Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Cookies 'n Cream Mini Protein Cheesecakes

Wow! So I realized it has been way too long since I actually posted a recipe on here. I've decided I'm pretty bad at balancing between recipes, fitness posts, and other random things. It's like I go through phases where it all seems food-related, then fitness, and then just general stuff about what I've been up to. Ironic that my blog about being balanced needs more balance, huh? 

Anyway, I tested out a recipe this weekend that I'm excited to share with you guys! Funny story but our oven decided to full-on break (it's been like halfway broken for awhile) as I was in the middle of trying to bake these. So I actually made the batter on Sunday and had to wait until last night to fully bake them. I just stuck the tray in the freezer and then defrosted them a bit before popping them in the oven, and they turned out just fine! It was annoying at the time but I did learn that it's possible to make this batter ahead of time before you need to bake them.

When I first go to try out a recipe, there are one of two flavors that you can guarantee:

1. cookies 'n cream

2. cake batter

It's like my brain forgets that there are other flavors haha! But really, those are my two favorites and I will eat anything cake batter or cookies 'n cream without hesitation. I've been hearing a lot about protein cheesecakes and so I wanted to give it a go. As you all probably know by now, I'm in the middle of a love affair with PEScience protein powders, specifically the cookies 'n cream, so I used that for this recipe!

I took this recipe from my lovely coach Katie, and tweaked it a bit!

What you'll need:

1 scoop cookies 'n cream protein powder (I used PEScience)
8 oz cream cheese (reduced or regular)
1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt (I used 0% Chobani, my go-to)
2 tbsp baking stevia
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
1 egg
10g cookies 'n cream pudding mix
pinch of salt

How to make 'em:

1. Preheat oven to 275


2. First, you'll want to fluff up the cream cheese a bit or whatever the culinary technical term for that is haha! I just used my electric hand mixer to beat it for a couple minutes until it was fluffy and smooth without any chunks. 

I like to use this cream cheese from Target. Don't even ask me how to pronounce it, I have no idea. I usually start out by saying something along the lines of "noof" and then trail off randomly at the end. Variations include noofenberger (I have no explanation), noofchatta, noofel, and whatever else my mind can come up with haha! I never remember how to spell it anyway so I just call it the noof cream cheese. 


3. Once the noof cream cheese is all nice and fluffy, it's time to add the vanilla, stevia, salt and egg!


4. I used my very first chicken egg for this recipe! Amanda is all thrilled because all three of the chickens are now officially laying eggs. So I used one of Millie's for this recipe since hers are the largest. 


5. Once that is all incorporated (I just beat it for less than a minute), add the protein powder.


This is definitely where the batter thickened up more but not too much. Just be careful yours doesn't dry out because different protein powders bake differently. I've been very happy with how versatile this one is from PEScience. 


6. Then, add in the pudding mix because I wanted to make absolute sure that these cheesecakes would be packed with the cookies 'n cream flavor. I weighed out about 10g on my scale which is probably around a tablespoon or so. I didn't use the mixer but just folded it in to the batter using a spatula. I didn't want any of the Oreo chunks to get broken up. 


7. Grease a mini cupcake pan and pour about 1 tablespoon of batter in each cup. I got about 18 cheesecakes. You might get more than me because I might have eaten some of the batter as I went along..

8. Bake for about 22-28 minutes until the cheesecakes are set and the edges are getting golden brown. I allowed mine to cool for a couple hours in the fridge. 


The macros ended up being great!


Enjoy! If you end up trying out this recipe, I'd love to see your creations on Instagram so make sure you tag me :) 

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