mix, mix…stir, stir

This was the biggest surprise I ‘ve had in my Tuesdays with Dorie baking adventures. This cheesecake blew me away it was so good! Good cheesecake comes down to texture as far as I am concerned. I like creamy-smooth to the point that it almost feels light, which seem like an oxymoron given the cream cheese, sourcream and eggs involved in making cheesecake, but if the texture is right, it is like eating a delicious creamy cloud.

photo by David Peterman

I followed Dories advice to “mix like mad” for a “flawlessly smooth texture” and she did not lead me astray. I let my Kitchen Aid rip until the batter was thick and satiny-smooth. Baking in a water bath is also critical for nice texture, but carries the risk of a soggy crust from water leaking into the springform pan. I have a “no-leak” pan, but it leaks. After years of batteling soggy crusts, I bought a roll of extra-wide foil that I keep stashed away for this specific use. It is wide enough to wrap the outside of a springform pan without any seams. No seams, no leaking, so simple!

It may have been just the extra attention I gave to beating the batter so super-smooth that resulted in the exquisite texture, but the very gentle cooling cycle that Dorie suggests could also be a key factor. After baking, leave the cheesecake in the water bath with the oven turned off and the door propped open for an hour. Then remove it from the water bath and let it cool to room-temperature before refrigerating. This is not a baking project to start late in the evening, which I realized as I was reading the cooling instructions after putting my cheesecake in the oven at 9:00 p.m. I know the first thing to do is read the entire recipe before starting, but this is apparently one of those lessons I need to learn again and again.

A Cheesecake Factory’s menu is proof that you can take the flavor of cheesecake in any direction, but there is something to be said for plain. Well, plain with a warm Spiced Caramel Sauce. Though, I will admit to adding a little ginger powder to the graham cracker crust. It is Anne of AnneStrawberry who gets credit for the recipe selection this week. She has the recipe posted on her blog, but really you should own Baking: From My Home to Yours for the other 500 pages of recipes and baking advise from Dorie Greenspan.

Spiced Caramel Sauce

For the times when you have just shy of a cup of cream on hand

3/4 cup + 1/3 cup+ 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon water
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon allspice
2 cloves, ground (about 1/16 teaspoon)
pinch of salt

In a small dish combine the spices and salt and set aside.

In a medium pot over medium-low heat, melt the sugar in the water. Stirring initially, but stop stirring once the sugar is dissolved.  Increase the heat a bit and bring the syrup to a boil. Run a clean pastry brush that has been dipped in water around the side-walls of the pan just above the level of the syrup to wash down any sugar crystals. Repeat until the pan walls are clean. Boil the syrup until it begins to turn a dark golden-brown color. Don’t be afraid to let the caramel develop a nice dark color; a darker caramel has more flavor.

Once the syrup is at the desired color, remove the pan from the heat and carefully pour in the cream. The caramel will bubble up wildly and let off a fair amount of steam, so stand clear. Return the pan to a low heat and stir, with a clean spoon or spatula, until smooth. Then stir in the spices and salt. Serve warm.

Thanks to Holly who writes the Phemomenon blog, and is a fellow Tuesdays with Dorie Baker, I got a hankering to make doughnuts. She used the Real Butterscotch Pudding we made for last week’s Tuesdays with Dorie baking assignment to make pudding filled doughnuts! When I saw that, I knew what we would be eating Christmas morning.

photo by David Peterman

The recipe for the doughnuts is from Peanut Butter and Julie and was quite a success, having never made doughnuts before. I didn’t go the cappuccino cream filled or even pudding filled route like Julie and Holly did, but basic glazed with just a hint of nutmeg in the dough. A simple sugar glaze, or sugar and spice dusting made lovely garnishes.

A few things I learned: The oil temperature required constant monitoring and adjustment, which surprised me because I used a heavy cast iron dutch oven thinking it would hold a nice constant temperature. It could be that I was over correcting with the heat adjustments and had I gotten it to settle in at 375 degrees F with the proper amount of flame, it would have stayed right there.  Also, doughnut holes cook best when turned frequently rather than cooking one side at a time. I found that as the first side cooked a large air pocket formed on the top making them virtually impossible to turn over. By keeping them turning, the expansion was more evenly distributed, making it possible to cook all sides to a nice golden brown. Lastly, after deep-frying just plan to change your clothes and wash your hair.

After feasting on the doughy-sugary delights we did head straight to the gym, which sounds more neurotic than it really was, but I did find it rather funny. Our gym happened to be open on Christmas and we, along with many other people I will point out, were just enjoying the luxury of working out with no pressing time commitments for the day. Who knows, homemade doughnuts and going to the gym could become a new holiday tradition.

Basic Sugar Glaze
Place 1 cup of powdered sugar in a small, shallow bowl and whisk in 1 tablespoon of hot milk. Add one teaspoon of vanilla and additional hot milk by the teaspoon until the glaze is nicely thinned. Dip the doughnuts in the glaze while they are still hot.

Spiced Sugar Coating
This is rather free-form and can be adapted to the spices you have on hand. The reason this isn’t a cinnamon and sugar coating is I had no cinnamon. I actually like the mixed spices better than straight cinnamon and sugar, so it worked out well.

