Cookies & Cream Mini-Cheesecakes

Earlier tonight, Always a Northerner asked for suggestions for a bake sale to raise money for the flood victims of Binghamton.   I feel like typical cupcakes and cookies are a dime a dozen at bake sales, so I suggested these mini-cheesecakes as a fun alternative.   My favorite part is the oreo cookie as a crust, which makes them relatively neat and tidy to hold in your hand without requiring a fork.  They’re so quick to make, super tasty (if you like cheesecake), hold up well throughout the day even without refrigeration (I’ve brought them to many an outdoor summer potluck), and you can make them days ahead of time and pop them in the refrigerator until you need them.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes 
adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes
Ingredients:

• 1 package Oreo cookies; 30 left whole, 12 coarsely chopped
• 2 pound cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup sour cream
• pinch salt

Ingredients:

1. Preheat oven to 275F.  Line muffin tins with paper liners.  Place one cookie in the bottom of each muffin liner.
2. Beat cream cheese until smooth.  Gradually add in sugar and beat until combined.  Beat in vanilla.
3. Slowly add in eggs, sour cream, and salt, beating until combined.  Stir in chopped cookies by hand.
4. Divide batter among the 30 muffin liners with cookies, filling each to almost the top.  Bake until filling is set, about 22 minutes.  Transfer to wire racks to cool completely, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours.  Remove from liners just before serving.

Pretty enough in muffin liners to serve at a bake sale…

… and super tasty when popped out of the liners!

Carrot Cake with Lemon-Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Somewhere over the past six years, I became the official “birthday baker” of the lab. With 20+ coworkers, it means there’s always an excuse to bake a cake! Peanut butter and chocolate are definitely the favored flavors in the lab, but once in a while, someone picks something new and different and it’s the perfect opportunity to create a new recipe. I was quite pleased when someone requested a carrot cake, as I have (shockingly) never made one before. I looked through a few different recipes and then just decided to make one on a whim as I went. The benefit to creating your own recipe is tailoring it to your exact tastes: in this case, lots and lots of cinnamon, very heavy on the carrots, light on the nuts, and absolutely no pineapple whatsoever. Baking for my coworkers also means I have a built in recipe-testing panel, and it seems like they all approved of this original creation!

    

Carrot Cake
(a Sugar Scientist original recipe)
Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 box (4 ounces) instant vanilla pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 3 cups packed shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line the bottoms of two 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, pudding mix, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk together to blend.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs one at a time and blend in the vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add half the dry ingredients, all the milk, and the rest of the dry ingredients. Beat each addition until just incorporated. Mix in carrots and pecans by hand.
4. Divide the batter between the two pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer the pans to a wire rack and cool for 20 minutes. Invert cakes onto the rack, peel off the parchment, and cool completely before frosting.

Lemon-Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 10 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Beat together butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add in lemon juice and cinnamon.
2. Slowly incorporate powdered sugar. If frosting is too stiff, add in one tablespoon of milk.

Super Sugar Cookies

Rolled sugar cookies have long been my nemesis in the kitchen. I suspect it is because my grandmother has handed down the World's Best Gingerbread recipe, and this declaration comes from someone who doesn't particularly care for gingerbread in the first place. The dough is soft, easy to roll out, not sticky, doesn't spread in the oven, and stays soft for days. I've been searching for the sugar cookie equivalent for YEARS, and nothing was quite right. Some rolled out well but were too crunchy, some tasted great but didn't roll well, and some... some were just utter disasters spreading into amorphous blobs. But finally, FINALLY, just when I was about to give up all hope... I noticed my bookshelf. All these years, I've been searching the internet for the ultimate recipe, and yet there it was, right in my apartment the whole time, hiding inside my copy of America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. Why, oh why, did I not think to look there in the first place? America's Test Kitchen has never let me down, and this is no exception.

These cookies are, dare I say, my definition of perfect. The dough is soft enough to roll easily, not remotely sticky -- no flour necessary to roll them out, which helps them hold their shape better (adding extra flour to the rolling surface and rolling pin often cause cookies to spread). They sat out Friday night cooling and Saturday night drying, uncovered, and are still perfectly soft today. And, they're not too sweet, which I like, since royal icing is just another layer of sugar on top.

Instead of the standard creaming sugar and butter and then adding in the flour, these cookies use reverse creaming. The butter is added to a flour and sugar combination, which eliminates all those little air pockets that tend to make cookies balloon up. The recipe also calls for superfine sugar; if your grocery store doesn't care it (mine does not), process 1 cup of granulated sugar in a food processor for 30 seconds, then measure the appropriate amount.

And, of course.... HERE WE GO, STEELERS, HERE WE GO!!!

The Perfect Rolled Sugar Cookie
Source: America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 3/4 cup superfine sugar
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 16 tablespoons softened butter, cut into half-inch pieces
  
• 2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  

Directions:

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Beat the butter into the flour mixture, adding one piece at a time. Mixture should look crumbly and slightly wet
   
2. Beat in the cream cheese and vanilla until the dough begins to form large clumps. Knead the dough in the bowl by hand several times until it forms a large, smooth mass.
   
3. Divide dough into two even pieces. Form into a 4-inch disk, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or up to two days (dough can be frozen at this step for up to a month).
   
4. Roll the dough between two pieces of parchment paper to a 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness, no flour necessary. Slide the dough, still between parchment paper, onto a baking sheet and refrigerate 10 minutes. This firms the dough to ensure a perfect cut with the cookie cutters.
   
5. Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
   
6. Remove dough from refrigerator. Carefully remove top piece of parchment paper and cut out cookies. Transfer the cookies to the baking sheet, spaced one inch apart.
   
7. Bake the cookies until light golden brown, approximately 10 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes before transfering to a cooling rack. Allow cookies to cool completely before decorating.
   
8. Repeat with remaining dough. Dough scraps can be re-rolled up to two additional times (ATK claims once, but I re-rolled mine again afterward and the cookies still held their shape perfectly).

Nanaimo Bars – Daring Bakers

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

I couldn’t think of a more appropriate dessert to make right now, considering the Olympics are just around the corner.  For those of you who are not familiar with Nanaimo Bars, they hail from Nanaimo, British Columbia, and are more or less the official dessert of BC.  Seriously, they are everywhere.

