HCB: Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake

This week's recipe for the Heavenly Cake Bakers was a Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake. Other than the spices in the gingersnap crust, the cheesecake contains no spices which really lets the pumpkin flavor come through. I ended up using Dutch gingersnap cookies called pepernoten for the cheesecake's crust. And I substituted toasted whole almonds for the pecans in the crust, as I'm allergic to pecans. This worked great. I think that the crust would work well without nuts as well.

I always like to spray the sides of a spring form pan with cooking spray and line the sides with parchment paper. This helps keep the sides of the cheesecake smooth, and it helps with the removal of the cake from the pan after baking.

Fearing that the batter might overflow if made in the food processor, as suggested in the book, I decided to make the batter in my KitchenAid mixer. This worked really well. I started beating cream cheese, then added the eggs and egg yolks, followed by the pumpking/cream mixture.

I loved loved loved this cheesecake. It was super-creamy, not too rich and full of pumpkin flavor. Furthermore, it didn't crack or sink, which is a common cheesecake problem. The turbinado sugar added a subtle caramel flavor to the cheesecake which I enjoyed. I skipped the caramel syrup merely because I ran out of time. I figured I'd make it later for the leftover cheesecake. But since it was this delicious as-is already, I left it out.

My friend had a chance to taste the cheesecake and loved it. She said: "it's the best cheesecake I've ever had". Needless to say, she will be making it very soon herself :o) It has definitely made it to my "favorite desserts"-list as well. Hubby enjoyed it very much too.

Here are some step-by-step pictures:

Prepping the pumpkin and sugar for the filling

Gingersnap and nut crust for the cheesecake in prepared pan

Cheesecake batter poured into the aluminum-wrapped pan

Fresh out of the oven, all set

A slice of the pumpkin cheesecake, decorated with a few sliced almonds

The perfect bite! Bon appetit!

HCB: Catalan Salt Pinch Cake

Last week's recipe for the Heavenly Cake Bakers was the Catalan Salt Pinch Cake. With my friend's birthday around the corner, who happens to LOVE almonds, I thought this would be the perfect cake for her.

One of the things that surprised me, was that this recipe didn't call for salt, especially given the cake's name :o) So I added a large pinch of salt. I also omitted the lemon zest and added vanilla and almond flavoring instead, as some of the HCB-ers mentioned that the almond flavor was too subtle so.

Given the “lack of volume”-issue reported by some, I decided to make the batter a different way to ensure as much volume as possible. Using the au-bain-marie method, I heated the whole eggs plus the majority of the sugar (reserving some for the almond-grinding part and some for the egg whites). The heating process ensured that the sugar was fully dissolved in the eggs. After the mixture was warm, I attached the whisk attachment to my KitchenAid mixer and let it run until the batter was pale and thick. After mixing in the beaten egg whites, finely ground almonds, and the cake flour together, I poured the batter into my pan and was pleased that it came almost to the top of the pan. After about 10 minutes of baking, I was pleased that the cake had risen a little bit. About 15 minutes later, I opened the oven door, just to find that the cake had sunk quite a bit, creating a pretty big crater :o( Oh well.

I cut off the edges, to make the cake even. We tasted the scraps. Hubby and I liked it. My friend, the birthday girl, and her kids loved the cake. The cake's texture was a bit coarser than I would have liked, but I guess that's normal given the ground almonds in the batter. I'll have to try this cake again and follow Rose's instructions to the T and see if that helps reduce the "crater"-issue :o)

Here are step-by-step pictures of my "adventure":

Start by toasting unblanched/sliced almonds

Grind finely in a food processor

Beat egg whites mid-stiff peaks

Add the ground almonds to the egg whites

Carefully mix the egg whites and almonds together

Beat whole eggs until pale, thick and tripled in volume

Ribbons of batter should fall off the beater and remain visible for 2-3 seconds

Fill the cake pan and a small brioche pan to taste test it later

Hi there, Mr Crater. Feeling down today? :o)

Topped with homemade strawberry mousse. Crater? Which crater? :o)

SMS: Raised Waffles sans Warm Brown Sugar Bananas

First, I'd like to say that I'm glad to be back home, even though my vacation was *amazing*. More on that soon. I'll have to sort through the 1000+ pictures I took and pick a few to post on my blog.

