Chai Cheesecake wins 2nd place at the Big Fresno Fair

I always love entering the cooking contests at our Big Fresno Fair. It's a fun challenge to make something unique with the designated food product - not to mention a little extra dough if you win. This year I entered the Malt-O-Meal Creations contest. I thought it would be using something porridge-like Malt-o-Meal hot cereal we all grew up on. But the company is out to promote their cold cereals so I had to come up with a unique recipe using on of their cold cereals.

After visitng three local grocery stores, I finally checked the web site and found the cereals were sold at our local Walmart. I came home with a huge back of Honey Nut Scooters, which are similar to Honey Nut Cheerios or Honey Trader O's, which I prefer. Then I had to dream up something to make.The contest is judged on Creativity, Taste and Ease of Recipe.

I have to admit I let weeks go by. I was stumped. Then one day my friend Bev showed up at my house with a slice of cheesecake. We marveled at how inexpensive cheesecake is to make and how glorious and rich the result. I decided to rev up a cheesecake using the cereal in the crust. I knew this couldn't be just any cheesecake. It had to be different. I decided to employ one of my fave flavors - Chai Tea.

I'm a Chai lover. If you haven't had Chai, it's a tea using Indian-inspired spices. The word chai literally means tea. This tea feels very fall to me - full of cinnamon, cardamom and ginger. Everyone mixes their chai a little differently. I've noticed Chai is becoming all the rage in local cafes and even Jamba Juice serves a Chai-licious smoothie that's inspiring.

I made a couple of cheesecakes to perfect the crust and Chai filling mixture. Of course, I cut the sugar used in most cheesecake recipes in half. The following recipe was the result. My family and I had fun heading down to the Big Fresno Fair and watching the judging. Surprise, surprise - 100 percent of the entries were desserts. The judges did deliberate. 

They announced the winners and my "Chai Cheesecake with Honey Nut Crust" was awarded 2nd place and $50. I was very excited to stand next to Pearl, the first place winner. She was the sweetest old lady who was blind and had entered 20 other desserts in the fair as well. Her Raspberry Crunch Pie deserved first!

Chai Cheesecake  

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups cereal, crushed (I like Trader O's, Honey Nut Scooters or good old fashioned graham crackers will work too.)

½ cup butter, melted

4 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup organic sugar

4 cage-free large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cardamom

1 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ pint whipping cream

1 tablespoon honey


Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Crush cereal in a ziplock bag with a mallet or in a food processor. They should look like coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in melted butter to coat cereal.

3. Press into the bottom of a greased (round) spring form or other cake pan and bake for 5 minutes to set. Remove from oven and cool.

4. Blend cream cheese and sugar with hand mixer. Add eggs one at a time and blend until mixture is smooth. Add vanilla, ginger, cardamom, allspice, cinnamon. Pour over crust.

5. Bake for one hour. Remove and cool. Chill at least one hour before slicing.

6. Whip cream and add honey. Spoon a dollop on top of cheesecake slices with a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Recipe of the Week: Maple-Pecan Chicken Wonton Cups

Many of you have been asking me for this recipe so I thought this would be a good week to share my fave appetizer. This is a great show-stopper and, outside of "wonton wrappers," it doesn't require tons of special ingredients. You can follow the recipe or make your own version of chicken salad to fill the cups. A variation of this recipe recently won first prize in the Hidden V*lley R*nch recipe contest at the Big Fresno Fair.

The judges write their comments on the entries for the contest.

Maple-Pecan Chicken Wonton Cups

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (12 ounces)
1 cup water
24 wonton skins
Olive oil spray
3 tablespoons maple syrup
24 whole pecans
2 carrots or 1 red pepper (1 cup), finely chopped
1 small zucchini (1 cup), finely chopped
¼ cup green onions, chopped
¼ cup dried cranberries
1 cup mayonnaise (Trader Joe's)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh basil chopped

Directions:
1. Add water and chicken breasts to a small pot. Cover and boil on medium-high heat approximately 20 minutes. Set aside chicken to cool.
2. Meanwhile, heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a muffin pan with olive oil. Place wonton skin in each muffin hole. Using fingers, gently push skin down into muffin hole shape. Spray each skin with olive oil spray.
3. Bake in oven for 8 minutes until wontons are hard and golden brown. (Do not overcook.) Remove and set on a platter.
4. In a small frying pan, add maple syrup and pecans. Heat on medium-low. Stir pecans to coat until maple syrup begins to bubble. Cool.
5. Assemble chicken salad. Dice chicken into small pieces. Mix with carrots (or red pepper), zucchini, green onions and dried cranberries. Add ranch dressing, mayonnaise, salt and fresh basil.
6. Use a tablespoon to add heaping spoonful of chicken salad to each wonton cup. Top with a whole maple-pecan. Serve.

Servings: 12 (2 cups each)