That said, I already knew off the bat that I have an extremely strong dislike for Nanaimo bars.  I really enjoyed this challenge, however, because it allowed me to pinpoint exactly why I detest them so much.  The middle layer is always described as a “custard”… which I think of as kind of a thick pastry cream or pudding.  I like custard.  I do not, however, like the “custard” layer AT ALL.  Now that I’ve made it, I realize that it’s hardly a custard, but more of a glorified buttercream… and I loathe frosting.  Seriously, hate it.  That nauseatingly sweet, tooth-dissolving flavor and texture is a HUGE turn off for me.  But please, don’t let MY dislike of Nanaimo Bars turn you off.  A simple test – if you savor the frosting on your cupcake and save it to the very end, make these – fast!  If, like me, you try to wipe off every last drop and still wind up throwing out half of the cake because it is too “tainted” with frosting…. well, just make these for your Olympic opening ceremonies party, but pass on trying one out yourself. :)

The first part of the challenge was to make homemade graham crackers.  I opted to pass on the gluten free version, not because I am opposed to gluten free baking, but I am making an extreme effort to cut down on groceries, and by making these with regular all-purpose flour, I already had all the ingredients on hand.  I rolled out my dough on the thicker side, and LOVED the results.  Instead of crunchy like a normal graham cracker, it had the exact same flavor, but was soft, similar to the difference between a gingerbread cookie and actual gingerbread.  I liked these so much that I’m not sure if I’ll ever buy another packaged thin crispy graham cracker again!

 

Graham Crackers

Ingredients:

• 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 7 tablespoons butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1/3 cup honey
• 5 tablespoons milk
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.  Add the cubed butter and cut in until the mixture forms a coarse meal.
2. Whisk together honey, milk, and vanilla.  Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together.
3. Turn the dough onto plastic wrap and chill until firm, 2 hours or overnight.
4. Sift a layer of flour on the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle (depending on the size of your work surface, you may want to divide into two balls of dough), about 1/8 inch thick (mine were 1/4 inch think).  Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares.  Move to parchment-lined baking sheets and prick surface with a fork.
5. Bake for 12 minutes at 350F, or until golden brown in color.

 

Nanaimo Bars

Ingredients:

• For Bottom Layer:
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
  • 1 large egg, beaten
  • 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 1/2 cup almonds, finely chopped
  • 1 cup shredded coconut
• For Middle Layer:
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons heavy cream
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla custard powder or vanilla pudding mix
  • 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• For Top Layer:
  • 4 ounce semi-sweet chocolate
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions:

1. Melt unsalted butter, sugar, and cocoa in the top of a double boiler.  Add egg and stir to cook and thicken.  Remove from heat.  Stir in graham cracker crumbs, nuts, and coconut.  Press firmly into an ungreased 8x8 inch pan.
2. Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and confectioner’s sugar together.  Beat until light in color.  Spread over bottom layer.
3. Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat.  Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

Cannoli-oli-oli (Daring Bakers)

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

I had mixed feelings about this months DB’s challenge.  On one hand, I looooove cannoli (every time we are in an Italian restaurant or pastry shop, my father and I have to share a cannoli).  On the other hand, I detest frying in my current kitchen.  Don’t get me wrong; I have no fears about frying (Husband’s friends nicknamed me Latke Julie, after all)… but the kitchen in our condo faces the inside of the building, so there are no windows and no proper ventilation system to the outside.  As I know well from my yearly latke-fest, the scent of frying oil lingers in my condo for DAYS, and it takes over the whole place – even my clothes in my closet reek of oil.  It is truly disgusting.

But, since I have already missed my maximum number of passes for DB challenges, I forged ahead.  As I have mentioned before, I have zero room for “kitchen stuff”, so I passed on ordering actual cannoli forms which would require storage somewhere.  Instead, I put my thinking cap on and forraged, eventually cutting apart the handle of an old Swiffer which I needed to replace anyway.  Worked like a charm!

As far as the cannoli, they were delicious, but oh-so-rich.  I went for a banana filling – sliced bananas stuffed in the cannoli, and added banana extract to the filling mixture.  DELICIOUS.  Since I didn’t make enough to feed the entire lab, I wound up eating two and threw away the rest.  My waistline thanks me.  And my condo will be thankful if no more Daring Bakers/Daring Cooks challenges require frying!

Cannoli Shells

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon unsweetened baking cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup wine
• egg white from one large egg
• 2 quarts vegetable oil, for frying

Directions:

1. Using an electric mixer, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt.  Stir in the oil and vinegar, and just enough wine to make a soft dough.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended.  Shape the dough into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours to overnight.
2. Lightly flour a large cutting or pastry board and roll the dough until very thin, no more than 1/8” thick.  Cut out 3 to 5 inch circles (I used the rim of a glass as I don’t have round cookie cutters).  Roll the cut circle into an oval.
3. Oil the outside of the cannoli forms.  Roll the dough oval from the long side around each form and dab a little egg white on the dough where the edges overlap.  Press well to seal.  Set aside to allow the egg white to dry.
4. In a deep, heavy saucepan, poor 3” of oil.  Heat the oil to 375F with a candy thermometer.
5. Carefully lower a few cannoli tubes into the hot oil.  Do not crowd the pan.  Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes, turning them so they will brown evenly.
6. Lift a cannoli form with a slotted spoon out of the oil.  Using tongs, grasp the cannoli form at one end.  Very carefully, remove the cannoli form with the open sides straight up and down so that the oil flows back into the pan.  Place the form on paper towels to drain.  While still hot, grasp the form with a potholder and pull the cannoli off the form with a pair of tongs.  Let the shells cool completely on the paper towels.  Place shells on cooking rack until ready to fill.
7. Repeat making and frying the shells with the remaining dough.  If reusing canoli forms, allow them to cool before re-wrapping with dough.

