Daring Bakers 18th Challenge: Cheesecake Centerpiece
April 27, 2009 at 12:02 am | In Daring Bakers, baking, cooking challenge, recipes | 8 CommentsTags: cheesecake, chocolate, Daring Bakers
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. One of my favorite cakes, after Boston Cream pie (which is actually a cake and not a pie), this challenge came at a good time. I finally had an opportunity to serve this challenge to a large group of people instead of facing the challenge of eating it alone or pushing it to my honey. Easter dinner was on the near horizon, and that’s where this cake was headed. I have to admit it was one of the easiest cheesecakes I have made. We were encouraged to use any flavoring we wanted, but when I read the Mexican Turtle variation included in the recipe, I knew it was the one I wanted: bittersweet chocolate, pecans and caramel sauce. Hummm.hmm… To keep with the theme, I added a tablespoon of tequila to the mix. I paired this cake with my favorite salted caramel sauce. The final result was very creamy and quite rich and to die-for, if I may say so myself. Although some of my fellow Daring Bakers experienced some problems with water-logged crusts due to water seeping in, I was pleased my foil-wrapped aging spring-form stayed tight. Now looking forward to next month’s challenge AND the first Daring Cooks challenge (which will be a lot of fun to do — the recipe was posted on Friday). Watch this space on May 14th for the results of this new set of challenges.
Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake
crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 383 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp tequila
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too – baker’s choice. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.
5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.
Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil “casserole” shaped pans from the grocery store. They’re 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.
Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!
** Mexican Turtle – add a bar of melted dark chocolate (between 3 and 5 oz., to taste) to the batter, along with a teaspoon of cinnamon and a dash of cayenne pepper (about 1/8 tsp.). Top it with pecan halves and a homemade caramel sauce.
Salted Caramel Sauce
- 1/2 cup salted butter
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/16 teaspoon sea salt (or kosher salt)
To make the salted butter caramel: In a saucepan set over medium-low heat, melt the butter in the heavy cream. Immediately remove from the heat and set aside.
Place the sugar in a separate saucepan set over medium heat. Sprinkle the water over the sugar and allow it to dissolve over the heat without stirring. As the sugar begins to caramelize, occasionally shake and swirl the pan to evenly distribute the color.
When the caramel is a rich golden color, remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the hot cream and melted butter to the caramel. Take care to stand back during this process; the hot caramel will bubble up the sides of the pan.
Return the caramel to the lowest heat setting, whisking constantly. Cook and stir the salted butter caramel for 2 minutes over the low heat. Remove from the heat and season the sauce with the 1/16 teaspoon sea salt; stir until it is dissolved completely.
Krispys Mint Valentine Candy Ice Cream
February 12, 2009 at 8:34 pm | In chocolate, recipes | 1 CommentThe challenge with See’s Candies ‘ Krispys Mints® was to keep its crispiness and minty coolness intact. As with the Toffee-ettes ®, the Krispys Mints® were
just right on their own. This month’s Daring Bakers challenge involved an ice cream component. I thought the mint would be a nice add-on to the ice cream and to the main dessert for the challenge (to be posted on this blog on February 28. Stay tuned!) The results were quite nice. I simply used my regular crème anglaise recipe and added some crushed Krispys Mints to the mix.
Krispys Mint Valentine Candy Ice Cream
Ingredients
200 ml milk
100 ml cream
1/4 vanilla bean, cut, scraped
3 egg yolks
50 g sugar
6 Krispys Mints, well crushed
Infuse milk, cream w/ vanilla bean. Whisk yolks and sugar. Temper hot cream with egg mix. Return to boil. Stir on low hear until nappé. Strain and cool in an ice bath. Once cooled, pour custard into ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s directions. I added the crushed Krispy Mints halfway through the final process.
Eat on its own or served with your favorite dessert. 
Daring Bakers – 5th Challenge: French Bread – The Julia Way
February 29, 2008 at 12:02 am | In Challenge, Daring Bakers, baking, cooking challenge, recipes, traditional | 21 CommentsTags: baking, Daring Bakers, French Bread, Julia Child
One of the exhilarating aspects of being part of the bakerhood that is Daring Bakers, is knowing that you
become a better baker after each new challenge. There is always a trick or two to pick up, a new way of looking at a process, a new direction to stretch your skills and comfort zone. This challenge proved this once more.
