Caramel Swirl Cheesecake

Jan here.

We've already talked about the meals at this year's ACFW conference -

(remember the purple mashed potatoes?)

- but we haven't touched the desserts yet.

I think it's important to notice that there haven't been any pictures of the desserts circulation around - they were so good that none of them lasted long enough to get a picture!

The same lunch where we were served the purple potatoes, the dessert was Caramel Swirl Cheesecake.

It was REALLY good! And rich!

And, of course, calorie-free since it was at conference, right?

I had to have that recipe...so I took the recipe I had for Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake (to die for!) and tried it with caramel.

The recipe is from "The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion" - by far the best cookbook I've bought in a long time.

And don't think cheesecake is hard to make! It's time consuming, but not hard.

The biggest misconception people have about cheesecake is that you have to make it in a spring-form pan. It helps to have one, but you can also use an 8x8 baking dish, and it works just fine - although maybe not so pretty.

But when something tastes this good, does it really matter how it looks?

There are two recipes here - one for the crust and one for the filling. We'll do the crust first.

Pate Sucree (or pasta frolla in Italy)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon non-fat dry milk (optional, but helpful for browning and tenderness)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick, 4 ounces) cold butter
1 large egg yolk (sorry, this time it's a permanent separation)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon water


Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together flour, dry milk, sugar and salt, and then cut in the butter.

Whisk together the egg yolk, vanilla and water in a small bowl, and then stir the liquid into the dry mixture.

The dough should be crumbly, but should hold together when you squeeze it.

Press the dough into the bottom of your pan and about 1/2 inch up the sides.

Prick the bottom all over with a fork, and then bake at 375 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

It should be lightly browned.

Remove it from the oven and set aside to cool.




Before you do anything else, reduce your oven temperature to 325 degrees. You'll thank me later.

And now it's time for the good stuff!

Caramel Swirl Cheesecake

Ingredients:

3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, at room temperature (or you can go to a warehouse store and buy the huge block)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy (whipping) cream

You'll need to put your mixer to work on this one, but don't work it too hard. You want to work at gentle, slow speeds so you don't incorporate air into the cheesecake mixture. I use my whisk attachment, but you can also use regular beaters.

At slow speed, beat the cream cheese until it's soft and doesn't have any lumps. Scrape the bottom and sides of your bowl a couple times while you do this.

Add the sugar and salt and mix until well blended.

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until well blended and scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition.

Now add the vanilla and cream slowly, and mix until it's well blended.

Measure out 3/4 cup of the filling and put it in a small bowl, and then pour the rest into your pan, on top of your crust.

Now comes the fun part. I used these caramel bits, but if you can't find them, use regular caramels, cut them into small pieces, and continue.

Measure 3/4 cup caramel bits into a microwave safe bowl, add a couple Tablespoons water, and heat in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, until the caramel is melted and you can stir the mixture into a nice, smooth bowl of caramelly goodness.

Mix your caramel into the small bowl of cheesecake filling, stirring until its all smooth.

Drop the caramel mixture onto your cheesecake filling by the tablespoon-full. Don't worry about squiggles or drips.

Next, take a knife and gently zig-zag through the dollops of caramel.

Now, isn't that pretty?

Make sure your oven temperature is at 325 degrees (aren't you glad you turned it down earlier?), and put your cheesecake in the oven. Bake it for about 45-50 minutes, or until lightly browned and slightly jiggly in the middle.

The cheesecake will puff up like nobody's business! But it won't last.

Turn your oven off, open the door slightly, and leave the cheesecake in the oven for another hour. As your oven cools, your cheesecake will continue baking (no more jiggly center) and cool slowly (hopefully, no cracked top!). And it will deflate.

After an hour, take the cheesecake out of the oven, run a knife around the edge to allow the cake to pull away from the pan, and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Yours shouldn't be this brown.

I'm still fighting with my oven - it refuses to keep an even temperature - but I'm sure this cheesecake will still taste good!





If you're here too early on Monday morning to see the final results, check back in later in the day - I'll post a picture of a slice of heaven - I hope :)

Oh! And a bonus recipe! If you want to make Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake, just substitute chocolate chips for the caramel. Now, isn't that easy?

Monday morning update:

Except for the extra brown top, I'd say this cheesecake deliciousness was a success. The only complaint I would have is that the caramel swirls are too similar in color to the regular cheesecake, so they don't stand out - but you can taste the caramel!

I remember our cheesecake at conference having more of a caramel texture to the swirls, so when I try this again, I think I'll use 1 1/2 cups caramel bits instead of 3/4.

On the other hand, the chocolate swirl is so good...

One other difference between this cheesecake and others I've had - I followed the recipe's suggestion for a sweeter cheesecake and used all cream, instead of 1/2 cup cream and 1 cup sour cream that the Classic Cheesecake recipe had.

