Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake

Today is Tom's birthday.  Happy birthday Tom!  I always let him pick out whatever kind of cake he wants for his birthday.  I think the last 2 years it was Guinness chocolate cake.  But this year, I was at the Cheesecake Factory for a lunch with coworkers before Christmas and they had this cake that was layers of cheesecake and red velvet cake.  We were all ooh'ing and ahh'ing over it but were too stuffed after lunch to get a piece.  Then, literally the next day, this post from Beantown Baker with almost the exact same cake showed up in my Google reader.  I sent the link to Tom and said "I think I found your birthday cake!"  This cake is time consuming but totally worth it.  I added a little more cocoa powder to the red velvet cake than the original recipe and altered the frosting recipe a bit.




Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake
Adapted from Beantown Baker


Cheesecake
1 1/4 pounds cream cheese (20 oz), room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp lemon zest, plus 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 tsp coarse salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream

Cake
2 1/2 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp (1 oz.) red food coloring
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp white distilled vinegar

Frosting
12 oz. cream cheese, room temp
2 sticks of butter, room temp
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 cups confectioners' sugar

Cheesecake Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line bottom of a springform cheesecake pan with a piece of parchment paper.  Set a pot of water to boil.


2. Beat cream cheese on medium until fluffy, scraping down side of bowl. 


3. Add sugar 1/4 cup at a time and mix until fluffy.  Add in lemon juice, zest, and salt.  Then mix in eggs, then sour cream.  Scrape down sides of the bowl as needed.


4. Pour batter into springform pan.  Place pan in a roasting pan and then pour boiling water in roasting pan so it comes about halfway up the springform pan. 


5. Bake for 50-60 minutes until set in the center.  Remove pan from water and let cool.  Once cool, run a knife around the edge of the pan, remove edge of springform pan, cover cake in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  Once chilled overnight, freeze the cheesecake before assembling the rest of the cake.

Red Velvet Cake Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour 2 9" cake pans and cover bottom of each pan with a parchment paper round.  I do this for ALL cakes now, just in case.  It makes taking them out of the pans so much easier.


2. Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl.

3. Beat eggs, oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until well combined. Add dry ingredients and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.

4. Divide batter evenly between two pans.  Bake for 25-30 minutes. 


5. Let cakes cool for 10-15 minutes and then invert cakes out of the pans and cool on a wire rack.  Wrap cakes in plastic wrap and freeze.  Cakes are much easier to frost nicely if they're frozen first, you won't have as many crumbs flaking off into the frosting.

Frosting Instructions
1. Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla together in a large bowl with an electric mixer until combined. 


2. Add sugar in 1/2 cup increments and beat until frosting is light and fluffy, 5–7 minutes.  Add  more sugar as needed if frosting is not stiff enough.

Assembly Instructions
1. Place bottom cake layer on plate or cake stand. Make sure you level the bottom layer either with a large knife (a long carving knife or a serrated bread knife works well).  After you remove the rounded part of the top of the cake, spread frosting on it, fold it in half, and enjoy a cake taco!


2. Spread a thin layer of frosting on outside edge of the cake then add frozen cheesecake layer on top of the red velvet layer.  My springform pan was slightly wider than my cake pans, so the cheesecake layer stuck out a little.  You can just easily work your way around the cake with a serrated knife and saw off the extra edge.  


3. Spread another thin layer of frosting on the edges of the cheesecake layer, then add the second red velvet layer.  I never bother leveling the top layers of cakes, I like having the top rounded.  If you prefer a flat topped cake, then feel free to level it before adding the layer.


4. Spread a thin layer of frosting around the whole cake.  This is called a crumb coat.  It's best to set aside a small bit of the frosting for this layer so that if you're dipping the knife in to the bowl of frosting you don't get the crumbs from the knife in the frosting.  This layer can be really thing, you just want something for all of the crumbs on the edges to stick to so they stay put when you put the final layer of frosting on. Once you have the crumb coat on, stick the cake in the freezer for a few minutes.