Cannoli Filling

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ricotta cheese, drained
• 1 2/3 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon banana extract
• banana slices
• melted chocolate, for shells

Directions:

1. Line a strainer with cheesecloth.  Place the ricotta in the strainer over a bowl and cover with plastic wrap and a towel.  Weigh it down with a heavy can and let the ricotta drain in the refrigerator overnight.
2. In a bowl with an electric mixer, beat the ricotta until smooth and creamy.  Beat in the confectioner’s sugar, vanilla, and banana extracts until smooth.  Chill until firm.
3. Melt chocolate over a double burner.  Dip ends of cannoli in chocolate.
4. Place sliced bananas in the center of the cooled cannoli.  Add filling mixture to a ziploc bag, snip off the corner, and squirt into the tube (or use a pastry bag if you have one).  Drizzle melted chocolate over the cannoli.  ENJOY!

French Macarons (Daring Bakers’ Challenge)

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

So, here’s the thing. I don’t really get the macaron craze. Cute little bakeries and pastry shops all over D.C. seem to sell them for an arm and a leg, much like the cupcake craze, and, much like cupcakes, I have no desire to pay an exorbitant price for them. And also much like cupcakes, I don’t even particularly like macarons. But the recipe sounded like a challenge, so I was in.

This was the very first thing I tackled after 3 weeks sick on the couch with swine flu and pneumonia. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t such a good plan; I was still feeling sick and had zero patience. To say I half-assed this recipe would be generous; really, at best, I quarter-assed this. All month, the Daring Bakers’ forum has been full of failed attempts… apparently, macarons are quite the tricky little beasts. And there I was, still not yet fully recovered, throwing my hands in the air and saying.. what the hell? Let’s give this a try.

All sorts of tips and tricks were shared in the forums in order to get this recipe to work. In my illness-induced annoyance state, I ignored all of them. Age your egg whites on the counter for three days, they said! I let mine sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before whipping them up. Be sure to sift your almond flour and sugar together three times so it is smooth! In my matchbox-sized kitchen, there is no room for non-essentials like sifters or mesh sieves, so not only did I not sift mine three times… I didn’t sift mine at all! Oh yes, there were LUMPS. And I narrowed my eyes and glared and told my macarons to suck it up and deal.

And deal they did. Much to my surprise, after reading about failure after failure, mine worked just fine. On the first try. With not-yet room temperature egg whites, non-sifted almond flour, and an oven that is notoriously off by quite a bit (but I don’t own an over thermometer, so I don’t know what that ‘bit’ is). MY biggest problem? Piping them out. I don’t own actual pastry bags (see reference to non-essential items for matchbox-sized kitchen) so I went with the good old snip off a corner of a ziploc bag. Nevermind that I even had circles drawn out underneath my parchment paper, I absolutely, positively, could not get that batter out in a circle… let alone in a same sized oval. Of course, this didn’t affect the quality of the cookie itself, but made sandwiching them up a bit difficult. Knowing my stomach was not yet up to par, I made these with my Husband’s tastes in mind – a simple dark chocolate ganache filling. I was thrilled that they turned out well; he was thrilled to eat them. All in all, a win-win situation!

See that ruffley edge along the base? Those are called macaron “feet” and are the defining characteristic of a macaron. Yeah, I didn’t know that either.

French Macarons

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 2 cups almond flour
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 5 egg whites, room temperature (-ish)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200F.
2. Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl.
3. Beat the egg whites using a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
4. Sift (HA. suckers!) a third of the almond flour into the meringue and fold gently to combine. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Do not overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
5. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (or, for the truly frustrating experience, snip the end off a ziplog bag). Pipe one-inch sized mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
6. Bake the macarons for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375F. Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and back for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Blackberry Buttermilk Cake

When I first saw this in Gourmet as a raspberry buttermilk cake, I made it. And it was good, but nothing that totally knocked my socks off. Quick, easy, and a perfect everyday cake. By this point, my blackberries were a week old, I was getting tired of baking with them (something I never thought would be possible), and I didn’t want anything heavy or extravagant, because I would not be bringing the resulting recipe into the lab after the previous whining over not baking enough. I decided to try the buttermilk cake again, replacing the raspberries with blackberries, for something a little lighter to have around for a weekend when Husband was visiting. And you know what? It was so much tastier. When it comes to just eating, raspberries are my favorite, hands down. But when it comes to baking, I think the verdict is in – blackberries make EVERYHING better! This cake is ridiculously simple to make, so give it a whirl! (Interesting tidbit of note: unlike the raspberries, my blackberries were so fat, they all sank straight to the bottom of the cake!). This wraps up Blackberry Extravaganza week - I hope you enjoyed it and found a recipe or two to add to your collections!

Blackberry Buttermilk Cake
adapted from Gourmet June 2009

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup fresh blackberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat together butter and 2/3 cup sugar at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla and egg.
3. At low speed, mix in flour and buttermilk until just combined. Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter blackberries over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.
4. Bake until cake is golden and a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool an additional 10 to 15 minutes more.

all the blackberries hiding on the bottom of the cake

Blackberry Peach Galette

If there is one thing you make from my Blackberry Extravaganza week, make this. Really. Make this. Now. It was amazing. A-MA-ZING. It was so amazing, in fact, that it apparently turned one particular labmate into a greedy monster who stormed up to me and verbally berated me for not bringing in more, droning on and on about how it was so unfair that I didn’t consider the number of people in the lab and that some people took larger slices and not everyone would get a “big enough” slice and it just wasn’t fair next time, could I just get my act together and bring in MORE? I just sort of sat there with my jaw hanging open, because after I brought in blackberry pie bars, berry oatmeal crumble bars, blackberry scones, and then a blackberry peach galette, I get yelled at for not baking ENOUGH? Sorry, but my Ph.D. stipend is very small, and it does not pay for me to provide your breakfast buffet! I suspect it will be a very long time before I bake for the lab again – isn’t it a shame when one rotten apple spoils everything for the whole bunch?

I really love galettes so much more than pies – I’m not sure why, but the whole rustic look really appeals to me. Plus, I love that they are filled with fruit slices rather than a soupy fruit filling and the crust tends to be thicker, so galettes can be picked up and eaten with your hands, rather than requiring a fork and a plate (perfect for consumption during lab meetings). I went with blackberry and peach because I picked both at the farm, and the flavors complimented each other together perfectly. Obviously, you can use any fruit in a galette, but I loved these together so much I would be hesitant to change it up next time; personally, I can’t imagine another combination that I would personally enjoy more!

