Black-Bottomed Coffee Cheesecake

It's that time again! The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. This month's challenge encouraged us to play around with the flavors and toppings for our cheesecake. I decided to make one layer of chocolate cheesecake followed by one layer of coffee cheesecake, topped with a sour cream topping.


Just a quick note about cheesecake: recently, I went to a coffeeshop that had been recommended to me and had a slice of cheesecake, since that's their thing. I was expecting it to be pretty good, since they're known for it and all, but I was pretty dissapointed. It was supposed to be mocha flavored, but it was hardly flavored at all. it had a nice texture, but not the dense creamyness that I expect in a cheesecake. I think some of this stems from the tw schools of cheesecake thought. In one, cheesecake should be light and airy to balance out the dense creamcheese. In mine, however, it should be dense and creamy and not too sweet, the tartness balanceing out the heavyness of the creamcheese. But still, I was surprised at what I precieved as the inadequacy of said cheesecake. Moral: make your own.

I began by using chocolate teddy grahams for the crust, because they were cheaper than chocolate wafers. I really liked the crust they produced - a little sturdier than usual, with the graham flour yielding a more dynamic texture. Crumb crusts are one of my favorite things in the world, so I opted for a thicker crust all the way around rather than the crust going up the sides, so each bite would be sufficiently crusted.

To make the coffee and chocolate layers, I heated up some of the cream and poured half of it over some chocolate chips (about 1/4 cup). I steeped the rest with coffee grounds in a French press. Then I divided the cheesecake batter (about 1/3 - 2/3) and added the chocolate to the smaller amount and the coffee to the larger, and layered them into the pan. I didn't add any lemon juice or liquer. I baked it for about 35 minutes, then spead it with sour cream with a little sugar and vanilla mixed in.

I didn't bake the cheesecake in a waterbath because I don't have a pan bigger than my springform. As a result, the top cracked, but I don't think the texture suffered at all. However, the sour cream topping did get a little overcooked from leaving the cake in the turned off oven. the topping should be distinct in it's tangyness and color, but should be the same creamy texture as the cheesecake. Instead, it's a little less creamy and more distinct. But the other layers just right.

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

March Challenge!

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.

This challenge consisted of three parts, all made from scratch: spinach pasta, ragu, and bechamel sauce. I was excited to make this challenge as it gave me a chance to make spinach pasta, which is one of my most favorite things ever. I had a bit of trouble with it, though. It was just too dry, so I added and extra egg and a splash of water and it turned out fine. I cheated a bit and used a pasta maker to roll out the dough partway, and then finished it up by hand.


Slightly embarrassing confession: until I moved to Vancouver, I didn't realize that racks like the one above were for clothes drying. Some part of me knew that they weren't designed for drying pasta, but that's all we ever used ours for when I was growing up.

I made the meat sauce almost exactly as in the recipe, minus the meat, of course. I added some garlic and herbs to make it a bit more flavorful. The recipe makes too much for the lasagne, but it was amazing on pizza. I always get a bit nervous adding milk to acidic things, because it separates, but it came together fine in the end.

The bechamel sauce was simple and delicious. I found that when I put the whole thing together, though, I had more lasagne noodles than my pan would fit. I also failed to distribute the Parmesan cheese equally between the layers, instead splashing it about whenever I remembered. I also forgot to cover it with foil during the fist part of baking. Oops! Oh well, it turned out great. We had Fitzy over for dinner and she thought it was awesome. Definitely a lot of work, but there's nothing as delicious as homemade pasta.


You can find the recipes here.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

I made the cake with semisweet chocolate, baked it in an 8x8 pan, and cut three-inchish circles out of the finished cake. It was incredibly rich and yet still light, two characteristics that are very difficult to balance with chocolate. I paired the cake with pistachio ice cream with a salty caramel ribbon - the caramel from the previous caramel-themed challenge (Nov 08, I believe). Some friends back from a trip to New York had raved about this flavor of ice cream and I wanted to try it. I used the hazelnut gelato recipe from epicurious, substituting pistachios for the hazelnuts and drizzling in the slightly warm caramel as I was freezing it.

To serve, I formed foil collars around half-moons of cake and filled circle with softened ice cream, and then froze them util soild. I drizzled them with a bit of chocolate and caramel sauce, a dollop of whipped cream, and then garnished them with pistachio brittle wedges. I served them at Ladies' Night, and they were a big hit.


Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Tuiles

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.


I made the tuiles as part of my Obama inauguration feast, filling them with chocolate, vanilla bean, and caramel mousses. Using the ever-classy and all-purpose material cardboard beer box, I cut out a round template to spread the batter. I found thinner, even to the point of translucence, worked best for shaping. Then I piped designs on with the chocolate batter.


When the edges browned, I took them out of the oven and rolled them as best I could into cones. Some cracked, some ended up more like cigars, but on the whole, it was pretty successful.

I also shaped some on a rolling pin so any strict, no-gelatin vegetarians could still try them mousse-less.


I used half recipes of the dark chocolate and vanilla bean mousses from last month's challenge, and half a recipe of caramel mousse from Baking with Julia. The caramel mousse came out a little soupy, but certainly adequate in terms of taste. And despite the copious quantities of food we put forward that night, everyone gobbled them up (the dark chocolate was especially a hit).


Recipe:
Yields: 20 small butterflies/6 large (butterflies are just an example)
Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes, baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch

65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)
60 grams / ½ cup / 2.1 ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
65 grams / 1/2 cup / 2.3 ounces sifted all purpose flour
1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice
Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

Oven: 180C / 350F

Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not over mix.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Press the stencil on the baking sheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the wings and body of the butterfly.

Bake butterflies in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from baking sheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. (Haven’t tried that). Or: place a baking sheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.

If you don’t want to do stencil shapes, you might want to transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with a small plain tip. Pipe the desired shapes and bake. Shape immediately after baking using for instance a rolling pin, a broom handle, cups, cones….

Caramels!!

Although the burnt toffee I ended up with after November's challenge is quite delicious (especially in meringues), I still wanted to try out the caramels. With the help of a candy thermometer, they turned out beautifully (although the suggestion to wrap them individually might have been a good one to follow).


They are, clockwise from left, milk chocolate topped, plain, and salted (the best, in my opinion).