Cannoli Cheesecake

This cheesecake is magical. It is completely decadent with all the familiar flavors of a cannoli.  It's got the dense ricotta, a crunchy shell, little, melting morsels of chocolate, a hint of orange peel, and a topping of powdered sugar.  It is also the perfect, not-too-sweet way to end a delicious dinner.  I made this for a group of girlfriends last weekend when we had an Italian-food themed girls night.  Mark was away for the weekend and it was the perfect time to celebrate with my lady pals.  This cheesecake was a really fun and special way to end the meal.  I think it would be great served with coffee or with generous helpings of champagne, as we served it!  Make this for your next special occasion and I promise you will not be disappointed!

Cannoli Cheesecake
Ingredients:
Crust
1 sleeve of graham crackers
1/3 cup slivered almonds
3 Tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
4 Tbs. butter, melted
Cheesecake
1 3/4 cups ricotta (whole mil)
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 Tbs. orange zest
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
5 egg whites
powdered sugar (to garnish)

1. To make the crust, place graham crackers, almonds, salt and sugar into your food processor and pulse until the finely crumbled. Add the melted butter and pulse until it is distributed throughout.
2. Press the crust into a waiting spring form pan and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven to cool while you make the cheesecake.

2.  Whisk together the ricotta, sugar, and egg yolk until smooth.

3.  Add the orange zest

4.  Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form soft peaks.

5.  Fold the egg whites into the ricotta mixture. 

The best method for folding in egg whites requires two things - a spatula and (more importantly)confidence!  You want to keep as much of the airiness to the mixture as possible, but you don't need the precision of a brain surgeon.  Start by folding about 1/2 cup of the egg whites in first to lighten up the ricotta mixture.  Then dump the rest of the white in, use your spatula to work from the bottom of the bowl to the top, and gently, fold in the egg whites until you have a light mixture.  A hint about this is to work gently, but also deliberately - don't be timid - about 8-10 folding motions with your spatula should do the trick.

6.  Fold in the chocolate chips and then spread the cheesecake mixture over the graham cracker crust.

7.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour, until slightly golden on top.

8.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing the edges. 
9.  Cool completely.  Serve with powdered sugar and enjoy!

This can be made up to 24 hours in advance and kept in the fridge, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap.

One Year Ago:  Hasselback Potatoes
Two Years Ago:  Lemon-Thyme Chicken Breasts
Three Years Ago:  Coconut Craisin Granola

Mini Apple Pie Roll Ups

These little apple pie roll ups are the perfect little dessert.  Easy to make, quick cooking, and you can make them just as easily for two as you can make a dozen.  They are also a fun combination of kinda classy (imagine serving these individual desserts with a dollop of vanilla ice cream in a pretty dish) AND kinda trashy (crescent roll log - check; extra butter - double check).  This is not an original idea of mine - the cutest picture of one of these little beauties popped up on my Pintrest feed and I knew I needed to make them.  I'm sure you can only imagine what I search for all day on Pintrest for these to be the highest recommendation for my day.  I made these little beauties for Mark's parents who were making a quick stop over to DC on their trip down South.  Mark's dad is an apple pie fanatic and I knew he would love these.  I was right!

 

Mini Apple Pie Roll Ups
Ingredients:
2 apples, Granny Smith
1 package crescent roll dough
1 Tbs. butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs. cinnamon
dash nutmeg
1 egg
white sugar (for sprinkling on top)

1. Preheat oven to 375 and open the dough and lay out each triangle on a baking sheet.
2. Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Brush melted butter onto the dough and top with cinnamon-sugar mixture.

3.  Peel and slice the apple into pieces and set one slice on each piece of dough.

4.  Roll up the little bundles, brush with egg white, and sprinkle the tops with white sugar and a little dash of cinnamon.

5.  Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, until they begin to brown slightly.

