glazed nutty brownies

I’m always on the lookout for a good frosted brownie.  Always.  I love my fudgy brownies  and they are my “go to” brownies…but Rob loves and often asks for a frosted one.  I made these thinking they were frosted, but they were really glazed – so I’m actually still on the lookout for Rob.  But despite the glaze/frosting misunderstanding, these were delicious!  Our friend Rob (another Rob) liked them so very much.  He was impressed that with all the other desserts I offered – that a simple brownie stood out.  Waaay out.  I found these in Great Cookies by Carole Walter.  Carole’s write up was so compelling that I had to try them.  I didn’t change too much although I really loved the glaze in the espresso brownies so I put the two together.  I added some chocolate chips to the top – just to continue the chocolate overdose theme and wow, great.  These are a little bit crumbly – but if I can say so –  in a really good way.  I loved them as the base of a mini brownie sundae I ate Sunday night.  Super mini, but delicious with my coffee ice cream. I will however, continue to try and test for a true frosted brownie, and a cakey brownie as well as a cracked topped brownie…as that is half of the fun!  Enjoy-

glazed nutty brownies (adapted from Great Cookies by Carole Walter):
8 oz bittersweet chocolate – coarsely chopped
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter – room temp for 15 m
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper (optional)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs (room temp)
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts (best if toasted first for 6-10 minutes in a 325 degree oven – until fragrant)

icing–
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 teaspoon salt

chocolate chips – 1/2 cup to 1 cup depending on you (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line your pan with foil so that it comes over the edges of the pan.  You can do this with parchment too.  (That way, when cooked, you can pull the brownies from the pan – holding onto the foil – in one quick and easy effort.  Then smooth down the sides of the foil, and easily cut and serve.)  If you don’t care about appearance, then just butter the bottom of the pan – and you can dig them out later.  Up to you.

If you plan to toast the nuts now is a good time – in a preheated oven at 325 degrees and place nuts in a single layer on a foil lined sheet pan (less cleanup).  Cooking time varies based on the size of your nut so check these often – you want them to be fragrant and have a warmer color – but do not burn (obviously).  This can take from 6-10 minutes.

Melt the chocolate in a metal or heatproof bowl atop a small amount of simmering water.  (Or a double boiler.)  Slowly melt the chocolate and stir occasionally.  Remove when melted and set aside to cool a bit.

In your mixer – with paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth then add the brown sugar, espresso powder, vanilla, pepper, and salt.  Mix well.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and mix again.

Add the eggs one at a time (wait to add next egg until you can’t see the egg before).  Scrape down the bowl, and mix again – for another minute or two on medium speed.  The mixture will look curdled but don’t worry.

I like to do the rest by hand, but either way by hand or the mixer on low, lightly mix the melted chocolate into the batter.  Fold the flour in very gently and mix until almost  incorporated.  Add the cooled nuts and fold in as well incorporating the nuts and the rest of the flour.  Do not over mix.

Place in prepared pan and bake for approximately 30-35 minutes.  Mine took 33 – Carole’s took 35 so as usual check often and before…checking every 2 minutes or so towards the end.  These brownies should come out slightly wet with a toothpick.  You want them that way – and they will continue to cook a little bit more on the counter.  Let cool a bit maybe 15 minutes or so.

In the meantime, make the icing.  Bring the butter, milk, sugars, cocoa, vanilla and salt to a boil in a small saucepan.  Continue to stir and whisk as it comes to a boil.

Pour the  icing over the warm brownie (you may not need all of it – but save it!  Use it with something else).  I then scattered semisweet chocolate chips all over the glaze – for an extra extra chocolate explosion.  This is really optional!  I’m just crazy about texture.  Then let all set and harden for a few hours.

When cool and set, using the foil as an aid, pull the brownies from the pan and place on cutting board.  Smooth down the edges of the foil and there you go – no fighting to get them out of the pan.  All pretty and all neat (if you care!)

Feel free to freeze.

Enjoy!

chocolate brownie cookies

choc-brownie-cookie-claudi

Look at the milk chocolate malted ice cream sandwiches with chocolate brownie cookie post for a full write up of these delicious cookies…

 

 

 

 

 

chocolate brownie cookies (barely adapted from The Last Course by Claudia Fleming):

1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs, room temp
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoon brewed espresso
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 oz extra bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup mini chips
toasted nuts or dried cherries (optional…to taste)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

With whisk attachment, beat the eggs for a few seconds then add the sugar, espresso and vanilla.  Beat until this turns thick.  It should take about 15 minutes on high speed.