Hosted by Breadchick Mary (The Sour Dough), and Sara (I like to cook), we were dared to bake French Bread, the Julia Child way. Well, I’ve baked a lot of bread from scratch, but I have to admit my jaw dropped when I read the instructions. How could a recipe with four (4) basic ingredients take so long!? Eight (8) to nine (9) hours?! Whoa! The bread I usually bake entails one proof/rise, shaping and a second shorter rise. Total time from 
kneading to fragrant bread out of the oven: 2.5 hours. My curiosity was piqued. We had been warned so many times in cooking school not to let the bread over-rise, that I was a bit skeptical. Nonetheless, on a quiet Sunday, I got up early and plunged in.
I’ve always made bread the old fashion way, kneading by hand. Since the option to use an electric mixer was offered with this challenge, I decided to try it that way. Improvement #1: It’s a lot more efficient to make bread this way. The mixer bowl is ideal for the first proofing. A keeper. Next up? Using the oven, with the light on, as the rising chamber. Brilliant! Even better, wrapping the bowl in a towel. That’s how I’ll be rising bread from now on. 
The whole process was pretty straightforward, just time consuming. I may have gotten a bit impatient at the end. My shaped bread (three ficelles) could have risen a little longer. Still, I was really happy with the final results. I’m not sure I’ll be repeating the whole process in the future, but I’m sure the tricks learned will make my regular method even tastier. Thanks for the challenge, Breadchick Mary and Sara!
The full recipe is available here.
Free cookbook from Barilla US: Celebrity Italian Table Cookbook
February 26, 2008 at 2:06 pm | In Cooking, appetizer, baking, cookbook, cuisine, ethnic, food, recipes | 3 CommentsTags: Barilla, Chris Daughtry, cookbook, David Tutera, Debra Messing, Italian cooking, Mario Batali, Marisa Tomei, Natalie Portman, Stanley Tucci
Barilla does it again, this time in support of Second Harvest in the US. The free downloadable pdf includes recipes from Mario Batali, David Tutera, Debra Messing, Stanley Tucci, Natalie Portman, Chris Daughtry and Marisa Tomei.
So, if Penne in a Spicy Sauce with Capers and Olives, Autumn Vegetables with Goat Cheese and Pumpkinseed Oil and Saffron Panna Cotta sound like your type of Italian delectables, head over to this site to download the book. If you’re from the USA, you can actually specify which Second Harvest you wish Barilla to send its contribution.
Offer ends February 29th has been extended to March 31st!
Mission Cook! by Robert Irvine – browse free online
February 19, 2008 at 4:49 pm | In Cooking, cookbook, food, recipes | Leave a CommentTags: book, cookbook, Dinner Impossible, Food Network, free, Mission Cook!, online, Robert Irvine
Harper Collins is releasing a series of books people can read online for free. The one that caught my eye was the one by Robert Irvine, star of Dinner Impossible on the Food Network. You can access the full text of Mission: Cook! My Life, My Recipes, and Making the Impossible Easy here, or by clicking on the icon below for a preview (note not all chapters are available through the icon, but they are through the preceding link.)
 |
  Browse Inside this book
|
 |
Blog Party#29: Another Bite of Dessert: Cheesy Fudge Cranberry Tarts & Peppermint Profiteroles
December 13, 2007 at 9:56 pm | In Challenge, Christmas, baking, candy, cocktail, recipes | 1 CommentTags: cheese, chocolate, cooking challenge, cranberry, fudge, peppermint, profiterole
With wet snow falling outside my window this morning (again), it was a perfect day to tackle this month’s Blog Party Challenge: Another Bite of Dessert, hosted by the Happy Sorceress. The theme was straightforward: dessert canapés.
So many choices…Last week, for the first time, I finally got access to the Food Network as part of my new digital TV system. And for the first time, I got to see the Iron Chef of America show. Well-timed, the show was titled: All-Star Holiday Dessert Battle: Cora/Deen vs. Irvine/Florence. From the Food Network website:
In another All-Star culinary showdown, the Chairman has invited Paula Deen to partner up with Iron Chef Cat Cora and compete against Food Network’s own Tyler Florence and Robert Irvine.
The hour was filled with a myriad of desserts and sweets. My fillings were hurting at the final offering to the judges. Tina Fey was comatose by the end of it all. But, I had found my inspiration for this challenge.
Paula Deen’s Chocolate Cheese Fudge was intriguing. I had baked cream cheese with chocolate, but Velveeta cheese?…I decided to tone down the richness of that fudge by using it as a base and adding cranberries as a topping.
Cheesy Fudge Cranberry Tarts
Base
Paula Deen’s Chocolate Cheese Fudge
Press one tablespoon into greased mini cupcake molds. Refrigerate.
