Hanaâ's Kitchen

Brownie Latte Cheesecake

2012-01-23T22:43:00.000-06:00

Let's say, you need to make a birthday cake for someone very special. What do you do? I'd really like to know. Please feel free to leave a comment, telling me about your approach.

Here's what I did for my husband's birthday cake. I stared at all my cookbooks in the bookshelf for a long time, and then grabbed a couple of them and browsed through them, hoping "the" recipe would just jump at me. Pretty scientific, huh? :o). Well, it sure did! I was sold as soon as I saw this beautiful picture of a slice of this rich and decadent Brownie Latte Cheesecake from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle. This would be the first time I had made a cheesecake for any birthday. One could argue it's not traditional. My argument: you're getting two desserts for the price of one, so who cares! :o) The fact that Tish gave it two thumbs up certainly helped a lot too!

Happy birthday, sweetie!

A slice of heavenly Brownie Latte Cheesecake

Although this recipe is not hard to make, it does require a little bit of time, but it's so worth it! First you make the coffee-flavored brownie batter and bake it in a 9" spring form pan. Instead of using heavy duty aluminum foil, I used my silicone baking pan to wrap around the spring form pan to prevent water from seeping in during the water bath later on. Although I don't like to bake in silicone pans, I have to say that using them for a water bath is just perfect (and cheaper in the long run compared to heavy duty alu foil, and not to mention "greener").

The coffee-flavored cheesecake filling can be made while the brownie base is baking. To soften cream cheese, I like to use the microwave, that way you don't have to plan hours in advance. It's also a good idea to have your eggs at room temperature. Just place them in a bowl with very hot tap water for about 10 minutes and you have room temp eggs. The other thing I like about this recipe is that a little bit of corn starch is used in the cheesecake filling to help with the thickening. I usually use a little flour but corn starch makes the filling gluten-free (in case you're sharing your cheesecake minus brownie layer with gluten-intolerant friends).

I don't use alcohol when I bake, so as I went to the fridge to grab either milk or cream to substitute the Kahlua, I noticed a carton of eggnog, so I used that instead :o) I just love the aroma of eggnog in baked goods.

Ready for its water bath

After 70 minutes in the oven

I like to line the inside of my spring form pan with parchment paper. When the cheesecake is baked and cooled, just remove the parchment paper and you're done. You never have to worry about the cheesecake sticking to the side of the pan or cracking in the middle because the parchment paper gives if it has to.

It's very rich so a small slice goes a long way :o)

Look fudgy the brownie base is and how creamy the filling is!

Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

Let me start by saying that I don't like coffee and never drink coffee, but that I love this cheesecake. The coffee flavor is definitely noticeable but it just works so well with the creaminess and sweetness of the filling and the chocolaty and fudgy brownie base.
My husband loved the cheesecake too, and gave it a 9.5 out of 10 rating. He was also kind enough to allow me to share some of the cheesecake with a few of my friends. Almost everyone said "OMG" after they took their first bite and asked for the recipe!! No joke!
If this has your mouth watering, go and get yourself a copy of The Cake Book and find out for yourself how awesome this dessert is. You can also find the recipe online on Cookstr.
Changes: substituted Kahlua with an equal amount of eggnog (you could also use cream or milk).
The border on the cheesecake is piped on there using chocolate whipped cream.
A big Thank You to Tish for developing this recipe. It's one of my all-time favorite desserts!

Peasant Boule

2012-01-22T19:27:00.000-06:00

A few months ago, Abby Dodge started a monthly baking group by the hashtag #BakeTogether where Abby picks the recipe. Everyone is allowed to make tweaks and make the recipe their own. When I saw the beautiful open crumb of the Peasant Boule on Abby Dodge's website, I knew I had to make it. After I read through the recipe and learned that this bread contains yeast as well as baking powder, I was very intrigued. Abby stated that the baking powder addition makes for a very soft bread. That's what sealed the deal :o)

Peasant Boule brushed with melted butter

If you're a big Abby Dodge fan, like I am, you might be interested in joining the Avid Baker's Challenge (ABC) baking group. We bake once a month and for the year 2012, we're baking from The Weekend Baker. You can find more information about ABC here.

Having baked multi-grain breads in the last few months, I felt I should substitute some of the white flour in this recipe with whole wheat flour and flax seed meal. And so I went with a 50%-50% ratio which worked really well without making the bread heavy and dense. Half of the dough went into a round 6" cake pan and the other half went into a loaf pan.

The dough rose about 2" above the 6" cake pan's rim

After it came out of the oven

The other half of the dough rolled into a loaf pan

Sandwich loaf brushed with melted butter

Inside view of the 6" boule

Slices of the 6" boule

Inside view of the sandwich bread

Slices of sandwich bread

Final thoughts/tips:

We loved this bread. It's light, soft, with a slight wheat-y taste. The bread made for great sandwiches. Definitely something I'll bake again.
Changes: used 225 gr unbleached AP flour, 200 gr KAF white whole wheat flour, 25 gr golden flax seed meal (or 2 Tbsp golden flax seeds whizzed in a spice grinder), 1 tsp of salt instead of 1-1/2 tsp. Omitted brushing the bread with melted butter. Instead, I sprayed the loaf with water using a water bottle right before baking.
Additions to the dough before mixing: 1 Tbsp vegetable oil and 1/3 cup (23 gr) non-fat dry milk powder.
If you'd like to make this bread, you can find the recipe HERE.
I'm submitting this post to YeastSpotting!

Triple Oat Bread

2012-01-12T22:30:00.001-06:00

Would you like to start the new year with homemade bread that's wholesome, nutritious and above all, delicious? Don't look any further. Fellow blogger Karin, whom I'm proud to call a friend, is a bread baker extraordinaire. She makes bread baking look and sound so easy which is very encouraging. We both like to use weight measurements in our baking as well as use some whole grain flour in our breads. Those are just a couple reasons why I love her recipes.

This time she came up with a recipe for a Triple Oat Bread. It has oat bran, oat flour and rolled oats. Oh yeah! That's why her name for this bread is: "Feeling Your Oats". Oh, I'm feeling them alright. Yummy yummy in my tummy.

I'm "feeling my oats" :o)

I asked her for the recipe a few months ago and she kindly sent it to me. Finally, at the end of last month, I had a chance to try it. I should really say, that I finally had the courage to try it. You see, the recipe uses a biga (a starter) as well as a soaker and to put it lightly, I was a bit intimidated. But if I am to grow in my bread baking journey, I had to take this next step. And so I did. I'm happy to report that it's not hard or scary at all :o)

Nice rise, huh?