In the meantime, over a pot of barely simmering water (or double boiler) – melt chocolates and butter.  You only need about an inch of water in the saucepan, bring it to a boil, and reduce to simmer.  Place a metal bowl on top of the saucepan making sure that the water does not touch the bowl of chocolate.  Once melted, remove from heat.  Do not cook the mixture, just melt it.

Remove the thick egg batter from the mixer and gently fold in the melted chocolates and butter.  Fold about half way – you should still see streaks – and then fold in the flour mixture and mini chips.  Fold all until just incorporated.  (Add dried cherries or chopped nuts if desired.)

If batter seems runny at this point, let it sit for about 5 minutes.  If thick, you are good to go.  Drop by rounded teaspoons onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake until puffed and cracked about 8-9 minutes – you can rotate the pans mid-way.  Try not to over cook these cookies…otherwise they will dry out.

Cool and enjoy!

blueberry cake with crumb topping

This is another childhood favorite which my mom happened to save!  She made it for my dad on Tuesday and boy did he LOVE it.  He left me a very effusive voice mail message about this blueberry cake of all things (my dad really only likes chocolate desserts or Drakes coffee cakes).  So I got to work and made it yesterday for family and friends.  It was delicious.  Greg and Sylvie loved it and Andy did too (he who is not a blueberry fan).  My friend Melissa said that she saw Jason hunched over the counter last night and couldn’t figure out what the heck he was doing.  Turns out he was cutting and nibbling – cutting and nibbling.  Another friend said the cake was so good and that she too couldn’t stop nibbling.  Only problem was that the crumb topping constantly fell into her cleavage.  Funny.  Something for someone to enjoy later…back to baking…this couldn’t be easier to make.  Really.  Great for brunch, afternoon or after dinner with a little ice cream.  It’s like a delicate blueberry muffin with crumb top everywhere.  It is really packed with blueberries – and I’m sure it would be great with raspberries too.  Enjoy!

blueberry cake with crumb topping:
3/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/4 cup) -softened
1 egg
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup whole milk – pull to room temp if you think of it
2 cups blueberries (or raspberries or a mix)

topping-
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
scant 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons cold butter (1/4 cup)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Butter and flour a 9 inch square baking pan.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and set aside.

Cream the sugar and butter until light at fluffy about 3-5 minutes.  Add one egg, mix and scrape down and mix again to incorporate.

On lowest speed, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, then half of the milk (about 1/4 cup), and repeat, ending with the flour.  Mix until just incorporated.  Scrape and fold by hand – then add the blueberries – (try not to crush them).  The batter will seem very thick and bursting with berries.

Spread into prepared pan.  Make the topping.  Cut the butter into little pieces (pea size).  Whisk the sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt.  Add the butter and with your hands, mix the crumb to incorporate the butter by picking it up in handfuls and rubbing it together so that the butter (or some of it) becomes incorporated.  Do this a few times.

Place crumb mixture evenly over batter and bake for about 42-46 minutes – as usual – check often and before.  It is perfect warm out of the oven – although it might fall apart.  Try to catch the crumbs. 🙂

glazed irish tea cake

This past week I had grand plans for baking…I bought ingredients for creamsicle ice cream (pictured below) that I couldn’t wait to make for our friend Mike who loves orange and fruit flavor.  I was also oddly excited to make a grapefruit yogurt cake (again photo below) which I know sounds kind of weird, but I had a really good feeling about.  The grapefruit cake – for lack of a better word, sucked.  It didn’t taste like anything.  Awful.  Had to toss it.  The orange ice cream was great right out of the ice cream maker.  Soooo good – like a real creamsicle – yet in ice cream form but once it sat in the freezer it became chalky and kind of started to taste like baby aspirin.  I brought it to Mike and he sadly agreed.  The funny part is that Greg came home that day – and announced that we needed an Irish dessert for school.  He signed me up to bake.  Well, I was in no mood after my failures and I was wiped, and I’m not Irish – nor know much about Irish baking!  So I looked for the easiest recipe that I could find that we could do together.  I decided to double the recipe so we could taste it (what else is new) and also decided to spike the raisins in our cake with rum.  Well, even though this is not something I thought I would love – it was really good!  The cake was light and fluffy – the rummy raisins were a tasty addition and the light glaze on top was really good too.  I find out today if the kids liked their cake (no rum).  Hope so.  (Greg just came in and said eveyone in the whole class loved it!)  Enjoy this – it is nice in the afternoon with coffee or tea (if you like raisins).

