Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Well, it is official, food blogging has ruined me.
When I first learned that we were making the Brown Sugar Apple Cheesecake, I was overjoyed. You by now all know my love of cheesecake and so I wasted no time in making it. The very next morning after I learned of what we would be making this week, I awoke early to get started as I wanted cheesecake for breakfast! Cheesecake is after all, the breakfast of champions.
I took the cheesecake out of the oven and placed it on the rack to cool. Still at this point excited about the cheesecake. Then I released it from the spring form. Crap, crap, crap was all I thought. Now you may be thinking at this point that there was a large crack or it sunk, etc.
Nope. Not the case.
Hearing my rather loud “crap” comments coming from my mouth, my husband(who was working from home that day) came down to see what the fuss was about. I pointed to the cheesecake and said, “look at it!” He did. “Looks like cheesecake.” “It’s beige. Beige, beige and more beige.” A confused look formed on his face and I informed him very loudly…”beige food doesn’t photograph well!!!” Giving me the thanks for sharing crazy lady stare, my husband got a soda and went back upstairs.
Dorie doesn’t have a picture of this cheesecake in her cookbook…you know why? Because the whole thing is beige…and beige doesn’t photograph well! To make matters worse, when I cut into the cheesecake to plate it, the apples were, you guessed it….beige. Crap. I looked at the gray Pacific Northwest sky and thought yay, gray sky with beige food.
And this is how I knew food blogging had ruined me. No longer was I thinking hurry up and photograph this cheesecake so I can eat it, I was now thinking, how on earth am I going to photograph this cheesecake. Oh how owning a camera has changed me. Determined to give a little color contrast to pump it up, I sat and thought of things I could do to add punch to the cheesecake. I decided to go with one of my two standard back ups…when all else fails, throw either caramel or toffee sauce on it. I went with caramel. The recipe doesn’t call for it. I don’t care. Besides, caramel and apples were pretty much made for each other so I don’t know why Dorie didn’t think of it in the first place.
When all was said and done the beige cheesecake covered in caramel stepped up and decided to photograph nicely for me. And even more importantly….it tasted great(okay…maybe I am not totally ruined).
To see all of the Tuesday With Dorie’s entries go here.

Brown Sugar-Apple Cheesecake

For the Crust
30 gingersnaps
2 tbsp light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
1/2 stick (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted

For the Apples
1/2 stick (4 tbsp) unsalted butter
3 large Golden Delicious or Fuji apples, peeled, cored and cut into eighths(I used Honeycrisps)
2 tbsp (packed) light brown sugar

For the Filling
1 1/2 pounds (three 8-ounce packages) cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
6 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp apple cider
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
1/3 cup heavy cream

Caramel Sauce for Drizzling

To Make the Crust: Butter the bottom and sides of a 10-inch springform pan.

Put the gingersnaps in a food processor and whir until you have crumbs; you should have a scant 2 cups.  (If you are using graham cracker crumbs, just put them in the food processor.)  Pulse in the sugar and cinnamon, if you’re using it, then pour over the melted butter and pulse until the crumbs are moistened.  Turn the crumbs into the springform pan and, using your fingertips, firmly press them evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan as far as they’ll go.  Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven.  (The crust can be covered and frozen for up to 2 months.)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove the pan from the freezer and wrap the bottom tightly in aluminum foil, going up the sides.  Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, or until the crust is set and lightly browned.  Transfer to a rack to cool while you make the apples and the filling.  Leave the oven at 350 degrees F.

To Make the Apples: Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  When the foam subsides, toss in half of the apple slices and cook, turning once, until they are golden brown, about 3 minutes.  Sprinkle the apples with 1 tablespoon of the sugar and cook them, turning, just until coated, another minute or so.  Scrape the apples onto a plate, wipe out the skillet and repeat with the remaining apples.  Let the apples cool while you make the filling.

Getting Ready to Bake:  Have a roasting pan large enough to hold the springform pan at hand.  Put a kettle of water on to boil.

To Make the Filling: Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese on medium speed, scraping down the bowl often, for about 4 minutes, or until it is velvety smooth.  Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes.  Beat in the cider, vanilla, and cinnamon.  Reduce the speed to low and beat in the eggs one by one, beating for 1 minute after each egg goes in.  Finally, beat in the sour cream and heavy cream, beating just until the batter is smooth.

Pour about one third of the batter into the baked crust. Drain the apples by lifting them off the plate with a slotted spoon or spatula, and spoon them into the pan.  Cover with the remaining batter and, if needed, jiggle the pan to even the top.  Place the springform pan in the roasting pan and pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan.

Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 to 45 minutes, covering the cake loosely with a foil tent at the 45-minute mark.  The cake will rise evenly and crack around the edges, and it should be fully set except, possibly, in the very center–if the center shimmies, that’s just fine.  Gently transfer the cake, still in the pan, to a cooling rack and let it cool to room temperature, then refrigerate it for at least 6 hours; overnight would be better.

Run a blunt knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the crust, open the pan’s latch and release and remove the sides.

Source: Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin Company, November 2006

So I was a little boring this time around. Nothing fancy to say the least. However, I did go out of my comfort zone. See, I make cake doughnuts all the time at home, but yeast doughnuts…that was virgin territory. What I got were very interesting results. For from the same batch I had some doughnuts that rose like sky scrapers and I had some that didn’t rise at all. Hmmm. I must say that I was stumped. I mean, I make yeast bread often. And when you make yeast bread, it either rises, or it doesn’t. Parts of the bread don’t rise and other parts do, so to say I was perplexed was putting it mildly. It could have been the fact that I had to get up early to make these babies(my brain is not known to function at that time of day).
There is a sponge made, a rise for that. Add the ingredients, a rise for that. Roll them out, cover myself in flour, and then a rise for that. Well, some rise. Some just flat dough staring at me, mocking me. The ironic things was that after frying all of them up, the ones that rose the least ended up being my favorite. I mostly made plain or powdered sugared ones. I did however make two that were dipped in chocolate ganache and covered in sprinkles…for my hubby.
I’m glad that I chose to make the yeast doughnuts. I now know that I like cake ones better. I mean, I still love Krispy Krème and Tim Horton’s yeasty goodness, but when it comes to homemade, I am all about the cake. Especially since it does not take 4 hours to make. But know I know…and like GI Joe says, “knowing is half the battle.” (that dorky quote was for when my husband reads this).

Okay, I have made my doughnuts. Have you made yours? My biggest FEAR is that I have seen a few posts about doughnuts but you didn’t send Helen or I the link or the vital info. See, it’s not just enough to put it on your blog, you have to email us that you put it on your blog so that we know. I would really hate to miss out on any doughnuts that you all have made, because based on what we have seen so far there is some really great doughnuts out there….and a lot of variety! If you need a reminder, here is what you need to do:

Our only “requirements” are that your entry be a sweet one (plain, or fruit filled or other), and one you make especially for the event….because…well, that’s just us!

To participate, make and post some doughnuts between now and February 12th send us your entry at mytarteletteATgmailDOTcom or luvbriereATgmailDOTcom with the following information:
* Name
* Blog name
* Blog URL
* Post title or Name of dish
* Post URL
* Picture

Round up on both our blogs on the 15th!

Hope to see your doughnuts!!!

Raised Doughnuts

1 ¼ cups milk
2 ½ tsp active dry yeast
¾ cup granulated sugar
4 cups flour
¼ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla
½ tsp salt
vegetable oil, for frying
powder sugar for dredging

Heat milk in a saucepan over medium heat until it reaches 100 to 110. Pour the milk into a large bowl, add the yeast, about 1 TBSP of the sugar, and about 1 ½ cups flour, and mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
When the dough has risen, place the butter and the remaining sugar in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on high speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally, until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Add the yeast mixture and mix on low speed until well blended. Add the remaining 2 ½ cups flour and the salt and mix until the dough comes together, about 2 minutes. Transfer the dough to a wall floured surface and knead until very smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a large well greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until double in volume, about 1-1 ½ hours.
Roll the dough out onto a well floured surface to a thickness of about ½ inch. Cut with a doughnuts cutter. Place doughnuts on a well greased sheet pan and let rise in a warm place for about an hour.
To fry the doughnuts, heat about 4-inches of vegetable oil over high heat until it reaches 350F. Meanwhile, line a sheet pan with paper towels, and have it ready by the fryer. When oil is hot, add as many doughnuts as will fit without overcrowding, and cook on one side until golden brown 2-3 minutes. Turn the doughnuts over an cook about 2 minutes loner. Transfer to the paper towels to drain, and let cool for about 5 minutes. Continue cooking the rest of the doughnuts. Dredge in powder sugar and serve immediately.
Makes 24(I got about 13…I like big doughnuts)

