Archive for June, 2006
What do you do when you already have a really good cheesecake recipe, but want to make another one? Sometimes, it is hard to justify trying a new recipe when the one you have is excellent because it is taking a risk on something new when you already have a sure thing going. The best solution is to make a variation on the recipe, which will give you a similar product, but get you there in a new and different way. For example, I wanted to make a cheesecake, but I didn’t want to use the same recipe again (even though it is fantastic). I made ricotta cheesecake instead.
Ricotta cheesecake is rich, but light at the same time due to the ever-so-slight texture that the cheese gives the cake. Of course, it’s not “light” in the sense that it is low in fat or calories, but you’ll certainly never mistake it for the super smooth and super dense New York-style cake. This cake has a hint of lemon, which is tasty and almost refreshing in the chilled cake.
I prefer it this way, but I won’t say that it’s necessarily better.
I used the recipe from Joy of Baking because it incorporated both cream cheese and ricotta, giving the cake a good flavor profile. The cheesecake whips together in minutes and, though it does bake in a waterbath, it is easy to tell when it is done because you want it to brown slightly on the top. As it bakes, the cake will puff up a lot, almost twice the size that it will be after it cools. After it deflates, there will be small wrinkles around the outer edge of the cake, giving it a distinctive and appealing look.
I omitted a crust because I noticed that many ricotta cheesecake recipes leave it out. While I crust would have been fine, I do think that the texture of the cheesecake was subtle and might have been lost with on the tongue with the crisp, crumbliness of a crust. It still would have tasted good, though.
One final word of advice: don’t eat cheesecake at the end of a meal. You won’t be able to finish a piece, but you will want to and will probably just end up feeling guilty that you wasted it. And even if you stuff yourself, you won’t feel good enough to actually enjoy the flavor. Instead, have a piece with your coffee in the afternoon, when you’re really able to savor it.
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Watermelon is 80% water and, as such, is one of the most refreshing foods that you can have. It satisfies your sweet tooth, your thirst and your hunger, all in one go. I used to love to eat it plain, scooping it out of the rind with a spoon when I was down at the beach as a kid.
One day, years later, a coworker introduced me to the practise of adding a sprinkle of salt to the melon. What a revelation! The fruit was juicier and sweeter behind the subtle taste of the salt. It’s not a big leap from there to realise that salty feta cheese can bring out the flavor of the melon in the same way, with the creaminess of the cheese adding a nice contrast to the crisp melon.
I don’t have all that much to say about this salad except that it is simple, refreshing and delicious. It is the perfect dish to bring to a barbecue or a picnic, as it is surprising and summery. The only thing to keep in mind is that it is best to prepare it no more than a few hours before serving, as after a day or so in the refrigerator the watermelon will start to leak water into the bottom of the bowl (a phenomenon that anyone who keeps watermelon on hand will have witnessed before).
The amounts given here are approximate, so don’t feel the need to measure too carefully. Add as much or as little feta to the watermelon as you like, but be sure not to forget the fresh basil. Jennifer used parsley in hers, but I think that the sweet, sharp bite of the basil is the perfect compliment to the cool melon and creamy feta.
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Nuts can make a fantastic addition to cookies, cakes and other baked goods. Whether you use pecans, walnuts or almonds, they all add great flavors and a nice crunch to any recipe. Another nut that I am fond of is the macadamia nut, which has an unusually smooth and buttery flavor. I particularly enjoy it when it is paired with white chocolate, as the chocolate contributes a sweetness that is noticeably lacking in the nut. This is the point where the size of the nut becomes an issue: I like white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, but would rather not have the huge nuts taking over the texture with their bulk.
Luckily for me, this recipe not only made the most delicious white chocolate macadamia cookies I’ve had in a long time, but there was not a single whole nut to be seen. That is because these cookies use flavorful macadamia nut oil instead of whole nuts.
This recipe came about when I was playing with a vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe that I found on a blog (which has since taken offline). The cookies used maple syrup or agave syrup as a sweetener and used oil instead of butter as the fat. The macadamia nut oil was an impulse addition for me. When I noticed that the batter smelled fantastic – and distinctly of macadamia nuts – I decided to mix in white chocolate chips instead of plain.
The finished cookies were better than I could have hoped for. The cookies were crispy on the edges and slightly chewy in the center. They tasted like mac nuts and the white chocolate wonderfully accented the overall cookie. Though there was maple syrup in the batter, there was no maple flavor to the final cookie. The recipe makes only a few, so they disappear in a flash, but store them in an airtight container if necessary.
The recipe is no longer vegan, since white chocolate chips typically include milk solids, but regular chocolate chips (which are dairy free) also work very well with the macadamia nuts and make for a great vegan cookie. If you can’t find macadamia nut oil at your usual grocery store, try a natural foods or specialty store (like Whole Foods). Otherwise, use vegetable oil to make a regular chocolate chip version and keep and eye out for it!
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Barbecue sauce is a great condiment to have around, especially during summer when the grill gets a lot of use. You can put it on just about anything and, somehow, it manages to always taste great. My current favorite way to have it is to add it to a salad instead of dressing.
While I love barbecue sauce, sometimes they tend to be a little on the sweet side. I think that a sweet sauce is great for dishes like ribs, but sometimes I want a little more zing. When I set out to look for a sauce recipe on this occasion (which happened to be yesterday), I decided that balsamic vinegar was the ingredient I wanted to highlight.
WhileI have added a bit of vinegar to sauces before, I can’t recall putting it into a starring role. So originally, I thought that I might make some sort of reduction sauce for this chicken to add balsamic vinegar to the dish. Fortunately, I came across a recipe for balsamic barbecue sauce on the Sunset magazine website and, after reading it, knew that it was exactly what I had in mind.
The sauce was fairly thick and very smooth. It had a complex, rich taste and a definite tang from the balamic vinegar. There was a small kick of spice, from the Worcestershire and the dry mustard. I opted to use dried, powdered garlic instead of a fresh clove to ensure that I would have a smooth texture in the final product.
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I was tempted just to make plain vanilla cupcakes this week but inspiration struck me when I was watching the World Cup: black and white cupcakes, inspired by the colors of a soccer ball. This was quickly followed by a thought of cookies and cream and the oreo cupcake came to life.
It was a simple thing to mix crushed up cookies into a fairly standard vanilla cupcake and I’m surprised I never did it before. All I had to do was put 10 cookies in a zip-lock plastic bag and gently crush them with a rolling pin.
I have to admit that I didn’t even use Oreo cookies in these. I actually used the chocolate and vanilla bean JoJo’s from Trader Joe’s. Essentially Oreos with higher quality ingredients (you can see the vanilla bean specks in the filling), they are non-hydrogenated, so you can feel better about eating them. Any cookie of a similar sandwich composition and texture (such as Hydrox, or whatever they’re calling them now) should work fine.
The cupcakes were fantastic, in my opinion. If you don’t like cookies n’ cream or Oreos in general, you probably won’t feel the same way, but there is a variation of the recipe you can use, below. The cakes were tender and moist, with a satisfying crumb and and excellent vanilla flavor. As for the cookie pieces, the filling of the cookies melted into the batter and while the chocolate wafers stayed ever so slightly crisp, maintining a different texture than the rest of the cake. The smalled bits of cookie were less noticeable, but I enjoyed the textural and flavor contrasts of having both large and small cookie pieces, so don’t crush them too finely.
Overall, the cupcakes remided me exactly of cookies and cream ice cream. Possibly a bit better. The only problem I encountered was that the cookie garnish lost its crispness after storage, so I recommend frosting and adding the cookie garnish the day that you serve the cakes.
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