Modern Baker Challenge: Individual NY Cheesecake

My in-laws were on their way to town and were planning to be here for my mother-in-law's birthday. I offered to make her any dessert treat she wanted. After discussing several possibilities, she decided on cheesecake.

I was excited but nervous...I've never made cheesecake before! I wanted a great recipe (of course), so I began to do some research. A friend of my dad's is known for her cheesecake, so I started with her recipe. It called for shortening, which I never use and don't keep in the house. I was nervous about substituting butter when I had no experience with either her recipe or cheesecake in general.

I cried out for help on Twitter and both Phyl and Di sent me links to their favorite recipes, both of which looked awesome.

And then I thought about the kiddos...I began to worry that they wouldn't like cheesecake. They look forward to birthday celebrations so much, and I didn't want them to be disappointed by the lack of traditional cake and ice cream.

Andrea had recommended Nick Malgieri's individual cheesecakes from Modern Baker, which had the advantages of being small enough for just one serving per adult and taking care of one of my challenge recipes! Oh, and a third advantage: I actually had all of the ingredients in the house. I decided to make these individual cakes and a batch of cupcakes for the kiddos.

I made a half-batch, which should've been 4 1/2 individual cheesecakes. But my ramekins are a little bigger than the ones NM calls for, so I just made 4 slightly bigger cheesecakes.

The recipe was really easy. The only difficulty was baking them...the recipe says 25-30 minutes, until they are set on top. I baked mine for 40 and still wasn't convinced they were done. They cooled in the fridge over night. Like Andrea, I had some trouble getting them out of the ramekins neatly. But after the first fail, the other three came out okay.

The verdict? My in-laws and husband raved...my mother-in-law said she could eat this cheesecake every night for a month. And then...my always proper mother-in-law licked. her. plate. clean. Yes, I will make these again!

Bake! Spinach and bacon tart

My Twitter pals made this spinach and bacon tart before I received my own copy of Nick Malgieri's Bake! so it was on my catch-up list.

I made this last weekend for book club, and unfortunately the flu hit our house before I had a chance to blog about it, so I don't remember much...except two things: it was easy and it was delicious. I'm not sure of the difference (if there is one) between a tart and a quiche, but this was very quichey to me. The crust was easy to make and easy to roll. The filling included egg, bacon, spinach (I used frozen), cheese (I used gruyere), half-and-half, and seasonings.

My book club enjoyed it, and my dad (who is known for "honest feedback" about my cooking and baking and doesn't often give rave reviews) said it was "wonderful." Definitely a make-again!

Super Bowl Sunday: Pizza MB-style

I asked hubby what he wanted for Super Bowl Sunday dinner. He looked at me like I was crazy. "Pizza, of course." Duh. What was I thinking?! Unfortunately, we were out and about at the time, so I had no way to know if we had the required supplies at home. I usually keep multiple balls of our favorite pizza dough in the freezer so we can make it at a moment's notice.

When we finally got home from our trip to the Big Zoo, errands, and the grocery store, it was already 3:00. And then I checked in the freezer: one dough ball (enough for one personal pizza) and a tiny bag of pizza sauce. What would we do?!

So I pulled open The Modern Baker. I knew that if there was a quick pizza dough recipe to be found, it would be in there. And it did not disappoint! NM has a recipe for focaccia/pizza dough...Hubby really likes deep dish pizza, so we decided to try it.

This was so easy: mix flour and salt in a big bowl. Whisk instant yeast into warm water, add olive oil. Add it to the dry ingredients and mix. Let rise until doubled (I did it in my slightly warm oven because we were in a time-crunch; took about 40 minutes). Slide onto an oiled pan. Use oiled fingers to spread it all around. Let rise again (took about 40 minutes again). Top. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool for 5. Devour.

NM's Nonna's pizza recipe uses tomatoes instead of sauce. But I'm married to a guy who thinks that if it doesn't come with red sauce, it's not pizza. So I used the little bit of pizza sauce that I'd had in the freezer, plus some diced tomatoes. Then we topped it with the kids' favorites: pepperoni, pineapple, and olives, and some mozzarella and grated romano.

Hubby loved it. The kids ate a ton. I thought it was quite tasty. PR's neo-neopolitan pizza is still my favorite, but this will be my go-to recipe for pizza-in-a-flash or hubby's occasional craving for deep dish.

Mellow Bakers: Whole wheat with multigrain soaker

My second February bread for Mellow Bakers is another sandwich loaf (hubby says he's ready to get back to ciabattas and baguettes...maybe next month!). We have the choice between three whole wheats: a plain whole wheat, whole wheat with hazelnuts and currants, and whole wheat with multigrain soaker.

I've already established that I love a good multigrain (and I generally dislike both fruit in my bread and hazelnuts in general), so this was an easy choice.

I used oats, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, corn meal, and wheat bran in my soaker and let it soak overnight. I also made a pre-ferment, which sat out for about 16 hours.

The final dough included whole wheat flour, bread flour (so it wasn't a 100% wholegrain), instant yeast, salt, and water, along with the soaker and the pre-ferment. I'd made half the recipe and baked it in my largest loaf pan (a 10"). I think it probably would have fit better in my 9x5; the loaf was a little short.

We really enjoyed the flavor of this one...made great sandwiches for lunch!

