This week's treat- best EVER New York style Cheesecake

This is one of my favorite cheesecake's. Not only does it taste AMAZING! But it's easy to make. The main part of the cheesecake has only 4 ingredients.  The secret to a cheesecake NOT cracking is to not over beat the eggs once you add them.  Remember when you take out a cheesecake it should be golden brown on the top but still QUITE jiggly in the center.  Your going to be nervous that it's still raw, but trust me it's JUST RIGHT!  For cooling down the cake I turn off the oven and open the door ajar and let it cool in there so as not to change the temperature too drastically.

Best EVER Cheesecake
Crust
1 1/4 C Vanilla wafer crumbs or crushed graham crackers
1 Tbsp sugar
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/2 C ground almonds, walnuts or pecans (optional)
Toss lightly with fork until well blended. Press firmly into the bottom of a 10 inch spring form pan. Bake at 375 on the bottom rack until crisp and golden, abut 15 min. Let cool. Reduce oven to 300 and place baking dish full of hot water on the bottom rack to create moisture.
Cake
3 lbs Cream cheese softened
1 1/2 C sugar
2 tsp vanilla
3 whole large eggs (at room temp)
2 large egg yolks (at room temp)
1 Tbsp lemon juice (optional- I don't use it myself)
Beat cheese sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on med until light and fluffy, about 30-60 sec. Scrape the bowl, beat 45 sec more. Lightly whisk the eggs and yolks together and add to cream cheese mixture with the lemon juice. Mix on low speed until they are incorporated and the batter is velvety, about 30 sec, scrape the bowl and mix 10 sec more (mix as little as possible, or just fold in by hand.).
Pour filling over crust, bake on the center rack at 300 until golden, about 1 1/4 hours. Cool cake in pan, then refrigerate overnight or top with sour cream topping first.
Topping (optional)
1 1/2 C sour cream
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp vanilla
Mix and spread over the top of the cake return it to oven for 5 min.  Then cool completely and refrigerate.

It's that time of year...

Goodie Plates!!!!  Someone commented to me that I make too many things, that they wouldn't go to all the work.  But then I thought.  If I only made a few things, but still took around the same amount of plates, there wouldn't be very many leftover's for me!!!  I'd rather make all my favorites (let's face it I was going to make them all anyway) and double the recipe (no extra time that way) and have plenty for plates AND my own enjoyment!  Plus it isn't hard, just time consuming, and OH so worth it!  So here is the set up around the island while I'm making the plates.

A sample plate.  I should have gotten bigger plates so I could have fit 3 of each thing (but that mean's less for me... hmmmm maybe these plates were the perfect size).  So we have (starting from the top and going counter clockwise) Sugar cookies, caramel brownies, candy cane marshmallows, peanut butter squares, almond brittle, sandies and chocolate pecan fudge.  I didn't get around to making truffles, but they wouldn't have fit on the plate very well.
 
And here is Tonight's round of plates.  I'm sure I'll be making some more (you always want one for that person that drops off a plate that you weren't expecting to so you can reciprocate right away) and Santa has to get one...  And since I know I'll get some request's for recipes see below.  I'll be posting each recipe for your enjoyment!  Merry Christmas!

Fudge!

My mom loves fudge, but we've never found a successful recipe that we could count on. Then a few years ago she found a box mix for fudge! You read that right, a box mix for fudge, AND it not only worked it tasted GREAT! So I bought a box, measured out everything (from the prepackaged baggies) and created this recipe. Easy, quick and, so far, perfect every time! I double the recipe and use a 9x13, but just so you know it's a VERY thick fudge, I might use 2 pans next time.

Chocolate pecan fudge
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or a mixture of semisweet and milk chocolate)
1/4 cup butter
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans (optional- you can also use walnuts)
Place chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and butter or margarine in large microwaveable bowl. Zap in microwave on medium until chips are melted, about 3-5 minute, stirring once or twice during cooking. Stir in nuts, if desired. Pour into well-greased 8x8-inch glass baking dish. Refrigerate until set.

