Mascarpone & Cream Cheese Cheesecake

I love making cheesecakes, especially in the style of Junior's New York cheesecake (my favorite!), but this time I wanted to try something new. I wanted to find a new recipe that took less time and fewer ingredients. The recipe I usually use requires heavy whipping cream, which is quite expensive and makes another trip to the store. I adapted this recipe I found from Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/mascarpone-cheesecake-with-almond-crust-recipe.html. It's delicious!

Ingredients:

1 packet graham crackers

3 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp butter, melted

8 oz (1 package) cream cheese

8 oz mascarpone cheese (1 package of BelGioioso)

.625 cup sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla extract or licor

2 eggs, room temperature

How to Make:

1. Blend graham crackers, sugar, and melted butter for the crust. Shape crust into pan. Bake in 325 degree oven for 10 minutes.

2. In a mixer, mix the cream cheese and sugar.

3. Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract.

4. Once mixture is well blended, add the eggs.

5. Pour mixture into prepared crust pan.

6. For mini cheesecakes, bake in 325 degree oven for 25 minutes. Let cool in oven before taking it out and putting it in the refrigerator.

Eggy Pancakes

Pancake is my favorite breakfast on the weekends- the time I actually have patience to stand next to the stove and fry a bunch of pancakes and enjoy them with a drenching of Kirkland Signature maple syrup. I have experimented a lot of different pancake recipes, often changing the milk used- soy milk, almond milk, and walnut milk. The recipe I used was from NY Times http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1893-everyday-pancakes and goes back to traditional using whole milk. I made a half batch, and it was plentiful enough for breakfast. I sure am inspired to make this again, as it is simple and easy to follow. 

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1/2 tablespoon sugar

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 tablespoons melted butter

How to Make:

1. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl until well combined.

2. Add the egg, milk, and melted butter (making sure it's cooled down!)

3. Pour a tablespoon of oil into a pan, and cook the batter, turning the pancake when bubbles form.

Vanilla Cupcakes (no butter)

I was so amazed when I found a recipe for vanilla cupcakes that does not require butter at all! The recipe I followed is here: http://natashaskitchen.com/2012/06/29/perfect-vanilla-cupcake-recipe/. I love how I have all the ingredients the recipe requires in my pantry. There is no last minute grocery shopping just for one thing. The light cupcake requires only oil, and it makes you feel good. The cupcakes turned out to have an elastic, bungee-like texture and moist, full of vanilla flavor interior. 

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk + 1/2 teaspoon vinegar

2 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

How to Make:

1. Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla, and oil in mixer. 

2. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and milk.

3. Pour into baking cups, halfway full.

4. Bake for 12 minutes in a 350 °F oven.

5. Top with buttercream icing.

Chocolate Soufflé

I love how deliciously fancy this recipe is. It is chocolatey, airy, and sweet- topped with blackberries and powdered sugar, it is French gourmet dessert at home. I love French desserts and how they are delectable, distinguishable, and yet refined. With a touch of a spoon, the chocolate liqueur gushes out and you can't help but eat it in time before it all drips away.

Ingredients:

1/2 stick butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar + 1 tbsp per ramekin

3 eggs, separated

Cream of tartar, a pinch

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Powdered sugar, for dusting

How to Make:

1. Brush ramekins with butter & sugar

2. Whisk egg whites & cream of tartar

3. Melt chocolate & butter in a saucepan. Remove from pan. Let cool and add egg yolks.

4. Fold chocolate liqueur mixture + egg white mixture.

5. Bake approximately 15 minutes.

Green Tea + Flan Layer Cake

Is there such thing as an "Impossible" Cake aka the Chocoflan? The chocoflan is basically a chocolate cake with a flan layer on top. The moniker is ascribed to the fact that, how can the cake, when inverted, turn out to be on the bottom, when the cake and flan mixture were mixed together and baked together at the same time? Magic, right?

Previously, I made flan just by itself: http://cookingbanana.blogspot.com/2013/08/flan.html.

It was delicious, silky, and creamy all at once. Having succeeded in making flan, I wanted a new challenge. The mission impossible.

It was time to challenge myself on the actual date of my cousin's birthday. I was the designated cake chef, and I was running late. OH MY GOSH. Literally, it was 12 noon, and we were leaving for dinner at 4 PM. Was it possible to make a cake that I had never prepared before so soon?