Source: Adapted from Caprial’s Desserts by Caprial Pence and Melissa Carey

When I was still in high school my maternal grandfather died. My grandmother, a diabetic was left alone, and did not take the best care of herself. After much discussion, it was decided that she would come and live with us. Those were probably the toughest years for my parents. The only time in my life that I ever heard them argue and my grandmother was the source of that. My grandmother hated to go anywhere but always complained if you left her…which we did because we weren’t letting life pass us by, even if she was. One of the few places she would go with us was to Chinese food.
Every Sunday, our family would go to Chinese food. The same restaurant and the same time. Older folks like to have routine. The more we went, the more and more the owners grew to love us. What they loved the most about us was the fact that we were taking care of my grandmother. Oh how they loved my grandmother. They doted on her like no other person did and she ate it up. After about a year, at the end of our meal they brought out a plate of lychee(or litchi) nuts. There were four of us, there were four lychee nuts. We had never seen them or even heard of them up to this point. But I would learn to hate them more than any fruit there ever was…even the fruit I am allergic to. You see when we all took a bite of the lychee nuts, I was the only one who thought they tasted okay. When they came over and said, “how do you like?” instead of being honest my parents of course said they were wonderful.
So the next time we went, more lychee nuts. But this time my parents told me that I was in charge of eating them all. Ugh. So down the four lychee nuts would go. But then, things got much worse. They started bringing more, and more and more. Until one day(I know because I counted…if you ate as many as me you would too) they brought out 18. I ate 4 in protest and asked for a box to take home. My father finally broke down and told them, it’s not that he didn’t like the lychee nuts(LIAR) but that he just loved the almond cookies that they gave out. The result. A grocery bag full of individually wrapped almond cookies. All in all, about 300.  My parents moved more north and so we stopped going to that restaurant. We went back about a year after that and they were gone. I still tell my parents it was there fault they went out of business. I’m such a pain.
Today marks the start of the Lunar New Year. My year. The year of the Rat. I expect great things to come of this year and will except nothing less. To hounor the New Year I wanted to make something that said Chinese to me. Since I mostly eat “Americanized” Chinese food, I wont even pretend to make something authentic. I wasn’t in the mood to make fortune cookies and Lord knows I will NEVER eat a lychee nut again in my lifetime…so I went with my dad’s favorite, almond cookies. These are less than authentic too. Still the same concept just a little more me.
I’ll be ringing in the New Year by going to my favorite Chinese place. The place we go to pretty much every Saturday afternoon for lunch. They know us. They love us. And more importantly…they don’t give us any lychee nuts!!!
Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Sesame Almond Cookies

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup ground almonds(almond meal)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
dash salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 large egg white
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
36 whole honey sesame almonds(use blanched if you can’t get the honey sesame)

PREPARATION:
Stir together flour, ground almonds, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
In a mixing bowl cream butter, oil and sugar at medium speed of electric hand held mixer. Beat in egg white and almond extract.

Stir flour and ground almond mixture into the creamed mixture.

Cover with plastic wrap; chill for about 2 hours.
Shape dough into small balls, about 3/4-inch. Place balls 2 inches apart; flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass. Press an almond into the center of each cookie. Bake at 350° for about 12 minutes, or until set but not browned.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen almond cookies.

 Source: Adapted from About.com

I’ve joined another baking group. No, I have not left the Daring Bakers(all 500 and something of us…or maybe it is 600 now) but joined a group that is dedicated solely to baking Dorie Greenspan recipes. The first time I saw a post for Tuesdays With Dorie, I thought it was the cutest idea ever. We could spend years on Dorie recipes and never make a dent in all that she has to offer. If you read this blog you know that I am more than a Dorie fan, more like a Dorie worshiper. No other cookbook author seems to do what she does…offer near fool proof recipes in a language that the every day cook can understand. Having reviewed Baking From My Home to Yours, I know what an outstanding cookbook it is…I have recommend it to countless numbers of people and if you don’t have it you truly should.
Each week the group makes a recipe from Dorie…on Tuesdays. We are currently using the Baking From My Home to Yours but we have lots to choose from. This time around, April of Abby Sweets, selected the Black and White Chocolate Cake. It looks impressive though I must admit that I ran into a problem. A first for me with a Dorie recipe. Not really Dorie’s fault as it was my own. See, I am an over froster. I like frosting. Lots of frosting. From the picture it appeared that it was to be spread thinly…I just don’t do that. So naturally I ran out of frosting and had to make more…and I made a mini cake! I loved the actual buttermilk cake. I loved the chocolate filling. The white chocolate whipped cream was okay. I am not the biggest fan of white chocolate. I like it more of an accent than a main attraction. I know a lot of the girls had major issues with it. I don’t know what kind of white chocolate they used but you have to have high enough quality of white chocolate to make this work. The book suggested Valrhona, which is what I used. This is no time to use Bakers chocolate.
Presentation wise it is lovely. You have to be pretty good at cutting cake layers though as this cake has four. Like I said, I made mini ones. Again using my 4 ½ -inch diameter spring form pans. To make it easier to cut, my cooled cakes were placed in the freezer for 30 minutes. Then I used toothpicks to mark where I wanted to cut the cake. They aren’t perfect but they were decent enough. Some people swear by using dental floss. This method doesn’t work that great for me.
If I were to make this cake again I would do all of the layers in the chocolate, omit the white chocolate all together and go with a chocolate Buttercream frosting…but then it wouldn’t be as pretty.
To see a list of who is in the Tuesdays with Dorie group, visit the website so you can see what the other members did.