To 1/2 cup of granulated sugar add 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon of ground allspice, and 1/2 teaspoon of grated nutmeg. I tossed in two pinches of ground pink peppercorns as well. Mix to combine. I used a bowl with a fitted lid so I could place the doughnut in and just give it a shake to coat.

What makes Real Butterscotch Pudding real?  Scotch whisky! The Tuesdays with Dorie bakers are probably a bit sauced today because this pudding is creamy, delicious, and packs a punch. This isn’t after school pudding, but grown-up, fit for a fancy dinner pudding.

photo by David Peterman

Surprisingly, pudding is a quick dessert to make, even from scratch. I don’t think it really takes much longer to make pudding from scratch than from a box. I will admit, however, that there are more dishes to wash with homemade pudding but the taste is worth every dirty bowl and pot that ends up in the sink. Dorie Greenspan’s recipe in Baking: From My Home to Yours, is more unique in method than ingredients. Using a food processor to blend the pudding and adding the butter in at the end are the two steps that really make Dorie’s puddings so silky and luscious.

I don’t allow pudding skin, so plastic wrap is pressed right down on the surface of the pudding before it goes in the refrigerator to ensure a leathery top layer doesn’t form. I did end up with plastic wrap wrinkles on the surface of my puddings, but was able to down-play them with a sprinkling of powdered sugar and a dusting of freshly grated nutmeg. Nutmeg works really well with the butterscotch flavor and look nice too.

If you are looking for a comforting but sophisticated dessert for Christmas, Real Butterscotch Pudding is perfect. It is a quick, make a head of time, dessert that will impress; and if you have a house full of visitors, get them to do the dishes! Donna of Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases selected the recipe for this week and you can find it posted on her blog or of course in Dories Book, which should be on your Christmas list if you don’t already own a copy.

I have been caught on more than one occasion needing citrus zest for a recipe and buying a lemon or an orange just so I can harvest the zest. Annoyingly, I have often just used a lemon or eaten an orange a day or two earlier and the now much needed zest is languishing in the compost bin.

photo by David Peterman

It finally occurred to me to harvest citrus zest when I have it even if I don’t need it at the moment.  I place the zest of one lemon or one orange in an ice cube tray compartment and add enough juice just to bind the zest and keep it hydrated. Once frozen, pop each one out and store them in a freezer container.

I find it helpful to do the same thing with lemon juice when I have extra lemons around that might go bad before I can use them. The joy of being one step ahead of myself by having zest and juice in the freezer when I need it, is immensely satisfying.

Ice cube trays are great for freezing extra chicken stock, tomato paste, and pesto as well. I especially like the trays with flexible silicone bottoms, the frozen contents pop right out with a little push.

Moving right along in this month of cookie baking, Buttery Jam Cookies are on the menu for the 350 + baking bloggers that make up  Tuesdsays with Dorie. I actually got more pleasure from the title of these cookies than the cookies themselves. It’s not that they weren’t good; they just weren’t what my imagination generated when I read “Buttery Jam Cookies.” Expectations can be so tricky.

photo by David Peterman

I bet you have had a guilt-inducing ingredient lingering in your refrigerator at some point or another. In my refrigerator last week it was the pint of beautiful raspberry puree that I had thawed and used only a cup. Why I froze it all in a single large container baffles me, so now I needed to do something with it. Happily it occurred to me to make a nice jam by adding some cranberries, allspice, ginger, and pectin. With a fresh batch of raspberry cranberry jam now on hand, I knew what was going in the Buttery Jam Cookies, but a little voice in my head did wonder what sort of odd pink the cookies might become with this jam choice.

Much to my relief the dough was a very pretty pink once mixed, but unfortunately once baked, turned a subtle, but rather unfortunate purple-grey. I suspect this is due to the anthocyanin pigments in the raspberries which is the same pigment found in blueberries. Blueberries will turn pancake and muffin batter green if the batter is too alkaline, from too much baking soda, for example. These cookies use baking powder, which does contain baking soda,  but generally baking powder is the solution for preventing the green effect with blueberries, so there could have well been some other factor at work. Either way the cookies weren’t so pretty.

photo by David Peterman

With a texture very much like a slightly sweet biscuit, these cookies were just calling to be slathered in jam. Not only did the jam make them taste like a lovely breakfast biscuit, but it conveniently covered most of the dough. The jam topping separated a bit during baking, but a quick redistributing swipe with a knife once they came out of the oven fixed them right up. A dusting of powdered sugar was the final act of camouflage. They looked very holiday-appropriate by the time I finished.

I am not overly enthused by the end result, they tasted good, but I think having to do so much corrective work sort of spoiled it for me. The next time I have some apricot jam on hand I may just give these another try. Thank you to Heather of Randomosity and the Girl for selecting this week’s recipe; it inspired me to turn that raspberry puree into a lovely jam. You can find the cookie recipe on Heather’s post, or of course in Dorie Greenspan’s wonderful book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I would share the jam recipe, but there isn’t one, I just sort of winged-it. If you keep reading I do have my Chewy and Slightly Gooey Chocolate Chunk Cookies posted below. I have been working on my dream chocolate chunk cookie for a long time and I have finally stopped tinkering with the recipe. I love these cookies. Go on, scroll down and take a look!