Daring Baker Secret Challenge: CHEESECAKE!

So I'm doing this online cooking and baking challenge at TheDaringKitchen.com. (Go there to see some truly beautiful challenge pictures. It's pure, well, cheesecake.) I've felt like I need to experiment more, and this seemed like a fun way to do it. The monthly challenge is issued on one date, and all the Daring Bakers (or Daring Cooks) complete the challenge but don't reveal their results publicly until a specified date. Today is the date for my first REVEAL.

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Introducing....


The “Cuppa” Cheesecake (or the Teasecake)

Okay, so this is my very first challenge. I went conceptual. I've been interested for a while in using tea in cooking and baking. At first I was going to try a green tea infusion, but because I was about to host a pub night (complete with 4 varieties of pasties), I decided to try a strong black tea.

The Plan:
* Use Yorkshire loose leaf, a nice strong flavor. Steep it in the cream (as in the lavender suggestion in the original challenge), cool and strain. I figured a good deal of liquid would get absorbed by the leaves, so I started with more than the specified amount of cream.
* Bake and serve in tea cups. If the tea taste came though, what could be cuter? I figured the baking time would be shorter, but I didn’t know by how much. I thought I’d bake for 30 min and then start checking.
* Substitute McVitie’s Digestive Biscuits for graham crackers for the crust. A cute no-brainer.

The Unexpected:
* Well, Yorkshire tea sucked up a whole lot more liquid than I expected. Like ALL of it. (Okay, so I used a lot of tea -- a whopping 1/3 cup of those finely cut leaves in about 1-1/2 cup of cream.) The resulting sludge (sorry, no other word to describe the tea-and-cream substance) I tried to put through a fine mesh sieve. I could only extract less than half the liquid I needed, so I topped it off with fresh cream. The balance of sweetness and bitterness was good, but I knew the flavor would have to be even stronger in order to stand up to the cream cheese and lemon. The Yorkshire tea is so fine that I decided to add some of the steeped leaves right into the batter. (A risk, I know, but I’ve always liked those little bits of tea leaves in my cup.) I started off a couple of Tbs at a time, but eventually I added the entire mass of cream soaked tea leaves.
* Because I had to use two different cup types, I knew they likely wouldn’t all be done at the exact same time. I had a hard time telling doneness, and I think I left them in longer than I should have. (40 or 45 minutes... I’m not exactly sure.) I found them a bit drier than I would have wanted them (not a surprise with all those tea leaves), but no cracking at all. As I guessed, the slightly thinner cups were done before the thicker cups.

The Result:
* The bitterness of the tea was a nice offset to the sweetness of the cake. (Did I mention that I love baking but have almost no sweet tooth?) If I concentrated, I could find the taste of a nice cup of strong tea with milk in it, but mostly it tasted like a decent cheesecake with an unusual flavor profile. Some people liked it a lot, others seemed to think it was “fine.” There were no half-eaten cups at the end of the night, at least. (The funniest reaction came from a friend who cannot abide cheese of any kind. She had a most troubled look on her face as she began eating, but when I looked again few minutes later she was polishing off the last bite, somehow having acquired the taste as she ate.)
* The texture of the leaves was not as troubling as I was worried it might be. Like I say, the Yorkshire leaves are cut really fine. Strangely, the graininess of the digestive biscuit crust really made it all work together.

The Verdict:
* I’m awfully glad I tried this experiment, but my partner said it best when he noted that the tea flavor just didn’t meld with the sour notes of the cream cheese and lemon. I think I’d definitely use McVitie’s again, though. I liked the slight graininess. I’d also do cheesecake in teacups again. I just would cut off baking time at 30 minutes to keep the creaminess.

I’m just awfully glad to have a good excuse to experiment with the oven again! It’s been a while since I just tried new things and tried the unknown. Still, the pasties and not the “cuppa” cheesecakes were definitely the stars of the evening. (See the post "Pies Like These" below.)

Pies Like These

Well, D and I finally made good on our pub night promises, and so Latenac and I made about 48 pasties in 4 different varieties. I started with the basic pie and crust recipe from BarefootKitchenWitch (wonderful site, btw; go browse it!). Her recipe suggests that each batch of dough makes 8 pies, which is a good proportion unless you are trying to make a million pies and only have one afternoon to pull it off. We made 12 smaller pies out of each batch of dough. It was harder to work with and crimp the smaller piece of dough, but the smaller size worked better for a big party. If I make pies again, though, I'll do the recommended 8 pies to a batch.


Okay, so this posting is really about showing off the oven picture and passing on the filling recipes (such as they are). Here we go:

Traditional Beef (pretty much what is says at BarefootKitchenWitch)
* 1 lb. beef, cut into small pieces (most recipes suggest chuck of some kind, but we used a nice top round)
* potato and rutabega, thinly sliced and then coarsely chopped a few times (otherwise it pokes through the soft dough, especially if you are making smaller pies)
* onion, small dice
* thyme
* salt and lots of pepper
We used a very lean beef, and so we tossed it in 2 Tbs. of melted butter before mixing it all together. (As Jaques Pepin says, you don't have to use butter, but why wouldn't you?) I really just eyeballed this one, but I think you want to see something like a 2-to-3 ratio of meat to vegetable here.

Pork and Apple
* 1 lb trimmed pork loin, cut into small pieces
* granny smith apples, peeled and chopped into chunk just slightly larger than the pork
* onion, finely chopped (about 1/4 or a cup, I should think; it's only to accent)
* Herbs de provence (or just some thyme would work, too)
* salt and light pepper
We tossed this in 2 Tbs. of melted butter, too. Why mess around? The proportion of pork to apple and onion should be about 1-to-1.