glazed irish tea cake (adapted from irish.spike-jamie.com):
3/4 cup butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs (room temp)
3 oz. cream cheese (not whipped and not low fat, room temp)
1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2/3 cup buttermilk (pull out to room temp)
2/3 cup raisins (or currants, dates) and rum (optional)

glaze-
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2-3 teaspoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice

If spiking the raisins – place in a saucepan and add about 1-2 tablespoon of  rum and simmer lightly until rum is absorbed by the raisins.  Set aside

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Butter, flour, and line a 9 inch or 7 cup capacity loaf pan.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy about 3-5 minutes.  Add the vanilla and then the eggs one at a time – mixing until incorporated.  Scrape down the bowl and mix again.  Add the cream cheese and mix well.

Add 1/3  of the flour mix to the mixer on lowest speed.  Then add half of the buttermilk.  Repeat – and end with the last 1/3 of  the flour mix.  Mix as little as possible.

Remove from mixer and continue to fold batter and scrape down sides to incorporate the flour and butter.  Add the raisins and mix again.

Pour into prepped pan and bake in center rack for a while.  I forgot to time this!  But the cake got nicely browned and had a good spring to it.  Use your toothpick.   The recipe says 80 minutes – but I don’t think it took that long.  Sorry…really wasn’t planning to blog about this.  Just lucked out.  So set the timer for 45 minutes – start there and see how it goes…check often based on what you see (this is really the best way to bake a dessert by the way).

Once cooked, let stand for 10 minutes.  Make the glaze.  Combine the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice and whisk until smooth.  Invert cake carefully as it is delicate – and spread glaze onto the warm cake.  Cool completely.  Enjoy!

pumpkin cookies or cake with brown butter icing

So if you’ve been reading my blog – you’ll remember that although we all really liked the orange pumpkin cake — it wasn’t overwhelmingly pumpkiny.  I had to try again.  It’s not that I even (personally) love pumpkin flavor so much but feel that the kids should know what pumpkin tastes like.  (Since they were clueless with the last cake!)  Plus I know that many adults really like pumpkin.  I scoured my cookbooks and finally found a good looking pumpkin cookie recipe from Martha Stewart.  These cookies came out great and were a huge hit with family and the many friends who tried them.  I had a feeling that the cookies would have a cake like consistency (which many people loved, although I do not) so I also baked them in a muffin and mini loaf cake shape.  Both cakes and cookies were delicious – pumpkiny and have all the spicy warm fall flavors – ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon which round out the pumpkin so nicely.  The brown butter icing completes them.  Enjoy!

pumpkin cookies or cake with brown butter icing (barely adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cookies):

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cups) butter – room temp
2 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin (14 oz)
3/4 cup evaporated milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

icing–
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/8 cup plus a few teaspoons evaporated milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line sheet pan with parchment.  Or, prep mini loaf tins with butter and parchment and/or line your cupcake pans.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.

Cream the butter and brown sugar on medium high speed in the mixer for about 3 -4 minutes until light and fluffy.  Reduce to medium and add the eggs one at a time until each is incorporated.  Scrape down the bowl and mix again.  Reduce the speed to low and add the pumpkin puree, evaporated milk, and vanilla – mix well.

Add the reserved flour mixture – and mix until just combined.  Now here Martha (Stewart) advises to put the batter in a pastry bag and pipe out the cookies.  I know this can overwhelm some people.  Soo…now you have your muffin pans or loaf pans!  Problem solved.  Or…drop by spoonfuls onto parchment.  I did a side by side comparison to show you the difference – the right side is the cookie that was piped, the left dropped.  Honestly no biggie here…right?  Plus, once you add the icing it makes even less of a difference. 🙂  If you do decide to pipe the cookies, here are some tips: 1 – do not overfill piping bag.  You will lose control of the batter.  2 – to fill the bag, place it in a large container – a glass or measuring cup or vase – so that you have two hands to fill it.  3 – twist the end of the bag and with light pressure, squeezing from the twist, gently pipe the cookies.  Use a round 1- 1 1/2 inch tip – I just used the coupler but do what makes you happy.

Bake cookies about an inch apart and for about 12-18 minutes.  As usual check often and before – and rotate the pans to ensure even baking.  The muffins took about 30 minutes and the loaf cake took about 40 minutes.  The cake or cookies should have a good spring to the top – or use a toothpick to check the crumb.

Let cool on rack.  Invert the cake (if you made a cake) after it has cooled for about 10 minutes.  In the meantime make the icing.

