Cheesecake Ice Cream with Strawberry Swirl

After making the marble cheesecake, I got into a cheesecake craze and decided to try that cheesecake recipe I've been wanting to make. The ingredients are exactly like in a real cheesecake, except you just freeze it! The only thing I would change is to use less lemon zest because I found that there was a pronounced lemon tastes that stood out, but it didn't really bother me. This ice cream didn't last so long and I would definitely remake this using David Lebovitz's suggested blueberry swirl!

Last week I first heard about Theicecreamists. I didn't know if I should be shocked or interested about their gaga breast milk ice cream... Being an ice cream fanatic, I decided to check out their Facebook page (which you can visit by clicking here) and looked through their pictures. There's also a lot of talk about the fact that Lady Gaga is suing them for calling one of flavors "Baby Gaga". It doesn't seem as their main goal is to sell ice cream, but more about their events, partying and publicity. What do you guys think? Have you heard about Theicecreamists?

Sundae Cupcakes

I'm finally posting the cupcakes I made for Cupcake Camp 2010 a few months ago. Aren't they pretty? I chose to make sundae cupcakes since I love making ice cream so much! I'm really looking forward to participate in the competition next year!

I used the devil's food cake recipe from David Lebovitz and the vanilla buttercream recipe below for the cupcakes. I made the Classic Hot Fudge from The Perfect Scoop and drizzled it on top of the frosted cupcakes after it had cooled a bit. Decorate with sprinkles and maraschino cherries!

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Sundae Cupcakes

Makes about 48 frosted cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes

Adapted from Annie's Eats, originally from David Lebovitz

18 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

3 cups cake flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

16 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup strong coffee (or water)

1 cup whole or low-fat milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 4 cupcake pans with papers liners. In a medium bowl, sift together the cocoa powder, cake flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Mix in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl between additions.

In a large measuring cup, combine the coffee and milk. Add half of the dry ingredients to the mixer and mix on low speed just until incorporated. Stir in the coffee-milk mixture and mix until combined. Add in the remaining dry ingredients, again mixing until just incorporated. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners, filling the cups not more than 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Vanilla Buttercream

Adapted from Milk and Honey Cafe

1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

3-4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp heavy cream

In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the butter at medium-high speed until smooth, for about 20 seconds. Add half the confectioners' sugar, beat at medium-low speed until most of the sugar is moistened, about 45 seconds. Scrape down the bowl and beat at medium-high speed until mixture is fully combined, about 15 seconds. Add the rest of the confectioners' sugar and mix again. Scrape the bowl, add the vanilla extract and heavy cream, and beat at medium-high speed until incorporated, about 10 seconds. Then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl once or twice. Add more confectioners' sugar if you find your frosting isn't thick enough, or more heavy cream if you find it too thick.

Homemade Ferrero Rocher

I looove Ferrero Rocher truffles! Since I saw the recipe for homemade ones on Blue-Eyed Bakers, they've been on my ever-growing to do/bake list.

They don't taste exactly like Ferrero Rocher but they still are delicious! Next time I would put a toasted hazelnut in the centre of each truffle and would just make them a bit smaller. If you love the combination of hazelnut and chocolate (and Nutella!) you should definitely give these a try!

Oh and I almost forgot! Happy New Year!!! See you in 2011!

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Ferrero Rocher Truffles

Adapted from Blue-Eyed Bakers

Makes about 16-18 truffles

100 g hazelnut wafer biscuits, crushed

1 cup hazelnuts

2/3 cup Nutella

1-1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast them for 8 to 10 minutes. Let the hazelnuts cool and remove the skins by rubbing them with a paper towel. Place them in a food processor and grind until they are finely chopped. In a bowl, add the crushed wafer biscuits, chopped hazelnuts and Nutella, and stir to combine. Refrigerate the mixture for about 20 minutes.

Onto a baking sheet lined with parchement paper, use a small scooper to scoop little balls of the cooled mixture. Put the baking sheet in the freezer for 15 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the freezer and shape the balls with your hands to make round smoothe balls. Place the baking sheet in the freezer for another 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, fill a medium-sized saucepan halfway with water and heat until the water simmers. Place a heatproof bowl on top of the saucepan with water and place the semisweet chocolate chips in the bowl. Stir until the chocolate has completely melted and turn the heat to very low. Coat the chilled truffles in the chocolate and place them on a banking sheet lined with parchement paper. Allow chocolate to set at room temperature for an hour. Truffles can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

If you have some melted chocolate left you can use it to dip 0ther things you have home. I dipped pretzels and pieces of clementine!