The recipe is pretty straightforward. The ingredients for it are probably sitting in your pantry right now. Do yourself a favor and give this recipe a try. Let me also tell you that once I posted pictures of this bread in one of the Facebook Baking Groups, other people started asking for the recipe. Karin graciously offered to share her recipe with everyone on her blog. Thank you Karin, for giving everyone the chance to "Feel their oats" :o)

Final thoughts/tips:

Hubby and I both loved this bread. When you smell the top of the loaf after its baked, you can really smell the toasted oats on top. It doesn't smell "yeasty" at all.
The bread makes a great sandwich bread for both savory and sweet applications. It's very oat-y with a soft, moist and tender crumb. It also has a slight tang from the buttermilk which I liked.
I didn't have oat flour but Karin said I could just grind rolled oats in a food processor or spice grinder, so that's what I did.
The only change I made was increase the water amount a little bit and add a couple Tbsp of ground golden flax seeds.
Next time I'll bake this bread in a 9x5 loaf pan instead the glass 8x4 Pyrex pan. The bread didn't have much room to expand and was ever so slightly dense at the very bottom.
Btw, this bread freezes really well. I like to freeze it sliced so that I can take out what I need.
Now go ahead and bake. You can find the recipe HERE. Thanks Karin!!
I'm submitting this post to YeastSpotting!

ABC - Nut-Crusted Chocolate-Banana Swirl Cake

2012-01-01T19:40:00.001-06:00

To all my readers, I wish you a very happy New Year with lots of love, happiness, and good health! And lots of baking pleasure, of course :o)

The ABC bakers are starting 2012 with the first recipe from the new book we're baking from: The Weekend Baker by Abby Dodge. When I emailed Abby about that, she was very excited. I also asked her to pick our first recipe for us and she happily did: Nut-Crusted Chocolate-Banana Swirl Cake. What a great recipe selection that was.

Chocolate-Banana Swirl Cake with Chocolate Glaze

To find out more information on how to join the ABC bakers, please click here.

With any recipe that calls for bananas, make sure your bananas are very ripe.

The cake batter is butter-based and calls for room temperature butter. I like to soften cold butter in the microwave on 20% power for about 2-3 minutes.

Melted bittersweet chocolate is stirred into half of the banana batter. I had to forgo the sugar-nut crust because I was taking it to work (nut allergies).

Then you take turns scooping banana batter and then chocolate batter into the Bundt pan. As you've seen me do before, I took some batter and put it in a little cake tin for "quality control" purposes :o)

Apparently, I hadn't properly prepared my cake pan because the cake stuck to the pan a bit (which hasn't happened to me in quite some time especially since I've switched over to using Baker's Joy which is a cooking spray with built-in flour). Hmmm... what to do to hide the imperfections?

Ah, more chocolate. I used a little bit of chocolate glaze to drizzle on top of the cake, and voila. You can hardly see the imperfections anymore.

The cake smelled amazing while it was baking. Luckily, the small cake I made for "quality control" purposes, cooled off pretty quickly so I could taste it. The cake was moist, and very tender, with aromas from both the bananas and the chocolate. It was a tad too sweet for my taste so next time I'll reduce the sugar amount a bit.

Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

This cake was a big hit at work. I saved a slice for my husband and he really liked how moist this cake was. He gave it a 9 out of 10.
I've learned a few things when making this recipe:
Cream sugar and butter together first, and then add the bananas and vanilla (otherwise the butter floats on top without mixing in right). I learned that the hard way, but then grabbed my whisk attachment and incorporated the butter into the batter with brute force (aka high speed) and that worked :o)
Spray/butter and flour your pan REALLY well (the cake stuck in the pan a little bit which hasn't happened to me in a long while). Otherwise, there's always the chocolate glaze drizzle :o)
My changes to the recipe:
Increased the amount of salt fro 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp. I find that it brings out the flavors more especially the chocolate flavor.
Used a combination of two chocolates: 72% Ghirardelli and Hershey Extra Dark to simulate "bittersweet chocolate".
Due to nut allergies, I skipped the sugar/nut mixture for the outside of the cake.
A big Thank You to Abby for selecting such a wonderful cake recipe to start the year with!!
The recipe for this cake can be found in the The Weekend Baker, or online on the Fine Cooking magazine website.

Panettone

2011-12-11T20:11:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago, my friend Jenn of Knitty Baker, and I decided to do a little baking project together. We came up with the idea to make Panettone, an Italian yeast bread, that's studded with dried fruit and is lightly sweetened. Neither one of us had made Panettone before, so we were pretty excited about it. Jenn chose a recipe from AllRecipes.com. It had high ratings and the recipe had weight measurements. Perfect!

Panettone baked in a Bundt cake! Que bella :o)

After reading some of the reviews, I decided to follow some of the recommended changes and to make some of my own (surprise, surprise!). As usual, I used my bread machine to make the yeast dough. After the first rise, I folded in the dried fruit and shaped it into a coil for its second rise in my Bundt pan.

Getting ready for the second rise.

Second rise is done (45 min for me). Ready for the oven.

After a 30 minute visit to the oven, it was done.

Golden brown and delicious!

I let it cool in the pan for a few minutes and then inverted it.

Ta-dah!

Apparently, I didn't do a good job at evenly distributing the dried fruit in the Panettone, because some slices had more fruit than others. The picture below at least shows the soft and light interior of the bread :o)

A lovely lemon-scented slice of Panettone. Buon appetito!

Here's the adapted ingredients list:
(adapted from AllRecipes)

7 gr instant yeast
230 gr lukewarm water
100 gr granulated sugar
2 large eggs
130 gr sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
23 gr non-fat dry milk powder
1/4 tsp LorAnn lemon oil
6 gr salt
425 gr unbleached bread flour
125 gr white whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp golden flax seeds, finely ground
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
40 gr dark raisins
40 gr golden raisins
40 gr dried cranberries

Combine all the ingredients, except the dried fruit, in the bread machine and run the dough cycle. I kept the dough pretty sticky. After it has completed the first rise, follow the directions in the original recipe. Note: during the second rise, I let it go until it was doubled in size which took 45 minute. The original recipe instructs you let it rise for 30 minutes only, which I didn't think was enough.