Cheesecake Pops

So last month My friend at Duff ABC's and I were so busy that neither of us had time for a Chocolate Therapy challenge. We talked about it a lot, but not only didn't have a lot of time, but couldn't decide on what we wanted to make next! Then we saw the monthly Daring Baker's round up and knew we had a winner! It was perfect... So we got started. She finished hers the first week of the month, but I waited until this week, perfect for Mothers day.
Cheesecake Pops
makes 30-60 depending on size
5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature (2 1/2 lbs)
2 C sugar
¼ C flour
¼ tsp salt
5 lrg eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ C heavy cream
lollipop sticks or anything else you want (I used bamboo skewers)
1 pound chocolate or candy coating chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
Assorted decorations (such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, etc..)
Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth on low. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the vanilla and cream. Scrape the sides. Then add the whole eggs and the egg yolks one at a time, just incorporating and scraping the sides after each addition.
Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a spring form pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 45 to 60 minutes.
Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.
When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 - 2 hours.
When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth.
Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionery chocolate pieces) as needed.
Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve

Okay a few notes on the recipe. For cheesecakes: I used to hear that over mixing the batter is what caused cheesecakes to crack. But then I heard that it isn't the batter that you don't want to over beat but the eggs. So now I make sure everything else is mixed and smooth and always add the eggs last, and just stir them in without a mixer. It has something to do with the bubbles that develop if you over beat the egg whites. I learned the trick from my sister who learned it from a Martha Stewart recipe or show or something. Anyway, so I took the original recipe and changed it to fit this rule. The cheesecake was nice, not amazing and will definitely make these again using my favorite cheesecake recipe instead of this one. For coating I used Ghiradellis semi sweet chocolate chips, and for the dipping I used: crushed Graham crackers, chopped almonds, chopped pistachios, coconut, colored jimmies (for the kids), melted Reese's peanut butter chips and then a mixture of melted peanut butter chips then a dip in the chocolate. Our favorites were the peanut butter chocolate, the peanut butter, and the chocolate Graham crackers. The rest were fine, but those three were really good. Also, I have more freezer space than fridge space so I kept mine in the freezer, so you can see the condensation on them... But they were still great! And I didn't have to worry about eating them all in a week (although they were gone in that time anyway)

Panna Cotta

So I had Book Club at my house this month. I had chose the book "The Miracles of Santo Fico" by DL Smith. So I decided to bake Italian based food.

I made Foccacia with olive oil, pepper and balsamic vinegar. I got this recipe from Dad~ baker & Chef. I've made this recipe before with great results but unfortunately this time I didn't use big enough pans, so they were very thick and the centers were WAY too doughy... They still tasted great, but I felt bad for my guests. Not one of them said anything and I didn't notice until later.

I also made my favorite bread sticks with Homemade Alfredo for dipping. I love these bread sticks. I got the recipe years ago from a good friend and make them all the time. My kids can eat an entire batch in one night.

I also made some Coconut pecan bread, that while it isn't Italian itself is similar to an Italian cake recipe I like, but the bread has a better success rate. I had Italian Cream cheese frosting to put with it but TOTALLY spaced it and it sat on my counter the whole evening instead of going out on the table.

And finally the recipe I've been wanting to make since September. Coconut Panna Cotta. Of course the afternoon of book club I had grand plans of making it to the grocery store, getting fresh berries and making my fruit coulis. But did that happen? No... So the panna cotta was by itself. It had a nice flavor, subtle, sweet, but not overly grand... after the event I tried it with some chocolate sauce and a fruit syrup, but they were totally wrong and had a bad effect. In fact I would say that this is one dessert that was not made better by chocolate.

The next day I got the chance to get some Blackberries and made the Coulis. AHHHHHH..... What a HUGE difference. It was perfection, a WONDERFUL balance, a great dessert. Easy to make and I plan on doing it again soon. I'm so glad I had leftovers...