Key Lime Cheesecake

The days of payday cheesecakes may be behind me, but I still make a mid-month cheesecake for Susie to take to the good people at Benton County Mental Health. This month she requested a Key Lime Cheesecake. Who am I to argue? Especially since they usually save me a slice after the feeding frenzy has subsided.

For the crust I used Golden Oreos. Golden Double-Stuffed Oreos. No need for butter with all that creamy filling serving as a binding agent. I pressed the crumbs into my parchment-lined cheesecake pan and put it in the freezer to set.

Cream cheese and sugar are beaten on medium-high for 3 minutes. No more. No less. The number is three. I digress, but tip my hat to the Pythons. I turn the mixer down to medium at this point. Two eggs plus two egg yolks are incorporated, one at a time. Then key lime juice and vanilla are added. Finally, I gently mix in a tablespoon or so of lime zest. Just for the visual effect.

The mix is poured over the frozen crust and placed in a 325° oven for 45-55 minutes. I placed a pan with some water on the lower rack to try to keep the air moist and hopefully, prevent the splitting that sporadically plagues my cheesecakes. (For the record: It worked).

While the cake baked, I mixed up the topping. Sour cream, sugar, key lime juice and vanilla are mixed together in a small bowl.

After 45 minutes, I removed the cake from the oven and let it cool for ten minutes on a wire rack. (Leave the oven on!) I then, very carefully, poured the topping on the surface of the cheesecake. Even more carefully, I spread the topping evenly over the entire surface. To finish it off, I sprinkled a bit of lime zest over the topping.

Back into the oven for five more minutes, and the cake is done. Allow it to cool for a couple hours before covering with plastic wrap and refrigerating.

I'll have to wait for reports from the mental health workers to see how it came out, but if the batter that I "cleaned" off the mixing bowl, paddle, and spatula is any indication, it will be delicious.

Bon appétit!

Focaccia

From an article in The Register-Guard. I love focaccia and learned that it is not for sandwiches. Traditionally that is. I thought I'd go the traditional route with it.

The "sponge" is made by sprinkling yeast over warm water and whisking it, then setting it aside for about 10 minutes until it is creamy. A cup of flour is then mixed in and it is covered tightly with plastic wrap and set aside for a half hour, until it has risen and is puffy and bubbly.

In my stand mixer, I combined the sponge, 1/2 cup water, 1/3 cup white wine, and 1/3 cup olive oil. I used the paddle attachment for this part. 2 1/2 cups of flour, and two teaspoons of coarse salt are incorporated, and when the dough comes together, I switched to the dough hook. I let the mixer go for a few minutes, stopping a couple times to push the dough down off the hook.

The dough is removed from the bowl, and with a couple spoonfuls of flour, is kneaded for six to 8 turns, at most. The dough should be soft, but not wet.

Place the dough in a bowl that has been lightly oiled, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and allow to rise until it has doubled in size. This takes about an hour.

Oil a jelly roll pan well, and press the dough into it, working it out to the sides. If the dough springs back, let it rest a couple minutes until it stays in place.

At least a half hour before baking, pre-heat the oven to 425° and place a baking stone on the next to the lowest rack. (The recipe says the lowest rack, but you need to place a shallow pan of water under the stone when you bake the focaccia).

With your fingers, dimple the surface of the dough. Then drizzle a little olive oil over the surface, allowing some of the oil to pool in the dimples. I spread, sparingly, some thinly sliced red onion, some rosemary needles, and some quartered kalamata olives over the oiled dough. I finished by sprinkling about a teaspoon of coarse kosher salt over the top.

Place the pan in the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 400°. On the lowest rack, place a shallow pan of water to provide steam during the baking process. Bake the focaccia for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. Enjoy immediately, or at room temperature.

We enjoyed it immediately, and continued to do so until it reached room temperature. There was only about one fourth of the focaccia left at that point. It was excellent!

Bon appétit!

Chocolate Truffles

For Valentine's Day, I thought I'd make Susie some chocolate truffles. They are pretty easy to make. All things considered.

Cream is brought to a simmer and then butter is added. When the butter has melted, the chocolate is added. (I used bittersweet, 60% cacao). This is stirred until all the chocolate is incorporated and the mixture is smooth and glossy. At this point, it is basically a ganache.

The ganache is poured into a bowl, covered with plastic and refrigerated for several hours until firm.

With a melon ball scoop, or spoon, or whatever, form the mixture into balls and roll them in whatever strikes your fancy. I used chopped nuts, unsweetened coconut, powdered sugar, and unsweetened cocoa powder. Not all mixed together. See the picture for what I mean.

I placed each truffle in a mini cupcake paper cup and put them in a box.

I think Susie will like them, perhaps more than I liked licking the mixing spoon and bowl.

Bon appétit!

Chicken Thigh Bake

I was inspired by the show Jamie At Home for this dish. It is easy to prepare and works great for a fairly quick work night dinner. A beauty of this is that you can use pretty much whatever veggies you'd like. The same is true of the herbs.

I boiled some new potatoes and reconstituted some dried tomatoes in another pan of boiling water. I tossed in a couple cubes of frozen basil puree for good measure. When the potatoes were tender, yet still firm, I removed them from the water. The tomatoes and basil were drained through a fine strainer.

