Daring Bakers: Cheesecakes

I love how the camera can be so deceiving. While not a Cheesecake Factory size slice, you might think that this is slightly bigger than it really is.

In general, I'm not a cheesecake fan. When I was in high school, however, there was this cheesecake/antique shop that did have a great cake -- it was light and fluffy and even eggy, rather than dense and thick.

I had fun with this challenge, trying to create a small size cheese cake that my family might even be willing to sample. I halved the recipe for both crust and filling. For the crust, I swapped the graham crackers for chocolate wafers and reduced the sugar a bit.

For the filling, I used RF cream cheese, followed the recipe. When it was time to add the cream, I heated part of the cream with some instant espresso powder, and combined it with 2/3 of the batter. I took another few tbsp of cream and melted 1 oz bittersweet chocolate in it. After filling the crust with the coffee batter, I swirled in the chocolate.

My batter resulted in one 6" cheesecake and 3 cheese cake "muffins".

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

TWD: Chocolate Bread Pudding

I steered clear of bread pudding for a long, long time. I lumped it together with rice pudding (which I made for the first time only recently), and grits. Perhaps it was the "Greystone bite" of grits that I endured almost daily through three stints at sleep away camp. Maybe the dreaded association came from lunch line in Wetherell, where on occasion, the menu contained not only bread pudding for the masses, but also "On-Yon" soup, and after alumni weekend, "muscles."

Then one night, A and I were having a celebratory dinner at Harvest. For the life of me, I can't recall what we were celebrating, but I know, given our restaurant budget of "only if someone else is paying" that we were surely celebrating. Early in the meal, our server asked if we wanted the bread pudding, noting that it was baked to order. Given the winter weather outside, A jumped at the bread pudding, and it was surprisingly good -- studded with with good chunks, and drizzled with a creme anglaise.

I'll have to try this one again, as I think that my ratios of pudding to bread were simply off. It was a bit dry. Although I'm kidding myself if I think I can recreate the magic of a Harvest celebration in my own kitchen.

TWD: Banana Cream Pie

Banana Cream Pie....

...is best when every bite contains banana.

Daring Bakers: Lasagne

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I spent my morning eating and learning about bacon. Bacon and bread, bacon and eggs, bacon and waffles, bacon and chocolate, and well, bacon and bacon. If you haven't had a morning with bacon yet, I'd highly recommend it. In fact, later this spring, I'll certainly be reading a tome about bacon, 240 pages worth, written by Ari Weinzweig of Zingerman's Deli. While I learned that bacon is no longer the "it" food for hipsters, I've never really been hip, so I don't feel any need to move away from bacon.

Ari spoke at length about bacon, he also talked about writing. Since the first sentence is often the most difficult to write, he suggested opening with a line of choice words. As I didn't feel that you wanted to read such choice language, I decided to start with a few choice symbols instead.

I joined forces with another Daring Baker for this challenge. Together we made a pile of spinach lasange noodles. When mixing our dough, however, it wasn't coming together. Proportionally, the egg to flour ratio was significantly different from other recipes we have tried. We ended up following the proportions in Mario Batali's Molto Italiano cookbook, which included 5 eggs. For the sauce, I again turned to Mario, making his Ragu Bolognese.

1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil

2 medium onions, finely chopped

4 ribs celery, finely chopped

2 carrots, finely chopped

5 cloves garlic, sliced

1lb ground veal (I subbed beef)

1lb ground pork

4 oz pancetta

1 6oz can tomato paste

1 cup whole white milk

1 cup dry white wine

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

salt and pepper

In a 6-8 qt heavy bottomed pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat until hot. Add onion, celery, carrots and garlic and cook until the vegetables are translucent, but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add the meats and increase the heat to high, and brown the meat, stirring frequently. Add the tomato paste, milk, wine, and thyme and bring to just a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 1 to 1/2 hours.

Season the ragu with salt and pepper; remove from the heat and let cool. The ragu can be refrigerated for up to two days; it can also be frozen for up to one month.

This lasange was a real change from the neapolitan style lasagna I usually make, and the fresh pasta was a treat I am sure to make again in the future.

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

TWD: Blueberry Crumb Cake

My mom has been making this cake for years, using blueberries in the summer, and cranberries around the holidays. A few years ago, I was feeling wise and I doubled the topping recipe, doubled the berries and baked the cake in a 9x13" pan. I no longer had a cake that was dry and overcooked around the edges in order to completely cook the center.

I took Dorie's recipe at it's word, despite my initial inclinations to bake it in the 9x13. I had a tough time making my topping crumble, and once again, after an hour, I had brown edges and a wet center. I covered the pan with some foil to prevent overbrowning, and kept going. I think for about another 15 minutes. While we really enjoyed the lemon zest in this recipe, I'm going to go back to my mom's version from here on out. They aren't too different, but I'll keep it in the family.

Mom's Blueberry Coffee Cake

Combine 2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen) with 2 tbsp flour

In mixer, cream 1/2c. softened butter, add 2c. flour, 2tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 c. sugar

Add 3/4c milk, mix. Add one egg and beat well. Fold in blueberries and flour. Spread into greased, floured 9x13" pan. Top with crumble made by cutting 1/2c. softened butter into 1c sugar, 2/3c. flour, 1 tsp cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.

TWD: French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze

I've taken a photo of the last 4 pieces of my 2nd yogurt cake. Feeling all ahead of the game, I made my first loaf a week ago. Like others, I shortcutted and sprayed my loaf pan with cooking spray. It tore completely in half as I tried to remove it from the pan. Never mind, however, because the cake didn't last long enough for me to glaze it, let alone photograph a broken hunk in all its glory.

So last night, I made another, subbing orange peel and a little orange extract for the lemon. This morning, my cake was resting right there on the counter. French Yogurt Cake or high-fiber-low-taste cereal? So I had a little bit of both. By mid-afternoon, only a half loaf remained. So I glazed it, but that's really not a necessary step.

TWD: Lemon Egg Cups

So bright and sunny yellow. Creamy and eggy. A touch of almond extract. So...very left on the table only partly eaten.

I love eggy desserts (on our recent vacation they served flan, for breakfast!). But the face K. made when she took her first bite was priceless. Her nose wrinkled up and her mouth turned down.

I think our family will join many of the TWD bakers by leaving this recipe behind.