Final thoughts/tips:

I liked this bread. The aroma from the lemon oil was wonderful, although next time I'd add lemon or orange zest to it for even more flavor. Although I tripled the amount of dried fruit, I didn't think it was enough. I would definitely double my amount next time. I love light and fluffy the bread's interior was. Not dense at all.
This recipe makes a pretty big loaf. I took it to work where it was a big hit. One person told me it reminded them of their grandmother's Babka and Challah with Raisins :o)
Instead of an 8" round pan, I used a Bundt pan. It was very pretty. I loved how tall each slice was.
Although this bread was great as-is, it was even better when lightly toasted and schmeared with a little butter. It reminded me of a childhood favorite, Krentenbrood (raisin/currant bread).
I'm submitting this post to Yeastspotting! :o)

ABC - Eggnog Pound Cake with Crystal Rum Glaze

2011-12-05T19:41:00.001-06:00

This is the last ABC recipe from Flo Braker's "Baking for all Occasions": Eggnog Pound Cake with Crystal Rum Glaze. This cake is on the cover of the book and looks absolutely lovely. When I read it had eggnog in it, I was intrigued. I've never had eggnog before so to the store I went, and I picked up a quart of Kemps Golden Eggnog. It smells great, very vanilla-y. I had a sip but didn't really like it much. I was hoping it would give a nice aroma to the cake and it did. For the Rum Glaze, I subbed orange juice for the rum which worked great!

I have really enjoyed baking from Flo's book and I have no doubt I will be going back to it and make several recipes again and again, as well as try new ones. If you haven't seen this book yet, definitely check it out. I love the variety of recipes in it, Flo's well-written instructions, and an ingredients list in both volume and weight measurements. A big thanks to Flo Braker for writing such a wonderful baking book!

Starting in January 2012, we will start baking from The Weekend Baker by Abby Dodge. If you have this book, please feel free to join us by emailing me at HanaasKitchen [at] live [dot] com.

The batter is a simple butter-based cake batter. It's subtly spiced with some freshly grated nutmeg. If you've visited my blog before, you know I like spices in my cakes :o)

I made half the recipe and baked it in a small 6-cup Nordicware Bundt pan. After 38 minutes in the oven, my cake tester came out clean.

The recipe calls for dried currants in the cake. This is not something I normally have in my pantry. I do always have dried cranberries. Since currants are smaller than cranberries, I quickly chopped the dried cranberries to reduce their size. Even though I made half the recipe, I used the entire amount of the dried fruit. Instead of rum, I let them soak in a little orange juice. Yum!

Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

Although we're not big pound cake fans, we liked this cake. It has a great taste and the cranberries were great in it. I think I over baked the cake slightly. It was a bit dry. My husband still gave it an 8.5 out of 10 rating because it really had good flavor.
I really liked the buttery-ness in this cake and vanilla flavor that the eggnog imparted. The cranberries were great. I think it would work really well with mini chocolate chips too.
The orange-flavored crystal glaze (remember, I replaced the rum with orange juice) worked great with the cranberries. After the glaze dries on the cake, it crystallizes and forms this semi-hard layer on the cake. It gives the cake a nice crunch as well as extra sweetness. I liked it!
If you'd like to try this cake, you can find the recipe online on COOKSTR.
My changes to the recipe: used 1/4 tsp of salt in half the recipe (essentially doubling the amount of salt), substituted dried cranberries for the dried currants keeping the amount the same even with half the recipe. Finally, I replaced the rum with orange juice.
Don't forget to check out the ABC blog roll.

Soft Dinner Rolls

2011-11-28T21:49:00.001-06:00

When Kim Ode shared a link to her Soft Dinner Rolls recipe on Facebook, I knew I had to give it a try. I made them at a girlfriend's house a couple weeks ago. They were such a big hit that I wanted to make them for our Thanksgiving table. And so I did :o)

Soft and yummy crescent rolls. Thanks Kim!!

At my friend's house, we made the recipe as is with the exception of reducing the yeast amount a bit. When I made them for Thanksgiving, I made a few more changes (surprise, surprise!). For fun, I made two shapes: regular rolls and crescent rolls.

This is after the second rise

Fresh from the oven. I love that smell :o)

Look at that interior! Bon appetit!

Here's the adapted ingredients list:
(adapted from www.startribune.com)

7/8 cup 2% milk
1/3 cup water
2 Tbsp (28 gr) butter, softened
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/3 (23 gr) cup non-fat dry milk powder
~1 cup (4 oz) white whole wheat flour
~2 cups (9.5 oz) unbleached bread flour
1-1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp (45 gr) granulated sugar
1/3 cup (23 gr) instant potato flakes

I combined all of the above ingredients in my bread machine and used the Dough cycle which also gives the dough its first rise. Please see the instructions in the recipe on what to do after the first rise. The recipe also provides instructions for 5 different roll shapes.

Final thoughts/tips:

These were a big hit! They're light and soft, despite the addition of whole wheat flour.
Right before putting them in the oven, I misted them with a little bit of water using a spray bottle, and that's it. They browned nicely without an egg wash!
A big thanks to Kim Ode for this recipe. It's definitely on the bake-again (and again) list :o)
I'm submitting this post to YeastSpotting!

Cinnamon Raisin Loaf

2011-11-20T23:20:00.001-06:00

My friend and fellow blogger, Jenn of Knitty Baker, recently posted her Cinnamon Raisin Loaf from The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. I loved it the minute I saw it and knew I had to make it. Coincidentally, I was browsing another one of my favorite blogs, Uit de keuken van Arden/Levine, and happened to come across that same bread. It was a (clear) sign and so I decided to make it.

I haven't baked bread that uses a starter or sponge in many years. Let's say, we didn't see eye-to-eye back then and so I never bothered again. Until now. I figured with my "reduced" yeast phobia, I surely can handle a "little sponge" :o)

I won't bore you with any step-by-step pictures because Jenn and Levine did a wonderful job capturing the steps in their respective blog posts which you can find here and here.

Today's lunch. Yum!

Final thoughts/tips:

Hubby and I liked this bread a lot. The raisins add sweetness and moisture, although the bread itself is plenty moist. He gave it an 8 out of 10 rating. I skipped the cinnamon swirl after asking hubby what he wanted. Instead, I made 2 small rolls that I sprayed with a little water and sprinkled cinnamon-sugar on top (these rolls are for me, ha ha).
My favorite part about the bread is that it doesn't have a heavy yeast smell. The bread on its own is great, but when toasted, it's even better. I had it with butter, as well as with cheese.
My changes to the recipe: instead of 4.5 oz of unsalted butter, I used 3 oz of unsalted butter and 1 oz of oil. And like Levine, I also increased the raisins by adding some golden raisins and reduced the salt (to 2 tsp).
Although I didn't wash or reconstitute the raisins, they still "stained" the bread's interior a little bit.
The recipe can be found in The Bread Bible. Levine has posted her adaption of the recipe here.
I'm submitting this post to YeastSpotting.