Panettone

Merry Christmas everyone!!

This year, I decided not to make gingerbread men like I always do and try something different. My boyfriend really loves panettone, especially the chocolate chip one, so I tried making orange chocolate chip panettone! And to tell you the truth, I don't really consider what I made panettone, since it's supposed to be sort of fluffy and light on the inside and mine turned out a bit dense. Kind of like a cake :(

I'm still posting the recipe in case any of you want to give it a try. I made a few changes since I didn't want to add dried fruit. But I'm sure I did something wrong mainly because after the 15 hours of rising, my dough hadn't rised! I searched online to see what can be the cause and there were a few alternatives:

1) The yeast is dead (or expired).

2) Proofing is done in a cool place.

3) The dough wasn't kneeded enough.

I thought maybe my oven was too cool for the rising, so I preheated it a bit, let it cool and placed the dough inside for another 5 hours (first rising). It did rise a bit, but not even close to triple the size. I still decided to continue with the recipe and bake it to see the ending result. It wasn't bad at all, just not a panettone!

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Slow Rise Panettone

Adapted from Andreas Recipes (Gourmet Magazine 2008)

Makes one 6x4-inch panettone

3-3/4 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp active dry yeast

Zest of one orange

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

3 large eggs, at room temperature

2/3 cup lukewarm water
1 tbsp warm honey

12-1/2 tbsp unsalted butter (10-1/2 tbsp softened and cut into tbsp, 1 tbsp melted, 1 tbsp chilled)

3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

6x4-inch panettone mold

In the bowl of a mixer, combine flour, sugar, salt, yeast, orange zest and seeds of the vanilla bean and mix at low speed. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, 2/3 cup lukewarm water and the honey.

While the mixer runs at low speed, pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients slowly. Increase speed to medium-high and continue mixing. Add the softened butter, 1 tbsp at a time, mixing completely after adding each tbsp. Increase speed to medium-high and mix until the dough is smoothe and elastic, about 8 minutes.

Melt the 1 tbsp of butter, let it cool and mix it into the mini chocolate chips. Stir the chocolate into the dough with a wooden spoon.

Place the dough in a large bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise in a cold oven with the door closed for about 12 to 15 hours, until the dough has nearly tripled in volume.

Rub your hands with flour, sprinkle the dough lightly with flour and turn it onto a floured board. Sprinkle a little more flour onto the dough. Fold the edges into the centre and place seams side down into the panettone mold. Cover with a damp tea towel and let it rise in a draft-free spot at room temperature for about 3 to 5 hours, until the dough is just above the top of the mold.

Place the rack in the lower third of the oven (closer to the bottom than the top) and preheat it to 370 degrees F. Place the mold with the dough onto a baking sheet. Use a serrated knife to score an X across the entire surface of the dough and place the 1 tbsp chilled butter into the centre of the X.

Bake for about 1 to 1-1/4 hours, until a wooden skewer inserted in the middle of the panettone comes out moist but not wet. The top of the panettone will be dark (but not burnt). (I covered it with foil paper after 1 hour in the oven so the top won't burn.)

Pierce the skewers all the way through the panettone and through the papers. (This part I found weird!) Hang the panettone upside down over a large pot or between 2 objects of equal height. Cool completely, then slice into wedges for serving.

Cran-Apple Crisps

It's cranberry season! We drink plenty of cranberry juice and dried cranberries can be found in our granola bars and cereals, but have any of you tried fresh cranberries? I just recently tried them for the first time and I have to say that... they're very sour! I stopped after one! But when combined with apples, dried cranberries, sugar and flour to make the filling, they taste sweet!

With all the members of TWD raving about this crisp and how easy it is to put together, it didn't take me long to decide to make it. I topped it with a scoop of Goat Cheese Ice Cream I made following David Lebovitz's book, The Perfect Scoop, and... Mmmm!

The Repressed Pastry Chef hosted that week's TWD so the recipe for the Cran-Apple Crisps can be found on her blog!

Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes

My taste in food has changed a lot since I was little. My favorite cheese used to be Kraft Cheese but now I can't get enough of Brie, Jarlsberg and Kefalogaviera!

Cheesecake would be the last thing I would have chosen to eat. I remember I didn't appreciate its thickness and creaminess and would only eat the glazed strawberries on the top of the cake. Recently I started liking it though. These cheesecake cupcakes turned out cute and were pretty easy to make. I had halved the recipe because I didn't want to be stuck with too many of them but surprisingly, they disappeared very fast!