Blackberry Peach Galette
adapted from Our Best Bites

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 11 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons ice water
• 3 large, ripe peaches, pitted and sliced
• 1 cup blackberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Add flour and salt to a medium bowl. Cut cold butter into small chunks and throw on top of flour. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender under mixture resembles small crumbs the size of peas. Add ice water one tablespoon at a time while stirring the dough mixture with a fork. Bring dough together and put into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.
3. Sprinkle flour and sugar over fruit. Stir.
4. Roll out pastry dough on a floured surface to at least 12” in diameter. There will be enough dough for one large and one small galette. Transfer dough to baking sheet.
5. Dump fruit mixture in the middle of dough and dot with 1 –2 tablespoons butter.
6. Pull up edges of dough and pleat. Dip fingers in water and moisten between the pleats to seal. Brush dough with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.
7. Bake for 50-60 minutes. When done, the fruit will be bubbling and the crust will be golden brown in color. Remove from the oven and cool for 10-15 minutes on a wire rack. Eat all for yourself and do not share because it is just too delicious.

Blackberry Scones

Next up in the blackberry baking adventures came some blackberry scones. I wasn’t quite sure how these would turn out, since there aren’t a plethora of blackberry scone recipes out there, the way there are for say, cranberry scones. I thought that perhaps there is a reason for that – maybe the blackberries are just too juicy to work in a scone. When I mixed the dough, it came out SO thick and SO heavy that I realized there was just no possible way that I was ever going to be able to stretch the dough out and cut it into circles. I’m not sure what exactly went wrong – maybe the blackberries were just too much – but boy oh boy was it dense. Rather than just give up, I decided to just squash all the dough into my springform pan and pop it in the oven and see what happened. Lo and behold, after baking for quite a while – scones! These were especially tasty with the blackberry jam that already happened to be be leftover in the lab from a previous scone smorgasbord brought in by our PI!

Blackberry Scones
adapted from America’s Test Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• 3/4 cups blackberries
• 1 cup heavy cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Add flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse six times. Distribute butter over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse 12 times, each pulse lasting 1 second. Add blackberries and pulse one more time.
3. Transfer dough to a large bowl and stir in cream with a rubber spatula until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.
4. Transfer dough to countertop and knead by hand until it just comes together in a rough, sticky ball.
5. Press dough into a 9-inch springform pan, scoring the dough into 8 wedges with a knife.
6. Bake dough in springform pan until tops are light brown and dough is cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes. Cut through immediately before cooling, then cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Berry Oatmeal Crumble Bars

After making the blackberry pie bars, I decided to tackle the remaining pile of freshly picked blackberries with my personal favorite berry recipe, berry crumble bars. I’ve tried these with all sorts of berries – blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and combinations of all of the above – and they have all turned out delicious. The crunchy oatmeal topping, the sweet jam-like filling… these are the perfect summery treat! (And I think my lab agreed.) Of course, between the blackberry pie bars and these blackberry crumble bars, I still had roughly 2/3 of my initial blackberry pile remaining in my refrigerator…

Berry Oatmeal Crumble Bars

Ingredients:

• 3 cups fresh berries of choices
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, softened and cut into large chunks
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. To prepare filling, stir together berries and lemon juice in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until fruit is tender, about 15 minutes.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar and cornstarch. Stir into fruit mixture. Continue cooking until mixture comes to a boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes until thick. Remove from heat.
3. Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a 9”x13” baking pan.
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, butter, baking soda, salt, and vanilla extract. Cut ingredients together with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside 1 1/2 cups of mixture in a medium bowl.
5. Pour remaining crumb mixture into the bottom of the dish, spread evenly, and pat down. Place filling in dollops over crust and carefully spread to cover entire surface.
6. Squeeze reserved crumb mixture into large clumps with fingers and sprinkle evenly over the top of the fruit filling.
7. Bake until golden brown, about 30 to 35 minutes. Cool completely before slicing.

Blackberry Pie Bars

The blackberry picking adventure confirmed the fact that I am absolutely useless at estimating anything with the U.S. measurement system.  Want to eyeball 50mL?  No problem.  Need to weigh out approximately 180g of guanidine hydrochloride?  I’m your girl.  Looking for three cups of blackberries?  <chirping crickets>  I just kept picking and picking while we were there to try to ensure that I would have enough to bake a recipe or two, but I just wasn’t sure that I had enough.

When I returned home, I looked through my collection of recipes in Evernote.  Since I was bringing this in to the lab, I wanted to avoid any kind of pies and cakes – anything which involves forks and plates.  Food to share in lab is far easier if it can be picked up with the hands on the way out the door to a seminar or to drop by and ask the PIs a question.  When I stumbled across the concept of putting blackberry pies into a bar form, I was sold.  The only potential problem?  The recipe calls for six cups of blackberries, which seemed like a LOT… and I wasn’t sure that I had enough from my day of berry picking.  Before I started mixing together any other ingredients, I pulled out my measuring cups and started doling out blackberries, one cup at a time.  However, the six cups required for the blackberry pie bars barely made a dent in the box of blackberries I bought home.  I never intended to be baking for a full week… it was just a U.S. volumetric estimation FAIL.  But a very, very yummy fail at that, since I couldn’t let all those blackberries go to waste, could I?  These were a fantastic hit, but very rich, so cut the bars small!  Stay tuned the rest of the week for what I made with the massive heap of leftover blackberries…

Blackberry Pie Bars
adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour (crust)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar (crust)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar (filling)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (filling)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• pinch salt
• 6 cups fresh blackberries

Directions;

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.  Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
2. To make the crust, combine the sugar, flour, salt, and butter in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  Beat the ingredients on medium speed until the mixture looks dry and crumbly.
3. Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the crust mixture to use as a topping.  Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of the pan with fingertips.  Bake the crust for 12 – 15 minutes until golden brown.
4. While crust is cooling, prepare the filling.  Whisk the eggs in a large bowl and add the sugar, sour cream, flour, lemon juice, and salt.  Fold in the blackberries.
5. Spread the mixture over the crust.  Sprinkle the crust mixture over the filling.
6. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until the top is lightly browned.  Cool for 1 hour before slicing and serving.

