Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

I tried a new cheesecake recipe over the weekend, and was very pleased with the results. Instead of fresh raspberries, I used a bag of frozen ones. I thawed them, drained them, then whirled them in my mini food processor before pushing them through a strainer to remove the seeds.

Because I wanted the raspberry puree to be in the cheesecake as well as on top, I poured in half of the cheesecake batter, added some puree and swirled it, added the rest of the batter and topped it with more puree and swirling (the pictures in the link demonstrate how to do this).

It looked beautiful and was delicious! Here's the link:

http://www.afarmgirlsdabbles.com/2011/07/15/raspberry-swirl-cheesecake/

Cream Cheese Brownies

Here's a recipe for awesome cream cheese brownies!

2/3 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
2 oz. Unsweetened Chocolate
4 oz. Bittersweet or Semisweet Chocolate
8 oz. (1 stick) Unsalted Butter, cut into quarters
1 cup Granulated Sugar
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
3 Large Eggs

Filling
8 oz. Cream Cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 Egg Yolk

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray an 8-inch square pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line pan with 2 layers of foil, with some overhang to make it easier to remove the brownies from the pan. Spray sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

Whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl; set aside

Gently melt chocolate and butter together being careful to not scorch the chocolate. Whisk in the sugar and vanilla; cool slightly. Whisk in the eggs, 1 at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Continue whisking until the mixture is completely smooth. Add dry ingredients; whisk until just incorporated.

Filling: In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese with the sugar, vanilla and egg yolk until evenly blended.

Assembly: Pour half of the brownie batter into the prepared pan. By spoonfuls, drop half of the cream cheese mixture over batter. Repeat, layering the remaining brownie batter and cream cheese filling. Use the blade of a table knife to gently swirl the brownie batter and cream cheese filling, creating a marbled effect.

Back until the edges of the brownies have puffed slightly, the center feels not quite firm when touched lightly, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center come out with several moist, fudgy crumbs adhering to it, 50-60 minutes.

Cool the brownies on a wire rack until they are down to room temperature. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 3 hours, before cutting. These are pretty tall, so you can get away with cutting them into fairly small pieces.

A baking tidbit

Sometimes my cookies end up thin and crispy when I did not intend them to do so. I've often wondered what makes the difference when the same recipe behaves differently. I'm wondering if it isn't the softened or room temperature butter. Room temperature in my kitchen has a pretty wide scale of degrees.

Recently, I came across a recipe that described the butter as "softened, but still cool". I think that is a better way to describe it. Because when my butter is squishy to the point of nearly crossing the line from solid to liquid, I get unexpected or undesired results.

Just some musings in case you find 'em helpful. :-)

A new go-to recipe for chocolate cake

I tried this recipe for chocolate cake this weekend, and think it is quite similar to Magleby's chocolate cake. I made it as a 9x13" single-layer cake, but it would work well as two 8" or 9" rounds.

It is definitely my new go-to recipe. The texture is terrific, and the cake very moist. Once we cut into it, I could not stop slicing off little bits every time I walked past. It goes together pretty quickly and only took me 10-12 minutes to get it into the oven once I started pulling out ingredients. The batter was thinner than the usual cake batter, but don't let that worry you. I did find that I needed to bake mine several minutes longer than the 30 minutes indicated.

The frosting is also quite nice and goes together quickly. While it does develop a slight crust after sitting out, it stays soft underneath, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

Thanks to the Paysonites for a great dinner to go with the cake! I probably shouldn't admit this, but the Paysonite parents and I sampled the cake during the pre-dinner card playing - probably not surprising to anyone who knows us, since we instigated the "pie before dinner" Thanksgiving tradition!

It's definitely a dessert extravaganza here tonight -- there is buttermilk ice cream churning as I type, as well as a key lime pie in the fridge. And of course, more chocolate cake. I need a glass of milk just thinking about it!

