Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin shares fall recipes for Halloween treats

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Angie Edge joined us Wednesday, Oct. 29 to share fall recipes from Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin.

Edge demonstrated two recipes: an Easy Halloween Cheese Board and Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies.

The cheese board includes Wisconsin cheeses like Colby, mozzarella, butterkaase and Monterey Jack, along with chocolate bark, caramel corn and dried fruit. Colby can be cut into pumpkin shapes and mozzarella into bone shapes using cookie cutters.

The brownies feature a pumpkin cheesecake layer made with cream cheese and mascarpone, swirled with a chocolate brownie batter. The recipe serves nine and takes about 50 minutes to bake at 325 degrees.

Both recipes use Wisconsin cheeses marked with the Proudly Wisconsin Badge.

Easy Halloween Cheese Board

Ingredients

• Henning Colby Longhorn cheese, thinly sliced
• Cedar Valley Mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
• Decatur Smoked Butterkaase cheese or Carr Valley Apple Smoked Cheddar™ cheese, thinly sliced
• Renard's Cranberry Jalapeno Monterey Jack cheese, thinly sliced
• White and milk chocolate bark of choice
• Caramel corn
• Dried apricots
• Dried papaya

Instructions

• Cut colby with a pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter. Cut mozzarella with bone-shaped cookie cutters, varying sizes as desired.
• Arrange the butterkaase, monterey jack, colby pumpkins and mozzarella bones on a serving board. Fill in board with chocolate bark, caramel corn, dried apricots and papaya.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

Ingredients

PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE LAYER:

• 1 package (8 ounces) Crystal Farms Original Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 container (8 ounces) Crave Brothers Farmstead Classics® Mascarpone cheese
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 large egg yolks

BROWNIES:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cubed and melted
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup baking cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Pumpkin Cheesecake Layer:

• Beat the cream cheese, mascarpone and sugar in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in the pumpkin, flour, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, ginger and nutmeg. Add egg yolks, beating just until combined. Set aside.

Brownies:

• Heat oven to 325°F. Line a greased 9-inch square baking dish with parchment paper; grease paper.
• Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, until well beaten. Combine the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder in another bowl. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating each addition until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
• Spread half of the brownie batter into prepared pan. Drop spoonfuls of reserved cheesecake mixture over top. Spoon remaining brownie batter into four lines over top of cheesecake layer; swirl batter with a toothpick or knife.
• Bake for 43-47 minutes or until top is just set and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. (Do not overbake.) Cool completely on a wire rack.

Cheese monger Tip: Mascarpone is a rich, buttery fresh cheese with no preservatives, and it should be eaten soon after the container is opened.