Patriotic Desserts

I recently joined another food challenge of sorts, Whip It Up.  Each week a topic guideline is given, and I have to prepare a new-to-me recipe and post it.  I’ve already been posting a recipe each week, so this just means that I’ll have to make something NEW, rather than posting from my constantly increasing stash of recipes and food photos waiting to be posted.  I figure that between Whip It Up, Daring Bakers, and Daring Cooks, it will at least guarantee that I’ll be trying 6 new recipes a month, which should help me from losing my touch in the kitchen now that I am no longer living with Husband.  I suspect that, rather than my routine cooking 7 nights a week, I will be resorting to cereal or popcorn for dinner since my hours in the lab are going to increase even more in an effort to finish as quickly as possible.

This week’s theme is “Holiday Food”.  And, given that today is a holiday (and one of my favorites, to boot – I am a huge sucker for a good fireworks show, and living in D.C., I have the best at my doorstep!), I opted to make some appropriately colored desserts for a gathering I am attending pre-fireworks festivities.  (I’m also bringing a triple batch of my spinach and artichoke dip – recipe here, for those who missed it the first time.)

First up, a red, white, and blue colored trifle.  The inspiration for this came from Sandra Lee, but her ‘semi-homemade’ concept is a little too semi for my tastes – if I’m baking, I want to bake.  So, I used my own most favorite devil’s food cake recipe (rather than box mix) and made my own vanilla pudding and mixed it with the CoolWhip (rather than just two tubs of cool whip).   But, if you want to cheat and use premade cake mix, I won’t judge (too harshly). :)  And then, because it sounded like fun, I decided to try my hand at chocolate covered pretzels.

4th of July Trifle

Ingredients (red for cake, blue for pudding):

• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 stick butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 1/2 cup water, warm
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips
• 1 bottle red food coloring (if you want a reddish tint to the cake)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 3 eggs, separated
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 (8-ounce) tub frozen whipped topping
• 2 quarts blueberries
• 1 quart strawberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease 9x13 inch cake pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light.  Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla and melted chocolate.
4. Combine buttermilk and water.  Working in two or three additions, alternate adding liquid mixture and flour mixture to the mixing bowl.  Add bottle of food coloring.  Mix just until combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool cake in pan.
6. To prepare pudding, mix sugar, flour, and salt in top of a double boiler.  Blend in 3 egg yolks and milk.  Cook, uncovered over boiling water, whisking constantly for 10 to 12 minutes or until thickened.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Cool in refrigerator.
7. Once cool, slowly fold frozen whipped topping into vanilla pudding.
8. Cut cooled cake into 1” squares.
9. To assemble trifle, layer bottom of trifle bowl (or large glass mixing bowl, if your trifle bowl is in storage of your parents’ basement…) with half of the cake squares.  Squish down with hands to form a solid layer.  Spread half the pudding mixture over the cake.  Top pudding with 1 1/2 quarts of the blueberries.  Top the blueberries with the remaining cake squares, followed by the rest of the pudding mixture.  Cut tops off strawberries and place, cut side down, around the perimeter of the bowl.  Pour remaining blueberries into center.

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

These were so simple to make, and so delicious!  Dip pretzel rods in melted modeling chocolate for candy making (I found the Melt ‘n Mold brand at Safeway).  I melted the chocolate in a tall and skinny juice glass, and then tipped the chocolate to the very edge and rolled the pretzel in it.  Lightly scrape the sides of the pretzel on the lip of the glass to remove excess, then sprinkle with desired toppings (sprinkles, nuts, etc.).  Since I was going for a 4th of July theme, I used red, white, and blue colored sugar crystals and piped on frosting, which I tinted red and blue with food coloring (I fear my hand will be blue for days!).  The icing didn’t stick as well to the chocolate as it does to cookies or cakes, so it wound up sliding a bit and looking messy… but… they’re fun, festive, chocolate covered pretzels, and that’s all that counts!

Bakewell Tart (Daring Bakers’ Challenge)

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Before seeing this as the monthly challenge for the Daring Bakers, I had never heard of a bakewell tart.  But I can assure you that I will certainly be making this again – I loved it!

I made this the day Husband moved, figuring that baking would help cheer me up (plus, Husband dislikes almond flavors and any fruit based sweet, so there was no point for making it for him).  Due to some unexpected circumstances, we were out of town until the day before he left, and we did not have the chance to make one last grocery trip using his car, so I made several substitutions with what was already in my kitchen.  The frangipane called for 4.5oz icing (confectioners) sugar, but I only had half a cup… so I subbed the rest with regular granulated sugar.  I also needed 4.5oz of ground almonds, but after tossing all the almonds I had into my food processor and came up short – since I had no idea what the texture would be with fewer nuts, I just filled the rest with ground walnuts and added extra almond extract to mask any walnut flavor.  And you know what?  It was great!  Confession: I ate a piece for breakfast every day this week!

Bakewell Tart

Ingredients:

For shortbread crust-

• 8 oz all purpose flour
• 1 oz sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 oz unsalted butter, cold
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1-2 tablespoons cold water

For frangipane-

• 4.5 oz unsalted butter, softened
• 4.5 oz icing (confectioners) sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 4.5 oz ground almonds
• 1 oz all purpose flour

For filling-

• 1 cup jam (I used apricot)

Directions:

1. Sift together flour, sugar, and salt for shortbread crust.  Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the larger grating side of a box grater.  Using your finger tips only, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
2. Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract and quickly mix into the flour mixture.  Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.
3. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in cling wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
4. To prepare the frangipane, cream the butter and sugar together until very fluffy.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Batter may appear to curdle – normal!  Pour in the almond extract and mix for another 30 seconds.  With the beaters running, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour.  Mix well.
5. Place the chilled shortbread dough on a lightly floured surface.  Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 1/4” thickness.  When the pastry is the desired size for a tart or pie plate, transfer it to the pan, press in, and trim excess dough.  Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 400F.
7. Remove shell from freezer and spread an even layer of jam onto the pastry base.  Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart.  Smooth the top and bake for 30-35 minutes.  The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned and poofy.

