Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake

 

When Marie brought over the corned beef, she evidently said she would bring dessert.  Victor heard it but I missed that part.  And ya can't have people over for dinner without having dessert, so I decided a cheesecake was in order.  But since cheesecake is about as Irish as corned beef and cabbage (really - it's an American invention - they don't eat it in Ireland)  I thought I would at least give it an Irish twist.  Bailey's Irish Cream.

Cheesecake is one of my most favorite desserts - real cheesecake, that is.  There should only be a few ingredients.

Bailey's Cheesecake

The Crust:

  • 1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely ground
  • 1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 4 tbsp butter, melted

The Filling:

  • 4 pkgs cream cheese, room temperature
  • 4 eggs
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 4 oz melted good quality dark chocolate (I used Valrhona)
  • 1/2 cup Bailey's Irish Cream

Ganache:

  • 4 oz melted good quality dark chocolate
  • 4 oz Bailey's Irish ream

Preheat oven to 350º.  Mix crust ingredients and press evenly into bottom of 10″ springform pan.  Set aside.

Cream the cheese until light and fluffy.  Mix in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add sugar and then the melted chocolate.  Add the Bailey's, mixing until smooth and light.

Pour into pan and bake 60 – 70 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.

Mix Bailey's with melted chocolate.  Spread ganache on top and refrigerate.

As if this wasn't enough, Marie brought over outrageously-good white cupcakes with coconut icing.

I had both.

 


Chocolate Cake

 

The chicken soup made me feel better, so I made a chocolate cake.

A really yummy, strawberry-and-cream-filled chocolate cake.

The cake comes from Ina - the Barefoot Contessa.  Really simple.  It's definitely my go-to cake.  It's rich, moist, chocolaty, and the perfect recipe for making something dramatic and tall.  It calls for 8" round pans and I do think it's important to use them.   I have 3"-deep 8" round pans that weren't that expensive and really do make a difference when baking a cake.  Having some good quality cake pans really is the secret and if you're going to spend the extra five minutes to make a cake from scratch, it deserves a good pan!

Ina's Chocolate Cake

  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans and line them with parchment paper; butter the paper. Dust the pans with flour, tapping out any excess.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, mix the flour with the sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt at low speed. In a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk with the oil, eggs and vanilla. Slowly beat the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients until just incorporated, then slowly beat in the hot coffee until fully incorporated.
  3. Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then invert the cakes onto a rack to cool completely. Peel off the parchment paper.

I went a little overboard with the strawberries and cream.  I used a full two pounds of berries and 2 pints of whipped cream to put this thing together.  We're gonna have cake for a week.

After splitting the layers I spread the bottom layer with whipped cram, arranged halved strawberries, covered with more cream, added another layer, and repeated.

Totally decadent and totally fun.

And if you're looking for cake pans, try Fantes in South Philly.  They deliver.


Chocolate Cake

 

I'm a few days late with this one, but the cake was so good I thought I'd get it up here...

I don't use a lot of cake mixes but I do like to keep one on the shelf for those moments when I want a semi-instantaneous dessert.  I shy away from the national brands and their unnatural ingredients.  If I'm going to be a slug, I at least want to be a reasonably healthy slug.

Another thing I do is use 8" cake pans for layer cakes.

Most of the cake pans one finds at the grocery store or home store are 9" pans.  An 8" pan makes a higher layer that is much easier to split for additional fillings - and it makes a more impressive-looking finished cake.  Much more "bakery" professional.

And we do eat with our eyes...

Chocolate cake just screams for a berry filling and raspberry jam is a natural companion.  But another berry good companion is the raspberry's cousin, boysenberry.

Boysenberries are a cross between a raspberry, a blackberry, and a loganberry.  Loganberries are a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry.  It's a raspberry/blackberry/raspberry/blackberry.

And it makes a great jam!

Putting the cake together is simple.  Split the layers, spread the jam, and ice.

And here's a layer-splitting hint: To get an evenly-sliced layer, use dental floss!

Yes.  Dental floss.  Simply wrap the floss around the cake layer where you want it sliced and pull.  The floss slices right through the cake with no muss and no fuss. Just keep the two ends even as you pull.

