place it and the raspberries in a blender and puree until smooth.

To separate the seeds from the sauce, you would ideally use a chinois or conical strainer. Any fine sieve should work, though. I even made do with an old flour sifter, as you can see here:

You'll notice there are still a few seeds floating around in the final product, but that little "imperfection" did not diminish the deliciousness one bit!

Stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, this raspberry sauce should keep up to five days. Now go drizzle some over your cheesecake bites! (Or dip your cheesecake bites in some sauce, whichever you prefer.)

Recipe Credit.

Shared at Nifty Thrifty Sunday, Simple Life Sunday, and some of these fine hops.

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Tonight's dinner is corn and poblano lasagna. Zucchini is a required ingredient, so before B got in the kitchen to tackle the prep for our evening meal, I snuck in and used what he didn't need to make some bread!

Before I share the recipe for this yumminess, may I ask you a question? Is the term "batter bread" redundant in the instance of the title of this post?

Maybe it's because I bake for a living, or maybe it's because I'm weird (I'll cop to either), but I always differentiate between a batter bread -- or quick bread, if you prefer -- and a traditional dough bread (with yeast).

B comes in the kitchen to ask what I'm making. My reply is, "Zucchini batter bread." He proceeds to tell me saying batter bread is unnecessary. Everyone knows zucchini bread is made with a batter. "Like banana nut bread," he says. I'm quite sure I responded with a you-have-no-idea-what-you're-talking-about look. But I simply stated, "Well, OK. But don't expect me to change how I say it based on this conversation." -- Thoughts?

The base recipe I used comes from Paula Deen. I did add one ingredient. (I just adore vanilla!) And since I make my own extract, I have the pure stuff right at my fingertips. It smells divine, and I love to see the brown vanilla bean flecks in the mixture.

Doesn't that look delicious? The loaf isn't overly sweet, in my opinion. A slice of this zucchini (batter!) bread would make a nice breakfast, snack, or dessert.  Just don't forget: everything's better with a pat of butter!

Vanilla Spiced Zucchini Batter Bread

Based on Paula Deen's recipe here, scaled down to make a single loaf.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 + 1/8 cups all-purpose flour (or, 1 5/8 cups)
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 tbsp water
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract (make your own!)
• 1 cup grated zucchini
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon, and sugar.
3. In a separate bowl, combine vanilla, vegetable oil, eggs, water, zucchini, and lemon juice.
4. Mix wet ingredients into dry. Fold in pecans. Pour batter into a greased standard loaf pan (I used an 8" x 3" pan).
5. Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour, using the toothpick test to check for doneness. (Mine was done in 54 minutes.)

Yield: 1 standard loaf

Shared at All Things Thursday, Fabulously Frugal Thursday, The HomeAcre Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, Thriving Thursday, and some of these fine hops.