Grandmother’s Pinwheel Cookies

Every month, Jenna over at That Wife hosts a “food challenge”. This month, in honor of Mother's Day, the challenge was to retrieve our favorite recipe made by our mother and replicate it. Well, Jenna, I’m bending all sorts of rules here, but once you hear the story behind these cookies, I hope you’ll forgive me.

First off, these are not my mother’s cookies – these are my grandmother’s cookies. And secondly, I made them not in May, but in December, and the pictures have been sitting on my computer ever since, waiting to be posted (though this challenge did give me the perfect excuse to write up the recipe). But, December was the first time I ever made the cookies, so I felt like it still qualified in the whole tackling a new recipe; I just did it a bit early.

Up until three years ago, my grandparents always lived a state away from my parents, so “going to Grandma’s house” was always an adventure. We didn’t have the luxury of just meeting up for dinner; rather, with the four hour drive involved, it was limited to weeks in the summer and long weekends during the school year. Despite being fortunate enough to have a well-traveled childhood, my favorite place in the world to visit always remained my grandparents’ home; even though it was not exotic, I always knew I would have a wonderful time. And one thing was always constant throughout these visits – we would park in the driveway, walk in through the cellar (oh, how I loved the musty basement smell! To this day, musty basements immediately bring me back to my grandparents’ grey painted basement with the pool table), ascend the curving staircase, and emerge into their black-and-white kitchen with the strawberry border, where my grandmother would be standing with a tray of pinwheel cookies. Every time.

Fast forward many, many years to December 2008. Nobody else in my family had ever made the pinwheel cookies, but my grandmother had recently handed down the recipe to me, as her failing health prevented her from doing any more baking. I had a strange urge to try them for the holidays, so I decided to give it a shot, following her directions and hoping for the best. Little did I know that the pinwheel cookies would wind up being the comfort food of my family.

Two days after making them, I received a phone call that my grandmother had a massive stroke and was in the hospital. After finishing his clinical requirements and starting his winter vacation, Husband and I rushed home to join the rest of my already-assembled family, awaiting future news in my parents’ home. Being the holiday season, everyone was well over their cookie quota, but not knowing what else to do, my Jewish mother continued to try to offer more sweets and desserts to everyone, which were immediately refused. Observing the scene – everyone so worried – I knew the cookies would take the focus off the not knowing, and instead onto discussing happier memories while we awaited more news the next day. I emerged from the kitchen with a cookie tin, and everyone groaned. “No more cookies!”, they protested. But then, I cracked the lid, and my uncle caught a glimpse inside. Even he, only married into the family for 12 years, recognized them immediately, and let out a little squeal of delight. Within 10 minutes, the entire batch of cookies had been devoured, while everyone swapped their favorite stories about my grandmother. My job was done, and these cookies will ALWAYS hold a special place in my heart as a reminder of my grandmother, and the culinary glue that brings my family together.

Disgruntled Julie’s Grandmother’s Pinwheel Cookies

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. Beat butter until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes more. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition, then beat in vanilla. Add flour and beat on low just until combined.
3. Divide dough in half. Form 1 half into 4- by 4-inch square, wrap in plastic wrap, and set aside. Return other half to mixer. In metal bowl set over pan of barely simmering water, melt chocolate, stirring until smooth. Add melted chocolate to dough in mixer and beat just until combined. Form chocolate dough into 4- by 4-inch square and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate both squares of dough for 30 minutes.
4. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut each dough square into 4 strips. Roll out one strip of vanilla dough into 6- by 7- inch rectangle (refrigerate all other dough strips). Remove 1 strip of chocolate dough from refrigerator and, between 2 sheets of parchment paper, roll out into 6-inch by 6-inch square. Peel off top sheet of parchment from each dough and flip vanilla dough over onto chocolate. Trim excess chocolate dough to fit size of vanilla dough. Run rolling pin lightly over doughs to adhere, then peel off top sheet of parchment. Using parchment as an aid, tightly roll up dough into log. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Repeat with remaining strips of dough to form 4 logs. 
    
5. Refrigerate logs 1 hour, then remove from refrigerator and roll each log on counter several times to prevent bottom from flattening. Refrigerate 3 hours more, then transfer to freezer to store.
6. Keep dough frozen until ready to slice and bake. Preheat oven to 350F and grease two large baking sheets.
7. Using a sharp knife, slice dough into 1/4-inch thick slices and plaice 1 1/2 inches apart on baking sheet. Bake until vanilla dough is slightly golden, 9 to 11 minutes.

Peanut Butter Bars

These are both one of the easiest possible desserts I have ever made, and one of my most frequently requested treats.  Hardly a party or event goes by when friends do not ask me to bring along a batch of peanut butter bars, and I am more than happy to oblige, because of the minimal effort involved – I can quickly whip up a batch in next to no time at all, regardless of how much time is spent in the lab that week.
Peanut Butter Bars 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 cup peanut butter, smooth or chunky
• 1 1/2 package (12 1-ounce squares) semi-sweet baking chocolate

Directions:

1. Line 13x9” baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extended over sides of pan.
2. Melt butter in a large microwaveable bowl on high for 45 seconds, or until melted.  Add sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and peanut butter; mix well.  Spread into prepared pan.
3. Melt chocolate in a double boiler or a glass bowl tightly set over barely simmering water, stirring until thoroughly melted.  Cool slightly, and pour over peanut butter mixture in pan.
4. Cut partially through dessert to mark 48 squares.  Refrigerate 1 hour or until set.
5. Lift from pan, using foil handles.  Run a knife under warm water, dry, and then cut all the way through dessert into squares.  Store in airtight container for up to 1 week – but I bet they won’t last that long!

Passover Cheesecake (Daring Bakers' Challenge)

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I recently decided to join both the Daring Bakers and Daring Cooks, located over at The Daring Kitchen. I thought joining would force me to continue to push myself in the kitchen, both in baking and cooking, once Husband moves away and I will become far more likely to revert to easy salads and bowls of cereal for dinner every night. It’s not that I don’t like to cook – it’s just that I don’t like to cook when I get home from a long day in the lab. If it’s only myself that I have to worry about, then frankly, I don’t care, and I’m perfectly content with a bowl of Cheerios or a steamed handful of green beans and calling it a day. But since I’ve had Husband to cook for over the past 5+ years (yes, even as undergrads, living in our separate dorm buildings, I still cooked dinner for him every single night), I feel responsible for serving complete, homemade meals. But once he moves away and it’s just me? It’s all about the easy way out.