Place the confectioners’ sugar in a bowl and melt the butter in a saucepan over medium high heat.  Cook the butter swirling it occasionally and keep cooking until you brown the butter.  Now I went very far here – and really took it as brown as I could go because I love the nutty taste of brown butter.  But be careful, you do NOT want to burn the butter.  Cook it as long as deep as you want – or feel comfortable with (at least a golden brown) which should take about 3 minutes.  When browned, immediately add to the confectioners’ sugar and mix – add the evaporated milk, vanilla and the pinch of salt and mix and whisk until smooth.  Add evaporated milk as you see fit – you can make this loose here and just like a glaze – or keep it thick – more like a frosting.  I like it runny and glazy.  Again, do what you like!

Once the cookies/muffins/cakes are cool – frost with the brown butter icing.  If the frosting gets too hard to work with, you can heat it in the microwave for 10 seconds to re-soften – or add more evaporated milk if too dry.

Yum.  Jason was here just now (the guy and friend who inspired my first post on oatmeal cookies) and said – “Oh, I LOVED those cookies.  I just love that pumpkin with all those flavors…my favorite!”  I hope you like them too!

chocolate buttermilk waffles

Sometimes the recipe that comes in the instruction manual is actually pretty good!  In this case, very good.  You may know (from a previous post) that I’m always on the lookout for suitable breakfast foods for Andy.  Andy who doesn’t eat cereal and who really likes chocolate and isn’t all that hungry in the morning.  I found another one!  If you can believe it, this recipe is adapted from the Cuisinart waffle iron manual.  And although I don’t often use this particular waffle iron since it makes little squares (and not big Belgium rounds), I do happen to like most of the recipes in this booklet.  Again, and maybe I’m kidding myself here – these seem fairly healthy; I knocked the butter out of the recipe because he eats these every day (if making for company or a special treat, keep the butter!) and I added some whole wheat flour.  In addition, the eggs, buttermilk and low fat yogurt make me feel good about the cocoa powder and chocolate chips in them.  A few banana slices and he’s on his (somewhat) healthy way.  Greg of course doesn’t eat them (because they are chocolate) although his friend Alex was over and raved about them to my friend Val (his mom)…a nutritionist of all things!  Sylvie happily had one for lunch on Sunday with berries and I made myself a delicious waffle ice cream sundae that night.  This recipe makes about 14 – 6 inch waffles.  I wrapped each individually in plastic wrap and then into a freezer bag.  (I just read about Freeze-tite – a product that is best for the freezer from the same maker as my beloved Stretch-tite!)  Each night I pull one  from the freezer for Andy’s breakfast – ready to pop in the toaster oven or microwave.  A little powdered sugar or maple syrup is nice too.  Feel free to add the butter if you want a richer waffle.

 

 

 

 

chocolate buttermilk waffles:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cocoa powder (natural)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs slightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled (optional, I did not use and these are still good!  or at least cut it to 1/4 cup!)
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups low fat yogurt (plain or vanilla)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (or more or less to taste)

Whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda and salt in a medium to large sized bowl.

In another bowl, mix eggs, vanilla, butter (if using), buttermilk and yogurt.  Pour the wet into the dry and mix until incorporated, stir in the chocolate chips.  Let batter rest for 5 minutes.

Pre-heat your waffle iron to desired setting (although better to go lighter than dark because you don’t want to scorch the chocolate).  And cook as instructed (depending on your waffle iron).  Enjoy!

brown sugar cookies (with walnuts and white chocolate)

The week of my daughter Sylvie’s school bake sale, my son Andy was sick with fever.  I normally go cookie crazy the days leading up to the sale because as I’ve mentioned, I like baking!  But this week was a little different – dividing my time between keeping him company, taking him to the doctor, talking to my friends about him, asking my dad and brother (who are docs) about him, and worrying about him (was it swine? no, it wasn’t, well, not sure).   Luckily I made a large sheet pan of brownies last week – and froze them in preparation.  I had the Halloween Peeps as well.  I planned to make my soft meringues the day of the sale but really wanted to do more but keep it simple. I found what looked like a good recipe in Richard Sax’s Cookie Lover’s Cookie Book – and just fiddled a little.  Richard Sax calls them butterscotch cookies – but it is the brown sugar that really stands out.  My son Greg (the non chocolate lover) thought white chocolate would go well in these and yes, we adored them – especially him.  And my au pair Alisa said these were her favorite cookies and she could eat them all up!  The guys who came to fix the power unit in the house also seemed very happy with their cookies.  As usual – I think these would make a great ice cream sandwich.  A home made sour cream, buttermilk or creme fraiche ice cream would really compliment the brown sugar flavor – but store bought vanilla will also do the trick!

brown sugar cookies (with walnuts and white chocolate):
2 sticks (1 cup) softened butter
1 7/8 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups coarsely chopped toasted walnuts (optional)
1 cup chopped (good quality) white chocolate (optional)

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and place in a bowl.  Set aside.

