Triple Chocolate Cookies

More birthdays, more baking! I continued my birthday baking over the weekend by making these great triple chocolate cookies. The three chocolate components come from cocoa powder, chocolate chips, and chocolate pudding mix. Ever since my successful peanut butter cookies I have become more confident in my cookie-baking abilities and decided to try out another recipe. The original recipe came from another Natalie and her blog Natalie's Killer Cuisine. I changed some things up, as usual, but the cookies definitely turned out great. They were really soft on the inside and the walnuts added a nice crunch to them. Also, the chocolate chips didn't melt, allowing you to bite into them for an intense chocolate flavor.

Surprisingly, the recipe called for a lot of baking soda, the same amount as cocoa powder in fact. Despite all of the baking soda, my cookies did not spread out like a traditional chocolate cookie. The balls just stayed in big lumps and I still haven't figured out why that is. I noticed the same problem with my peanut butter cookies as well. I think that since my cookies have this problem on a regular basis, I might as well cut back on the baking soda because it doesn't seem to be doing much and it gives a slightly salty aftertaste. Regardless of the fact that the cookies stayed as lumps, they were very moist and everyone loved them.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 chocolate pudding mix
• 1 tsp baking soda (try using 1/2 tsp and see what happens)
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped

1. Cream the butter and sugars together, then add the eggs one at a time and then the vanilla.
2. In a separate bowl combine the flour, pudding mix, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until well combined.
4. Mix in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
5. Shape the dough into about 1" balls and place on a baking sheet about 1 1/2" apart.
6. Bake for 8 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cool for 5 minutes on the pan before plating.

Caramel Apple Pie Cheesecake

My birthday baking continues as I keep making more and more cakes for all of my family and friends this month. For my cousin's birthday, I made this great cake which was half cheesecake, half apple pie with caramel, pecans, and walnuts. I originally found the recipe here, but tweaked it a little to make it even more like a cheesecake. The cake was delicious and it had just the right balance of flavors between the cinnamony apples and the cheesecake with a hint of lemon.

Ever since I began to bake on a consistent basis, I have found myself gravitating toward cheesecakes. Somehow, I have found that baking cheesecakes comes naturally to me and they are always popular with almost any crowd. Also, the great thing about cheesecakes is that it's hard to mess them up...I feel like they're designed for amateur bakers like me. As long as you follow a few simple steps, you're almost guaranteed to come out with a yummy product. Once you have the basics down, you can mix and match flavors to create your own unique cheesecake that can become your signature cake. So here are my quick tips to a great cheesecake:

1. Make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature. Trust me, it makes a difference. If your cream cheese is at room temperature, it will be much easier to mix with the rest of the ingredients, creating a creamy, soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture. 
2. Don't over mix your ingredients. Use the mixer until everything is incorporated, but don't keep mixing beyond that point...keep the mixing minimal. The reason is that the more you mix, the more air bubbles you create which can later lead to cracks in your cheesecake. Going back to the first point, if your cream cheese is at room temperature it is already soft and therefore lends itself to little mixing.
3. Bake your cheesecake with a water bath. You don't necessarily have to actually have the pan submerged in water, because usually you'll find that it leaks. However, place a baking dish in the bottom of your oven, one rack below the springform pan, and fill it with water. The water bath creates moisture in the oven which is necessary to even out the cooking of the cheesecake. It allows for the sides to cook slower than they normally would, giving the middle time to cook as well.
4. This is probably one of the most important steps...don't open the oven. It's tempting, I know, but the key to avoiding cracks it to keep the cheesecake in that moist environment. As soon as you open the oven, you let out some of the moisture and let in cold air. As a result, any tiny cracks on the surface of the cake expand into great caverns. 

It may sound like a lot of work, but eventually if you bake cheesecakes as much as I do, it all becomes second nature to you. Also, if your cheesecake turns out cracked don't worry about it. There are millions of ways to decorate the cake, with fruits, nuts, or ganache, and no one will be the wiser. Just remember to enjoy the cake, and others will follow suit.

