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Monatsarchive: October 2006

Coffee Cheeseacake, Per Dad’s Request

My father loves cheesecakes as much as he loves crabcakes. He is getting used to (not to say tired) to the latter but will probably never lose his sweet tooth for a creamy slice of cheesecake. Usually he would come into the restaurant and order a slice of the one I had prepared that day. He was always curious of my combinations or fillings, whether it be fruits, liqueurs or curds. My parents have been visiting for almost three weeks and I realised Friday that I had not made one for him yet. It is really no big deal for me to make one, I have used the same recipe gazillion times and even tired after a long outing I really don’t mind baking one.

When I asked him about what flavor he wanted, he simply answered "coffee". What? no extravagant or decadent concoction? No. Just coffee. Allright, as a good daughter I would oblige but only if I can use real espresso and some Kahlua.

I can’t tell you where the original recipe comes from, it is a sort of "I got it from a chef who got from a chef who got it from a chef" kind of story. I love it because you can use the fillings and toppings of you choice and you can be as creative as you wish and it never cracks or fail.

Coffee Cheesecake, original source unknown.

For the Crust:

16 Oreo cookies, crushed up

3 Tb. melted butter

Mix the butter and cookies and pat them into a springform pan, previously lined with parchment paper.

For the cheesecake:

2 pounds cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1/4 cup espresso

1/4 Kahlua

Mix together the cream cheese and sugar until well blended. Add the eggs, one at a time an mix well after each addition. Add the espresso and liqueur.

Pour into prepared pan. Wrap the pan with foil and set it into a large roasting pan, fill halfway with water and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, the middle needs to be wiggling a little. Remove from water and cool completely. Better made the day before you plan to serve it.

To remove the cake from the springform bottom, invert on plastic wrap, using a hair dryer or a blowtorch, heat the inverted pan bottom. The cake should losen up from the base. Remove the bottom and invert the cake onto a serving plate. Discard the plastic wrap.

Note: I had a wonderful visit with Cheryl and Griff in Savannah, and plan to post about it soon, I just want to make sure the are allright with the pictures I took.

Banana Muffins and Honey Bananas Topping

These little things are really not supposed to be muffins but rather banana bread. Anybody who knows me also knows that I love things that should not be what they are intented to be. I like to twist and divert, although never to the point of creating a diplomatic incident!

I have made this recipe so many times to use up over ripe bananas that I don’t need to open the cookbook anymore. I thought that for the sole purpose of practicing my photography, the batter could be turned into little cakes and decorated for a nice photo shoot.

I also have to confess that with my family still visiting, my recipes have to remain simple and easy to assemble because we do a lot of sightseeing and shopping. However, I would not want to make you miss your weekly episode of the "Banana Post"!This original recipe comes from Cooking Light and is quite easy and light, but full of flavor. I adapted it by adding some rum and replacing the milk with buttermilk. I sometimes add nuts or coconut, sometimes mini chocolate chips.

Banana Bread and Honey Banana Topping, adapted from Cooking Light:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup light butter, softened
1 2/3 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup low-fat sour cream
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners and spray with cooking spray.
Combine sugar and butter in a bowl; beat at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended. Add banana, milk, sour cream, and egg whites; beat well, and set aside.
Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; stir well. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, beating until blended.
Divide evenly among the muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes.

For the Honey Banana Topping:
Slice 3 bananas. Melt 1 TB butter in a large saute pan and saute the bananas until they start to get some color. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of good honey. Remove the bananas and let the honey reduce some. Divide the banana slices on top of the muffins and drizzle with the honey.

I probably won’t be around much this weekend as we are going down to Savannah to play tourists and stroll around town. No visit planned to see Paula Deen, but I am definetely going by the Back In The Day Bakery to see Cheryl. Yeah!!