This week's SMS recipe, Raised Waffles with Warm Brown Sugar, was chosen by Lauren of Fried Pickles and Ice Cream. I had never tried yeasted waffles before so I was very much looking forward to making these. We got home from our trip last night. After a stop to the grocery store to get the ingredients I needed, I made the waffle batter. Although this was possibly the easiest recipe in the book, I managed to mess it up in so many ways. I'll spare you the *full* details of all my missteps but here are a few. I intended to make half the recipe and ended up having to make 1.5 times the recipe because I accidentally doubled the very first ingredient in the recipe; the water. I also didn't read the instructions carefully enough and so I added the eggs right away. After an hour or so, I decided that it wasn't a good idea to have raw eggs sit at room temperature for 8+ hours, so I put the batter in the fridge. I re-read the instructions and noticed the eggs needed to be added right before making the waffles. Bottom line: don't cook or bake on the day you return from vacation!!!

Waffle batter after an overnight rest in the fridge

Baking the waffles in the waffle maker

Made a Moroccan-style (yeasted) pancake; cooked on one side only. Aren't those holes pretty? Plenty of room for syrup or honey to soak in.

The good news is... the waffles tasted great!! After all my mishaps with this recipe, I decided not to make the brown-sugar-bananas. I served them with maple syrup and my friend's homemade apple butter. Beverage of choice for us in the morning is mint tea, made with homegrown mint. I froze leftover waffles.

Despite the mishaps, breakfast today was a big success!

Final thoughts/tips:

• The waffles tasted great. They were light, crispy on the edges and soft in the middle.
• Used instant yeast which I added to the dry ingredients. Using instant yeast eliminates the proofing step required for active dry yeast.
  
• Added about 2 tsp of ground cinnamon to the batter for some flavor.
• Although I made 1.5 times the recipe, I used only 8 Tbsp of butter.
• Used 1/3 all-purpose flour and 2/3 bread flour.
• Thanks to Lauren for picking another great SMS recipe. You can find the recipe HERE.
• Don't forget to check out what the other SMS bakers thought of this recipe.
  

SMS: no, Grand Canyon: yes

Enjoying the Grand Canyon (it's cold here, even for a Minnesota girl) :o)
I highly recommend visiting the Grand Canyon. The view is amazing!

Isn't the view gorgeous?

SMS - Pear Cranberry Muffins with Gingersnap Crumble (late post)

I’m back to Sweet Melissa Sundays after being MIA for a few weeks, due to a kitchen remodeling project. Although we’re not fully done with our kitchen yet, at least the cabinets are installed as well as the counter top which gives me a functional kitchen for cooking and baking. We’re eagerly awaiting the installation of the floor and the backsplash which is scheduled for the end of November.

Now back to SMS. This week’s recipe, Pear and Cranberry Muffins with Ginger Crumble, was chosen by Jennifer of Maple N' Cornbread. Given the dense texture of the SMS Fresh Peach Muffins from a while back, I decided to tweak the recipe a bit as I like my muffins to be light(er) and somewhat fluffy. My changes can be found in the “Final thoughts/tips” section below.

This crumble is easily put together and is now one of my favorite recipes

As for the ginger crumble, I used tiny Dutch ginger cookies called “pepernoten”. The ginger crumble was very easy to make and was absolutely delicious. It is now one of my go-to recipes for crumble. This recipe makes more than you need so freeze what you don’t need (or make a batch of blueberry muffins like I did).

Yum, lots of crumble-topped-muffin-goodness

Here's an inside look. The pears and craisins added a nice fruitiness to the muffin.