Puppy Love

No, I did not get a new pet. However, I did make a puppy birthday cake this week. It was requested by a dear friend for her 9-year-old, animal-lovin' daughter. I did a little research after the initial phone call and found lots of possibilities while looking at images on Google. Before committing myself to a particular cake, I checked back in with my friend to find out what her daughter's expectations were and laughed when I found out that her daughter was expecting Rice Krispie treats in the shape of a 9. Whew! I felt pretty confident I could top that!

Here's what I ended up with.

The dog body was made with half of a Wilton 3D Egg cake pan. I cut the legs and ears out from a separate cake and attached them with frosting.

The collar and tongue are made from Star burst candies, slightly warmed in the microwave and rolled out. The nose is made from dried blueberries.

The chocolate frosting was my favorite part -- I tried chocolate swiss buttercream for the first time and it will definitely not be the last. Wow! The recipe I used is from Martha Stewart. This recipe worked beautifully. The texture, flavor, and consistency reminded me of chocolate whipped cream with the added benefit of working well for cake decorating.

I made the frosting ahead of time and brought it back to room temp, then whipped it again before using it. I refrigerated the cake when I was done, and took it out a few hours before it was to be served. The frosting was silky smooth when the cake was served without wilting or disintegrating like whipped cream would.

One caution -- the recipe is not for the caloric faint-of-heart. While there isn't as much sugar as a buttercream frosting made with powdered sugar, it does have an obscene amount of butter!

If you are looking for a frosting that is easy to smooth out on a layer cake, such as a wedding cake, give this one a try. The base recipe is for a vanilla frosting. I made a batch of the vanilla tonight to see if I liked it as much as I like the chocolate version and it turned out beautifully. I did not go so far as to bake a cake just to try it out from a decorating standpoint, but will stash it in my freezer for the next cake or cupcake adventure that needs frosting.

Lemon Tart

I tried a new recipe today -- Whole lemon tart (meaning, use the whole lemon except for the seeds)

The recipe came from one of the food blogs I love to read, Smitten Kitchen.

To me it seemed to be the grown-up sibling of lemon bars. One of my fellow consumers agreed. This is the first time I've made a tart, and I would definitely make this one again. B.S. - I saved a piece out for you and will bring it with me tomorrow night. :-)

Éclair Cake

I was reminded last night that I promised a friend that I would post the recipe for Eclair cake. Well, it's 4:30 in the morning and I can't get back to sleep, so I decided to work on my blog. This recipe came to me from Silly Girl's grandma.

Éclair Cake

1/2 cup Butter
1 cup Water
1 cup Flour
4 Eggs
8 oz pkg. Cream Cheese (room temp)
3 cups Milk
2 sm. pkg. Vanilla pudding
1 pint Whipping Cream
Chocolate Syrup (I use Hershey's)

Preheat oven to 400F.
Melt butter in water until boiling. Add flour. Add eggs one at a time. Spread in greased 11x15 pan. Bake for 25 minutes.

Blend cream cheese; slowly add milk. Add pudding mix. Spread over cooled crust.

Whip cream and spread over pudding layer. Drizzle with chocolate syrup.

After years of making this in my 11x15" pan (like the Pampered Chef Bar pan), I discovered that Silly Girl's family uses a 9x13" pan. Feel free to try that. I've found that I prefer the thinner crust.

This one works quite well with sugar free pudding, and if you do that, the dessert is sugar free provided you leave off the chocolate syrup. There are some sugar-free chocolate syrups out there, but I've not tried any of them.

Baking experiment

On Sunday while my mind was wandering during church, I started thinking about making rolls when I got home. The recipe I wanted to use calls for milk for the liquid, and thinking about that, I remembered I had some chocolate milk in the fridge. Hmmm...what would rolls made with chocolate milk be like?

I've never seen a roll recipe that calls for chocolate milk, but decided not to let that stop me. So, when I got home, I made a regular batch for dinner and a chocolate batch for fun.

The color was only little darker than normal, similar to what you might see if some whole wheat was added. I decided I would experiment further...so I rolled out the dough and spread nutella on it, then rolled it up cinnamon-roll style.

mmmm...I was pleased with the results. The bread itself doesn't taste very chocolate-y, but the nutella takes care of that. I think this could lead to a pretty good breakfast roll and I might have to experiment again in the future.