Guest Contributor
This issue includes recipes for four mouth-watering holiday bakes from Andrea Nauta, one of ten finalists for Season 3 of The Great Canadian Baking Show. Andrea is a military spouse, currently posted to Comox, BC, with her husband and two young daughters.
She holds a huge passion for baking all things sweet and sparkly! Andrea first discovered her love of baking as a child, watching numerous baking shows and initially using box mixes to make her culinary creations. After getting married, she started making recipes from scratch as both an outlet and a way to handle the challenges of military family life. Cakes are some of Andrea’s favourite things to bake, so she shares a few of her personal favourites in this issue.
She describes her baking style as ‘rainbow sparkles’ and loves to get creative in the kitchen with lots of colour and whimsy. So please keep reading to learn how to make her famous Peanut Butter Chocolate Balls, Peppermint White Chocolate Cheesecake Holiday Swirl Bars, Mirror Glaze Gingerbread Swiss Roll and Holiday Shortbread Cookies (vegan & gluten-free).
PrintPeppermint White Chocolate Holiday Swirl Cheesecake Bars
This issue includes recipes for four mouth-watering holiday bakes from Andrea Nauta, one of ten finalists for Season 3 of The Great Canadian Baking Show. Andrea is a military spouse, currently posted to Comox, BC, with her husband and two young daughters.
She holds a huge passion for baking all things sweet and sparkly! Andrea first discovered her love of baking as a child, watching numerous baking shows and initially using box mixes to make her culinary creations. After getting married, she started making recipes from scratch as both an outlet and a way to handle the challenges of military family life. Cakes are some of Andrea’s favourite things to bake, so she shares a few of her personal favourites in this issue.
She describes her baking style as ‘rainbow sparkles’ and loves to get creative in the kitchen with lots of colour and whimsy. So please keep reading to learn how to make her famous Peanut Butter Chocolate Balls, her Peppermint White Chocolate Cheesecake Holiday Swirl Bars, her Mirror Glaze Gingerbread Swiss Roll and her Holiday Shortbread Cookies (vegan & gluten-free).
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 40
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Ingredients
2 cup chocolate cookies crumbs
2 tbsp sugar
1/3 c melted butter
24 oz softened cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
6 oz white chocolate chips
red and green food colouring
1 tsp peppermint extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and line bottom of a 9×13 pan.
- For the crust, combine the cookie crumbs with sugar and melted butter. Press evenly into the bottom of the pan. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Cool.
- Begin filling by beating cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, and vanilla until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure to fully incorporate after each one. Pour 2/3 of the batter into the pan.
- With the remaining 1/3, divide in half. Add ½ tsp peppermint extract to both bowls, and colour one bowl green, and one bowl red.
- Melt the white chocolate in the microwave slowly until fully melted. Divide equally into each bowl and mix until combined. Drop spoonfuls of each colour on top of the white batter. Take a knife and drag through the colour to make a beautiful design.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes until set. Remove from oven, let cool at room temperature for an hour, then let cool in the fridge overnight.
- When ready to serve, cut into bar-sized pieces and Enjoy!!!!