The muffins turned out great; packed with flavor. The orange zest was absolutely crucial in my opinion. The aroma was just wonderful. I loved the ginger addition to the crumble so much that I added some to the muffin batter (along with the nutmeg) as well. I was very pleased that the muffins turned out light, tender and moist. In fact I liked the muffins so much that I whipped up another batch of “Fresh Muffins” from the opposite page; “Blueberry Orange Muffins”. For that I used the frozen leftover crumble. And for a small health kick, I added about 2-3 Tbsp of flax seeds to the batter. These muffins turned out equally delicious. The flax seeds add a nice nutty flavor and crunchy texture to the muffin.

I ventured off and made Blueberry Orange Muffins with flax seeds and some leftover crumble

Don't you love those tiny specks of flax seeds?

I highly encourage you to try these muffins, if you haven’t. You can find the recipe HERE. A big thanks to Jennifer for choosing this recipe. I enjoyed making (and eating) them a lot.

Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby as well as some of my friends enjoyed these muffins a lot. The beautiful aroma from the zest and spices is the first thing that was commented on, followed by how wonderful the taste and texture were.
• My changes are: reduce flour to 2 ¼ cups (11 ¼ oz); use the zest of a whole orange; add about ½ tsp of ground ginger to the dry ingredients for the muffin batter; leavening: use 2 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp baking soda
• For the blueberry muffins, I substituted the ¼ cup of heavy cream with an equal amount of sour cream, added 2-3 Tbsp of flax seeds to the dry ingredients, and I used about 1 ¼ cup of frozen blueberries.
• Don’t forget to check out the blogroll to see other SMS bakers’ take on this recipe.
  

HCB: Pumpkin Cake with Molasses-flavored Cream Cheese Frosting

This is my first time baking along the Heavenly Cake Bakers group I recently joined. Yay! I’m very picky when it comes to pumpkin desserts. For the longest time I didn’t like pumpkin desserts, until I made my very first pumpkin pie. Then a light bulb came on. Wait a minute… you’re supposed to use THAT much cloves??? The culprit was excessive usage of cloves that made me not like pumpkin desserts. To make a long story short, I fixed the problem by developing my own blend of spices. In the order of amount used, it’s: cinnamon, freshly grated nutmeg, all-spice, and cloves. I use this for all sorts of desserts (e.g. pumpkin, banana, etc). For Rose’s pumpkin cake recipe, I added cloves and all-spice. Since I’m allergic to walnuts, I omitted the walnuts. I replaced the walnut oil with canola oil. I was half an ounce short on the brown sugar amount needed, so I used turbinado sugar without any issues.

Pumpkin Cake right out of the oven. Smells great...

Due to lack of time, I went with my trusted Cream Cheese frosting instead of the suggested Burnt Orange Silk Meringue Buttercream frosting.

Molasses added to cream cheese frosting gives it a pretty, golden hue

To kick things up a notch, I added about 1-2 tsp of molasses to highlight the caramel undertone in the cake from the brown sugar. I took the cake with me to a dinner party where we celebrated my friend’s baby’s first time consumption of rice.

The pumpkin cake is officially party-ready :o)

This occasion (i.e. tradition in Bangladesh) is called “Mukhe Vat”. Making the cake to take with me to the party is what prompted me to bake it in a 9x13 pan. It was a big hit at the party. The host (my friend) later told me that she got a lot of recipe requests (I had to leave early).

At the party: a piece of pumpkin cake alongside a traditional Deshi dessert called "ChumChum". To that I say "delicious, yum yum"

Final thoughts/tips:

• The cake tasted great with lots of pumpkin/spice flavor. It was light, moist and fluffy, not dense at all. Instead of walnuts, I could have use almonds, but I think I prefer this cake nut-free. Chewy raisins might be a nice addition too.
  
• Next time, I’ll decrease the leavening a little bit as the cake dipped ever so slightly in the middle. It wasn’t crater size or anything, but it could use some tweaking to bake up more evenly
• Consider adding 1-2 tsp of molasses to your favorite Cream Cheese frosting. It adds a nice dimension to the frosting.