This cheesecake doesn't have that classic tang that I associate with plain cheesecake, but it is still so good!

Jeanne T's Flourless Chocolate Cake: Winning Recipe!

Congratulations Jeanne Takenaka, Winner of the Seekerville:

"NOMINATE YOUR CAKE CONTEST!"

"Flourless Chocolate Cake"

Ruthy here.... Now you and I know this cannot be a cake, right? I mean, no way, no how, it's got no flour....

None.

NOT A SMIDGE!!!!

But Jeanne insists it's a cake. And her nomination was chosen by a team of random auditors, then sealed in an envelope provided by Price Waterhouse Coopers.

(None of that is true. My kid works for PWC and he says THEY NEVER SAW ANYTHING ABOUT A CAKE CONTEST AND ACCUSED HIS SWEET MOTHER OF STRETCHING THE TRUTH....

Huh. As if!  :)

And here's the young finance wizard in question... He's the tall one. These three look alike, and Luke was in town for Grandpa's funeral.... a happy time of remembering with just a few tissues needed.

So let's start with ingredients. Right now this... this... THING is baking in my oven and it smells HEAVENLY.

I do not lie. 

*Author's note: I do stretch the truth to meet my own ends from time to time. I'm Celtic. This is allowed. (end note)

10 oz. bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

6   oz. bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped  (for glaze)

10 Tablespoons (10 oz.) unsalted butter

6   Extra Large eggs, separated (Not divorced because they will get back together soon. I promise.)

2/3 Cup Sugar

1/2 cup whipping cream (for glaze)

1/4 cup sweetened, flaked coconut, toasted  (toasting directions on package)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 10" cake pan. (or spring form pan) 

Line pan with parchment paper.  (Did you notice how cool I was that I had parchment paper in the cupboard???? SUHWEEEET!

Separate eggs. No lawyer required. It's a temporary separation.  :)  Keep whites in large mixing bowl, yolks in smaller bowl.

Stir 10 oz. of chocolate and 10 oz. of butter in a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water. (Ruthy note: Oops. We had a house full this week, so I used my stash of chocolate chips to make cookies on Wednesday morning, but I had a dozen semi-sweet chocolate bars with toffee and sea salt, so I used that instead. The sea salt chocolate makes the unsalted butter a non-issue, right???? So I used regular butter. Have I mentioned that salt and I have a thing for one another? Whither salt goest, I will go.... and so on.)

Remove chocolate and butter from pan and set bowl aside to cool slightly.

Whisk egg yolks and sugar together. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold egg yolk mixture into egg whites, just until blended.

 Fold egg yolks into whipped egg whites:

Pour chocolate and butter mixture into egg white/egg yolk mix. Fold with large spatula just until blended.

Stop to feed hungry baby:

She was not interested in hearing how important this cake was/is. She said: FEED ME!!!

So I did....  And then:

Transfer batter to prepared cake pan. Gently tap cake pan on work surface to eliminate large bubbles.

Bake cake for about 35 minutes, until toothpick or cake tester inserted into center comes out clean. 

Transfer cake to rack and cool completely. Center will fall.  (awww.....) Press outer edges of cake down to level of center once cool. Run think knife around pan sides to release cake. Turn cake out onto rack and peel off parchment paper. Invert cake onto platter.

Place remaining 6 oz. chocolate in medium bowl. Bring whipping cream to boil in small saucepan. Pour cream over chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. (Doesn't that just sound heavenly????) This is Elijah, helping me.... He wants you to know he's making a "funny face"... :)

 Pour chocolate mixture onto cake, spreading just to edges.

You might have to lick the bowl. Just because it's there!

Sprinkle with toasted coconut. Refrigerate until chilled.

(Okay, I was out of toasted coconut. And I know I'm not out of coconut, I know it's HIDING....LURKING... and it will show up on Monday, but I couldn't find it to toast it today. Dad gum.)

Serve!  This has a deep, dark chocolate flavor, a consistency almost like brownies... And the glaze is to die for, of course!

Jeanne, thank you so much for sharing this with us! It was a lot of fun to make, as you can see!

The Best Biscuits and Good Ol' Southern Jelly

The Belle, here. Well, I had promised a pumpkin recipe but never got to make it. So, in celebration of all things pumpkin, I want to start with something yummy I tried this week...

A Pumpkin Pie Moolatte from Dairy Queen!

It even had nutmeg grated on top!

Now for my "recipe" for today. ;)

My favorite biscuits. Are you ready for this? Here are the ingredients:

1 Bag of frozen Mary B's Biscuits! :)

Yep. That's it. I promise you these are about the best biscuits ever. They make several styles of biscuits, but my favorite is the Tea Biscuits. They're just a couple of bites each and have the best texture. A little crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.