 

6.  Serve them up hot with vanilla ice cream.


One Year Ago:  Honey Herb Roast Chicken
Two Years Ago:  Orange au Poivre Pork Chops
Three Years Ago:  Chicken Tortilla Soup

Flo's Brown Sugar Bread Pudding

Turns out, getting married is hard work. Being married (so far) is a breeze, but the actual getting married part was a pain in the caboose. Luckily for Mark and I, the big day came and went and we survived.  It was actually quite lovely, even though most of our families and friends were there :) I am now a proud member of the deWolf family and as such, this is a very fitting first blog post as an old married lady. Mark's grandma, Florence was not necessarily known for her prowess in the kitchen. His dad tells the story that when he and his siblings went off to college, they all raved about how delicious the cafeteria food tasted! But Flo did have a few tasty recipes up her sleeve and this bread pudding is one of them. Tom made this with leftover Apple Cider Donuts from our wedding (you didn't think Mark would let us serve cake, when we could have Apple Cider Donuts, did you?). Since we decided to honeymoon in the Caribbean instead of scenic Southern New Jersey, we missed out on tasting this yummy dessert, but word around town is that it was fantastic. I can't wait to try it myself!

Flo's Brown Sugar Bread Pudding
Ingredients:
4 cups bread cubes (part day-old sugar buns are really good)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups milk
2 slightly beat egg yolks
2 Tbs. butter
Meringue:
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp vanilla
Dash of salt
4 T sugar

1. Slice the bread (whatever you choose - bread, donuts, sticky buns, etc.) into 1 inch cubes.

2. Combine the dry ingredients (first 5 listed) together in a large bowl.

3.  Add the milk, vanilla, and eggs and mix everything together slightly.  You don't want to smush up the bread, but rather leave it so that there are still whole cubes.

4. Turn into greased 1 qt. baking dish and dot with butter.

5. Bake in moderately slow oven (350) until inserted knife comes out clean. About 45 mins.
6. Remove from oven so you can top with Meringue.
You could certainly forgo the meringue step and serve with good vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream instead.  If you don't do the meringue, your bread pudding would lose it's delightfully retro appeal and fantastic presentation so it really is up to you - if you are a meringue person or not.

7. To make the meringue, beat egg whites, vanilla and salt until soft peaks form.

8. Gradually add sugar, beating until stiff and glossy and all sugar is dissolved.

9. Spread the meringue over bread pudding.

10. Bake at 425 for 5 minutes OR at 350 for 12 to 15 minutes until the peaks are golden brown.

11. Cool but try to keep out of drafts, so that your meringue doesn't settle.  One method is to open oven door and let pudding cool while oven does.

Editor's Note:  Tastes great first day – some say it’s even better next day…cold from refrigerator!

One Year Ago: Spicy Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Early Summer Veggies
Two Years Ago: Apricot Glazed Chicken Wings
Three Years Ago: Steakhouse Sandwich with Blue Cheese Sauce

Oven Baked Churros

If you aren't already friends with Kelaine...I'm sorry.  She rules.  Kelaine and her friend Josh came over for dinner this weekend and the lovely lady brought dessert.  She much have developed a taste for churros on a recent visit to Barcelona to visit recent ex-pat, Wage, who is currently in Barcelona with her hubby.  Apparently they had a wonderful time, ate amazing food, and saw lots of super cool stuff.  Sorry Wage, I think out invitation got lost in the mail.  It's cool, though.  You can invite us any time and we will pop on a flight and come visit you (having international friends is always very fabulous).  Anyway, back to churros.  They are a flaky, dessert pastry that are coated in cinnamon sugar.  They can be eaten happily as-is OR if you want to gain 25 lbs. in 2 months as I did in Spain, you can eat them while dipping them in melted chocolate.  Just saying.

Oven Baked Churros
1 package puffed pastry
3 Tbs. butter
2 Tbs. cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar

1.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Lay out the puff pastry on a cutting board and cut into 1 inch strips.
2.  Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray and set the strips of puff pastry on the baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes until puffed up and golden brown.

2. Melt butter in a shallow dish so that it is easy to dip your churros into the butter.

3.  Mix together cinnamon and sugar and then pour the mixture on a plate.

4.  Set up an assembly line where you dip the churros in butter...

...then into the cinnamon sugar.

5.  Now you have delicious churros.

Hurry up and eat them.  They won't last long.

One Year Ago:  Smores Cheesecake
Two Years Ago:  Matzo Ball Soup

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Making your own vanilla extract isn't as crazy as it seems.  Did you know that extracts are really just hooch, hopped up on massive quantities of vanilla?  I did not.  Apparently, during Prohibition, people would actually drink vanilla extract.  I do not recommend this.  I do, however, recommend making a quick and easy batch of vanilla extract that you can keep on hand in your pantry and use for making all of your baked good extra scrumptious.  Homemade vanilla extract is not only more tasty and less preservatives than store bought, it is also a fraction of the price.  Win-win.  It is also easy to double, triple, etc. this recipe, so it makes a great gift.  Especially if you want to repay some lovely ladies who threw you a super fabulous bridal shower this past weekend.  Just saying!

