Fiesta!

Stock Photo since I forgot to take one!

Over the weekend, Nathan and I went to a mexican-themed party at a friend's house. We had SUCH a great time, everyone is always so great about chipping in and we always end up with a ton of great food. I decided to bring mexican cornbread, churros & chocolate, and sopapilla cheesecake. The cornbread was ok, but I overcooked it a little so it was sort of dry. The desserts, however, turned out great! There is something about fried dough dipped in Nutella that is sort of magical, and then cheesecake with cinnamon sugar dough isn't too bad either!

Churros and Nutella Sauce

Idea from Forgiving Martha

These churros are great because they are so simple and they aren't fried - which while this dish isn't remotely healthy - at least cuts out some of the fat.

Ingredients:

One Package of frozen Puff Pastry Sheet (Pepperidge Farm comes with two sheets)

1/4 cup of melted butter

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 cup of sugar (mix with the tsp. of cinnamon)

Nutella

1/3 cup of milk (I used 2%)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450

Cut thawed puff pastry into 1" strips and put on parchment paper on a baking sheet

Spread melted butter onto strips

Bake strips at 450 for 8-10 minutes or until the strips are golden-colored

Take the strips out of the oven, spread with butter again, and sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon mixture

Nutella Sauce:

On low-medium heat combine 1 jar of nutella with 1/3 cup of milk and stir until "dippable" - you may want less or more milk based on your preference. I would recommend adding a small amount at a time until you reached the desired consistency. Pour the sauce into a sealable container - I used Corningware.

Dip the churros into the warm nutella sauce. Yum!

Sopapilla Cheesecake

Recipe from CopyKat Recipes

Ingredients:

2 can of crescent rolls (I used Pillsbury)

2 eight-oz. packages of cream cheese

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. lemon juice (I didn't use this - it might be good, but it was good without too!)

1/2 tsp lemon zest (I didn't use this - it might be good, but it was good without too!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Line the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish with 1 can of the crescent rolls. I rolled out the dough a little bit with a rolling pin to get the perforated crescent roll marks out of it. Whip cream cheese with 1 1/2 cups of the sugar (reserve the other 1/2 cup for the topping), the vanilla, and the optional lemon juice and zest. Spread this mixture over the bottom layer of crescent rolls. Top this layer with the second can of crescent rolls. Melt the butter and pour this over the top (it's going to seem like A LOT of butter - which it kind of is) and then sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture on top.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.