HCB - German Chocolate Cake

2011-11-07T22:04:00.001-06:00

This week, the Heavenly Cake Bakers (led by Jenn of Knitty Baker) tackled the Pumpkin Cheesecake. I made this cake last November and have very fond memories of it. Definitely one of my favorite recipes from Rose's Heavenly Cakes, so give it a try this Thanksgiving (or anytime, really). My friend declared it the best cheesecake she'd ever had :o)

The German Chocolate Cake has been on my to-bake list for a while. Everyone who baked it, loved it. I can't eat coconut or pecans, so the traditional filling and frosting was out. The cake is pretty chocolatey, I heard, so I decided on a non-chocolate filling and a thin chocolate glaze. That worked really well!

A slice of chocolate heaven!

The strong chocolate flavor comes from Dutch cocoa that is bloomed in boiling water for 30 minutes to which oil is added. Afterwards, I glanced over the instructions too fast and missed a few steps. I added all the egg yolks and egg whites to the cocoa mixture at once. This isn't the first time, and I'm sure not the last time something like that happens :o) But as with most (if not all) of Rose's recipes, it's pretty hard to mess up the end result. The cake turned out just fine, and is even faster to make this way than originally written, ha ha.

Two 9" chocolate cakes fresh out of the oven.

As you can see, the cake's height didn't suffer one bit from how I mixed the batter.

For the filling, I decided to go with a stabilized whipped cream, flavored with homemade Concord Grape Jelly which has a beautiful dark purple color, a pleasant sweetness and a very mild sour note.

Ready for its chocolate bath, I mean, chocolate glaze :o)

Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

Hubby loved this cake. It was pretty chocolatey, he said, so the thin glaze was perfect and not too much. The fruity filling balanced out the chocolaty-ness very well. He gave it an 8.5 out of 10.
I liked the cake a lot too. It's chocolatey, moist and sturdy enough to hold up against any filling.
I didn't make any changes to the recipe this time, unless you count how I accidentally added all the eggs at once :o)
If you'd like to try this cake for yourself with the intended German Chocolate Filling, you can find the recipe on Marie's blog.

A virtual Thanksgiving

2011-11-06T21:57:00.002-06:00

A bunch of us were invited to a virtual Thanksgiving Dinner Party by Phyl. The idea behind this plan is for everyone to make a dish. The virtual Thanksgiving dinner would comprise of all the dishes put together. Neat idea, huh? Phyl will be doing a round-up soon and post a link to everyone's recipe(s). Thanks Phyl!

Who says "healthy" can't be delicious?

My contributions to the Thanksgiving table are: Mediterranean-style Oven-Roasted Vegetables and a Moist and Spicy Layered Pumpkin Cake with Molasses Cream Cheese Frosting. I hope you give these recipes a try. They're always a big hit at our house.

Bon appetit!

Mediterranean-style Oven-Roasted Vegetables
(recipe by HanaasKitchen)
Ingredients:

2lbs sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into 3/4" to 1" cubes
1lb carrots, peeled, cut diagonally (on the bias)
1.5lbs zucchini, cut diagonally or 1" cubes (I used green and yellow zucchinis)
0.5lb white button mushrooms, brushed clean, cut in half
1 medium red onion, peeled, cut in half, pole to pole, each half cut into 6 wedges

Dressing:

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
1Tbsp honey
1Tbsp Italian seasoning
1/2tsp ground cumin
1tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp cayenne pepper
6 garlic cloves, finely mined
1Tbsp mustard
1Tbsp water
1/2tsp freshly ground black pepper
1-1/2tsp coarse sea salt (or to taste)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400F (or 375F for the convection setting which is what I used).
Combine the ingredients for the dressing and a large bowl and whisk together until well-combined.
Set aside 1 Tbsp of the dressing.
Add all the vegetables, except the onions, to the dressing and stir thoroughly until the vegetables are well-coated.
Line two large rimmed cookie sheets with Reynolds Non-stick Foil.
Divide the vegetables between the two cookie sheets and bake for 20 minutes.
In the meantime, add the saved dressing to the large bowl (that used to hold the vegetables). Break up the onion wedges with your fingers and add them to the bowl. Stir to combine.
Add the onions to one of the cookie sheets or divide between both cookie sheets.
Bake the vegetables + onions for another 15-18 minutes, or until fork tender.

Bon appetit!

Pumpkin Layer Cake with Molasses Cream Cheese Frosting
(recipe adapted from www.penzeys.com)
Cake ingredients:

2 cups (9 ½ oz) flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground ginger
a dash of: ground cloves, freshly grated nutmeg, ground allspice
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
4 eggs
1-2/3 cup (11 ½ oz) sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
15 oz can of pumpkin puree

Instructions for cake batter:

Line two 9"x2" round cake pans with parchment paper. You can also use one 9"x13" pan and make frosted pumpkin bars.
Preheat oven to 350F and center a rack in the middle of the oven.
Sift dry ingredients into a medium bowl, whisk to combine and set aside.
Using a standmixer, beat room temperature eggs with sugar until light and fluffy.
Slowly drizzle in the oil.
Add pumpkin puree and stir to combine.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in 3 batches.
Pour batter into cake pan and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, or until the cake springs back when lightly touched in the middle and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool on wire rack until cooled completely before frosting.
Fill the two cake layers with half of the frosting and use the remaining half to frost the sides and the top.

Molasses cream cheese frosting:

one 8oz block of cream cheese, room temperature (or on HIGH in microwave for 15-20 seconds)
1/2 cup sugar (3.5 oz)
1 tsp molasses
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Mix together with hand mixer until creamy and smooth.
one 8 oz tub of Extra Creamy Coolwhip (or freshly whipped cream, slightly sweetened)
Fold this into the cream cheese mixture. You can use the hand mixer for this too.

Inside view of pumpkin bar!

ABC - Focaccia (Tart) for Breakfast

2011-10-30T23:10:00.001-05:00

Focaccia Tart with Apples and Craisins and Olive Oil Streusel

This month's Avid Baker's Challenge recipe is a yeast challenge: Focaccia for Breakfast. It's Flo Braker's "sweet" take on the classic Italian bread, Focaccia. Her recipe has us dot the dough with fresh berries and an olive oil streusel. Interesting combo, huh? That's what I thought too!!

The dough for the Focaccia has a hydration percentage of about 66%, so it's a fairly "wet" and sticky dough. Avoid adding any flour to it for a light and airy end result. I made the dough in the bread machine last night and let it go through its first rise. Then I refrigerated the dough overnight in a well-oiled container.

It dawned on me that this dough will make a big batch of "dessert" Focaccia. So I started thinking "savory". The dough itself is not sweet so it could go either way. Why not both? How about I make lunch AND dessert with this dough? That's when the idea of making a Taco Pizza was born.

I have been in an "apple state of mind" lately, so instead of blackberries (not in season anyway), I used cubed apples, craisins, brown sugar, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. I cooked this until the apples were fork-tender (not mushy). Then the apple mixture was drained and the drained juice saved for later. I boiled the juice until it was reduced by half.