Just as a word of note, both the Daring Bakers and Daring Cooks have specific reveal days (27th of the month for the bakers, 14th for the cooks), so rather than only on weekends, there will now be some weekday recipes sneaking in instead.

I have to confess that I was totally disappointed to discover that the first Bakers' Challenge recipe in which I would be participating was a cheesecake. I’ve never baked a cheesecake in a water bath before, so the challenge did serve the purpose of expanding my baking skills, but personally, I loathe cheesecake and find it to be an absolutely repulsive waste of perfectly good cream cheese. While Husband would be happy to eat an entire cheesecake on his own, he certainly doesn’t NEED it, so I adapted the recipe to make it Kosher for Passover, and served it as one of the desserts at the Passover Seder I hosted earlier in the month.

The original plain recipe can be found at Jenny Bakes; we were given the “freedom” to spice up the recipe as desired so I went for a chocolate swirl cheesecake and listed below are the modifications for the cheesecake that I made. Using a water bath, rather than dry baking, definitely prevented the cheesecake from cracking and created a far creamier cheesecake than I’ve made in the past. It was SUPER rich – in fact, despite everyone gorging themselves on cheesecake at the Seder, Husband was still eating leftover cheesecake for a week (and couldn’t have been happier!).

Ingredients:

• 1 can chocolate Kosher for Passover macaroons
• 3 (8-ounce) packages of cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Grind contents of can of macaroons in food processor. Press crumbs into bottom of 9” springform pan. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and cream together until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Scrape down the bowl between the addition of each egg. Add cream, vanilla, and lemon juice and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Remove one-third to one-half of the batter into a separate bowl and stir in melted chocolate.
5. Pour vanilla batter into prepared crust. Drop chocolate batter by spoonful into the vanilla batter and swirl with a knife into the vanilla. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Wrap the springform pan first with three layers of saran wrap, followed by three layers of aluminum foil (ensure that all saran wrap is covered by aluminum foil; layer of foil will prevent saran wrap from melting in the oven).
6. Place springform into a large roasting pan and pour the boiling water into the roasting pan until halfway up the sides of the springform pan.
7. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until almost done – the sides of the cheesecake should hold together, but the center should still have significant jiggle. Close the oven door, turn off the heat, and let rest in the cooling oven for 1 hour. This allows the cake to finish cooking and cool down gently enough to prevent cracks at the top. After one hour, remove the cheesecake from the oven and lift carefully out of the water bath. Let the cheesecake finish cooling on the counter and then cover and finish chilling in the refrigerator.

Mandelbrot vs Kamish Bread

One of the things that I find so fascinating about Judaism as opposed to many other religions is that regardless of where in the world families originate, the traditions, customs, and foods are the same. In other Western religions, this just isn’t the case – Polish Catholics have entirely different traditional foods from Italian Catholics. But Judaism is so much more than just a religion; it is truly a culture in and of itself.

One thing we cannot agree upon, however, is how to spell things once translated into English, or sometimes even what to call things. One example of this is the mandlebrot/kamish bread debate that comes up every year for Pesach. My Mother-in-Law and I both make essentially the same thing (the recipe I used called for Kosher for Passover margarine; hers uses oil, but the taste is the same)…. but we cannot, for the life of us, agree on what to call it.

She says kamish bread, I say mandelbrot. What do you say?

(Obviously, it’s mandelbrot).

Either way, it’s a Passover tradition. Much like my beloved once-a-year Hamentashen, Husband loves mandelbrot (for those who have never tried one, it’s kind of like a softer biscotti). Many families make it year round with flour, but both my MIL and I only make it once a year, at Passover, with matzoh cake meal in lieu of traditional flour. And so, Wednesday night, I whipped up a triple batch to last Husband through the next week.

Passover Mandelbrot

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cup matzoh cake meal
• 1/2 cup potato starch
• 6 ounces chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease cookie sheet.
2. Beat eggs. Add sugar.
3. Gradually incorporate oil, vanilla, cake meal, and potato starch.
4. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Let stand for 15 minutes.
6. With well-oiled hands (dough will be heavy and sticky), divide dough into 3 long oval loafs on cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, slice into cookies (must slice while hot or cookies will break), and return to oven for another 5 to 10 minutes.
8. Cool on wire rack and store in air-tight container for up to 1 week.

Moving Muffins

Back in January, one of Husband’s best friends moved into a new apartment back in Philly over MLK weekend.  Since it was during Husband’s two-week vacation, he was able to go up and assist with the move.  Since our lab always has lab meetings on Monday, regardless of national holidays, I was not able to go, but instead, baked two dozen muffins to provide breakfast for Husband and his friends who would be assisting with the moving.

I just remembered this because this was the first weekend that I returned up to Philly since his friend moved.  We were going to go visit his new place so that I could see it… but instead wound up visiting him in his parents’ house… because they have the 58” plasma TV… all the better for NCAA March Madness viewing.  Because who doesn’t want to watch their team heart-wrenchingly lose in the last 0.5 seconds in giant, HD, plasmay goodness?  Especially when you are the lone Pitt fan, surrounded by a bunch of Villanova “fans”?  (As soon as my mother, a proud Pitt alumna, found out that Husband, with absolutely NO connection to Villanova aside from the fact that he is from Philadelphia [but has no family members, friends, etc. who went there] supported Villanova in the Pitt-Villanova game, she immediately started flooding my inbox with contact information for divorce lawyers.)  Suffice to say, it was an extremely rough night for the Disgruntled marriage… and next time this particular friend moves, there will be no Moving Muffins made for him, if he’s going to cheer against the Panthers!

