Snickerdoodle Cheesecake

Oh, yes. This one is worth it. (Worth the money and the calories, that is...) It IS expensive to make, which is why it was a Christmas gift to my brother, who loves cheesecake. The reason this one is a snickerdoodle variety is because he also LOVES snickerdoodle cookies. I wanted to make this one special, so I decided to combine the two. I made a snickerdoodle cookie crust (yum) and then flavored the cheesecake portion with a bit of cinnamon. Here goes:

Ingredients:

For the crust:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

For the cheesecake:
4 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 3/4 cup sugar
7 large eggs
3 (8-ounce) containers sour cream
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
ground cinnamon


To make:
1. First mix up the cookie dough crust. In a large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add the 1 cup sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar and beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer, and then mix the rest in by hand. Cover and chill dough about one hour or until firm.
2. Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Once the dough has been chilled, lightly (very lightly) butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan with about 3 inch sides. Roll the entire blob of dough in the sugar and cinnamon mix, coating it thoroughly. Evenly press the cookie dough on the bottom and about half-way up the sides of the pan . Make sure it isn't too thick, you may not use all of the dough. The bottom should be about 1/3 inch thick. Bake the cookie crust in the oven until lightly browned, about 10-12 minutes. The cookie should feel slightly firm but still soft. The dough you pushed around the sides will likely have fallen a bit; that is okay. Don't worry if the cookie crust doesn't seem perfect, it should still turn out great. (I thought for sure that the cookie part wouldn't work because it rose up and fell back down when I took it out of the oven.) Let that cool slightly while you make the cheesecake batter.

3. Beat cream cheese at medium-high speed with a heavy-duty stand mixer until fluffy. Gradually add 1 3/4 cup sugar, beating well and scraping sides with a flexible spatula. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add sour cream, vanilla, and a couple of dashes of cinnamon; beat at low speed until smooth, remembering to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. Pour batter into prepared pan with cookie crust. It will come all the way up to the top of the pan. Place half-teaspoons of cinnamon in a few places on the top of the batter and swirl with a knife or spoon to create decorative swirls.

4. Bake at 300ºF for 1 hour 25 minutes. Turn off oven, and leave cheesecake in oven 4 hours. (DO NOT open oven door to peek)

5. Remove cake from oven carefully. Run a knife or small metal spatula around the very edge of the cake to help prevent cracks (this allows the cake to contract freely when cooling) Cool completely on a wire rack, about 3-4 more hours. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator at least 8 hours.

6. When ready to serve, remove sides of springform pan carefully. Store in refrigerator.

Yields about 12 servings.

*You don't even want to know how many calories my husband and I figured up in this total cake. Also be warned, this is pretty expensive to make and takes a lot of time and patience. Like I said though, it is worth it.

Orange Cake

The recipe comes from an Italian cookbook called The Silver Spoon. I baked it for dessert last night after a meal of fresh pasta and meat sauce, bread, and salad. Since the meal was a bit on the heavy side, I decided to go with a fresh, lighter variety of dessert. To me, citrus desserts always do a great job of lightening the heavy (but delicious) load that my taste buds experience after eating garlic, tomato, and meat. You will most likely have all the ingredients in your pantry, which is a plus when you are in a pinch!

Ingredients:

butter, for greasing plus
scant 1/2 cup sweet cream butter, gently melted
2 eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 3/4 cup confectioner's (powdered) sugar 
scant 1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
juice of two oranges, strained or about 1 1/2 cups orange juice and poured it through a fine mesh strainer to get out all the pulp
orange zest (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease a cake pan with some butter. Whisk together the eggs, granulated sugar, and half the powdered sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Stir in the melted butter. Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture, mix well and gently stir in half the orange juice. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until barely browned on top and cooked. Meanwhile, sift the remaining (and you may need more) powdered sugar into the remaining orange juice, whisking to get out all the lumps, until you have a semi-thick consistency. Remove the cake from the oven and let cool, then turn out onto a serving dish. Spread the orange frosting evenly over the cake and let set in a cool place. Lightly sprinkle a small amount of orange zest over the cake before serving!

Makes 1 (9-inch) cake; about 8 small pieces. 

Lemon-Filled Strawberries

This dish was something I came up with on the way home from Kroger today. I had some fresh strawberries in the fridge and also some Lemon Cream. I had dipped a strawberry in the cream yesterday, knowing that whipped cream and strawberries go great together anyway, and the lemon in the cream really sparked a new love for the flavors together. I bought some prepared lemon curd at the store and decided I wanted to try it out with something, and the strawberries and cream came to mind. So I decided a cute way to present this little dessert snack would be to cut the tops and fill them, and then place the tops back on, like a little hat! I would serve this simple treat at a breakfast, as dessert, or even at a shower of some sort because it is delicious and oh-so-pretty!

Ingredients:

Recipe for Lemon Cream (just scroll down until you see Lemon Cream in the post)

12-15 red, ripe strawberries

1/3 cup prepared Lemon Curd (I used Dickinson's Lemon Curd)

1. Pick out and rinse the prettiest strawberries.

2. Gently heat the lemon curd in the microwave for 5-7 seconds (but no more, it doesn't need to be hot, just a thinner consistency)

3. Place the lemon cream in a piping bag fitted with a bigger tip.

4. Cut the tops (the pointed end) off the strawberries, but do not discard!

5. Spoon a small amount of the lemon curd on the bigger half, and then pipe the lemon cream on top of that. Place the cut off portion on top, pushing down just slightly so the filling oozes a little. 

6. Arrange on a platter and serve!

Makes 12-15 (or so) filled strawberries