The dough was roughly divided into one-thirds and two-thirds. The small portion for the dessert and the large portion for the Taco Pizza.

See how airy the dough is?

I pushed the dough into an oiled 9" tart pan. After it rose, I distributed the apple filling on top and let it rise again.

Ready for its final rise before baking.

After a 40 minute visit to the oven, the crust was nice and golden brown.

Yum! The smell is amazing.

We ate it slightly warm and it was wonderful.

Spiced Apple-and-Craisin Filling
by HanaasKitchen
Ingredients:

1 lb apples (I used 2 small HoneyCrisp and 1 small Gala), peeled, cored, cut into 1/4" cubes
1/4 cup (40 gr) dried cranberries
1/3 cup (66 gr) dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions:
Combine all the ingredients in a medium pan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Lower the heat to low, cover and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain the apple mixture and reserve the juice. Use the filling when cooled slightly. When ready to serve the Focaccia, boil the reserved juice (using the same pan), until reduced by half and it's slightly thickened and syrup-y looking.

This is what lunch looked like today:

Toppings: taco-seasoned ground beef, refried beans, grape tomatoes, red onions, spring mix lettuce, shredded cheese, and sour cream drizzle.

Crisp exterior, and soft and slightly chewy interior!

Final thoughts/tips:

Hubby and I loved both the sweet and savory choices. He gave this a 9 out of 10 rating!
This is a really good Focaccia recipe. The exterior is golden brown and crunchy, but not hard. It's almost crumbly which I liked. The interior was light, fluffy and slightly chewy with a very mild yeast flavor. I'd like to try and make rolls with this dough sometime. I'd like to sub white WW flour for some of the bread flour.
The two kinds of fillings were great. The apple filling was sweet with a slight tang and wonderful spice. The Taco toppings were hearty and spicy.
Changes made to the dough: added 1/3 cup (23 gr) non-fat dry milk powder, used 1.5 tsp salt instead of 2 tsp.
Changes made to the olive oil streusel: used 3 Tbsp of butter, melted (instead of 5 Tbsp of cold butter). I find that melted butter makes streusel more crunchy.
I hope this post and pictures have sparked your interest in trying this recipe. You can find the recipe in Flo Braker's book, Baking for all Occasions. It can also be found online on COOKSTR.
Don't forget to check out this month's ABC blog roll.
I have submitted this post to YeastSpotting.

BOM: Pumpkin Knotted Dinner Rolls

2011-10-22T23:02:00.000-05:00

Light-as-air pumpkin dinner rolls

It's that time again. The Artisan Bread Bakers on Facebook are baking this month's BOM (Bread of the Month): Pumpkin Dinner Rolls. Our host, Phyl, could not have chosen a more appropriate Fall recipe for us to bake. I love anything pumpkin and couldn't wait to make these. The thought of cutting the recipe in half didn't even cross my mind, even though I had never used pumpkin and yeast together in a recipe. Several group members had already baked it and everyone raved about it. The recipe can be found here, although I used a slightly modified version which included weight measurements.

As usual, I made the dough in my bread machine. It also does the first rise for me so I had no excuse not to exercise. So I did :o) The dough was a real pleasure to work with; supple and soft with a beautiful yellow hue. I made this recipe on a workday, so I only made four knotted rolls and then shaped the remainder of the dough into "regular" round rolls. I made a total of 18 x 60 gram rolls.

Ready for the oven

After the second rise, the rolls were brushed with a Moroccan-inspired egg wash and then baked in only 15 minutes in my convection oven. See the "Final thoughts/tips" section for the recipe of my Moroccan-inspired egg wash.

Golden brown and delicious!

I hope this picture conveys how light and fluffy they are!

As you might know, I'm a big fan of weight measurements in recipes. When I saw a modified version of the recipe on Küchenlatein with weight measurements, I decided to use that recipe as my base recipe instead and make a few tweaks. One of the main changes I made is substitute half of the bread flour with white whole wheat flour. 1 Tbsp of golden flax seeds was ground and added to the mix. Instead of whole milk, I used 1% milk. I also reduced the amount of sugar and butter and replaced some of the butter with vegetable oil.

Final thoughts/tips:

My husband and I loved these rolls. You can't taste (or smell) the pumpkin. The yellow hue of the rolls is what gives away the pumpkin, making the rolls moist as well as nutritious. Their interior is so soft and light. Considering they contain 50% whole wheat without becoming door knobs, was worth the experiment :o) Hubby's rating: 9 out of 10.
We've eaten these rolls with a Moroccan chicken tagine. I've also enjoyed these rolls with butter and homemade grape jelly. It just works whether you go the sweet or savory route.
These will definitely be baked again. They'd be great on our Thanksgiving table but really, they are great anytime. Don't miss out. Go bake some right now! :o)
Moroccan-inspired egg wash: 1 egg, 1 tsp water, 1 tsp orange blossom water.
A big thanks to Phyl for choosing another winner.
For the first time ever, I'm submitting this post to YeastSpotting. I hope it's accepted :o) Thanks in advance, Susan!!

Apple Crisp

2011-10-17T22:47:00.002-05:00

That's what was left after eating and giving away a bunch of apples :o)

When life gives you apples, you bake apple crisp and do so often. We were blessed with an abundance of apples from our two trees this year: HoneyCrisp and McIntosh apples. So far I've baked apple crisp three times these past two weeks. I took some to work. At home, we served it with ice cream. Everybody loved it and I even got some recipe requests. I figured I might as well do a blog post about it. Normally I don't measure very closely when I make apple crisp because it doesn't need to be exact, but the last time I baked it, I paid close(r) attention for the purpose of sharing the recipe. I hope you bake it too. It's very easy to make and doesn't require a lot of time. Since we're on the topic of apples, what's your favorite apple dessert?

Apple Crisp - simple, homey, but oh so satisfying!

Served with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yum!

Apple Crisp
(crumb topping is heavily adapted from an Apple-Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake recipe in Rose's Heavenly Cakes)

Apple ingredients:

3lbs (1400 grams) apples, preferably a mixture of two kinds of apples - peeled, cored, cubed
2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon bleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons lemon juice
pinch of salt, optional

Instructions (filling):

Combine apples, sugar, flour, lemon juice and salt (if using), and set aside.