Simple.


Torrone al Cioccolato

 

Chocolate Torrone.  How could it be bad?  And La Cucina Italiana Magazine comes through, again, with the perfect recipe.

I don't really remember the first time I had torrone.  I know I was young and I liked the inside, but I really didn't care for the rice paper coating.   It just seemed weird.

It was quite a few years later that I tried it again and a while later that I began to actually appreciate the rice paper.

La Cucina states: A traditional Italian candy, torrone ranges in texture from soft to firm. This one is soft with a good chew. Edible wafer paper, which is flavorless, adds textural contrast and helps keep bars of candy from sticking to one another.

This recipe is a bit time-consuming, but if you follow it exactly, you should end up with a damned fine candy!

Torrone al Cioccolato

  • 4 (8-x-11-inch) sheets edible wafer paper or rice paper
  • 2 cups hazelnuts
  • ¼ cup water
  • 1¼ cups sugar
  • 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
  • 1 cup clover or other mild honey
  • 3 large egg whites
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

Special equipment: candy thermometer

Instructions

Heat oven to 275º. Line the bottom of a 9-x-13-inch baking dish with rice paper.

Spread hazelnuts on a baking sheet; bake until roasted and skins come off easily, about 25 minutes. Wrap nuts in a clean dishtowel; rub to remove loose skins.

Combine water and ¼ cup sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once sugar is dissolved, add chocolate and stir to melt; reduce heat to low to keep warm.

In a heavy medium saucepan, heat remaining 1 cup sugar and honey over medium-low heat until just beginning to bubble. Using a pastry brush dipped in cold water, wash any sugar crystals down side of pot. Put candy thermometer into syrup and continue heating, stirring occasionally, until mixture registers 315º (upper end of hard crack stage).

When thermometer reaches 300°, place egg whites and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk; beat until whites just hold stiff peaks. Remove syrup from heat and let stand until bubbles dissipate.

With mixer at low speed, slowly add syrup to egg whites in a thin stream down side of bowl; increase speed to high and beat until mixture doubles in size. Turn mixer off, let mixture settle, then return speed to high, beating until mixture begins to stick to whisk, about 5 minutes. Add chocolate and nuts; beat on medium speed to combine. Increase speed to high and mix until well combined, about 5 to 7 minutes more.

Spoon torrone mixture into prepared baking dish; spread to an even layer. Cover top with rice paper and refrigerate uncovered, until firm, about 8 hours.

Run a knife around edges of pan. Invert torrone onto a cutting board. Leaving wafer paper on, trim ends, and cut torrone into 1½-x-3-inch bars. Wrap each bar in parchment paper.


Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I needed a cookie fix today.  The weather forecasters are calling for torrential, biblical, end-of-the-world, monsoon rains to hit this evening and continue into Friday.

Sounds good to me.  I love Mother Nature at her finest.

But...  While we can still cook in a possible over-the-top-storm-induced power outage, we have electric ovens.  If I wanted cookies, I had to make them today to be safe.

So I did.

These are a pretty simple and basic cookie.  The ingredients are what every home should have readily available.  And they're really good.

Adding a pinch of baking powder and not flattening the cookies makes for a softer finished cookie without going the expensive-gourmet-bakery-under-baking route.  I prefer my cookies cooked but I also like them slightly soft and slightly thick.  This seems to work just fine.

If you're feeling adultish, you can switch out a tablespoon of the water with a tablespoon of bourbon or whiskey. Makes for a subtle change that's unexpected but really good!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • 2 cubes butter (1 cup)
  • 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 cups chocolate chips
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375°.

Cream butter and sugars together until light and creamy.  Add eggs one at a time and mix well.  Add vanilla and water and mix well.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add slowly to butter mixture, mixing well.  Add oats and mix well.

Add chocolate chips and walnuts and mix until blended.

Scoop onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake about 14 minutes.  (I use a #30 scoop - about 2 1/2 tbsp per cookie.)

 


TastyKakes and Sunday Dinner

Question... When is a TastyKake not a TastyKake?!?

Answer... When it's homemade, of course!