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Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes

Adapted from Cupcakes by Martha Stewart

Makes 32 cupcakes

1 1/2 cups finely ground graham crackers

3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2 cups + 5 tbsp sugar

6 ounces fresh raspberries

2 lbs cream cheese, at room temperature

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Stir together ground graham crackers, butter and 3 tbsp sugar. Press 1 tbsp of crust mixture firmly into the bottom of each lined cup. Bake for 5 minutes until set and place tins on a wire rack to cool.

Process raspberries in a food processor until smooth and strain the mixture into a small bowl to remove seeds. Whisk in 2 tbsp sugar.

Beat cream cheese until fluffy with a mixer on medium-high speed (scrape down sides of bowl if needed). With mixer on low speed, add remaining 1 1/2 cups of sugar gradually. Add eggs one at a time, beating until just combined after each.

Spoon 3 tbsp filling over crust in each cup. Dollop 1/2 tsp raspberry puree in a few dots on each. Swirl sauce into filling with a toothpick in each cup. Place each tin into a roasting pan and pour enough hot water into the pan to come to three-quarters of the way up sides of cups.

Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until filling is set, between 22-24 minutes. Remove tins from water bath and transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate (in tins) for at least 4 hours and remove from tins just before serving.

Blueberry Macarons

Everytime I'm in the Mont Royal area downtown, I make sure I stop either by La Maison du Macaron or the newly discovered Point G. I've tried many of their flavors and now believe that there isn't one macaron that tastes bad. Even the weird ones like Balsamic Vinegar are delicious!


Seeing that I've been having more of these petits four lately, I decided to give them another shot. I had used the french method last time and had some trouble with the batter that had ended up far too liquidy to pipe out. This time, I chose to use the italian method which was said to be easier to work with for beginners.




I followed the detailed instructions and tips on Mélanger (the italian method follows the french) and found the batter much easier to pipe out! They didn't turn out flat like with the french method! Nice!

However, there are some things I would do differently next time. I would double my pans when baking because my first batch burnt slightly. I would fold the batter a bit more after adding the egg white + almond mixture to the meringue to get rid of all the lumps. Also I couldn't find egg white powder anywhere, so I had to omit it. I wonder what that would change...

The recipe for these blueberry macarons can be found on Mélanger's blog! I suggest to let the filling in the fridge for a couple of hours so it can be really thick when filling the macarons. Absolutely delicious!

Ice Cream Madness!!

I am really obsessed with The Perfect Scoop at this point! I think I can call it my favorite book (it has almost exceeded the Twilight series!!). If you don't own this book and love ice cream, check it out asap!

When I used to bake more, I always needed butter. Now I always need heavy cream. Lots and lots of heavy cream. I've been making half of David Lebovitz's recipes so when dividing the 5 egg yolks called for in most of the ingredients, I decided to use 3 instead of 2 1/2. I find this has made my ice creams softer and creamier... even better!

I was attracted to this Green Tea Ice Cream mainly because I love green tea latte but also because of its vivid green color. To make this ice cream, you follow the custard base recipe and all you do is whisk in 4 tsp matcha powder to the heavy cream before you pour in the custard through a strainer. My ice cream didn't have the vivid green color as shown in the book... maybe I should've bought a higher quality matcha powder? It did taste just like green tea latte though!

Mint and chocolate ice cream is my favorite flavor. I just love that combination. Give me After Eight, Pep or Mint Aero and you'll be my best friend. I'm so used to the mint extract flavor though that when I tasted the Fresh Mint Chip Ice Cream, I was a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it's delicious (we finished it in 2 days), but it tastes very different from the ones we buy at the supermarket. If you're looking for something like that, I suggest you use mint extract instead.

After making my favorite, I decided to make my sister's: Raspberry Swirl Ice Cream. This ice cream is also very easy to make. You simply make a vanilla custard base ice cream and then layer it with the raspberry swirl (raspberries, sugar and 1 tbsp of vodka). This ice cream also vanished in a matter of days but for next time, I would try to find a raspberry swirl that doesn't freeze, kind of like a syrup.

This summer, I've been visiting our local ice cream shop La Paysanne pretty often (even if I've been making a considerable amount of ice cream recently). Instead of gelato, I've been going for sorbets which I find are so refreshing in hot weather. My favorite until now are lemon, lime and raspberry. I had some frozen raspberries in the freezer so I decided to make Raspberry Sherbet which consists of whole milk, sugar, raspberries and a bit of lemon juice. It tasted exactly like the raspberry sorbet I've been having at La Paysanne but a bit creamier. Yum!