Crumb topping ingredients:

1 cup (100 grams) almonds, toasted
1/3 cup (72 grams) brown sugar, firmly packed
2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 cup (80 grams) bleached all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons (57 grams) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions (crumb topping):

Preheat the oven to 375 F degrees (175 Celsius).
Combine the almonds, brown sugar, granulated and sugar in a food processor, and pulse until well combined and the nuts are coarsely chopped.
Remove 1/2 cup of this nut-sugar mixture and add it to the apples. Toss to combine. Place the apples in an 8"x8" square baking dish (I use Pyrex). Bake the apples without the crumb topping for about 30-35 minutes until bubbly on the sides. In the meantime, finish making the crumb topping.
To the mixture in the food processor, add flour, melted butter and vanilla extract. Pulse until you have a coarse, crumbly mixture. Refrigerate this for about 15-20 minutes.
After the apples have baked for 30-35 minutes, remove the apples from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 350 F degrees (150 Celsius).
Remove the crumb topping from the fridge. Pinch together the cold crumb topping with your fingertips until about 1/3 to 1/2 of the mixture is formed into big clumps.
Quickly distribute the crumb topping over the surface of the apples. Bake uncovered for another 25 minutes.
Serve the Apple Crisp slightly warm with a scoop of ice cream and/or a dollop of whipped cream.
Bon appetit!

The perfect bite!

ABC - Frangipane Ripple Chocolate Pound Cake

2011-10-09T20:13:00.002-05:00

Happy to see some sort of frangipane ripple! :o)

Oh boy, I'm a week late for my own baking group, the Avid Baker's Challenge. As the administrator I'm definitely not setting the right example with this post but what can I say... life happens and then priorities need to be revised. Now onto this month's baking project: Frangipane Ripple Chocolate Pound Cake which is chosen by fellow ABC-er Lola of Lola's Artistic Endeavors. I love almonds and I love chocolate, so I was very much looking forward to this cake. I had leftover homemade almond paste in the freezer from when I made the Neapolitan Bars (I doubled the almond paste recipe so I'd have extra in case I needed it later).

This pound cake was a snap to make. I made half a recipe and used a smaller Bundt pan which I purchased for this purpose. One advantage of being late is seeing everyone else's ABC entry. Some had complained about the frangipane disappearing into the cake after baking. To avoid that problem, I decided to keep my frangipane on the "thick" side and so I cut the butter amount in half which kept it from being runny and thin. I didn't even need to refrigerate it (because it was thick already) but for good measure, I did anyway. When the batter was ready, I scooped the frangipane into a ziplock bag and piped it in between the layers of batter.

It took 53 minutes to bake.

You can see some of the frangipane peeking through!

Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

Hubby hasn't had a chance to try this cake yet, but I did (it was hard to wait until the next day to see if the frangipane rippled or not, ha ha). I'm pleased that it did (to a certain degree), but I definitely got 2 visible layers of frangipane.
The cake is very moist and chocolatey. The frangipane added a very pleasant (but subtle) almond flavor. I ate it plain but wouldn't mind a chocolate glaze for a little bit more chocolatey goodness (hubby would probably disagree with that as he's not a huge chocolate fan). What I enjoyed most about this cake had a light/soft crumb and wasn't super dense like a typical pound cake is.
Modifications (very few this time): cut the butter amount for the frangipan in half, and added a dash of salt to the frangipane. To the cake batter I added 1 tsp of Medaglia d'Oro espresso powder (remember, I made half the recipe, so for the whole recipe you'd need 2 tsp of espresso powder).
Thanks for a great recipe selection, Lola.
Don't forget to check out this month's ABC blog roll.

BOM: Fig and Almond Bread

2011-10-02T10:46:00.002-05:00

This is my first time baking along the Artisan Bread Bakers on Facebook and I'm already late (sorry Phyl!). Better late than never, right? BOM stands for Bread of the Month and is hosted by blogging buddy, Phyl. For September's BOM he chose Nick Malgieri's Fig and Almond Bread. This recipe is a sneak preview from Nick's upcoming book, to be published in 2012. This recipe came with weight measurements which scored points with me right away but even without that, I'm a big Nick Malgieri fan. Judging from this recipe alone, I'm already looking forward to his new book.

Bread studded with apricots and almonds

The bread is a simple yeast bread, made with 20% WW flour (which caught my attention immediately), studded with whole almonds and figs (or in my case, dried apricots). You can definitely use it for savory sandwiches because it's barely sweet. We had some with Pepper Jack cheese and some with homemade grape jelly. It works great for both.

I made the dough in the bread machine and added the "fix-ins" in the last few minutes of kneading. The dough had a silky smooth texture to it and was very easy to work with and only slightly tacky. I would definitely make this bread again and play with the "fix-ins". Replace the dried fruit with craisins, and you got yourself a perfect bread to make sandwiches with the day after Thanksgiving.

Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

The bread has great flavor and is very versatile. Hubby and I both liked it a lot. This was my first time eating almonds in a "regular" bread and I really liked the nuttiness and the slight sweetness that added. Would definitely make it again.
If you've visited my blog before, you know I almost always make changes to recipes and this one was no exception :o) They're listed below.
Used barley malt syrup for the sugar, dried apricots (115 gr) for the figs, and less almonds (90 gr).
Adds: 7 gr of vital wheat gluten (for a little insurance) and 1/3 cup or 23 gr non-fat dry milk powder (for added nutrition), and 2 tsp of vegetable oil.
Things I'd do different next time: let the dough rise just a few minutes after flattening. I'm hoping that will lighten the interior a little bit (but I'm not sure).

HCB - Apple-Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake

2011-09-27T22:30:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's been a while since I baked along with the Heavenly Cake Bakers, but I'm glad to be back. This week the HCB-ers had Individual Pineapple Upside Down Cake on the menu. I vividly remember these little cakes. Especially the wonderful crumb of the cake. So for this week, I decided to bake something else. With my apples ready for picking (we have a Honeycrisp and a McIntosh tree), the choice was easy: Apple-Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake. The picture in the book has captured my attention since the very first time I browsed through the book at a Barnes and Nobles. I have no idea why it took me so long to bake it :o)

Look at those big chunks of buttery crumb topping. Yum!

Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

This cake was a big hit. We ate it at room temperature and slightly warm, and preferred the latter. All it needs is a 10 second zap in the microwave. Hubby gave it a 9 out of 10.
I loved the different flavors and textures that this cake offers. The cake is buttery, tender and moist. The filling has a great apple and cinnamon flavor and the topping is nutty and crunchy which was a wonderful contrast. Using melted butter definitely makes the crumb topping crispy. I increased the amount of flour in the topping by 25% to ensure a great crunch that lasts for a few days.
The cake part could have been a little "fluffier" but that might be my own fault. I used Argo's Double Acting Alu Free baking powder because that's all I had. Has anyone had any issues with this baking powder? I might go back to Rumford.