Caramel Apple Pie Cheesecake

For the crust:

• 1 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2-3/4 cup caramel
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Combine the sugar, cinnamon, graham cracker crumbs, and melted butter. Transfer the mixture to a 9" springform pan and press down gently along the bottom and sides. Bake for 8 minutes at 350 Fahrenheit. 

Allow the crust to cool a little before you pour the caramel on top. Make sure to spread all along the bottom, and then sprinkle the mixture of walnuts and pecans over top.

For the apple filling:

• 5-6 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into thin slices
• 1/3 cup (5 tbsp) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Mix in the brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon and cook for one minute, until bubbling. Add the apple slices and toss well to coat.

Continue to cook the apples over medium to medium-high heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has been reduced. Cool the mixture for a few minutes before pouring into the springform pan over the caramel-nut crust.

For the cheesecake:

• 1 lb (2 blocks) cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Beat the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then add the vanilla and lemon juice. Mix it until all the ingredients are combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you mix. Pour the cheesecake over the apple filling in the springform pan.

Bake the cheesecake for 30 minutes at 350 Fahrenheit. Keeping the door closed, turn off the oven and allow the cheesecake to sit inside for another hour. Afterward, remove the cheesecake from the oven and allow it to cool to room temperature before refrigerating over night.

Note: If you want to design your own custom made cheesecake, this website allows you to select your ingredients and it will give you the right proportions to use.

Zebra Cheesecake

Knowing my love of baking, and my constant search for new recipes, my friend sent me a recipe for a zebra cake not too long ago. The cake was designed to be a chiffon cake, but the twist was that alternating layers of chocolate and vanilla were poured and then caused the cake to be striped like a zebra when baked. I thought this was a cool idea and decided that I should apply it to one of my cheesecake recipes.

Once I created the two different layers and started to pour them out, I understood that the concept didn't lend itself as easily to cheesecake as to chiffon or oven sponge cake. The reason is that cheesecake is quite dense, therefore when you pour it into the cake pan it stays there, instead of spreading like other liquidy batters. Also, cheesecakes don't really rise when you bake them. As you can see from the picture, even though the cake had alternating layers they did not spread out and the zebra effect was not as prominent.

Despite the image issues, the actual cake tasted amazing. It had an extremely smooth texture and the chocolate and vanilla layers melted into each other in your mouth. Also, the alternating nature of the cake allowed the vanilla layer to balance out the rich, dark nature of the chocolate layer. In the past, when I had made a cheesecake of two layers, one chocolate and one vanilla, the layers still seemed separate when you tasted them. In your mouth, you could distinctly tell that you were eating a half-chocolate, half-vanilla cheesecake. However this time, the layers came together as one complete flavor.

I think that I will try making this cake again, but I will most likely add more sour cream to help liquify the batter. Also, if I make fewer layers with more of each flavor, rather than many small layers, I think the zebra design will be more prominent.

Zebra Cheesecake

For the Crust:

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/4 cup oreo crumbs

For the Filling:

• 2 lbs. (4 blocks) cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 cups sour cream (I used 1 cup but I think 2 will work better)
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 200 g (2/3 cup) chocolate, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit.
2. In a bowl, combine the crust ingredients. Once crumbs are thoroughly moistened, transfer the mixture into a 9" springform pan and press lightly against the bottom and sides. Note: I made the crust go only along the bottom so you may have to use more crumbs and butter if you want the sides as well.
3. Bake the crust for 8 minutes before removing to cool.