Lemon Lime Mini Cakes

Well, obviously I can’t be trusted! I said a few days ago that I was done with citrus for a while and there I go again! I was reading one of my favorite blogs, What’s the recipe today, Jim?, and there it was in plain view: a decadent looking Iced Lemon Curd Layer Cake from Delia Smith. Instead of making one cake, I poured the batter in muffin tins. I also adapted the recipe by replacing the lemon curd for lime curd. I did a simple cream cheese frosting instead of a glaze and pipe more lime curd on top. I basically only kept the main body of the recipe, the cake. It has a nice light crumb .

ICED LEMON CURD LAYER MINI CAKES, adapted from Delia Smith,
Makes 12 mini cakes

6 oz (175 g) butter at room temperature
6 oz (175 g) sugar
grated zest 1 lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
6 oz (175 g) self-raising flour, sifted
1 level teaspoon baking powder
3 large eggs, beaten

For the lime curd:
grated zest and juice of 2 limes
3 oz (75 g) caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 oz (50 g) unsalted butter

Cream cheese frosting:
8 oz cream cheese
2 oz butter
1 cup powdered sugar
juice of 1/2 lime

Just measure all the cake ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat – ideally with an electric hand whisk – till you have a smooth, creamy consistency. Then divide the mixture evenly between the muffin tins and bake them on the centre shelf of the oven for about 35 min.

While the cakes are cooking, make the lemon curd.Place the sugar and grated lemon zest in a bowl, whisk the lemon juice together with the eggs, then pour this over the sugar.Then add the butter cut into little pieces, and place the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir frequently till thickened – about 20 minutes. Remove 2 Tb. to decorate.
When the cakes are cooked, remove them from the oven and after about 30 seconds turn them out on to a wire rack.When they are cold, cut a hole in the center of each mini cake, fill with lime curd and put the lid back on.

For the frosting:
Cream the cream cheese and butter, then add the powdered sugar and juice.
Frost the mini cakes with it and pour the remaining 2 Tb. of lime curd in a pastry bag fitted with a small tip, drizzle or swiggle over the frosting.

Tiramisu Cake

This past weekend, one of our friends came in to visit after a 5 year abscence. It was great seeing him and going out around town, but it was also his birthday and I wanted to mark the occasion. I was still browsing through Dorie Greenspan’s book when I noticed a recipe that really caught my eye: Tiramisu Cake. I love mascarpone and my dad loves tiramisu, so it struck me as a winner. We had decided to grill some steaks, roast potatoes and vegetables and I was afraid that it would be too heavy. On the contrary, it was light and creamy, not too rich but definetely decadent! I am amazed that everything that I have made so far has came out so light.

For the cake:
2 cups cake flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tesp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 sticks butter at room temp.
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt.
In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one a time, plus yolk, beating well after each addition. Reduce the mixer speed and alternatively add the flour mixture and the buttermilk. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. Pour into 2 greased 9 inch baking pans, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

For the espresso syrup: mix together 1/2 cup water and 1/3 cup sugar in a saucepan and heat just to a boil. Remove from heat and add 1 Tb. coffee liqueur.

For the filling and frosting:
8 oz. mascarpone
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 Tb. coffee liqueur
1 cup cold heavy cream
2 1/2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Cream together the mascarpone, sugar vanilla and liqueur in a large mixing bowl, until smooth.
In a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream to firm peaks. With a light touch, fold the cream into the mascarpone mixture.

To assemble the cake: Remove the crowns of the cakes to make them flat (sorry Sam), place one cake on a plate and soak the layer with the espresso syrup. Smooth some of the mascarpone cream over, gently press the chopped chocolate on top of it. Top it with the other cake, pour the remaining of the espresso syrup.

For the frosting, dissolve 1 tsp. espresso powder and 1 tsp hot water and add to the remaining mascarpone and spread over the side and top of the cake.
Decorate with dusted cocoa powder if wanted.

Alsatian Apple Tart

It’s been a crazy weekend with my parents being here and a friend coming in town for his birthday, but I did manage to get a couple of desserts done. I might be an irregular poster in the coming week but I’ll do my best. We are trying to pack so many activities into each day, it leaves little time for baking and blogging. I enjoy each moment I spend with the family and appreciate my own culinary background even more when I find myself making dough and peeling apples next to my mo ir making rice pilaf with my dad.