ABC - Cupid's Strawberry Cake

2011-09-20T23:08:00.002-05:00

Today's ABC recipe, Cupid's Strawberry Cake, was chosen by Alice of My Adventures in Baking. I "met" Alice via a different baking group called Heavenly Cake Bakers. Her posts are always fun to read and her step-by-step pictures are great!

I love strawberries so Alice couldn't have picked a better recipe. I started by making 1/3 of Flo's Signature Yellow Cake in two 6" cake pans. And that's where it ended. When I read there were egg yolks in the frosting, my baking project came to a screeching halt (I read the recipe so many times but somehow missed that aspect). If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that I don't consume raw or barely cooked eggs. So I came up with plan B: make a jam-infused whipped cream frosting instead. Unfortunately that hasn't happened yet (we had 130lbs of concord grapes from our grapevine to attend to) and I still have two sad-looking and unfrosted 6" cakes :o(

Instead, I'll share with you pictures of a tea cake I made a while back, using Flo's Signature Yellow Cake recipe.

The crumb was perfect - moist, tender but sturdy enough to hold any frosting

Step-by-step:

Homemade fruit preserves

Lightly toasted sliced almonds

Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

All I remember about this cake is how wonderfully moist and tender it was. It also had a great buttery flavor without being too rich.
Check out what the other ABC-ers thought about Cupid's Strawberry Cake.

Donsuemor Lemon Cream Cakelets

2011-09-12T23:37:00.001-05:00

Back in July, I was contacted by a Donsuemor representative and asked if I was interested in participating in Donsuemor's "Dessert a Day" celebration in October for National Dessert Month. Of course I was interested!! :o) The dessert challenge I received was to create a recipe using one (or more) Donsuemor product(s). Donsuemor has been in business since 1976 selling madeleines and financiers, so they know what they’re doing! Through their website, you can order all of their sweet treats. They're made with all-natural ingredients and real butter!! A very big "thank you" goes out to my friend and fellow blogger, Monica of Sweetbites, for referring me to Donsuemor!!

After some deliberation, I eventually narrowed down my choice to the Lemon Zest Madeleines and the French Almond Cakes. When the sample box arrived, hubby and I couldn't wait to try them. They were all individually packed and visually they were both equally impressive. The Lemon Zest Madeleine was buttery with a wonderful lemon taste and aroma, while the French Almond Cakes were exceptionally moist and packed with lots of almond flavor.

The first recipe I developed is called: Donsuemor Almond Cake Truffles. Delicious bite-size treats that are ready to eat in no time since they don’t require any baking. The recipe I will be sharing with you today is for Lemon Cream Cakelets. They're also delicious and quick to make because they require no baking.

I just loved the scalloped edges of the Lemon Zest Madeleines. Since they looked pretty on their own already, I thought to myself, the only thing that could make them prettier is a shiny chocolate ganache glaze. That idea lead me to think about a spin on Boston Cream Pie, one of my favorite desserts. Although I love crème patisserie, aka pastry cream, it’s not something that’s quick or easy to make from scratch, so I had to think of something else.

Why not use store bought pudding? I came across lemon-flavored pudding and figured it would be perfect for highlighting the lemon flavor in the Madeleines. And since you can never have too much lemon flavor (in my book, anyway), I wanted to increase the lemon flavor a bit by adding lemon zest to the pudding. To lighten the somewhat dense texture of the pudding, I decided to use Extra Creamy Coolwhip. That’s it! Pretty easy, huh? This combination worked together beautifully: light and creamy pudding that packs a nice lemon punch, sandwiched between two rich and buttery lemon Madeleines, with a dark chocolate ganache glaze that’s not only visually appealing but also adds a nice flavor contrast.

Before I give you the recipe, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Donsuemor for the opportunity to create not only one, but two recipes for them. It was a fun and creative process, and of course, a very tasty one as well! :o)

Donsuemor Lemon Cream Cakelets
(recipe created by Hanaa of HanaasKitchen for Donsuemor)
Yields: 4 cakelets

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of heavy cream
1/3 cup of semisweet chocolate chips (I used Hershey Dark Chocolate Chips)
8 Donsuemor Lemon Zest Madeleines
One 3.25 oz cup of lemon pudding (if unavailable, use Vanilla-flavored pudding and double the amount of lemon zest)
1/2 tsp lemon zest, loosely packed
1/2 cup Coolwhip, preferably Extra Creamy

Instructions:

Remove the Lemon Zest Madeleines from their wrapper. Use a small paring knife to cut off the little hump to create a flat surface. Set aside.
Make the ganache glaze: heat the heavy cream in a pan over medium heat until bubbles form around the edges. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips and stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Set aside. (Note: this will make more than you need. Use leftover ganache glaze on ice cream or other desserts. It also freezes very well. Another option would be to make Donsuemor Almond Cake Truffles).
Dip the top of 4 Lemon Zest Madeleines into the warm ganache glaze using a toothpick inserted in the middle. Put the chocolate-coated Madeleines on a cooling rack for the chocolate to set (to speed up this process, refrigerate them for about 10 minutes while making the filling).
Put the content of the pudding cup into a small bowl. Add the lemon zest and Coolwhip to the pudding. Using a spatula or a whisk, gently fold the Coolwhip into the pudding.
Spoon(**) about 1-2 Tbsp of the pudding mixture onto each of the 4 remaining madeleines.
Remove the chocolate-coated Madeleines from the fridge. Place each one on top of the pudding-covered Madeleine and you’re done :o)

(**) For a fancy presentation, place the pudding in a piping bag or Ziploc bag that’s fitted with a star tip. In a zigzag motion, pipe the pudding mixture onto each of the 4 remaining madeleines before placing a chocolate-coated madeleine on top.

Note: the filling recipe can easily be doubled or tripled (you'll have enough ganache for coating the Madeleines without changing the recipe). I received 10 Lemon Zest Madeleines but after our taste test, I only had 9 left which is why I could only make 4 cakelets.

Step-by-step pictures:

Cut off the hump and use a toothpick to dip each one in the chocolate ganache glaze

Rest the chocolate-coated Madeleines on a cooling rack until the glaze is set

Mise en place: pudding, Madeleines, Coolwhip, lemon zest

Gently fold the lemon zest and Coolwhip into the pudding

The filling is ready to go

For a fancy presentation, use a piping bag or Ziploc bag to pipe the filling onto the Madeleines

In a zigzag motion, pipe the filling on top of each Madeleine

Put a chocolate-coated Madeleine on each one and you're done

Bon appetit!

Donsuemor Almond Cake Truffles

2011-09-12T00:20:00.000-05:00

Back in July, I was contacted by a Donsuemor representative and asked if I was interested in participating in Donsuemor's "Dessert a Day" celebration in October for National Dessert Month. Of course I was interested!! :o) A very big "thank you" goes out to my friend and fellow blogger, Monica of Sweetbites, for referring me to Donsuemor!!