1.  In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese and sugar. If your cream cheese is straight out of the fridge, microwave it for about 15-25 seconds so that it softens a little.
2.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Once fully incorporated, beat in the sour cream.
3.  Separate the batter into two, one half slightly larger than the other.
4.  To the smaller batter, add the melted chocolate and mix thoroughly until it is completely incorporated.
5.  To the large batter, add the vanilla and lemon juice and mix thoroughly to combine.
6.  Starting with the vanilla batter, pour out about three massive spoonfuls into the center of the pan.
7.  With the chocolate batter, pour out about two massive spoonfuls into the center of the vanilla.
8.  Keep alternating with the batters, until both are used up. Make sure you finish with the vanilla batter on top.
9.  Bake the cheesecake in a water bath for 50 minutes. To create the water bath, cover the bottom of the springform pan with aluminum foil and place in a large roasting pan. Fill the pan with water 2/3 up the sides of the springform pan. Alternatively, you can put a pan of water onto the bottom rack of the oven and place the cheesecake one rack above.
10.  After 50 minutes, turn off the oven but do not open it. Leave the cheesecake inside for an hour before removing it.
11.  Cool the cheesecake to room temperature before refrigerating overnight.

Orzo Stuffed Peppers

At some point last year, I used to eat my breakfast every single morning while watching the Food Network. Somehow, it always worked out that I would watch Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentiis. Her recipes were definitely interesting, and sound delicious, but most times they seemed to complicated despite her ease of execution on camera. However, one morning I watched her prepare bell peppers stuffed with a mixture of orzo and vegetables, and thought to myself that I can do such a recipe.

This inspiration came to me over a year ago, but I have only recently perfected the recipe. Originally, I prepared the recipe just as Giada had written it, substituting only the mint for basil because I don`t like mint. Each time I made the peppers, I changed a little bit more until I finally found the best combination. Now, I am extremely pleased with the taste of the peppers and the dish has become a family favorite.

In the past, one of my biggest problems with this dish was the amount of stuffing I was always leftover with. However, now I have come up with a great solution to my problem based on a recent recipe I tried out. Similar to the idea of poaching eggs in a tomato sauce, I simply heated up the extra stuffing with all of its juices in a frying pan, let it reduce to a thickened consistency, and then poached some eggs in it. It tasted great and made for a wonderful breakfast together with some pita for dipping. If you find that he excess stuffing doesn`t have enough liquid, add some tomato juice to it and then reduce over low heat.

Orzo Stuffed Peppers

• 1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes
• 1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup dill, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup feta cheese
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 4 cups chicken broth (usually one carton from the store works out to be 4 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups orzo
• Bell Peppers (use as many as you like, usually the recipe can make stuffing for 12-15 medium sized peppers)

1. Slice the tops off of the peppers and place in a baking dish. If the peppers can't stand up on their own, slice a little off of their bottoms so that they are flat. Also, I don't like for the tops to go to waste so I cut off any excess flesh and use it in the stuffing.
2. Combine all the vegetables, herbs, and spices in a bowl. For the tomatoes, its easiest to break them down by crushing them gently with your hands. An alternative is to use canned diced tomatoes instead of whole, but I find that more juice comes with the whole tomatoes.
3. Bring the chicken broth to a boil. Add the orzo and cook for 4 minutes; it should still be al dente when you take out the orzo.
4. Transfer the warm chicken broth to the baking dish and add the orzo to the vegetable mix.
5. One by one, fill up the peppers with the stuffing and stand up right in the baking dish.
6. Bake the stuffed peppers, covered with aluminum foil, for 45 minutes.
7. Sprinkle some feta cheese of top of the peppers and continue to bake, uncovered, for 15 more minutes.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

After making the chocolate ganache for the tarts, I realized that I had made way too much and was left with a lot of ganache on my hands. I decided to resort to an old time favorite...chocolate covered strawberries. This is probably the easiest dessert I have ever made, and yet people think that it is so elegant and classy. The only difficulty of this dessert is actually resisting the urge to eat the strawberries as soon as you have made them.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

• Whole strawberries, washed and patted dry
• Chocolate (use whichever kind you prefer; I personally like dark chocolate)
• Icing sugar (optional, if you want to sweeten the chocolate a little)

1. To set up your double broiler, simply boil some water in a small saucepan and, once boiled, reduce heat to the lowest possible setting, so it is just barely simmering.
2. Place a heat-proof bowl over the saucepan and put the chocolate chunks in the bowl. Gently stir until all of the chocolate is melted. 
3. Dip the strawberries, one at a time, into the chocolate by holding onto the stems. Let any excess chocolate drip off and then place strawberry onto wax or parchment paper. 
4. Place dipped strawberries into the fridge for at least an hour so that the chocolate can harden. Once set, carefully peel the strawberries off the paper and plate.