Homemade Vanilla Extract

2 cups vodka

5 whole vanilla beans

medium mason jar

Vanilla beans come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and origins.  You can do some research to see what kind will be best for you.  I used Madagascar, because, why not?  Buying them from the grocery store is a racket.  They are old and overpriced.  I bought mine online at Amazon and they were reasonably prices and perfectly fresh.

A fresh, good vanilla bean will be slightly soft and pliable.  It will have a sheen from the essential oils.  If you have a dry, hard bean,  go get your money back!

1.  You want to start with nice, clean jars.  Fresh from the dishwasher or by hand with hot soapy water is sufficient.

2.  Slice the vanilla beans in half length-wise and then cut in them in half width-wise.  Length-wise releases all those delicious vanilla beans and width-wise ensures that the beans will fit in the jar and be fully covered by the vodka.

3.  Pour vodka into jar.

4.  Close the jar and give a good shake.  You do not need to "seal" it in any special way.  A cute label never hurts either.

5.  Allow to sit in a cool, dark place (pantry) for 6-8 weeks.  Shake occasionally.

Once you've got extract, you can remove the beans or leaving them in will result in a more potent extract.  Enjoy!

One Year Ago:  Blood Orange Chicken Wings

Two Years Ago:  Lemon -Dill Baked Salmon

Edible Teacups for Fun

Are you the cutest 3 year old ever?  Did you just have your Mary Poppins themed third birthday party this past weekend?  If you answered yes to these questions, you are my little cousin Jane.  We had an absolute blast this weekend at Janie's bday party.  Mommy Christy made the most fabulous Mary Poppins costume for her, complete with a Supercalafradgulisticexpialadocious banner, penguin cupcakes (and penguin Brooks brother), and rum punch!  Aunt Lyn (aka my mom; aka Timmy's Aunt) found this recipe for edible teacups and she just HAD to make them for her favorite great-niece.  I lent a hand and the finished product was decidedly adorable.  These are the perfect dessert treat for a little girl's party, a tea party, bridal or baby shower.  We filled them with chocolate-ricotta cannoli filling, but you could certainly use chocolate pudding if you prefer.  Have fun!

Edible Teacups for Fun
Ingredients:
12 sugar ice cream cones
12 peanut butter cups
1/2 cup melting chocolate (like Wilton's)
12 white Oreos (or other cookies)
6 tiny-twist pretzels
chocolate or vanilla pudding or yogurt (to fill)

1.  Use a serrated knife to cut off the bottoms of the ice cream cones.  Slow and stead wins the race here.  Just be gentle and work deliberately.  Obviously have some extras on hand in case a few break. 

2.  To make the handle, use the serrated knife again to cut the tops of the pretzels off.  Again, if you break a few, no worries, just eat those and move along.

3.  Melt the chocolate according to the package directions.  I did mine slowly in the microwave until it was nice and smooth.  You could use regular milk chocolate for this recipe, but I found that the melting chocolate (like you get from a craft store) really worked wonders.  It melted smoothly and hardened quickly to make this novelty baking project a real breeze.  I think regular chocolate would make it a bit more tricky, but certainly do-able.

4.  Line up your cookies.

5.  Dot each cookie with some chocolate and place a peanut butter cup upside-down on top.

6.  Dip the bottom of the cone into the chocolate and set on top of the peanut butter cup.

7.  Hold the cone for a few seconds so that the chocolate hardens in place.

8.  Look to see if there are any holes or open spaces in your "tea cups" and fill them with chocolate, so that your filling won't seep out.

9.  Attach the handles by dotting chocolate on both ends of the pretzel and holdings it onto the side of the cone until it is set.

10.  We found these mini plastic spoons as the Christmas Tree Shop that were perfect!

11.  When you are ready to serve, fill the cups with pudding, yogurt, or cannoli filling and enjoy!

Mary Poppins and the Feed-the-Birds Lady.

One Year Ago: French Onion Soup (ohh la la)

Two Years Ago: Buffalo Turkey Meatball and Chicken Sausage Sandwiches