Toast the walnuts to bring out their flavor.  Place nuts on baking sheet or foil and bake for about 6-10 minutes at 350 – until fragrant.  Do not burn.

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

In mixer with paddle attachment, cream the butter for 3-4 minutes on medium high speed until light and fluffy.  Add the brown sugar and continue to beat for another minute, until mixture is smooth.  Scrape down the bowl and mix again to incorporate.

On medium speed add the eggs one at a time and the vanilla extract, scrape and mix again.  Gently stir in the flour mixture and when almost combined, add the chopped white chocolate and toasted (cooled) walnuts.

Bake on parchment lined sheet pans – drop by tablespoons or bigger or smaller depending on your needs – just watch the baking time.  The cookies should take 11-15 minutes or so – but as usual check often and before.  I made a double batch and rolled the extra dough in logs to freeze as outlined at the bottom of the oatmeal raisin cookie post.  Enjoy!

berry or plain yogurt cake

I loved the write-up of this recipe in Cake Keeper Cakes – in that you usually have the ingredients for it on hand.  This is a great simple plain cake.  One that my son Greg loves.  He said “mom, this is amazing – it is just perfect for me!”  Every day this week there was a piece in his lunch – and he was a very happy person.  Laura Chattman’s recipe calls for the cake plain which is delicious, but I happen to have some mixed frozen berries and I added them to half the batter (I doubled the recipe and made two cakes).  The result was equally as great.  Greg’s friend Jamie was over and exclaimed that he loved berries and cake and “oh, Lisi, this is really really good.”  My daughter Sylvie loved the berries in it too.  I like this cake because there is no butter, and the low fat yogurt and eggs somehow make this feel like a healthy treat despite the sugar and white flour.  (So I didn’t scold my au pair Alisa for eating it for breakfast.)  Enjoy!

(berry) yogurt cake (adapted from Cake Keeper Cakes by Laura Chattman):

2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 (scant) teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain low-fat yogurt (or whole-milk)
1/3 cup canola oil
2 large eggs (room temp)
2 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
mixed raspberries, blueberries or blackberries – frozen (do not thaw) or fresh – amount to your liking
confectioners’ sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter or grease the bottom and sides of a 9 inch round cake pan.  Place a parchment round in the buttered pan, and then lightly flour – knocking out any excess.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.  In another bowl, mix the yogurt, oil, eggs and vanilla extract.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry and mix until flour is just incorporated.  If using berries, add now.  Pour into prepped pan and bake for about 40-45 (for plain) and about 50  minutes (for berries).  As usual check often and before to avoid over baking this cake.

Let the cake sit for 5-10 minutes, then run a knife around the edges and invert onto a rack and let cool.  Dust with the confectioners’ sugar (if you’d like) and enjoy!

berry cheesecake with sour cream topping

My dear friend Dani read my first five posts and said – “love it, but what about my cheesecake and my peppermint ice cream?”  Cheesecake first.  Dani  was very close to having gestational diabetes with her first pregnancy.  Doctors orders… no sugar – none!  It was wicked hard (yes I’m originally from Boston) for her so I really wanted to do good by her when she could eat sweets again.  When I asked what she needed as as she was going into labor, she replied, “the cheesecake please!”  That was that.  I proudly arrived – cheesecake in hand – and I think I was her very favorite person at that moment (well, except for maybe her newborn baby).  This is not a light and fluffy cheesecake, it is dense and rich and packed with berries.  My friend Elese said “OMG that cheesecake is crazy good – it is really outstanding and I’m not just saying that.” My favorite part is the buttery graham cracker crust – so much so that I changed the recipe to make 1 1/2 times the original amount of crust.  This cheesecake is so easy to make and tastes even better the following day.  Perfect for a make-ahead dessert.  (A side note: Dani read this and apparently I made – at her request – Oreo cheesecake.  Think she was really craving sugar.  I don’t remember that which is somewhat scary, but she loved it with Oreos and wanted me to tell all of you that, although I really prefer berries!)

mixed berry cheesecake with sour cream topping (adapted from my mothers recipe)
1 7/8 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
7.5 tablespoons melted butter (almost one stick)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 pound (2 – 8 oz packs cream cheese – not whipped!)
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (or more to taste),  3/4 teaspoon salt
mixed berries (about 2 cups – I use 1 cup blueberries and 1/2 cup each blackberries and raspberries – but do what you love – more or less – one type of berry or even no berries.)

topping:
1 1/2 cups sour cream, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon salt

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix crumbs, sugar, melted butter and salt.  Squish mixture  into an 8 or 9 inch spring-form pan and bake for 8-10 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes.

