TWD: Chocolate Cream Tart

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie is Chocolate Cream Tart chosen by Kim of Scrumptious Photography. After Daring Bakers last week and some other stuff I've been baking and my deathly training sessions (I swear my trainer is trying to kill me, not get me in shape), I wasn't sure if I was going to make it at all.


But then I decided to just make half. And then Tim asked what it was and said not to halve it, to make the whole thing. So like a good wife, I did. Everything went together no problem.


I did use semi-sweet chocolate instead of dark because I know my kids won't eat it if I used dark chocolate. Although, since they didn't eat any of it anyways, I could have done the dark. Oh well.


When I first took the crusts out of the oven, I thought it was going to be kind of like a brownie. Not so much. I really didn't like the crust at all. I don't know if it was just too done or if I just didn't like it. The chocolate filling was delicious. I have some extra that I think I will pop in the ice cream maker later today.


I would probably make this again, but use Dorie's regular tart crust instead of the chocolate one. Check out everyone else's tarts and you can get the recipe at Scrumptious Photography!

Daring Bakers Cheesecake

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.


I love cheesecake. I love the creaminess. I love the millions of options you have. It is so versatile! So when I saw this was the challenge I got super excited. But we weren't given anything but the basic recipe and told to play around. I knew I wouldn't want to just play with ONE flavor. Where's the fun in that? So I made a list of all the cheesecakes I was going to make mini sizes of. Unforunately, I didn't get them all done, but I did get most of them done.



So these first pictures are of the Orange Cheesecake with Dark Chocolate Fudge swirls and Chocolate Covered Orange Peel. Making cheesecake just wasn't enough of a challenge for me this month *eye roll* so I made Chocolate covered orange peel. It was just ok. The stuff Tim brought home from London in my treat box was much better. I don't think I'll be making the orange peel again.


I made 2/3 of the recipe and then split it into thirds: Orange Chocolate, Chocolate Chocolate Chip, and Chocolate Oreo. This gave me 3 4" springform pans (1 of each flavor) and 2 cupcake sizes of each flavor. There was still a little bit of batter and cookie crumbs left, but not much. For these three I used crushed Oreos as the crust. To make the Orange Chocolate, I subbed orange juice for lemon juice in the entire recipe and then when I divided it up, I added in some orange juice and 2 tsp of Grand Marnier. I'm not sure how much orange juice went in I just kind of poured some in--it was probably a little less than 1 orange squeezed. I poured that batter into the pans and then put a few spoonfuls of Dark Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream topping into it and swirled. I was going to make my own, but was running out of time, so just used store bought.


For the Chocolate Cheesecakes, I had used orange juice instead of lemon juice and skipped the alcohol. After I took out the Orange portion, I added in 3 oz of melted chocolate. I used semi-sweet because it's what I had. Then I divided it up and added some crushed oreos to one and mini chocolate chips to the other.


The next one was per TJ's request. At my aunt's house on Easter he had a piece of Cheesecake Factory's Strawberry Glazed Cheesecake and LOVED it. So when we were talking about it he begged me to make it.


I wasn't real thrilled with how the strawberry glaze came out. I used a recipe I found online, and of course afterwards, found a recipe for it in my Junior's Cheesecake book. D'oh! I followed the recipe exactly, except omitted the alcohol. I made the full recipe and then split it in half and added 2 or 3 mashed bananas to half to make banana cheesecake. It was too much banana. And I can't find the pictures of the banana. I don't know what happened. I ended up with enough batter to make 3 4" springforms, 6 muffin cups, and 6 giant muffin size cups full.


This is a great starter recipe. I don't know if it's my favorite, but it is definitely good! I had no problems with the water bath making a soggy crust or anything like that. I had no cracking either!


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 / 210 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 liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

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!

Broccoli Cheese Soup

I made this awhile ago and just never got around to posting it. This Broccoli Cheese Soup is fabulous. We have it often in the fall and winter. The kids absolutely love it, especially when I take the time to make bread bowls to serve it in. It is really easy to make and doesn't require a lot of forethought. There are a lot of nights where I have forgotten to take something out of the freezer to defrost and I have to scramble, and this is a good meal for one of those days.





Broccoli Cheese Soup

Qty Measure Ingredient
------------------------------------------------------------
1/4 Cup Butter
8 oz pkg broccoli
2 cans chicken broth
2/3 Cup corn starch
8 oz Velveeta
1 Cup Milk
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 Cup Water

Instructions: Cook butter, broccoli, and chicken broth over medium heat until broccoli is tender, about 10-15 minutes.

Reduce heat and stir in cheese cubes until melted. Stir in milk and garlic powder until smooth.

In a small bowl, stir corn starch into water until dissolved. Pour into soup and cook until thick.

TWD: Chocolate Bread Pudding

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie was Chocolate Bread Pudding. I was on the fence about making this because I think the only time I had Bread Pudding was as a kid and I hated it. But everyone was raving about how wonderful it was so I was going to make it. I swear I was! But the next thing I knew it was Monday and I had no stale bread and so here we are Puddingless. This week was chosen by Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle and you can find the recipe there. Next week is Chocolate Cream Tart and I swear I am going to do it!