Topping
1 cup frozen or fresh cranberries, roughly chopped
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup water
Splash of Southern Comfort (could also use Grand Marnier or Cointreau)
Fresh mint leaves, chiffonade
In a small saucepan, heat up the Southern Comfort with the chopped cranberries over medium heat. Add the sugar and water, reduce. Remove from heat and cool.
Assembly
Unmold the fudge cups, spoon some of the cranberry mixture in the cup and garnish with mint chiffonade.
The ladies also concocted a peppermint martini for the judges. This triggered my second canapé:
Peppermint Profiteroles
Base
Profiteroles: Choux paste recipe
Filling
Peppermint Pastry Cream:
2/3 cup whole milk
2 inch vanilla bean
2 egg yolks
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
In a small, heavy saucepan over high heat, combine the milk and vanilla bean and bring to a simmer.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch until well blended. When the milk reaches a simmer, remove it from the heat and gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the yolk mixture.
Return the mixture to the saucepan and place it over medium heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until the pastry cream thickens and boils, about 1 minute. Stir in the peppermint extract. Discard the vanilla bean and cool.
Toppings
Chocolate ganache
Candy cane, crushed
Assembly
Pipe the pastry cream into each choux. Dip each choux into warm ganache. Sprinkle with crushed candy cane.
For the cocktail, I decided to keep it simple: Brandy Toddy, from DrinkMixer website.
Brandy Toddy
2 oz brandy
1/2 tsp powdered sugar
1 tsp water
1 twist lemon peel
Dissolve powdered sugar in 1 tsp. water in an old-fashioned glass. Add brandy and one ice cube and stir. Add twist of lemon peel on top and serve.
Happy holidays all!
Virtual Blog Party #28 – Fusion Canapés
November 15, 2007 at 9:57 pm | In Challenge, alcohol, appetizer, cocktail, drinks, ethnic, recipes | 2 CommentsTags: canapés, ginger, limoncello, martini, tofu, tuna salad
Just in the nick of time, I think, I got my canapés ready to submit to the Happy Sorceress for the upcoming Virtual Blog Party this Saturday. I wanted to keep things simple. So, my idea of fusion came down to the basic tuna salad stuffed into tofu puffs. To add a bit of colour and crunch I added some finely chopped orange pepper and celery. The tofu puffs I purchased at a small Chinese grocery store right around the corner from where I live. I usually use those in stir fries, but I thought they would make an interesting base, when chopped in half. I was right. I sprinkled each canapés with a mixture of parmesan and fontina cheeses and baked them until the cheese melted. The tofu came out nice and crispy. I’ll definitely be playing around with those puffs more in the future.
Here’s my recipe for the tuna salad:
1 can pale flaked tuna, drained
1/4 orange pepper, finely chopped
1/4 rib celery, finely chopped
Mayonnaise, enough to bind
Salt and pepper
4 tbsp parmesan, grated
4 tbsp fontina cheese, grated
10 tofu puffs, sliced in two
Mix all ingredients except cheeses and tofu puffs. Spoon a small portion of the tuna salad into puff halves, and sprinkle with a bit of the cheese mixture. Bake at #350F until cheese melts. Plate and crack some fresh pepper over canapés before serving.
The challenge requires us to also submit a cocktail/mocktail. My choice for this dish is a the Lemon Ginger Martini, found on the Raley’s and Bel Air Recipe Center. It includes one of my latest discoveries in liqueurs: limoncello. It goes as follows:
Lemon Ginger Martini
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 oz. superpremium vodka, such as Skyy
or Grey Goose
1 slice fresh ginger, chopped
1 oz. limoncello
DIRECTIONS
In a cocktail shaker, mash vodka and ginger. Add limoncello and shake well with ice; strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
I haven’t made the drink yet, though I have the ingredients. But I don’t have a martini glass. That will be taken care of tomorrow. Stay tuned for picture…
Cheers!
45 days to Christmas…Time to publish your own cookbook
November 9, 2007 at 8:52 pm | In Christmas, Cooking, Food News, cookbook, cuisine, recipes, technology | 3 Comments
Stumbled onto this news item today in my Epicurious newsletter. You can create a custom cookbook using up to 100 recipes found on the epicurious site, or add your own recipes if you wish, or leave some blank space for later add-ins. Browse and borrow from some already created books by famous chefs. The book is hardcover and spiral-bound. You can even put your name on the cover. Cost: $us34.95. For more details, go to: epicurious.com. You will need to create a free account on Epicurious to use this feature.
- Proud member of:
The Daring Kitchen -
Recent Comments
Well Fed Network- Kalyn's Kitchen
- Epicurious Forums : Thread List – Kitchen Counsel
- Unknown Feed
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
-
Flickr Photos
More Photos -
-
-
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