Dark Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients:

• 5 oz dark chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chunks

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In a small, microwaveable-safe bowl, melt together butter and chopped dark chocolate.  Heat in 30 second intervals, stirring frequently until smooth.  Set aside to cool slightly.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Make a well in the center and add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla extract.  Whisk until almost smooth.  Stir in melted chocolate mixture, making sure the batter is smooth and the chocolate is evenly incorporated, followed by chocolate chips.
4. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
5. Cool muffins on a wire rack before serving.  Store in an airtight container if not eating immediately.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.  Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, peanut butter, eggs, and milk until smooth.  Pour into flour mixture and stir until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Divide batter into paper-lined muffin tin.  Each cup should be filled to the top to ensure muffins have a nice dome.
5. Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean and the top of the muffin springs back when lightly pressed.
6. Cool on a wire rack.

Peanut Butter “Pi”

You did know that I was going to post a recipe for pie on Pi Day, right?  What else would you expect from someone who minored in math?

In the interest of full disclosure, I did not make this pie today.  I did not bake a pie at all today.  I spent an extremely frustrating 15 and a half hours in the lab, and Husband worked a 10 hour ER shift.  A nice, leisurely, pie-baking Saturday it was not.  But, I happened to have an unposted pie recipe waiting in the wings, and there is no better time to post it.  (I did, however, come home from lab so late and grumpy that I just picked up dinner from Whole Foods, and Husband told me to buy a little pie from the bakery.  So, in honor of Pi Day, we split half a mini blueberry pie.)

This is a great recipe because it is so quick to make.  I made this for a dinner a friend was hosting on a weekend evening, but once again, I wound up spending a full day working in the lab, and had just enough time to shower and throw this together between rushing in the door from lab and back out the door to dinner.  Since the pie was consumed in the presence of other people, there are no cross-sectional images (sorry, but my food picture-taking nerdiness does not carry over to photographing in the presence of others), but I assure you, it was very well received.  And, I even made it in my very own “pi” plate – a gift from my mother, who could not fathom that anyone with her genes was actually capable of minoring in math.

Peanut Butter Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups finely crushed oreos (about 15 whole oreos or other sandwich cookies)
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 12 ounces frozen whipped topping
• 1 (12 ounce) jar hot fudge
• additional oreos, Reeces pieces, or peanut butter cups for topping

Directions:

1. Prepare cookie crust.  Generously butter a 9” pie plate.  In a large bowl, stir together the cookie crumbs and the melted butter.  Using fingertips, firmly and evenly press the mixture into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.
2. Beat peanut butter, sugar, and cream cheese together in a large bowl.  Gently fold in 3 cups of whipped topping.  Add mixture to cookie crust and spread to edges.
3. Heat hot fudge in microwave for one minute.  Stir and spread over peanut butter layer.
4. Refrigerate until serving, at least one hour.
5. Before serving, spread remaining remaining whipped topping over fudge layer.  Top with oreo cookies, Reeces pieces, or peanut butter cups.

Happy Hamentashen

Since this was never intended to be, and never will be, a food blog, I only post recipes on the weekend (that is, when I’m not taking a break from blogging in general). Since I cook seven days a week, this obviously means that I’m generating a huge back-log of recipes and associated pictures waiting to be posted, so when I do put a recipe up, often it is something which I made weeks, or even months, previously. Today, however, this is quite literally hot out of the oven, in the event any of you are inspired to do any holiday baking of your own.

Sundown tomorrow marks the start of Purim, which celebrates the story of Esther, in which the Jews escaped from evil Haman’s plot of annihilation. Purim is a festival – whenever Hamen’s name is mentioned during the reading of the Megillah, everyone boos and hisses and shakes gragers (noisemakers). Children dress up in costumes, playing off of the theme that Esther hid her own cultural identity from the king. But the BEST part of Purim by far? The hamentashen.

On Purim, we eat Hamentashen and sing a little song about them (My hat, it has three corners\ Three corners has my hat\ And if it has not three corners\ It would not be my hat). Hamentashen are made in a triangular shape as a reference to the supposedly triangular shaped hat that Hamen wore. Why we eat his hat in particular, I am not sure, but it doesn’t matter to me, because hamentashen are, by far, my absolute, most definite, favorite cookie/pastry/cakey type dessert. The sugary dough combined with the fruity filling is an absolute perfect pairing. Many bakeries now serve hamentashen year-round (and under a different name, deviating from their Jewish Purim tradition), but as I associate them back to their native roots, I only eat them at Purim. When you only make your favorite dessert once a year, you feel far less guilty eating 2 or 3… or 6.

Traditionally, a hamentash is filled with poppyseed, prune, or apricot filling, though my personal favorites are raspberry or cherry filling. This year, I asked my husband what his preference for filling was, and requested apple. I have never, in my life, heard of an apple humentash, but by special request, I made three batches of hamentashen, and filled mine with cherry, apple, and apricot preserves. I made over 6 dozen today, so I have batches boxed up and ready to ship out tomorrow to family, some ready to take to the lab, send off with my husband for his co-workers in the ER, and one sitting out for me for breakfast. Honestly, is there a better way to start a Monday morning than with a cherry hamentash? I thought not.

Julie’s Most Favoriteist Hamentashen

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup margarine (margarine is necessary for a kosher recipe; otherwise butter can be used)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• few drops water
• preserves of choice (apricot, poppy, raspberry, cherry pie filling, etc)

Directions:

1. Cream margarine in mixer bowl. Add sugar and beat until fluffy.
2. Beat in egg, lemon zest, and vanilla.
3. Add in flour and salt. Beat in water a few drops at a time, until dough just starts to come away from the sides of the bowl.
4. Place dough in a 2-quart size bag and form into a flat disk. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours or overnight.
5. Roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface.
6. Using a round cookie cutter or the top of a glass, cut out circles. Spoon a small amount of filling (2-3 cherries) onto the dough circles. Fold over one edge of the dough, then a second edge, and finally a third edge to create a triangle. This works far better than the “pinching” method, if you have tried to make hamentashen in the past – pinching the corners often results in the dough collapsing while baking, yielding grossly malformed (though still delicious) hamentashen. Try the folding method instead – it works much better. Trust me. Repeat this process with the remaining dough.
7. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
8. Bake at 350F for 12 to 15 minutes, or just until starting to turn a pale golden color

racks upon racks of pure deliciousness