Lamb and Stilton
* 1 lb ground lamb
* 6-8 oz Stilton cheese, crumbled
* 1 medium potato, grated
* 1/2 c chopped parsley
* salt and light pepper
This one actually doesn't need any butter for some strange reason. Easiest to mix this by hand. (Note: We didn't use potato in the original recipe, but I'm adding it here because I think it would make the final product a bit less dense.)

Leek and Gruyere
* 3 leeks, thinly sliced
* 1 small potato, grated
* 8 oz gruyere cheese, grated
* 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
* light salt and pepper

Pies should get a thorough egg wash (beat an egg or two with just a touch of water) before baking. We baked each kind for about an hour, rotating and switching top for bottom pans every 15 minutes (which may or may not have be plain fussiness). The leek pies may not have needed quite that amount of time, but an hour seems to be what the crust wants to turn nice and golden.

I am quite convinced that pies like these are very amenable to experimentation and also quite forgiving. Let me know if you find or taste other interesting varieties.

Bread Pudding Pancakes

This is Andrew. Actually this is Andrew after you mention the words "bread pudding". It's also his face when you mention that somewhere serves breakfast anytime. So when I read about Bread Pudding Pancakes, I knew it was an opportunity to see this smile.

When I first saw the recipe it seemed to be missing some of the fringe benefits of bread pudding so I added raisins, raisin bread (rather than plain white bread) and vanilla to it. I also added an extra kick of cinnamon. If you're not a huge cinnamon fan, I would suggest skipping it. Other fun bread could be used instead of raisin and the person I got the recipe from added dried cherries rather than raisins. So there's a lot of wiggle room.




Bread Pudding Pancakes

Source: Adapted from Bon Appétit (Makes 14 pancakes)

¾ cup all purpose flour
½ tsp. cinnamon
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
7 ounces (about 5 slices) firm raisin bread, crusts trimmed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
¼ cup raisins
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups whole milk
2 large eggs, beaten to blend
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons (or more) butter
Maple syrup or fruit syrup

Stir flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in small bowl to blend. Place bread, vanilla and raisins in large bowl and add milk. Let stand until bread is very soft and beginning to fall apart, stirring mixture occasionally, about 15 minutes. Add flour mixture to bread mixture and blend. Mix in eggs and 3 tablespoons melted butter. Let batter stand 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 300°F. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Drop batter by 1/4 cupfuls into skillet. Cook pancakes until bubbles form on surface and bottoms are brown, about 2 minutes. Turn pancakes over; cook until cooked through and brown on bottom, about 2 minutes longer. Transfer to baking sheet. Keep warm in oven. Repeat with remaining batter, adding more butter to skillet as needed. Serve pancakes with syrup.

RECIPE: President Roslin's Spicy Shrimp Salad (BSG Finale)

This is a salad I invented for a Battle Star Galactica series finale party. Danny was showing off his pizza skills with five BSG themed pizzas, each represting a different season of the show. I tried to show him up with this...

I'm calling it "President Roslin's Spicy Shrimp Salad" because recently I took a What BGS Character Are You? quiz on FB and turned up Roslin. Bhhhhrrrrr! Anywhere, here's a picture of Roslin toking up. I bet she and Adama would have particularly enjoyed this salad that day.



Step 1:
1 lb. raw, peeled shrimp
1/2 c. white or apple cider vinegar
1/2 c. water
2 Tbs. Old Bay spice mix
1 tsp. chipotle or cayenne pepper (2 tsp. if you like it spicy-spicy)

Bring water, vinegar and spices to a rapid boil in a pot. Add shrimp and cook about 3 minutes, tossing shrimp occasionally as it cooks. Drain BUT DO NOT RINSE the shrimp. Set aside.

Step 2:
a couple carrots
about a half a medium-small jaicama
rice wine vinegar (or white balsamic, or lime juice, or whatever acid you prefer)
a few drops of sesame oil (optional)

Peel or scrape the carrots and peel the jaicama. Julienne the veggies (a mandolin is convenient, but you can do it by hand) to matchsticks. You'll want to eyeball the proportions. You'll want about equal amounts of carrot to jaicama, and the mass of the veggies should be about twice that of the mass of the shrimp. (Sorry not to be more precise here. I'm an eyeball cook.) Toss the veggies in the vinegar and sesame oil. (You probably don't need added salt, since the shrimp will be salty on their own, but if you want to add a bit extra, add it to the veggies at this stage.)

Step 3:
arugula
baby spinach
olive oil
cilantro

Assemble the salad. Make a nice bed of half arugula and half baby spinach. Toss lightly with olive oil. Distribute the veggies over the greens. Distribute the shrimp over the veggies. Sprinkle chpped cilantro over the whole salad.

Probably serves about 6 as a side salad or 2-3 as a main dish.


Notes and tips:

• Keep an eye on that shrimp. You may need to adjust cooking time depending on size of shrimp. When everything looks pink IT'S DONE! No overcooky shrimpy!
• Save shrimp shells -- whether raw or cooked -- in a baggie in the freezer. Later you can make a most delicious stock with them.
• I bet if you couldn't get jaicama you could use apple. Make sure the apple matchsticks are covered with the vinegar so they don't discolor. The sweetness might be particularly nice if you kicked up the spiciness of the shrimpt to 2 tsp. of cayenne. Just a guess...