YUM! And easy peasy--perfect for someone like me whose homemade biscuits always turn out like hockey pucks.

Preheat the oven to about 400. You can just put the biscuits on a cookie sheet frozen.

Bake 15-20 minutes.

And voila! You have beautiful, golden brown biscuits. Quick, while they're hot, split them and add a nice thick pat of real butter!

Here are our favorite Georgia-style toppings...

Muscadine jelly! (This jelly is actually made with muscadine wine as well as grape juice.) Muscadines are a type grape that are grown around here. In fact, the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension website says that in 2006, Georgia was the largest producer of muscadine grapes with 1400 acres of them. The grapes are high in resveratrol, the compound found in red wine that's supposed to lower cholesterol and the risk of heart disease. So we'll pretend eating the jelly is healthy, too! :)

I have to tell you a funny story. When I first moved here and started working, I went on break with my coworkers, and one of them asked me if I'd like a scuppernong. She held out a baggie of huge grape looking things. I looked at her like she was crazy, I'm sure, and asked what she'd just said! LOL Such a strange word. I just now did a bit of research and found it's a variety of the muscadine. However, some sites calls the red grapes muscadines and the white ones scuppernongs. Either way, they make fantastic jelly!

Another local jelly we love is mayhaw jelly. I had to do a little checking to find out what in the world a a mayhaw is (I'm originally from Kentucky so had never heard of them either). They're tart red berries (aren't technically a berry but are in the haw or apple family) that grow in the swamps and bogs of southwest Georgia.

So, you've had your tasty lesson for the day! Hope you enjoyed a visit to the south. :)

Missy
www.missytippens.com

Kav's Pumpkin Snickerdoodles!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

by Kav

We can all thank Simba for this recipe. Isn’t he adorable? Such a manly man with a tender heart…unless you’re a squirrel or a bunny or a cat or…Anyhow, the poor dear is going to be a tad put out when I reveal his little secret…Ahem, he has a delicate digestive system. If you’re a dog owner you know what that means! If you’re not a dog owner you can probably imagine what it means, but why you would want to, I don’t know. Besides, it’s not really the proper thing to talk about in this classy café. The only reason I bring it up at all is that Simba’s ‘condition’ is responsible for my delving into a variety of pumpkin recipes.

Amazing Dog Tip :  You all know that Mary Poppins song – A Spoonful of Sugar…well, the canine version is A Spoonful of Pumpkin. Seriously, a glop in the morning kibble and another glop in the evening kibble makes Simba…ah, how shall I say this politely? Perfect in every way. :)

The thing is, canned pumpkin doesn’t have a long shelf life. I fill two ice cube trays and have some ‘fresh’ on hand for a couple of days but after that it starts to grow fur – and not the soft, Simba kind. So every couple of weeks I try out a new pumpkin recipe. You would not believe the number of bread, cake and cookie recipes that involve pumpkin! And this one – Pumpkin Snickerdoodles – is my favourite so far and not just because it’s so much fun to say snickerdoodle.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

3 ¾ cup flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

½ dark brown sugar

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

For the coating:

½ cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

Dash of allspice

Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl, beat together sugars and butter. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla. Then add dry ingredients. Don’t over mix. The batter is kind of goopy and I’ve found it’s easier to use a good ol’ wooden spoon instead of a mixer. Cover the dough and refrigerate until firm (about an hour.)

Preheat oven 350

Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In small bowl mix the coating ingredients. Scoop up about 2 tbsp of dough, roll into ball and then into the sugar/spice mixture. Place on baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Press down with fork to flatten.

Bake 10 minutes – cookies remain pale so don’t overcook. Delicious with tea or hot chocolate.

Pass the Posole!

  Hello, all! The Fresh Pioneer is back! Fall is officially here and we're all hunkered down over our stew, wrapped in quilts by the blazing fire.

 

   Except we don't have a fire. We have electric baseboard heat, which isn't quite the same.

 

  And no stew. I love the stuff but hubby hates cooked carrots. Sometimes I make stew without them, then try and add in cooked carrots at the end, after I've separated the bowls. Sometimes I try to sneak the carrots out of his bowl... But he says he can taste them.

 I read a great quote the other day by Eckhart Tolle...

                          If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy,

you have three options: REMOVE yourself from the situation, CHANGE it, or ACCEPT it totally.

If you want to take responsibility for your life,

you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now.

Then accept the consequences.

No excuses. No negativity. No psychic pollution. Keep your inner space clear.

Huh. Not sure what he means by psychic pollution (I'm wearing my foil hat like a good girl!) but it got me thinking about the things that drive me nuts. Like carrot-less stew. I'm in an intolerable situation with this stew deal. With carrots= hubby whines. Without carrots= I whine.
 