In mixer, mix cream cheese and sugar – when blended, add eggs one at a time and mix well.  Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again.  Add the vanilla, cinnamon and salt.  Remove from mixer and by hand, fold in the berries being careful not to break them into pieces.

Pour mixture into pre-baked crust and continue to bake at 375 for about 30 minutes.  (Sometimes the butter from the crust leaks out of my pan, not sure why, and onto the oven floor so I often line the shelf below with tin foil to catch the drips and make clean up easier.)

As usual, remember to set your timer for 25 minutes and then check every 5-3 minutes thereafter so that you do not over cook.  Put cake on wire rack and let cool for about 15- 30 minutes.

Raise the oven temp to 400 degrees and make the topping.  Mix the sour cream, sugar, vanilla and salt and spread on top of the baked cheesecake.  This tastes delicious and also covers any cracks in the cheesecake.  Pop in the oven for 5 minutes to set.  Remove and once cool, cover with plastic wrap and let set in the refrigerator.  The following day, or several hours later, run a knife around the edges of the pan, unlock the spring and un-mold the cake.  If you have a hard time releasing the crust from the pan you can cut in slices first and then remove.  Enjoy the love and smiles  from your family and friends…

salted peanut butter toffee cookies

The recipes in Alice Medrich’s cookbook Pure Dessert are so innovative and fresh.  I read through the book dog-earring many pages vowing to bake from it.  I finally made the time even though I knew that these cookies would be a tough sell for my family.  No  peanut lovers  here (except for me) and my brother-in-law Patrick turns his nose with disgust whenever I make anything with  peanut butter (he’s French and says the French just don’t get peanut butter).  But I forged ahead because I knew I’d like them and I just needed to try.  Well…yum!  If you like peanuts and peanut butter – then this is a cookie for you.  My friends Ali and Jonathan generally get to try and enjoy most of  my sweets (they are neighbors so they get it all) but claim to not be critical enough.  But I’ll take Ali’s concise comment – “loved them.”  My daughter Sylvie surprised me by telling me that they were yummy – that the nuts reminded her of the chou-chou nuts that they sell on the beach in France.  Oh, and by the way, these cookies are truly beautiful to look at.

salted peanut butter toffee cookies (just barely adapted from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1  teaspoon sea salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup  firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup natural (smooth or chunky) peanut butter (not unsalted)
1+ cup lightly chopped toffee peanuts*

Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.  Mix the melted butter with both sugars in a large bowl.  Whisk in the egg, vanilla and peanut butter.  Add the flour mixture and mix  until just incorporated.  Do not over mix.

Cover the dough and refrigerate for an hour or  overnight.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Place the chopped nuts onto a tray.  (I line the tray with parchment for easier clean up).  Oh and re-use and re-use your parchment.  Spoon out about 1  to 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough for each cookie and roll in a ball and then  into the nuts. Press in the  pieces that fall off.  I like to cram as many as I can into the cookies.  Place on cookie sheet and bake for anywhere from 14-19 minutes.  Baking time will vary and depends on the size of  the cookie,  where they are placed in the oven,  and how you measured your ingredients that day.  The humidity and weather can also affect baking time.  So please check the cookies often so as not to over bake.  They should look very lightly browned on the top.  Let cool and enjoy!  Turn into a peanut cookie ice cream sandwich with vanilla ice cream.  A little messy but delicious.

* I bought toffee peanuts on-line at Feridies.com.  Amazon.com  sells them too – as well as many other sites if you look around.

toffee-peanuts-and-log

As usual – (you’ll see this often when I bake cookies) I reserved some un-peanut coated dough to freeze.  I rolled it into logs (see oatmeal cookies for more instruction) for use the next time I’m hankering for a peanut cookie.  Defrost the dough in the refrigerator and follow steps above – coating the balls of dough.  Bake and enjoy with very little effort.