We spent the day with our friends KJ and Debbie yesterday.  Typical Sunday Italian Dinner.  Start eating at one, finish 4 hours later.

Everything was great!  Debbie made a fantastic meat sauce that perfectly covered mounds of spaghetti.  I had two helpings.  And salad... antipasta...  Of course I didn't take any pictures, but I was able to convince them that we just had to take a bit more dessert home!

KJ's birthday is the day after mine so Debbie made her her favorite birthday cake; a homemade version of a TastyKake Peanut Butter Kandy Kake.

Okay.  We all know I'm not from the area and have no real allegiance to things like TastyKakes.  They're just not something I'm going to run out and buy.

But MAKE?!?  OMG!  I could eat one of these every night!

I didn't get the recipe - yet - but the concept is fairly clear...  It's a white cake (not a cake-mix white cake) that, after it comes out of the oven, peanut butter is smeared on it while it's still hot, and then melted chocolate is spread over that.

It's brilliant!

UPDATE:

Ok here it is!

Candy Cake Recipe

  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 Tbs butter

Scald and set aside

  • 4 egg whites
  • Dash of salt
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder

Mix egg whites, sugar, and vanilla until light. Mix in flour, salt, and baking powder. Add cooled milk/butter.

Put in jelly roll pan and bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Take out and spread 12 oz peanut butter on top. Put in fridge to chill.

Melt 8 oz. Hershey chocolate in double boiler and spread on top of cool cake. Refrigerate to harden.


Grilled Pork Chops and Banana Cake

For not having much of an appetite, we're still eating.  The colds from hell linger on.  And on.  And on.  And on.

Tonight was the pork chops from yesterday, a sweet potato and a red potato, roasted with garlic and rosemary and sage from the garden.  And frozen peas because they were there.

The chop was perfectly charred.  It was about all I could taste - until Victor's dessert.

I could actually smell this baking.

Banana Cake

  • 2 cups cake flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 2 bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour bundt pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix until completely combines. Add banana. Slowly add flour alternately with milk. At end of addition batter should be smooth. Divide between 2 pans.

Bake about 40-45 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

I made a chocolate ganache for the top and then covered it with unsweetened coconut.

Yum.


Chocolate Banana Pie

 

Think OMG delicious!  And then multiply it.  That's what you get when Victor heads into the kitchen and makes a clean out the refrigerator pie!  This was last night's dessert that I didn't get posted.

The cookie crust started out as the chocolate chip cookies I made last week and froze.  The chocolate pudding to use up some whole milk we had on hand from making ice cream, the bananas were getting to the use me today or make banana bread tomorrow stage...

And then we topped it with whipped cream.

It didn't come out of the pie plate in perfect wedges.  But it didn't matter.

It rocked!

And there's more for tonight.


Boston Cream Pie

Tonight's dessert was going to be peach ice cream.  Until, that is, Victor caught sight of a Boston Cream Pie on a TV show.  he casually mentioned that he'd love for me to make on, one of these days.  So, of course, I took the hint.

It's definitely been a while since I made one.  I know that nowadays even the Parker House - where the Boston Cream Pie originated - makes them in cake pans.  But I decided to follow tradition and make it in a pie plate.

This recipe comes from the Food Network.

Boston Cream Pie

Cake

  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sifted cake flour
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup cooking oil
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • Pastry cream, recipe follows
  • Ganache, recipe follows

Pastry Cream Filling:

  • 2 cups whole, 2 percent fat, or 1 percent fat milk
  • 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped out
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Ganache:

  • 8 ounces semisweet chocolate
  • 1 cup heavy cream, boiling

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add milk, oil, egg yolks, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed until combined. Beat an additional 3 minutes on high speed and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on medium to high speed until soft peaks form. Pour the egg yolk mixture over the egg white mixture and fold in. Gently pour the batter into a 9-inch greased pie pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched. Invert the pan onto a wire rack. Cool completely.

Pastry Cream Filling: In a medium saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla bean to a boil over medium heat. Immediately turn off the heat and set aside to infuse for 10 to 15 minutes. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add the cornstarch and whisk vigorously until no lumps remain. Whisk in 1/4 cup of the hot milk mixture until incorporated. Whisk in the remaining hot milk mixture, reserving the empty saucepan.

