Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Mother Nature thought it best for us to not have power for a day and a half. I’m one of the lucky ones as there are still thousands upon thousands of people with out power. Unfortunately, I lost all the food in my frdige and freezer and can’t restock yet as the local grocers around me were also without power and most are not getting shipments in till Monday. So if you don’t see something new for awhile…that would be why. In the meantime, head on over to Running with Tweezers and be jealous of the fabulous cookbook and chocolate that I won for winning the souper challenge. While your there offer her your congratulations as she herself just won HHDD #*…the risotto challenge.

In case you were wondering it was my Roasted Onion and Gorgonzola Soup that won.

Also I updated my recipe index so that everything is nice and current.

Hope everyone else is having much better weather than we are!!!!

Well the holiday season is in full swing and so are the parties. And parties mean party food! If I had not been sicker than sick for onion day, this would have been my entry. But alas the forces of nature did not allow that and so I am presenting my dish to you now. I love this dish and bring it often to parties. This can be presented in two ways. One as an appetizer, where you would put a nice wedge on a plate along with some greens and some bread. Or two, the way I do it most often as a “spread” for crackers, bread and what not. The cheesecake itself is good but it is the onion pear jam/chutney(which ever you prefer) is what makes this special. So if you want to serve something a little unusual but tasty, put this out on your holiday buffet table.

 Blue Cheese Cheesecake with Onion Pear Jam

1 3/4 lbs softened cream cheese
8 oz shredded Asiago cheese
8 oz blue cheese, crumbled
5 large eggs
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp white pepper

Grease a 9-inch springform pan.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Cream cheeses together until smooth.
Add eggs one at a time.
Add cream and pepper. Combine.
Bake uncovered in a water bath until golden brown and center is set.About 45-50 minutes.
Cool Completely, remove sides of pan.

Onion Pear Jam

4 cups onions, diced
1 tsp olive oil
2 cups pears, peeled, chopped
2 TBSP fruit vinegar
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 pinch cayenne pepper

Saute onions in oil until brown. Reduce heat and cook until glazed.
Add pears, vinegar, sugar, cayenne and salt. Cook till pears are crispy tender.
Remove mixture ans simmer juice utnil a thick glaze.
Mix pear onion mixture with glaze. Cool.
Cover cooled cheesecke with jam and serve with bread or crackers.

I much prefer eating molasses crinkles to that of a gingerbread man. Many of the same flavors highlighted, yet none of the guilt associated with biting off the head of the gingerbread man and knowing that poor Mrs. Gingerbread man will have to explain to all the little ginger children why daddy isn’t coming home. And then they will all have to go to therapy for years, go broke and get evicted from the gingerbread house, and I simply can’t deal with the guilt of all that! But a crinkle, that’s nothing. I can rip into those with the ease of knowing I’m not breaking up a family.
A crinkle is such a homely cookie, often passed up by someone who has never had one. But to the person who passes on them from looks alone I say, serves you right. You are missing out on a spicy, old fashion, wonderful with tea cookie. This particular recipe comes from Cooks Illustrated and is for soft and chewy cookies. I like to bake them a tad longer than what it calls for because I like my molasses cookies a little more chewy than soft, everyone has a preference.
So this holiday season before you break out your gingerbread cookie cutters, think long and hard about the consequences of your actions. Wont you help Mr. Gingerbread, and so many needy others like him. Just say “no” and make molasses crinkles instead.

 Molasses Crinkle Cookies

1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus 1/2 cup for dipping
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
12 TBSP unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup light or dark molasses

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and spices in a medium bowl until thoroughly combined; set aside.
3. In a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter with brown and granulated sugars at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and add yolk and vanilla; increase speed to medium and beat until incorporated, about 20 seconds. Reduce speed to medium-low and add molasses;beat until fully incorporated, abuot 20 seconds, scraping bottom and sides of bowl once with rubber spatula. Reduce speed to the lowest setting; add flour mixture and beat until just incorporated, about 30 seconds, scraping bowl down once. Give dough final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no pockets of flour remain at bottom. Dough will be soft.
4. Using TBSP measure, scoop heaping TBSP of dough and roll into a ball. Roll ball in sugar and place onto prepared cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are browned, still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, about 11 minutes(I wanted a a less soft cookie so I baked mine longer about 13).
5. Cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.
Makes 22 cookies.

 

 

The tree is up, the stockings are hung and cookies have been a baking. I’m official in the holiday mood, it just took a little longer this year is all. I turn once again to the beloved candy cane. In my previous life in Phoenix, when I was a school teacher, I actually grew quite sick of candy canes. Every year kids would give me Christmas cards and every year there would be a candy cane attached to it. When you teach junior high and you teach a little over 100 kids…that adds up to a lot of candy canes. But now that I have been out of teaching for a few years my love for peppermint candy canes has been growing back again…just like a lizards tail. I still can’t put them on the tree…this year I think ours are jolly rancher flavored, but I have brought them back into my baking and into my hot chocolate(yum!).

I was violently killing candy canes with a mallet for another idea that I had. It went bad and I had to do somehting else. My friend A, or my goat as I like to call her, has a hubby who thinks he should get cheesecake from me for his own personal cheesecake of the month club….and so far it has worked out that way. I head over there tomorrow for a cookie exchange so I thought why not bring him a cheesecake? This is not exactly your typical candy cane cheesecake and you might be scared off a tad by the orange juice, but it isn’t really noticable and it brings out the mint flavor nicely.

So if you are really wanting something good from Santa this year, maybe you should leave a piece of this out instead of a cookie or a peppermint stick.

Candy Cane Cheesecake 

Ingredients:
Crust
2 cups oreo cookie crumbs
1/2 cup crushed candy canes
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
Cheesecake
1 1/2 lb. cream cheese
1 1/2 tbsp. peppermint schnapps
1/2 tbsp. orange juice
1/2 tbsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 tbsp. sour cream
1/4 cup half and half
1 cup crushed candy canes
Instructions:
Crust

Combine all ingredients and mix well.

Butter two 8 inch cake pans.

Divide crumb mixture between the two pans, making 1/2 inch crust.

Cheesecake

Beat cream cheese, schnapps, concentrate, vanilla, cream, and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Add remaining ingredients and beat well until blended.

Fill both prepared pans with cheesecake batter. Place pans in water bath of boiling water and bake at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.

Cool on rack and chill overnight.

Source: Chef Eddie Matney