Optional: You can eat the strawberries while the chocolate is still liquidy, but it is definitely messier!

Chocolate Ganache and Fruit Tarts

Happy Canada Day! I have spent the last three days in the kitchen busily preparing for today's birthday celebration. In my family, July is a very popular month for birthdays, with the first week being especially busy. Every year, Canada Day marks the first of a long string of birthdays and this year was no exception. By now my whole family knows and expects me to prepare a dessert to mark the occasion, and usually I make one of my many cheesecakes. However, for this particular occasion I decided to scale down in size and make mini desserts...little individual sized tarts.

Just because the dessert was small, doesn't mean the effort was as well. These tarts were definitely time consuming mostly because I had to make so many. Even though it took me a while to crank out nearly fifty tarts, I can honestly say that I had fun doing it. Also, it was great to hear everyone's comments afterward and see my little tarts get gobbled up.

The technique I used to bake the tarts is known as blind baking. It ensures that the sides of the tart are able to bake without falling down, and then the last couple of minutes spent in the oven bakes the bottoms of the tarts. I first learned about this technique in the pastry class that I took, and was a little shocked and afraid of it. It calls for the use of plastic wrap in the oven, something that seems quite unnatural.

I, like everyone else in the class, didn't believe that the plastic wouldn't melt. However, the chef assured us that the plastic wrap sold here, meaning in local grocery stores such as Safeway and Costco, is food grade plastic wrap and designed to withstand high temperatures.

I can now say that I have used the technique twice, once in my pastry class and now once at home. Both times, the plastic did not melt and the rice packets easily came out of the tart shells. Best of all, I saved the little packets to use for the next time I make tarts, therefore saving the time on making them again.

Chocolate Ganache and Fruit Tarts

For the dough:

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 5-6 tbsp ice cold water

1. In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, and salt together a couple of times.
2. Add the butter chunks and pulse about 10 times, or until the butter is cut into walnut size pieces.
3. Transfer the mixture into a large bowl and create a well in the middle. 
4. Gradually pour the water into the well, one tablespoon at a time. Once you have poured in 4 tablespoons, start to work the mixture into a dough.
5. Continue to work the mixture, adding more water if necessary, until the dough is completely formed.
6. Chill for 30 minutes before proceeding to roll out the dough.

Note: This recipe is enough to make about 24-25 mini tarts, depending on how thick you roll out the dough. My tarts were about 1/8" thick when I rolled out the dough, but then it puffed up a little in the oven to make quite a thick shell.

To fill the tart shells:

Cut circles out of dough that are slightly larger than the tart shell itself.

Place the circle over the shell and gently press down and against the side.

Keep pressing the dough against the side until the bottom and sides are completely pressed in. Smooth the excess dough over the top of the shell and even out.

To bake the tart shells:

Preheat the oven to 425 Fahrenheit.

Gently use a fork to poke some air holes into the bottom of each tart.

Spread a piece of plastic wrap over the surface of the tart and pour some uncooked rice granules inside to fill the tart.

Gently fold the excess plastic wrap into the middle and loosely wrap together.

Bake in the oven for 12 minutes. Remove the wrapped up rice and continue to bake for another 2-3 minutes or until the bottoms are fully baked.

For the filling:

• Fresh raspberries and blackberries (you can use others if you like I just happened to like these two)
• 250 g chocolate
• 250 g heavy cream
• 3/8 cup (3 tablespoons) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup icing sugar 

1. In a small saucepan, heat the cream over medium heat until little bubbles form around the sides. Do not bring to a boil.
2. Pour the hot cream over the chunks of chocolate and butter and stir until fully melted.
3. Depending on the type of chocolate you used (I used very dark, 72%), slowly add the sugar and mix until fully incorporated. The amount of sugar you add is really a personal preference on how sweet or bitter you want the chocolate ganache to be.