Tarte au citron - Lemon Tart

Celebrating name days is an important tradition for Greeks. Every name has a certain date associated to it to celebrate the memory of the saint bearing that name. When it's the name day of a member of my family, we always call them up to wish them a "Happy Name Day" and often have a dinner at somebody's house.

Last Friday was my sister's and grandmother's name day. They are both named Helen because of another Greek tradition which is less frequently used today. When a child is born, the parents would usually name it after the baby's father's parents (depending if it's a boy or a girl) and then name their next baby after the mother's parents (again, depending if it's a boy or a girl). If there would be a third baby, it would be named after the father's side again. This is why some families have 5 Nicks! This is a good way to keep some older Greek names around but many new parents do not follow this tradition today.

So we went over to my grandmother's house this weekend for dinner and I decided to make her une tarte au citron. I find lemon desserts to be even more delicious on hot summer days!

I made a tart shell using a Pâte sucrée, filled it with lemon curd and piped a decorative design with swiss meringue over the lemon curd. I finally got how to make swiss meringue, remember my first attempt? Then I made my boyfriend brown the meringue using a torch (I was afraid to melt the tart!). The recipes were adapted from the Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts.

Super Lemon Ice Cream

It's pretty clear that I'm obsessed with The Perfect Scoop by now! I've been making ice cream once a week. It's starting to get warm (we've been getting 20-25 degrees these past few days!!), so great timing!

If you live in Montreal or happen to be visiting, you must stop by Léo Le Glacier! Their gelato is amongst the best in the city, especially the lemon one I tried. It was so creamy, light and airy, not too lemony and not too sweet... the perfect lemon gelato for a warm summer day!

So I flipped through The Perfect Scoop and fell upon this Super Lemon Ice Cream. It sounded creamy, light and airy, just like the one I had from Léo Le Glacier.

The result: a delicious lemon ice cream that reminded me of lemon meringue pie (minus the crust, some cookies inside would have been nice) but not the one from Léo Le Glacier. Even if the taste was really good, the texture was disappointing. I left the ice cream out for about 20-25 minutes to defrost because it was really hard, and I couldn't form a decent scoop. Every time I would come close to getting a scoop, it would crumble!

Regardless the texture, this ice cream takes 10 minutes to make, tops. Plus 1 hour in the fridge to chill while you enjoy the beautiful weather :)

My cat Fofo watching me struggle to form a scoop!

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Super Lemon Ice Cream

Adapted from David Lebovitz

Makes about 1 Quart (1 Liter)

2 lemons, unsprayed

1/2 cup (100g) sugar

1/2 cup (125 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice (3 lemons)

2 cups (500ml) half-and-half (I used 15% cream)

Tiny pinch of salt

Zest the lemons directly into a food processor or blender. Add the sugar and blend until very fine. Add the lemon juice and blend until sugar is completely dissolved. Blend in the half-and-half and salt until smooth.

Chill for 1 hour, then freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker.

Raspberry-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Almond Buttercream

Cupcake Bakeshop is my go-to blog for anything and everything to do with cupcakes. You can tell that the author knows her cupcakes when:

a) her entire site is devoted to them

b) she compares and tests different recipes (flavor, texture, dryness...)

c) she uses ingredients such as fennel, papaya, grapefruit

So I had my eye on these Cherry Vanilla Cupcakes for a while now and decided to make them for a very special occasion: my good friend's baby shower. I chose to make them cause they look cute and sort of girly (she is having a baby girl!). The cupcakes turned out really good and the raspberry filling paired well with the almond buttercream frosting! I would fill the cupcakes a bit more next time though.

I chose raspberries instead of cherries for the filling since cherries are out of season now and I couldn't find them anywhere (not even frozen!). Also I completely omitted the salt for the vanilla cupcakes. I once put the amount of salt written on a recipe and my cookies had turned out really salty so I usually leave it out or use very very little.

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Raspberry-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Almond Buttercream

Adapted and slightly modified from Cupcake Bakeshop

Makes 24 frosted cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup whole milk

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter on high for about 30 seconds until soft. Add the sugar and beat on high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat 30 seconds between each.

Sift flour and baking powder in a bowl and whisk together. Add to mixer bowl and when well combined, add the milk and vanilla.

Scoop into cupcake papers about half to two-thirds full since they rise a bit. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until cake tester comes out clean. (I baked them for 20 minutes.)

Raspberry Filling

2 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen

1/2 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch

Add raspberries, water and vanilla to a pot. Cook for 10 minutes over medium-high heat. Stir from time to time.