Deep Dark Cookies

I made these Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies last Thursday for Cookie Thursday. I chose this recipe because I had extra egg whites to use up, so it was perfect. It does call for bitersweet chocolate chips, but since the kids aren't that fond of them, I used white chocolate chips instead. They were fabulous! I found this recipe over at Dinner and Dessert.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies

Source: from Bon Appetit June 2008

Qty Measure Ingredient
------------------------------------------------------------
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1.5 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (about 9 ounces), divided
3 large egg whites, room temperature
2.5 cups powdered sugar, divided
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions: Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray 2 large baking sheets with nonstick spray. Melt 1 cup chocolate chips in glass bowl in microwave, stirring twice, about 2 minutes. Cool slightly.

Using electric mixer, beat whites in large bowl to soft peaks. Gradually beat in 1 cup (4 ounces) sugar. Continue beating until mixture resembles soft marshmallow creme. Whisk 1 cup sugar (4 ounces), cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in medium bowl to blend. On low speed, beat dry ingredients into meringue. Stir in lukewarm chocolate and ? cup chocolate chips (dough will become very stiff).

Place 1/2 cup (2 ounces) sugar in bowl. Roll 1 rounded tablespoon dough into ball; roll in sugar, coating thickly. Place on prepared sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until puffed and tops crack, about 10 minutes. Cool on sheets on rack 10 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool.

Yields: 24

Apple Streudel Muffins

I made these on Monday morning. I made them last spring for Teacher Appreciation Week at school when we made breakfast for the teachers. They are delicious. However, I will not be posting a picture. I don't know what happened when I made these. I pulled them out of the oven and they were gorgeous. I left them to cool and came back a few minutes later and there were HUGE craters in the middle. These muffins were UGLY. But they are super tasty!

Apple Strudel Muffins

Qty Measure Ingredient
------------------------------------------------------------
2 Cup Flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Butter
1 Cup white sugar
2 Eggs
1 1/4 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 Cup chopped apples
1/3 Cup packed brown sugar
1 Tablespoon Flour
1/8 tsp Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon Butter

Instructions: Preheat oven to 375. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and eggs until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Stir in apples and gradually blend in flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into the muffin pan.

In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pans.

Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to sit 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan. Cool on a wire rack.


Serves: 12
Prep Time: 20 hr
Cook Time: 20 hr
Total Time: 60 hr

TWD: Chocolate Torte

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie is the 15 Minute Magic Chocolate Amaretti Torte chosen by Holly over at PheMomEnon. I made a few changes to this because two of the main ingredients were Amaretti cookies(which are basically almond/amaretto cookies) and ground almonds. And I knew Gabby would want to try this and it just didn't seem fair to make something so good that she wouldn't be able to enjoy.


So to replace the almonds and Amaretti cookies, I decided to use Nilla Wafers. They grind up easily and are super yummy, so I figured it would be a good substitution. The other change I made was to use a combination of chocolates instead of all dark chocolate. The kids don't like huge amounts of dark chocolate. So I used up little odds and ends of bars I had left--it ended up a milk, semi-sweet, bittersweet combo. It was REALLY good that way! I highly recommend this torte and if you want the recipe head over to Holly's!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

I love Chinese food. Often times though, I get so overwhelmed at the menu choices that I stick with something I know is good. Although, that is true at a lot of restaurants. I always want to try new things, but am so paranoid that I won't like it, that I stick with something safe. Anyways,
I saw this recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken which is a dish I often times end up with at Test Kitchen and added it to the must try list. It was really good! It was a little too ketchup-y for me, but everyone else didn't notice. That is an easy adjustment though.

Ingredients:

3 skinless boneless chicken breast
1 egg beaten
cornstarch
oil

Sauce:
3/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons ketchup
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
*1/2 can diced pineapple
*1 green bell pepper

Directions:
Cut chicken in bite size pieces. Dip chicken into the egg, then roll in the cornstarch. Heat approx. 2 tablespoons of oil in a skillet. Fry the chicken pieces until cooked and just browned. Mix all ingredients for sauce and pour over chicken in skillet. Cook 15-20 minutes. Serve over rice!!!

Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Squares

I found this delicious little treat over at Smitten Kitchen. And when I say delicious, I mean, lock the fridge so you don't eat them all before company arrives. I made these awhile ago for a family party. I cut them into teeny tiny little squares, I don't think they were quite 1" thought like the recipe called for.


These were absolutely fabulous. I was disappointed that there weren't very many left to take home from the party. The bad thing was that they were so tiny, so it felt like you weren't really eating a lot and would then eat more than you probably should have. But they are totally worth it.

Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Squares
Adapted from Gourmet, December 2003

If you’re looking for a strong dulce de leche flavor in a baked good, this unfortunately isn’t it. Oh, it’s there, but it’s not front and center. It has to share the spotlight with cream cheese, and, well, I’m not sure that it wants to. But, it lingers subtly in the background and, honestly, if there was ever a way to make cheesecake more heavenly, this would have to be it.

I’m sure you’ll notice that there is some gelatin in this recipe, and think it’s odd. Heck, even Alex did, which really just made me beam with pride that he knows so much about baking right now that he knows that gelatin is atypical in (baked) cheesecakes. But, if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. The reason why most cheesecake recipes don’t fare well as squares is that they’re too soft to easily pick up; the gelatin fixes addresses this perfectly.

Time: 9 3/4 hr (includes chilling) (45 minutes active time)
Makes 64 (1-inch) petits fours

For crust
3 1/2 oz graham crackers, crumbled (1cup)
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For filling
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin (from a 1/4-oz envelope, will just about half of envelope)
1/4 cup whole milk
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 large eggs
3/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup dulce de leche (12 1/2 oz) (recipe follows)

For glaze
3 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), coarsely chopped
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 teaspoons light corn syrup

Make crust: Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 325°F. Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with 2 sheets of foil (crisscrossed), leaving a 2-inch overhang on all sides.

Finely grind crackers with sugar and a pinch of salt in a food processor. With motor running, add butter, blending until combined. Press mixture evenly onto bottom of baking pan. Bake 10 minutes, then cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes.

Make filling: Sprinkle gelatin over milk in a small bowl and let stand 2 minutes to soften. Beat together cream cheese, eggs, salt, and gelatin mixture in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until well combined, about 2 minutes, then stir in dulce de leche gently but thoroughly. Pour filling over crust, smoothing top, then bake in a hot water bath (I was able to fit mine in a 9×13-inch baking pan) in oven until center is just set, about 45 minutes. Cool cheesecake completely in pan on rack, about 2 hours. Chill, covered, at least 6 hours.

Glaze cake within 2 hours of serving: Heat all glaze ingredients in a double boiler or a small metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring until smooth, then pour over cheesecake, tilting baking pan to coat top evenly. Chill, uncovered, 30 minutes.

Lift cheesecake from pan using foil overhang and cut into 1-inch squares with a thin knife, wiping off knife after each cut. (Don’t skip this step! A clean knife is essential for uber-neat squares.)

Note: Cheesecake (without glaze) can be chilled up to 3 days.

Dulce de Leche (Milk Caramel)

I know that most of the world makes this by boiling the milk inside a closed can, but honestly, that scares the bejesus out of me and according to the Carnation can label I pulled this technique from, is not recommended by them (likely because they do not want to get sued, but still). This method works just as well.

Pour 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk into top of double-boiler pan; cover. Place over boiling water. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 40 to 50 minutes, or until thick and light caramel-colored.

Remove from heat. Whisk until smooth.

New Plan

So I always plan the meals for the week and scribble it on a piece of paper and then half way through the week, lose the paper. But for Christmas, Tim got me this software called The Recipe Manager. I have loaded over 1000 recipes on it and still have tons of cookbooks to go through and input. But now that I have a good chunk in there, I have decided to take advantage of the Meal Scheduler! So I am planning my weeknight meals AND have taken the step to designate some special days. From now on I will have Muffin Mondays, Ice Cream Tuesdays, Cookie Thursdays, and Sunday Breads. I have scheduled all my inputted recipes in those categories out as far as they last--I have enough muffin recipe through September 2009, bread and ice cream through October 2009, and *gulp* cookies through October 2010! And like I said I haven't even finished my cookbooks. So hopefully between the blog and the Recipe Manager I will get them all done. I don't know when I'll ever get to the cakes, pies, and cupcakes, but I'm sure I'll figure it out!

TWD: Banana Cream Pie

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Amy of Sing for Your Supper. I attempted to make this pie last summer for Father's Day since my dad loves Banana Cream pie, but it didn't work out too well. I didn't have the butter or shortening cold enough, so the crust didn't work well. In fact I might have had to use a premade refrigerated one, and I think I even managed to screw that up.

The crust this time came out great. It went together beautifully. The only problem was that it shrank a little too much on one side. Some of the edges were a little darker than I would have liked but not inedible.

The pastry cream went together no problems either. I know some people had problems with it almost curdling, but mine was perfect. I loved the hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. This isn't a "traditional" banana cream pie. It isn't vanilla pudding and bananas or anything like that. I think it is much better. I did put a layer of milk chocolate on the bottom to jazz it up, but it wasn't thick enough. Next time I'll have to make a thicker ganache layer I think.

My bananas were a little lopsided and off center. When I put them on they looked centered to me, but not so much.


I didn't get a picture of it, because these are from the first night and we didn't do it until the second night, but drizzling some caramel sundae syrup and chocolate sauce on top was even better.



Overall, I think the pie was a winner. The kids weren't wild about the crust, but they never are. Tim was a little concerned when I was putting sour cream into the whipping cream, but he liked it once it was on there.