Bake! Cream cheese heaven

I love scones, and Nick Malgieri's scone recipes were enough to make the purchase of The Modern Baker totally worth it for me (even if there hadn't been other hits in the book). I've made both the butterscotch and the Welsh scones more times that I can count.

So I was really excited to see several more scone recipes in Bake! On Thursday morning, I decided the coworkers needed a little treat, and I whipped up a batch of the cream cheese scones. They weren't quite as easy as the recipes in Modern Baker, but still came together quickly: cream cheese, unsalted butter, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, milk, and eggs. The scones were simple, rich, and tasty (although the kids were disappointed in the lack of chocolate). I think next time, I'll experiment with adding some goodies (cranberries and white chocolate, perhaps?).

This morning was my morning to wake up early with the kiddos (hubby and I take turns getting up early on the weekends), so I whipped up a batch of the quick Danish pastry dough. Some of the Twitter gang had talked about making the Danish cheese pockets this weekend, and it didn't take long to convince my hubby that that was a good idea.

The dough was a little odd to me: a cross between a yeast sweet bread (as you'd make for cinnamon rolls) and a rich buttery pie crust. It uses yeast dissolved in warm water and milk, combined with all purpose flour, sugar, salt, and 3 sticks of butter...and 2 eggs. This stuff is rich!

The dough rests a couple of times in the fridge and goes through a couple of press and folds ("giving the dough a turn"). When it was ready, I divided it in half, stuck half in the freezer, and used the other half to make the cheese pockets.

For the pockets, I decided to make two kinds: the traditional cream cheese filling (which is my favorite) and the poppy seed variation (which my dad and stepmom love). Assembly was a bit time consuming, but not difficult.

They were supposed to rise for 30 minutes, although I didn't detect much actual rising. And then they baked for 20; they were a little darker than "deep golden," so I guess I should've pulled them a few minutes earlier.

I was a bit surprised by the final result. I was expecting a more yeasty dough (again, similar to cinnamon rolls) but these definitely had a more buttery pie-crust texture and flavor. Still, they were yummy!

These were a lot more work than my usual breakfast treats of cinnamon rolls or scones, so I doubt I will make them very often...but they'll be fun for an occasional special breakfast treat.

Twitter: Good for the tastebuds, not so much the waistline (A review of Bake!)

Several of my Twitter friends have recently purchased Nick Malgieri's newest book Bake! and have been Twitterbaking some of the recipes. I was intrigued by the orange-almond scones (loving scones as I do), and I happily joined in on the New Orleans praline pound cake when Andrea forwarded me the recipe. Their discussion and Kayte's post of Florida brownies pushed me over the edge, and when the baby girl and I were on a date to the library this week, I picked up Bake! to see for myself.

Oh my!

I made the Florida brownies tonight. They were pretty easy to throw together while our lasagna was baking. Melt butter and unsweetened chocolate. Whisk eggs with vanilla and salt and then sugar. Then let the standmixer whip it all for ten minutes until it's light and fluffy. Add the butter and chocolate mixture and then a little bit of flour. The recipe says to bake it for 35 minutes, until "firm but not dry." When I tested the middle, there was still wet batter in the middle, so I let them go for 5 more minutes, at which point they were definitely done. I probably should've taken them out a couple of minutes earlier to get the "moist crumbs" clinging to my testing knife.

They're supposed to be refrigerated overnight, and I'm sure they'll be even better tomorrow. But when I was removing them from the pan, the corner of the brownie slab just accidentally broke off and accidentally fell into a bowl where a bit of vanilla ice cream was just accidentally waiting. Seriously: oh my!

I've been trying to be good and not purchase any more cookbooks, but I'm afraid I need my own copy of Bake! I already purchased ingredients for four more recipes at the store tonight. This one's a keeper!

Toast bread (Mellow Bakers: February)

After receiving a nifty pullman pan for Christmas, I was so excited to see pain de mie on the January list for Mellow Bakers...and now here we are in February, and toast bread shows up: another pullman pan bread!

I'd never heard of toast bread, but apparently it's an English bread and is similar to last month's pain de mie. From what I noticed, they are different in that the toast bread has no powdered milk, less butter, and the addition of malt powder.

This was the most stressful bread I've made in a long time! Actually, it was a very easy recipe, but the batteries in my scale went out just as I was in the middle of pouring in the flour. Grrrrr. Luckily, I was able to jiggle the batteries a bit and get them to weigh the flour after a bit. But then I had to add all of the other ingredients by measuring instead of weighing.

The bread included bread flour, high gluten flour (which I didn't have, so I just added some vital wheat gluten to my bread flour), instant yeast, unsalted butter, water, salt, and malt powder. It's all mixed together and folded once during it's first proof. Then into the tin and then into the oven.

I still didn't get the perfect pullman corners. As with the pain de mie, I used 2 1/2 pounds of dough, but this time I let it rise a lot longer...probably an extra hour. The dough was a little under an inch from the top when I put it in. I guess next time I'll try a bit more dough and a longer proofing time.

I think I prefer last month's recipe, but I still really enjoyed this bread. We'll use it for grilled cheese sandwiches and eggs in a nest this week. And it made wonderful pb&j for a quick lunch this afternoon!

UPDATE: Hubby said that this bread made the absolute best grilled cheese sandwich he'd ever had in his life.