On to the chicken. I cut a package of skinless and boneless thighs into hunks slightly bigger than bite-size. Maybe even a little bigger than that. I placed the chicken in a frying pan with some olive oil and let it go until it was nearly cooked through. This took 10-15 minutes.

While the chicken was frying, I took a bundle of asparagus spears and cut them into one-and-a-half inch pieces. I set the spear tips aside.

In a mixing bowl I combined the potatoes, tomatoes, basil, chicken and the asparagus (except the tips). I splashed in some red wine vinegar, some black pepper and some olive oil. Mix thoroughly. Gently.

This is spread evenly in a baking dish. Then I scattered the reserved asparagus tips over the top. A drizzle of olive oil over everything and into a 400° oven for 45 minutes and it's dinner time.

This came out absolutely spectacular. Susie and I both loved it. We still do.

Bon appétit!

Ravioli

There is really nothing quite as good as homemade ravioli. Once it is done and everything is cleaned up. There is no limit to what filling can be concocted. No limits on sizes or shapes of the little pillows. Just one's imagination.

The filling was the easy part. I simply put all the ingredients in the food processor and mixed it thoroughly. I used frozen spinach (thaw, then squeeze as much liquid out of it as possible), eggs, Parmesan cheese, prosciutto, chicken, ricotta cheese and garlic. Really. It was that simple.

The pasta gets a bit trickier. Flour, eggs, salt, olive oil and water are standard. Any pasta recipe should work fine. The important thing is to let it rest for an hour after it has been thoroughly mixed and kneaded. Something to do with the gluten. I can't explain the science of it. I saw it on TV and sometimes that's good enough. Just sometimes.

I divided the pasta dough into four equal sections. Just to make it easier to work with. I attached the pasta machine to the counter and began to pass a ball of dough through at the widest setting. Fold the sheet in half and run it through again. Repeat that a few times until the sheet looks solid. Then, rest the pasta machine to one size thinner. Pass the sheet through a few times, folding in half as on the first setting. When I got to setting number five, I had the thickness I was looking for.

I cut the sheet in half and laid one half on my work surface. I then used a small (one inch) ice cream scoop and placed dollops of the filling on the sheet, allowing adequate space between them. With my fingers, I gently patted the balls of filling, flattening them slightly. The second sheet of pasta is then laid over the top. Carefully, I pressed down around the developing raviolis to expel excess air. Then, using a semi-decorative cutter, I cut out the individual raviolis.

Place them on a cookie sheet and then freeze them before packaging them. Unless you want to eat them right away. I froze four packages, and had a few extra to eat right away.

I just topped them with a little tomato sauce, and boy were they delicious. I am planning a surprise dinner for Susie on Wednesday and will use some chopped kalamata olives, reconstituted sun-dried tomatoes and olive oil. For starters.

Bon appétit!

Almond & Pine Nut Cookies

Another idea from the 12 days of cookies feature I stumbled across. Almond & Pine Nut Cookies. Looked simple enough. Why not? As with most of my holiday cookie production, I doubled the recipe.

First, I got past what I deemed a bit of pretentiousness on the part of the contributor (organic free-range eggs, high-quality vanilla extract, superfine sugar). I use eggs, vanilla and sugar. But that's just me.

Almonds and pine nuts are roasted in a 350° oven for five minutes. A couple handfuls of these are reserved for later. The rest go into a food processor and turned into a coarse powder.

The rest of the ingredients are then added directly. Well, almost all of them. Flour, sugar, brown sugar, butter, vanilla, eggs, baking soda. I think that's it. This gets processed until a pasty dough is formed. This is where I ran into a bit of trouble. Doubling a cookie recipe in a food processor just doesn't work well. Fortunately, the mess was minimal as I transferred everything to a mixing bowl and finished the job with my hand mixer.

Oatmeal is added, and then the reserved nuts, after rough chopping them first.

The dough was absolutely delicious. But it is probably better to form one-inch balls and place them on a cookie sheet. Or use a couple spoons. Do not flatten, even a little, the balls of dough. They bake at 350° for 10 minutes. Let them rest on the cookie sheet for a couple minutes after coming out of the oven. They are very soft and delicate, but firm up quickly.

There is an almost savory flavor to these cookies, as a counterbalance to the sweetness of the sugar. Yes. Plain old sugar. They are now officially admitted to my pantheon of holiday cookies, and will be made every year.

Sorry. I forgot to take a picture.

Bon appétit!

Rugelach

I expanded my holiday cookie repertoire this year. To truly make it a "holiday" array of cookies, I looked up a recipe for rugelach in my Jewish Holiday Cookbook. I tried my hand at these tasty morsels before, with a limited degree of success. I was confident I could improve on the final result. Well, hopeful that I could.

The dough is made from cream cheese, butter and flour. That's it. The dough is quite thin and gets covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for at least two hours. At least. I let it chill for five hours. Until it was almost rock hard.

After struggling to remove the dough from the bowl, I cut it into four equal parts. Actually, eight because I had doubled the recipe. Each section is rolled out into a circle approximately nine inches in diameter. I brushed the circle with melted butter and sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar.

With the side of a spatula I cut the circle into 16 pizza-like slices. Then, starting with the outer edge, I rolled each slice into a crescent roll shaped morsel.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment, or a Silpat and space the rugelach a couple inches apart. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet after 15 minutes.

Remove to cooling racks and enjoy. Really enjoy!

Bon appétit!