5. Add second layer of frosting evenly around the cake.  Decorate however you want - sprinkles, chocolate shavings, etc.

"The Chewy" Chocolate Chip Cookies

One episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats show featured different recipes for chocolate chip cookies depending on how you like your cookies: thin, chewy, or puffy.  I've never actually seen the episode, but I saw the recipe for The Chewy on a few food blogs and was intrigued.

This is hands down my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I'll never go back to using the recipe on the back of the chip bag again.  If you like your cookies thin and crispy or puffy you should check out Alton Brown's other recipes here but if you like thick gooey chewy cookies then make these.  Now.  They stay chewy, and the generous amount of kosher salt gives them a perfect salty/sweet contrast.


"The Chewy" Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Alton Brown's Good Eats

2 sticks butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips


1. Melt butter either in microwave or over the stove.  Cool for a few minutes.

2. Sift flour, salt, and baking soda in a mixing bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter, sugar, and brown sugar, mix with paddle attachment on low until combined.  Add egg and yolk, milk and vanilla.

4. Slowly add flour mixture then chocolate chips.  The batter will be fairly liquidy because of the melted butter.

5.  Chill the dough for about an hour.  This step is key, the dough needs to be cold so that when the cookies are in the oven they don't melt and spread out too fast.  If they do, they won't be thick and chewy, they'll be flat and crispy.

6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

7.  Scoop dough with ice cream scoop out onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets.  And yes, you do want to use a cookie scoop size ball of batter here.  These are big cookies, part of what makes them super chewy and thick.

8. Bake for 14-16 minutes until golden brown on the edges and enjoy with a big glass of milk.

Double Chocolate Cookies

I got a stack of cookbooks for Christmas that I'm slowly working my way through.  One of them was Flour by Joanne Chang.  She owns Flour bakery in Boston, which I've actually never been to, but I'm loving the book so far.  Brioche and sticky buns and cookies and donuts.  Everything is drool-worthy.

My husband had a work lunch from Flour bakery recently and had a chocolate cookie that was amaaazing (he snuck one home for me because he knew I wanted to try something from there after getting the book).  They're super chewy in the middle.  I suggested making them for one of his friends for her birthday.  I didn't really read the instructions before I started making them and they are pretty time consuming and I was cursing them a little while I was making them but I think they were worth it.  They're almost like a flourless chocolate cookie, there's only 1/2 cup flour in the whole batch of cookie batter.  Because there's so much chocolate in here, the quality of the chocolate is really important.  Don't just substitute store brand semisweet chips here.


Double-Chocolate Cookies
From Flour

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely shaved
9 ounces (5 ounces and 4 ounces, separated) bittersweet chocolate, chopped or chips
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unbleached flour
4 eggs
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp instant espresso powder or instant coffee
3/4 cup walnuts (optional, I left these out)


1. Combine 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, and butter in bowl of double boiler (or a metal bowl on top of a pan of boiling water).  Stir until melted and smooth, remove from heat and whisk in vanilla.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

2. Beat together sugar and eggs in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment for about 5 minutes until a light pale yellow.  Slowly add cooled chocolate mix on low speed until just barely combined.

3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, espresso powder, shaved chocolate, the remaining 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, and walnuts.

Side note here, you can shave the chocolate with the fine part of a grater or with a microplaner.  It's kind of a pain in the ass step, it makes quite the mess (you try to wipe up bits of shaved chocolate and it just melts and smears everywhere).  I might try the recipe next time without this step or by just adding additional unsweetened chocolate to the melted mixture.

4. Fold the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture with a rubber spatula until evenly mixed.

5. Refrigerate the dough overnight or at least a few hours.  When ready to bake, set oven to 350 degrees.

6. Drop dough in 1/4 cup balls onto baking sheet.  The dough will be REALLY sticky.  It gummed up my cookie scoop and got alllll over my hands when I tried just using my fingers.  The best strategy I found was to use 2 spoons, one to scoop out the dough and one to push the dough off the other spoon onto the cookie sheet.  Don't worry about the dough being in perfect ball shapes.

7. Bake for about 15 minutes, until you see some crinkles on the tops of the cookies and the middle looks soft but not liquidy.  Cool on the cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes, these will fall apart if you try to take them off too soon, you have to let the chocolate set.