Stir together sugar and cornstarch and then add to the pot with raspberries. Cook until thick, for about 20 minutes. Make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot by stirring occasionally and not overcooking.

Using the cone method mentioned on Baking Bites, fill the cupcakes with raspberry filling when both the filling and the cupcakes have cooled completely.

Almond Buttercream Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

6-8 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

1/4 cup milk

Beat butter at medium-high speed until creamy. Add half of the sifted powdered sugar, the almond extract and the milk. Beat until combined. Gradually add powdered sugar until desired consistency and sweetness.

Frost filled cupcakes and top with maraschino cherries that have been rinsed and well dried.

Coco-Nana Bundt

Nope it's not a late TWD post! I was about to join the TWD group a few week ago but I'm too late, the group is now closed! Ah well, at least I get to see how everyone's weekly baking turns out and then decide if I want to make it or not.

We always have some bananas lying around at my house, so I decided to make this chocolaty cake so they won't go to waste. I was a little worried because I had read a couple of reviews from other bloggers who had made it for the TWD but it turned out well! Actually, I had trouble staying away from it! It was Steph from Obsessed With Baking who chose it and you can find the recipe on her blog.

On a side note, this is what Montreal looks like today...

Gives me the urge to make some gingerbread cookies and watch Home Alone (I had to wear my boots today)!

Macarons à la Framboise - Raspberry Macarons

I've been planning to make these macarons for the past week. I had made them with my boyfriend a few years ago, but they had turned out rather flat.. still delicious though! This time, I was feeling confident. I did my research: I read and reread Tartelette's "Demystifying Macarons" (a must for beginners), checked out some blogs like La cuisine Mercotte and chefNini and even found some good tutorial videos on Youtube (you'd be surprised)!

It's really different knowing all the steps in theory and actually doing them. Everything went well until the ''macaronnage'' part. I added the egg whites and almond powder to the meringue and kept stirring cause there were lumps. I think I stirred to much though, over 50 times for sure (Tartelette suggests). Then I dipped the measuring spoon into the powdered food coloring container and it flew everywhere! I can be so clumsy! As I tried to pipe out the dough onto the baking sheet, I couldn't control how much was being piped out! Either the tip I used was too big (Ateco 807) or the mixture was too liquid. So I ended up with large deformed shapes. Finally when they came out of the oven, they looked flat just like the last time I had made them! I was so discouraged at this point, I didn't even want to fill them with the raspberry jam. Half of the macarons didn't peel off the parchment paper...

I will not give up though. I want to achieve those pretty, colorful macarons! I tried my macarons this morning, after I had left them in the fridge for the night and they still tasted good. Better, actually.

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Macarons à la Framboise - Raspberry Macarons

Adapted from ''Demystifying Macarons'' by Tartelette

100g egg whites

50g granulated sugar

200g powdered sugar

110g ground almonds

Food coloring of your choice

Raspberry jam at room temperature

With whisk attachment in stand mixer, whip egg whites to a foam and gradually add granulated sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue (you should be able to turn the bowl upside-down).

Combine powdered sugar and ground almonds in a food processor and grind them to break sugar lumps and combine almonds with it evenly.

Add powdered sugar and ground almonds mixture to the meringue, folding them. Give quick strokes in the beginning to break the mass and then slow down. The whole process should not take more than 50 strokes.

(This is when I added the food coloring. I think I should have added it with the powdered sugar and ground almonds instead to minimize strokes.)

Fill pastry bag with plain tip and pipe small round (1.5 inches in diameter) onto parchment paper on baking sheets.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F and let macarons sit out for around an hour to harden their shells a bit. Bake 10-12 minutes. Let cool completely before spooning some raspberry jam on one shell and sandwiching with another. (Macarons taste best after being placed in the refrigerator for a few hours.)

Pineapple Upside-down Cake

Enough cookies for now! Everytime I get the urge to bake, I decide to whip up some chocolate chip cookies. It's probably cause they're satisfying and you're done in no time!

A few days ago, I decided to make a list of things I want to make and bake. From macarons, to profiteroles, to ice cream... the list goes on and on, and I keep adding to it. I finally decided to stop at a full page and begin!

I have been meaning to make a pineapple upside-down cake for a while now. And really, I don't know why I waited so long! It doesn't take a lot of effort and time to make, and it's not messy to flip over as I had imagined.

This cake was too rich for my taste. I would remake this recipe but throw out the excess butter that settles at the bottom of the pan after buttering it.

Source: Brown Eyed Baker