Black and White Chocolate Cake

For the cake:

2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 (10 Tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk

Dark chocolate cream:

2 cups whole milk
4 large egg yolks
6 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp corstarch, sifted
1/4 tsp salt
7 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted
2 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 5 pieces, at room temp

White chocolate whipped cream:

6 oz. premium quality white chocolate
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9X2 inch round cake pans, dust the insides with flour, tap out the excess and line the bottoms of the pans with parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To make the cake: Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and sal t.

Working with a stand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add the sugar and beat for another 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, and then the yolk, beating for 1 minutes after each addition. Beat in the vanilla; don’t be concerned if the mixture looks curdled. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, adding the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the milk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients); scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and mix only until the ingredients disappear into the batter. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 28-30 minutes, rotating the pans at the midway point. When fully baked, the cakes will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the centers will come out clean. Transfer the cakes to a rack and cool for about 5 minutes, then unmmold, remove the paper and invert to cool to room temperature right side up on the rack.

To make the dark chocolate cream: Bring the milk to a boil. Meanwhile, in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the egg yolk with the sugar, cornstarch and salt until thick and well blended. Whisking without stopping, drizzle in about 1/4 cup of the hot milk-this will temper, or warm, the yolks so they won’t curdle-then, still whisking, add the remainder of the milk in a steady stream. Put the pan over meduim heat and, whisking vigorously, constantly and thoroughly (make sure to get into the edges of the pan), bring the mixture to a boil. Keep at a boil, still whisking, for 1-2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.

Whisk in the melted chocolate, and let stand for 5 minutes. Then whisk in the pieces of butter, stirring until they are fully incorporated and the chocolate cream is smooth and silky. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the cream to create and airtight seal and refrigerate the cream until chilled, or for up to 3 days. Or, if you want to coool the cream quickly, put the bowl with a cream into a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and cold water and stir the cream occasionally until it is thoroughly chilled, about 20 minutes.

To make the white chocolate whipped cream: Put the white chocolate in a heat proof bowl and put the bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Stir frequently to melt the chocolate evenly. Meanwhile, bring 1/2 cup of the heavy cream to a boil.

When the white chocolate is melted, remove the bowl from the pan. Pour the hot cream into the melted chocolate and let it sit for a minute. Using a small spatula, stir the chocolate gently until it is smooth. Let it sit on the counter until it reaches room temperature-it can’t be the least warm when you add it to the whipped cream.

Working with the stand mixer with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream only unti l it holds the softest peaks. Turn the machine to high, add the cooled white chocolate all at once and continue to beat until the whipped cream holds firm peaks. Turn the whipped cream into a bowl, press a piece of plastic wrap gently against the surface to create an airtight seal and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 6 hours.

To assemble the cake: If the tops of the cake layers have crowned, use a long serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion to even them. Slice each layer horizontally in half. Place on layer cut side down on a cardboard cake round or on a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment.

Remove the dark and white chocolate creams from the refrigerator and whisk each of them vigorously to loosen and smooth them. With a long metal icing spatula, spread enough dark chocolate cream (about 1 cup) over the cake layer to cover it completely. Top the cream with another cake layer, cut side up, and cover this layer with white chocolate whipped cr eam, making the white layer about the same thickness as the dark layer. Cover with a third layer, cut side up, and cover with another cup or so of the dark chocolate cream. (You’ll have some dark chocolate cream left over) Top with the final layer of cake, cut side down, and frost the sides and top with the remaining white chocolate whipped cream. Decorate with chocolate shaving or curls, if you wish.

Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight.

Source: Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin Company, November 2006