Eat them warm with a BIG glass of milk!

Buttermilk Biscuits

I'll admit that I am a fan of the Pillsbury-type pop n' roll biscuits.  If you're southern, don't hate me for saying that.  I don't have a family recipe for buttermilk biscuits and up until a year or so ago I'd never tried making them from scratch.  My first attempt was a total fail.  Big lead biscuits that no one wanted to eat.  But I had some buttermilk in the fridge leftover from something else, so I decided to give it another shot.

I have one of the big America's Test Kitchen family cookbooks. This is my go to book for almost everything.  It's never let me down and this recipe was no exception.  But for biscuits, the key to success is not so much the recipe but the technique.  The butter and the buttermilk have to be cold and you can't can't can't overmix or overknead the dough. That's been my mistake before is overkneading.  I see crumbly bits of flour in the bowl and to me, it doesn't look ready to bake yet.  But it is!  Leave it crumbly!


Buttermilk Biscuits
Adapted from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour (or 7/8 cup of all purpose flour plus 2 tbsp cornstarch)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter, cold, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
3/4 cup cold buttermilk


1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Add both flours, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of a mixer with a paddle attachment.

3. Add cubes of butter on top of the flour mixture and mix until combined.  The butter should be in pea-sized pieces.

4. Add buttermilk and mix only until the dough forms a sticky ball.  There will still be some bits of flour in the bottom of the bowl, but that's ok!

5. Turn the dough out onto a floured counter.  Form the dough into a rough ball, then press either with your hands or a rolling pin, lightly, to make a 1 inch thick circle.

6. Use a biscuit cutter or round cookie cutter and press out as many biscuits as you can and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Gather remaining dough and press together, do not knead it, just smoosh it all together with your hands.  Repeat until you've used up as much of the dough as you can, you don't want to waste any!

7. Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown.  And brush the tops with melted butter...you know you want to.

Cream Braised Brussels Sprouts

Brussels sprouts are one of those vegetables that everyone loves to hate.  My parents never really made them when I was a kid, so I just never really even tried them until recently.  I always thought they were like little cabbages, and I don't really care for cabbage.  But I've been on a bit of a Brussels sprout kick lately.  I love them now.  I probably wouldn't love them if they were just a boiled mushy pile with a pat of butter on top, but braised Brussels sprouts are delicious.  Try them...you'll want to eat a whole bowl.

This recipe is from Orangette.  I'm always amazed at how simple and delicious her recipes are.  Who knew Brussels sprouts with a little cream, butter, and salt would end up being something that I would gladly push steak aside for to eat more of.  The butter and cream obviously make these not the healthiest dish ever, but I made these tonight with light cream and while not quite the same, they were still delicious.  I'll go for the light cream again to cut the guilt a bit since I'm sure these will be added into our regular side dish rotation from now on.

Also, totally dumb side note...I just realized that these are called Brussels sprouts, not Brussel sprouts as I had been typing.  I wondered why my spellcheck kept telling me it was wrong.  Durr.

Cream Braised Brussels Sprouts
From Orangette

1 1/4 lbs. of Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed, and cut into quarters
2 tbsp. butter
1/4 tsp kosher or sea salt
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp lemon juice (I omitted this since the husband isn't a huge citrus fan)

1.  Melt butter in non-stick pan over medium heat.  Add quartered Brussels sprouts and cook, stirring/flipping occasionally until edges of sprouts are a bit charred.  This part is kind of fun, the Brussels sprouts pop like popcorn in the pan while cooking!

2. Turn the heat down to low, add cream to pan, stir, and cover.  Simmer about 10-15 minutes or until the Brussels sprouts cooked through but still a bit firm.  I prefer mine not to be too soft, if you like them that way, cook them longer.

3. Uncover and add lemon juice.  Stir and simmer a minute longer until the sauce has thickened.


Also, I totally forgot to take a picture of the final product because we were very excited for dinner, so instead I leave a photo of the super cute container the sprouts came in.

Hello, Mr. Sprout!