Adding to the challenge, I wanted to make a green tea cake with flan. I knew my dessert devourers' palate was green tea, not chocolate. I couldn't find a recipe to appease my and my guests' appetite, so I decided to combine my knowledge of making green tea cake and flan, and hoped that the buoyancy principles did not only apply to chocolate but also green tea cake.

Most definitely, possible.

First steps:

1. Oil the fluted pan that you will bake the cake in. (Yes, you will need a fluted pan so that you can invert the cake later.)

2. Make the caramel. Medium heat the white sugar until melted. Be careful not to boil it too much, as the sugar easily burns.

3. Immediately remove from heat when melted and pour into prepared fluted pan.

4. While the caramel cools and hardens, make the Green Tea Cake layer next.

Ingredients for the Green Tea Cake layer:

Group A:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup cake flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp green tea powder

Group B:

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 cup oil

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup plain yogurt (or substitute 1 tbsp vinegar + 1 cup milk)

How to Make the Green Tea Cake layer:

1. Sift together Group A in a mixer.

2. Beat in Group B into Group A.

3. Pour cake batter into the fluted pan. 

4. Set aside while making the Flan layer next.

Ingredients for the Flan layer:

3 eggs

1 can condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

1 tbsp vanilla

How to Make the Flan layer:

1. Beat all the ingredients- eggs, condensed & evaporated milks, and vanilla- until incorporated. 

2. Pour the flan mixture into the fluted pan that already contains the Green Tea Cake layer and caramel. (Now here's the impossible part to this: the cake and flan mixtures are infused together for the moment, but after it gets baked in the oven, it separates into two distinct layers, inverted!!)

How to Bake the Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

2. Prepare a hot water bath by pouring hot (not boiling) water into a larger pan that can hold the fluted pan. 

3. Place the fluted pan into the hot water bath.

4. Cover the fluted pan with aluminum foil.

5. Bake for approximately 1 hour.

6. Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool. 

7. Run a knife along the edges of the cake to ease in letting the cake out, and invert the cake onto a larger plate. 

The result: 

Two distinct layers- top: flan, bottom: cake. 

How possible is that?!

Needham aka Potato Candy

Lobster and Needham candy, savory and sweet, foods well renowned in Maine. My mother bought me a Needham candy to go along with the lobster (as pictured below). Can you believe this candy is actually made out of potato?!

   

Filled with coconut flakes and drenched in chocolate, this was sure going to be a must-try and dessert after filling my stomach with two fresh, whole lobsters into my stomach individually during lunch at Docks Seafood in Portland, Maine, until I ate too much and couldn't finish the potato fries that came along with the meal and the Needham candy, so I packed them all into a to-go box saved for the long road trip to Boston, MA and when I got hungry I remembered the Needham candy and...

all along it was thrown away by my father at the restaurant because he thought the to-go box had nothing in it. Surprise!

Not. 

So, the picture where I'm holding that Needham candy is looks only... I never got to try it. So sad! And now I'm all the way back in California and 3,145 miles away from Needham candy and thus my only hope was to make it myself and hopefully gain an understanding of what that delicious sweet was all about.

   

Here's my attempt at emulating the distinctive Maine taste. 

In the end, I really enjoyed the sugary chocolate meets coconut taste. Despite the fact that potato is added, the powdered sugar takes away all the potato flavor, so the Needham basically tastes like a really sweet chocolate plus coconut brownie. Such a lovely taste of Maine!

Soufflé Pancakes

I miss eating Apple Brandy soufflé pancakes at Bette's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley, CA. How I miss the light, fluffy, eggy, soft, sweet but not too sweet, fat but not too fat, basically not your typical IHOP pancake... the soufflé pancake. This is MY breakfast on a Thursday morning. Oh I'm fancy huh? 

Ingredients: 

3 eggs, separated

• ½ cup soy milk

• 2 1/2 tbsp butter, melted

• ¼ cup all-purpose flour

• ½ tsp sugar

• ¼ tsp salt
• Fruit for decorating

How to Make:

1. Beat egg yolks, soy milk, melted butter, all-purpose flour, sugar, and salt.

2. In an electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.

3. Fold in the egg whites into the batter mixture.

4. Spread oil onto a cast iron skillet. Turn to medium heat.

5. Pour batter into cast iron skillet and heat for 5 minutes, up to the point where the bottom of the batter has solidified and cooked firm. 