Pour the mixture through a strainer back into the saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and slowly boiling. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Let cool slightly. Cover with plastic wrap, lightly pressing the plastic against the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Chill at least 2 hours or until ready to serve. (The custard can be made up to 24 hours in advance. Refrigerate until 1 hour before using.)

Ganache: In a medium bowl, pour the boiling cream over the chopped chocolate and stir until melted.

To assemble pie, remove the cake from the pan. Cut the cake in half horizontally. Place bottom layer on a serving plate or board, and spread with the pastry cream. Top with second cake layer. Pour chocolate ganache over and down the sides of the cake. Store in refrigerator.

It came out great!  Just like all the ones I ate when I lived in Boston!  It's definitely not that Betty Crocker box mix!  I am pleased with it.

And speaking of pleased...

This is what I look at every moment I am in the kitchen.

Cybil lays on her side of the kitchen (she knows not to snoop around the island when "Daddy Means It" is cooking) hoping that I will drop something she can have.  I almost always do.  Sometimes even on purpose!


Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

Sometimes basic is best.

I had a yen for a chocolate chip cookie tonight.  A plain ol' chocolate chip cookie.  No cocoa powder, no melted chocolate, no oatmeal, peanut butter, walnuts, coconut, or anything else.  A chocolate chip cookie.

I did make monster-sized chocolate chip cookies, however.  I can only be so traditional, ya know...

Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 sticks butter
  • 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 1/2 cups chocolate chips (16 ounces)

Preheat oven to 375°.

Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt.

Beat together butter and sugars in a large bowl with mixer at high speed until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time to butter mixture, beating until creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and mix in flour mixture until just blended, then stir in chips.

Use 1/4 cup disher and scoop 6 cookies onto each parchment-lined sheet pan.  Flatten cookies slightly and bake 13 - 15 minutes.

Makes about 24 cookies.

And I only ate 2 cookies!  Self-control is a remarkable thing!


Flourless Chocolate Cake

 

Victor made dessert.  Tyler Florence's Flourless Chocolate Cake.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

  • 1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 9 large eggs, separated
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
  • 1/4 cup strong black coffee
  • 2 cups heavy cream, cold
  • Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Butter a 9-inch springform pan.

Put the chocolate and butter into the top of a double boiler (or in a heatproof bowl) and heat over (but not touching) about 1-inch of simmering water until melted. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a mixing bowl until light yellow in color. Whisk a little of the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture to temper the eggs – this will keep the eggs from scrambling from the heat of the chocolate; then whisk in the rest of the chocolate mixture.  Add the coffee and mix well.

Beat the egg whites in a mixing bowl until stiff peaks form and fold into the chocolate mixture. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until the cake is set, the top starts to crack and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it, 25 to 30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes, then remove sides of pan.

Serve at room temperature dusted with confectioners’ and the whipped cream.

My stomach is smiling.

Expanding, but smiling.


Chocolate Cherry Cookies

 

I'm not exactly sure how I went from Clafouti to Chocolate Cookies.  Sometimes things just happen, I guess.  And as I sit here with chocolate and cherry and more chocolate, I think I'm glad it took the turn it did.  These are some pretty good cookies!  The original recipe comes from the Northwest Cherries website.

Chocolate Cherry Cookies

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 48 sweet fresh cherries, pitted
  • 6 oz bittersweet chocolate
  • 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

Heat oven to 350°.

Combine flour, baking powder, and cocoa. With electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until well blended. Add egg and vanilla.  Beat until well combined. Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Scoop dough into 1-inch balls, placing 1/2 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Press cherry into center of each cookie.

In small pan over low heat, combine chocolate and condensed milk; heat until chocolate is melted. Spoon about 1 teaspoon chocolate mixture over each cherry. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until done.

Cool and enjoy.

They are even better than they sound - and they sound fantastic!

The cookies are slightly cakey, with a sweet cherry burst, and that creamy dark chocolate finish.

I've already eaten four of them.  I think I have room for one more...