The challenge at hand: create a recipe using a Donsuemor product. They sell all sorts of lovely madeleines and financiers, and they're made with real butter!! After some deliberation, I eventually narrowed down my choice to the Lemon Zest Madeleines and the French Almond Cakes. When the sample box arrived, hubby and I couldn't wait to try them. They were all individually packed and visually they were both equally impressive. The Lemon Zest madeleine was buttery with a wonderful lemon taste and aroma, while the French Almond Cakes were exceptionally moist and packed with lots of almond flavor.

Now it was time to get creative and come up with a dessert recipe that I could use these products in. I had many ideas but eventually narrowed it down to two. In this post, I will share with you the recipe for my Donsuemor Almond Cake Truffles. The second Donsuemor recipe will be posted tomorrow, so stay tuned :o)

Donsuemor Almond Cake Truffles

I love almonds, especially toasted almonds because toasting brings out so much of their flavor. I'm also a big fan of truffles and I happen to love fruit in my desserts. That's how the idea of the Donsuemor Almond Cake Truffles was born: a creamy center made with Donsuemor French Almond Cakes, sweetened cream cheese and forest berry preserves, coated in a dark chocolate ganache and rolled in finely chopped toasted almonds.

Donsuemor Almond Cake Truffles
(recipe created by Hanaa of HanaasKitchen for Donsuemor)
Yields: 16 truffles

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of whole almonds, preferably toasted (I used unblanched almonds)
1/4 cup of heavy cream
1/3 cup of semisweet chocolate chips (I used Hershey Dark Chocolate Chips)
6 Donsuemor French Almond Cakes
2 oz cream cheese
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 Tbsp forest berry preserves (raspberry preserves would work too)

Instructions:

If you prefer toasted almonds, preheat the oven to 350F degrees and toast the almonds until fragrant, about 7-8 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes.
Chop the almonds (toasted or untoasted) in the food processor and set aside.
Make the ganache: heat the heavy cream in a pan over medium heat until bubbles form around the edges. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips and stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Set aside.
Break up each French Almond Cake into roughly 4 pieces and put it in the food processor. Pulse in 1 second increments until the cakes resemble coarse crumbs, about 10 pulses.
Bring the cream cheese to room temperature by microwaving it for 10 seconds, or until softened.
Add the sugar, almond extract and berry preserves to the cream cheese. Stir to combine.
Add the cake crumbs to the cream cheese mixture and gently fold the cake crumbs into the cream cheese mixture.
Take a heaping teaspoon of this cake mixture and roll it into a ball between the palms of your hand. Repeat with the remainder of the cake mixture.
Freeze the truffle centers for about 10 minutes.
Remove the truffle centers from the freezer and coat each one with the ganache. Transfer the truffle to the bowl of chopped almonds and gently roll it in the almonds until it's completely covered. Repeat with the remainder of the truffle centers.
Freeze the truffles for 5 minutes for the ganache to set.
Place each truffle in a small (truffle size) paper liner before serving.
Bon appetit!

Step-by-step pictures:

Grind the French Almond Cakes into coarse crumbs

Chopped French Almond Cakes

Mise en place: preserves, cake crumbs, toasted/chopped almonds, and cream cheese

Added the preserves to the cream cheese mixtures

Cream cheese mixture is ready for the cake crumbs

The truffle center mixture is ready to be rolled into balls

Roll each truffle center in the ganache by rotating it inside a spoon

For a little variety, I left some plain and rolled some in toasted almonds

Bon appetit!

ABC - Quintessential Cheese Blintzes

2011-09-06T23:36:00.002-05:00

Sweet cheese-filled Blintzes on homemade red fruit preserves

For this month's ABC baking project, I asked Toni of Big Smiles and Bigger Hips to select a recipe for us, and she chose the Quintessential Cheese Blintzes. I "met" Toni through the Heavenly Cake Bakers and was very happy when she decided to join ABC. One of the things I like about Toni is her honest feedback on the goodies she bakes as part of the baking group. If she doesn't like a recipe, she'll tell you :o) She also has adorable little helpers.

Blintzes (also called Blinis and a very other names) are similar to crepes with a sweet or savory filling. My (late) Russian friend, Svetlana, made Blinis for me that were filled with ground beef. That was my first (and yummy) encounter with Blinis/Blintzes. So I was very eager to try Flo Braker's sweet filling made with farmer's cheese, sugar, citrus zest, and a little salt. I substituted cream cheese for the farmer's cheese. Other substitutes that work well are ricotta cheese and small curd cottage cheese.

If you're a passionate baker and like to join the Avid Baker's Challenge club, please email me at HanaasKitchen [at] live [dot] com.
Since I was only making a 1/4 of the recipe, I made the crepe batter in the cup of my immersion blender. It took about 10 seconds to whiz everything together. After that, it went into the fridge for a few hours while I ran some errands (Flo recommends a 1-2 hour rest in the fridge).

Crepe batter, ready for the fridge

Making the crepes, is easy. My small non-stick pan was slightly smaller than 6" so I used 2 Tbsp of batter for each crepes and got nice thin crepes. A total of 6, to be exact.

I cooked my crepes on both sides (sorry Flo!)

For the filling, I used 4-6 oz of cream cheese which I had in the freezer. After thawing it out in the microwave (slowly), I added 25 grams of sugar, the zest of 1 clementine (my lemon was too sad looking for any zesting), some salt, and some vanilla. I left out the egg. I figured a 1/4 egg is not going to give me that much binding power. And since there are stabilizers in the cream cheese, I wasn't too worried about a runny filling (and I wouldn't have to worry about whether the egg inside the blintzes is fully cooked), so it's a win-win :o)

Here are some step-by-step pictures on how to fold the blintzes (it's much like folding egg rolls):

Gently fried in a little butter for a nice crust and to heat up the blintzes

Bon appetit!

To make these yourself and learn firsthand how good they are, you can find the recipe in Flo Braker's wonderful book, Baking for all Occasions, or you can find it online here.

Final thoughts/tips:

I wasn't so sure hubby would like it since he's not a big cheese fan. Not surprisingly, his first comment was: "This is rich!". But he kept on eating and declared it a winner, also citing that the homemade preserves paired nicely with the blintzes. He gave it a 9 out of 10.
I loved these too. The blintzes had a thin crispy outer layer, while the filling was creamy, sweet, with a nice citrus punch from the clementine zest. I served our blintzes on some homemade red fruit preserves (made with strawberries and plums) that I heated slightly. A light dusting of powdered sugar sealed the deal :o) Thanks for another winner, Flo!
Don't forget to check out what the other ABC bakers said about these Blintzes.