General Tso's Chicken

I know that the General Tso's chicken you get from American takeout places probably isn't a very authentic Chinese dish, but it's one of my favorites.  I thought I'd give making it at home a shot.  This recipe was good, but not quite on the nose with the flavor of the takeout version.  The sauce had a very strong ginger flavor and there was something else missing that I can't quite place yet.  The recipe below includes changes that I made to the recipe as well as some additional changes I would make the next time I try this.


General Tso's Chicken
Adapted from Slashfood

1 lb. boneless chicken thighs or breasts, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces
1/3 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten


1. Heat peanut or vegetable oil in pan or fryer to 375 degrees.
2. Whisk together eggs and cornstarch. 
3. Coat pieces of chicken in egg/cornstarch mixture and drop into hot oil.
4. Fry until golden brown, about 7-10 minutes.  Make sure the pieces are pretty brown, you want the coating to be a little crunchy.  
5. Remove chicken pieces from pan/fryer and put on paper towel lined plate, set aside.


For the sauce:
4 tsp cornstarch
4 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
5 tbsp sugar 
3 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp crushed red chili pepper, or more to taste

1. Combine ingredients in small sauce pan. 
2. Whisk the sauce over medium heat until it starts to simmer on the edges and thickens.  Remove from heat.
3. Add chicken, coat with sauce.  Put chicken on a tray in the oven at 450 degrees for about 5 minutes to carmelize the sauce a bit and make the chicken crispy again.

4. Serve over rice and add any steamed vegetables you want.  Typically it's served with broccoli but I went with green beans.

Hot Fudge Sauce

For Christmas the last few years I've been making food gift baskets for some extended family rather than buying gifts. I haven't actually done the math to see if this is cost effective or not but I like doing it. This year's baskets included a jar of hot fudge or butterscotch sauce.

Unfortunately I don't remember where I got this recipe from. But I've seen some other hot fudge recipes that say you need to cook the sauce for up to an hour to get it the right consistency. Not true! This sauce comes together in about 5-10 minutes once on the stove. Super easy and sooo good.

Another good thing about this recipe is that it can be adjusted depending on how "healthy" you want it to be. You can use skim milk and eliminate the unsweetened chocolate or you can use a dark higher fat cocoa and whole milk for a really dark rich sauce.

Hot Fudge Sauce

Ingredients:

3/4 cup cocoa

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

3 oz. unsweetened chocolate

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Combine cocoa, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a double boiler over low heat and whisk to combine

2. Add milk, butter, and chocolate.

3. Stir constantly until butter and chocolate have melted and the sugar has dissolved. Do not let the mixture boil.

4. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla.

5. Serve immediately or refrigerate and reheat as needed. The sauce will thicken when cool.

French Breakfast Puffs

These muffins might not sound like anything that great on paper...or rather on screen. Cinnamon and sugar coated muffins...seen it, right? Kind of like a coffee cake muffin? Wrong. These are uh-mazing! An unassuming cake-like muffin with a hint of nutmeg transforms into a sweet, sugary crusted but delicate treat after being dipped in melted butter and rolled in cinnamon and sugar.

These also hold up well for a few days. The sugary crust stays crusty and the inside of the muffin stays moist and soft if you keep these in a sealed container. They're best warm though. I dare you to eat just one.

The original recipe from the Pioneer Woman says this recipe makes 12 muffins, but I got 18 or 19 out of it.

French Breakfast Puffs

From The Pioneer Woman

Makes 12-18 muffins

Ingredients:

3 cups Flour

3 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Salt

½ teaspoons Ground Nutmeg

1 cup Sugar

⅔ cups Shortening

2 whole Eggs

1 cup Milk

1 ½ cup Sugar

3 teaspoons Cinnamon

2 sticks Butter

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Lightly grease 2, 12 cup muffin tins.

3. Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in a bowl and set aside.

4. In a different bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and shortening. Then add eggs and mix again.

5. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.

6. Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

7. While muffins are baking, melt 2 sticks of butter in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon.

8. Dip baked muffins in butter, coating thoroughly, then coat with cinnamon-sugar mixture.