We were invited to my in-laws for dinner this weekend and as always I volunteered dessert. I still had plenty of apples left from the bag I used for Blog Party 14 and an apple cake, so the choice was obvious. As I am completely immmersed in Dorie Greenspan’s book, I first looked there for an apple dessert. There are so many yummy recipes that my head started spinning, not only from the recipes but with all the options added on the sidebar. I decided upon the Alsatian Apple Tart as I wanted a creamy base. I just added a splash of Calvados (apple brandy from Normandy) to the cream and used the Sweet Dough recipe with ground walnuts.
Our meal was fairly substantial, mostly based on seafood but the tart was not diffficult for anybody to enjoy because it is light and smooth and goes down like a charm!

Here is the recipe, adapted from Dorie Greenspan:

Sweet Tart Dough with Walnuts:
In a food processor, combine 1 1/4 cups flour, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1/4 cup walnuts and 1 stick of butter, pulse until it ressembles coarse meal, add 1 egg yolk and pulse until combined into a ball. I flattened it into a disk in between sheets of plastic wrap, refrigerated it and rolled it out to cut rounds big enough to fit into my mini tart pans. The dough gets soft very fast so you can flour your fingertips to push it up and down the sides and bottom of the pan.

For the tart:
1 pound medium sized sweet apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
3/4 cup heavy cream
6 Tb. sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 Tb. Calvados

Layer the apples on the bottom of the dough. In a bowl, mix the eggs and sugar, add the cream and the liquor. Pour on top of the apples and bake at 375 for 50-55 minutes.

How easy can this be?! It was delicious!

Lemon Meringue…One Last Time

I don’t know if you are like me but I seem to have two kinds of shopping trips. There is the "quickie", as in quickly in and quickly out (depending who’s in front at the cash register) to get a couple of items I may have forgotten for dinner or something. The second kind, my favorite, is the one in which I have my baking plans carefully thought with a list of ingredients necessary and where I have and take the time to perouse the aisles checking out new products, picking up, touching, smelling fruits and vegetables, talking with the fish guy or my salad guy. He calls me "papillon" because like a butterfly I go from one bin to the next but can’t make up my mind on anything. It is during those longer shopping outings that I often get sucked into buying a case of fruits or other because it is a one day sale, and you probably figured by the title of today’s post that this is what happened when I found myself hauling a case of lemon out to my car.
I tried to do everything possible, lemon curd, preserves, cocktails, but irreversibly found myself drawn to the citrus recipes I found in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home To Yours.

I had a difficult time settling on one and I promised myself to try the others fairly soon,as they look and sound so tempting: Pierre Herme’s Lemon Cream tart, Fresh Orange Cream Tart, Creamiest Lime Cream Meringue Pie, Florida Pie,….and the one chosen today: Tartest Lemon Tart.

I decided to make individual tarts and changed the ingredients only very slightly.

Here is the recipe, adapted from Dorie Greenspan.

2 lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
2 egg yolks (save the whites for the meringue)
1 1/2 Tb. cornstarch
Sweet Tart Dough or your prefered pate sablee.

For the dough: in a food processor, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 stick of butter, pulse until it ressembles coarse meal, add 1 egg yolk and pulse until combined into a ball. I flattened it into a disk in between sheets of plastic wrap, refrigerated it and rolled it out to cut rounds big enough to fit into my mini tart pans. The dough gets soft very fast so you can flour your fingertips to push it up and down the sides and bottoms of the pans.You can also sub. 1/4 cup ground nuts for 1/4 cup of the flour for added flavor.

For the filling: juice the lemons and strain if necessary. Combine the egg, yolks, sugar and cornstarch, add lemon juice and pour into the tart shells. Bake at 350 for 15 – 20 minutes. Let cool completely.

For the meringue: whip the egg whites to a foam, slowly add the sugar to form a shiny meringue. Pipe on top of the baked and cooled tarts. Put under broiler for a couple of minutes or until lighlty browned.

Serve, and pucker be ready…these are tart!