 

Since I can't REMOVE myself from the situation (divorce over carrot-less stew is frowned upon in my church), I could try to ACCEPT it totally. I 'ommmmmm'ed my way into the zone... imagining years of those Fall months bearing steaming bowls of creamy potato and beef stew, with just a few springs of fresh parsley and maybe some crunchy French bread on the side.

Total acceptance.

I was zen.

I was at peace.

I was hungry.

For stew with carrots.

*sigh* So, back to Tolle, and my third choice which was CHANGE.
(picture removed of people white water rafting)

 

This is how I feel about change. (What are all those people so happy about?? This is not fun, this is terrible! Get back on dry land! You're all going to die and your tombstones will read: "Happy now?")

(Edna saw Mindy's mixer had a matching spatula and cutting board. She thought we should redecorate in 50's chrome handles and pulls. Hubby feels like he's in an old space movie. I figure whatever makes Edna a happier mixer is okay by me.)

So, I'm not a fan of change, but that seems like where I was headed with the issue of the stew. I decided to think of all the delicious things that were like stew, as close to stew as I could get, yet not missing some major ingredient, or have something picky eater wouldn't touch.

  Posole! Say it with me! (Oh, pronunciation? Po-ZO-lay.)

 

So, here we go: (gratuitous shot of our attempt at Jan's garlic cheesy twist bread. Mmm.)


One whole medium onion chopped with three cloves of garlic minced, 2 TBS olive oil, sauteed in the bottom of a soup pot.

Add two cans of tomatoes and 1 tsp salt. (These are our tomatoes from the garden, I added two quarts, and the sea salt was a gift, yee haw!  I don't think it made much of a difference, but it was fun to pretend we were in Sicily... cooking posole.)

Hominy. 50% off. I have no idea where this came from, but it was in the pantry. Probably planted by my husband. This was a huge can, but even with this, it seemed a little short on hominy. So don't add a small can unless you're hoping to get a bowl without any. Add 6 cups of water or chicken broth. Of not chicken broth, you can season with boullion. If no boullion, just let the chicken cook, it will be good anyway.

At this point, you'll get it to a rolling boil, including 4-5 chicken breasts. Some recipes call for a deli chicken deboned. But who can buy a deli roasted chicken and save it for posole?? That sucker would be 'deboned' within minutes in this house. So, some frozen chicken breasts (which NO ONE wants to see) into the pot, boiled, and then simmered for 30 minutes.

During the final phase, you add the CUMIN powder. I put that in caps because don't think you can add oregeno and get away with it. That would be something else entirely.

Cumin is related to caraway which is related to parsley which is related cilantro which is related to feet. It smells a little musty, but in a good way. Cumin powder- 3 tsp. You can add some hot sauce at this point, but I didn't.

Here's a dish for one of the kids. It smells delicious!!

And here's mine. Come to Mama!  Usually, there is shredded cabbage and corn chips, but I just plopped some lettuce and sour cream on there and called it good.

  So,  I needed to check in with dear Eckhart and see what to do next.

Then accept the consequences.

No excuses. No negativity. No psychic pollution. Keep your inner space clear.

 

 

 

 

Well, there was definitely no negativity, no excuses and I'm guessing no psychic pollution. My inner space was clear, except I was full of posole.

 

 All in all, I could live with this. Stew has a special place in my heart, but posole is gaining on me. Or making me gain. Either way.

 

And my breath is killer. Cumin AND garlic. Yeee-OW.

 

  Keep warm until next time!

                   

 

Goin' Bananas

What do you do when your bananas look like this?

Well, in my house, it calls for a batch of banana nut bread. Over the years I've tried lots of different recipes. Some good, some not so good. The recipe I'm going to share with you today is one of the best I've tried. Of course, it's courtesy of Martha Stewart, so what would you expect.

 

You're going to need:

• 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups flour (Martha says unbleached all-purpose; I used the better-for-bread variety)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mashed very ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan or four smaller pans (I opted for the smaller pans).

 

With an electric mixer (perhaps one named Edna), cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

 

Add the eggs and beat well.

Sift the dry ingredients together and combine with the butter mixture.

Blend well. Add the bananas, sour cream (the ingredient I think makes this recipe stand out), and vanilla. Stir well. (I used my electric mixer on the lowest speed)

Stir in the nuts.

Pour into prepared pan(s).

For one large pan, the instructions are to back for one hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. For my four small loaves, I found 40 minutes to be just right.

 

Turn baked loaves onto rack to cool.

I love keeping these little guys in the freezer so they're ready whenever I need them. Sometimes, I'll put them in a cellophane bag with a pretty ribbon and give them as gifts.

 

Of course, they also go perfect with cup of tea. I'm having a little one-on-one with some Cream Earl Green. He's so smooth, you know.



 

Tea's on, gang. Who's ready to join me?