6. Place into broiler on low heat and cook for 4 minutes or until light brown.

7. Serve with a dust of powdered sugar, honey, and slice of apple! 

My end result: the pancake wasn't as puffy as that of Bette's, most likely because I didn't add any fruit to the batter and/ or maybe because of the soy milk I used? I have yet to try this again... on a Sunday Thursday morning sumptuous brunch.

Mini Hubbard Squash [Pumpkin] Pies

Same recipe as the Fresh Hubbard Squash Pie, but I decided to make miniature pies because they are easier to serve (I don't have to eyeball the size of the pie slice while serving, or who gets the bigger piece... equality for the win!) Oh yeah, I decided to eliminate the 1/4 tsp of ginger... too spicy for my liking, and I baked for 25 minutes. Anyways, pie says, "Mini me!"

Fresh Hubbard Squash [Pumpkin] Pie

My auntie gave me a huge 10-pound squash that she grew in her backyard, and I was like, how should I consume 10 pounds of squash?! I didn't even know the name of this squash (I thought it was just a bizarre-looking giant pumpkin from another planet), and I didn't know how to look up recipes because I couldn't even get the name right. After doing some research, I came to the conclusion that it is similar to a hubbard squash; I might have been wrong, but the squash needed to be eaten soon. Since, it's October and pumpkin season, might as well try to make a "pumpkin" pie out of it. The unnamed squash finally got its name.

Ingredients for the Pie Crust:

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, sliced

1/2 cup ice cold water

How to Make Pie Crust:

1. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt. You can do this by hand.

2. Add butter.

3. Add ice cold water.

4. Mold together into a ball.

5. Put the dough in the refrigerator (or freezer).

Ingredients for the Pie Filling:

1 3/4 cup hubbard squash

1 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 egg

1 cup evaporated milk

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ginger

How to Make Pie Filling:

1. Slice a hubbard squash in half.

 2. Place half a hubbard squash onto a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Bake for 1 hour.

3. Let the squash cool completely before processing in a blender.

4. Then, pour the squash puree into a strainer over a bowl. Cover and let drip in refrigerator overnight.  

5. Combine 1 3/4 cup hubbard squash and the rest of the pie filling ingredients in a mixer.

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6. Take out the dough and roll it out on a floured surface. Use your pie pan as a stencil to cut out the dough. Mold the dough into the pie pan.

7. Pour the pie filling into the pie crust.

8. Bake in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 50 minutes.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Double the chocolate! Easy to make!

Ingredients for the Cupcakes

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/8 tsp salt

4 1/2 tsp butter, softened

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

How to Make the Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Mix butter and sugar.

3. Add vanilla and egg.

4. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, unsweetened cocoa powder, and salt into the batter and mix until incorporated.

5. Bake for 15 minutes in a prepared or lined muffin pan. Let cool completely before decorating.

Ingredients for the Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tbsp butter, softened

1/2 (4-oz.) cream cheese

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp milk

How to Make the Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Beat the cream cheese in an electric mixer.

2. Add the unsweetened cocoa powder and butter.

3. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk.

Green Tea Cake

Birthday cake for my mom! I fashioned the green tea cake into a pumpkin shape to celebrate the season.

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 cup milk

½ tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 Tbsp matcha powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

How to Make

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Mix the butter, eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla.

3. Then mix the all-purpose flour, matcha powder, and baking powder.

4. Pour batter into a prepared cake pan.

5. Bake for 1 hour and let cool before decorating.

How to Decorate

I made a cream cheese frosting for the outer pumpkin layer (orange) using the recipe from 

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cream-Cheese-Frosting-II/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Thumb&e11=cream%20cheese%20frosting&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1. 

To get an orange color, add 2 drops of red food coloring per 3 drops yellow food coloring. Keep on adding drops until you reach an orange shade you like.

For the pumpkin stem (green), I used an electric mixer and blended 180 g heavy whipping cream and 20 g sugar on high setting. I added about 10 drops of green food coloring. I placed a cylinder in the middle of the pumpkin so that the frosting was molded into a stem-like shape.