Cheese Cake

Cheese Cake used to intimidate me. I stayed away from making this,  thinking it is complicated.  But cheese cake is my husband's favorite.  And I thought to myself, how can I say something is complicated until I try it? So began my search for the perfect cheese cake recipe. And as they say, if you desire for something with all your heart, you get it.

This almond crust cheese cake is the ultimate.    I don't remember, from where I got this recipe. But what is  the big deal,  right? Result is all that matters. I am sure you will love it and will thank me later for this recipe.  So Cheese Cake for desert today? What do you think?

Ingredients:

2/3 cup Graham Crackers                  
1/2 cup Toasted halved almonds       
3 tbsp Sugar + 3/4 cup extra for the filling                                     
1 tbsp Melted butter                          
8 oz Cream cheese                         
8 oz Mascarpone cheese                 
Lemon juice, 1/2 of a lemon
2 Eggs                                        
1 tsp Vanila Extract

(All the above ingredients should be at room temperature)

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 deg.F
Butter the baking pans and keep it ready.

In a blender add the graham crackers, 3 tbsp sugar and almonds and pulse.

Add the melted butter. Pulse again.
Transfer to a buttered baking pan. Press with your finger tips. This is the base of your cheese cake.

Cover bottom and sides of the pan with aluminium foil. Bake the crust at 350 deg. F until the top is brown,  not more than 10 min. Cool.

Now reduce the temperature to 325 deg.F. In the same blender add the cream cheese and mascarpone, lemon juice, vanilla and rest of the sugar. Blend.

Now add the eggs one at a time. Blend thoroughly after adding each egg.

Transfer this to the cooled crust.

Place the pan in a roasting pan and fill hot water into the roasting pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the baking pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool and refrigerate overnight.

To make it extra special, drizzle some chocolate sauce over and hmm..sit back, relax and enjoy every bit of heaven :)

Butter Cookies

Cookies are a must in my kitchen. If they are butter cookies, nothing like it. Not the store brought ones though. I don’t understand why people run to the store to buy stuff like this when they are so very easy to make.   The ingredients that we need are the basic stuff  we already have in our kitchen. And for those who says,  ‘where is the time?’ Let me tell you,  it takes less than half an hour and the end result…extremely gratifying.

I made two batches, in one batch I used orange zest and the other just plain and they both came out crunchy & delicious. One more thing you can do to make it extra special, is to dip them in melted cholocate. Hmmm..now who doesn’t like chocolate.. I will do that another day. For now, I am happy with my plain butter cookies.

Here is the recipe..

Ingredients:

Butter:   2 sticks (room temperature)
Sugar:  2/3 cup
Salt:  1/4 tsp
Pure Vanilla Extract:   1 tsp (I use Nielsen-Massey)
Cake Flour :  2  1/3 cup (or All Purpose Flour or else you can use 2 cup APF & 1/3 cup Corn Starch)
Ornage zest (optional) : ½ of an orange

How to:

In a food processor (or by hand..take a little longer), cream the butter. Now add the sugar, salt and vanilla. If you want to add orange zest or lemon zest, add this at this point. Blend.

Now add the flour slowly. Mix till a dough is formed. Take out the dough and cover it with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for atleast one hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg.F.

Take out the dough from refrigerator, roll it and cut it into desired shape with a cookie cutter. Arrange them on a baking sheet.

Bake for 12-14 min.  Take them out when the edges starts to brown.

When the cookies comes out of the oven, they are soft and looks as if it is not done. But don’t worry.  Allow them to cool on a rack and it will harden.

Note:  you can add some nuts like pistachios to make them extra special. If you are adding nuts add it after you add flour and with a spatula gently fold them into the dough.

Enjoy with a glass of cold milk, the way I do or if you are lactose intolerant, have it with your coffee/tea :)

Bagels for breakfast today!

You must be thinking.. what?  She doesn’t have anything better to do? But my friend, there is nothing like waking up to the aroma of fresh home baked bagels. If you have not experienced yet, I would suggest,  you go ahead and try it this weekend because I am going to give you a no-fail recipe for New York style bagel. Hmm..now we are talking!

I found this recipe from a wonderful website that I am totally in love with.  I tried few things from this website and the result…awesome!!  So let us began, shall we?

I made plain bagels, since this was my first time and  so I didn’t want to mess up.

Recipe courtesy:  www.sophisticatedgourmet.com

Ingredients:

3 ½ cups bread flour

2 tsp active dry yeast
1 ½ tbsp. sugar
1 ½ cups warm water
1 tsp salt

That’s all. How simple is that?

The process:

In a small bowl, pour the yeast, sugar and warm water (warm not hot. Hot water kills the yeast). Don’t stir. Let it sit for some time, say 5 min. or so. Then stir and check if the yeast is active. You will see a froth and a thin film on top which means yeast is working its magicJ

In another bowl, combine the salt and flour. Form a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture and half of the water. Slowly start mixing with your hands and add more water as and when required. What we are looking for is a firm and stiff dough. Don’t worry about the mess J

Now dump the dough onto  a floured surface and knead for 10 min. (this is a good workout for your arms. Don’t shy away from this Tiger J. Knead the dough with lots of love. It will return the favor later, believe me). Add more flour if needed.

Grease a bowl and transfer the dough into this bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and top it with a damp kitchen towel and keep it in a warm place. (for me, warm place is my oven. I preheat the oven to 170deg. F and switch it off.) When it has doubled in size, punch it down and let it sit for another 10 min.

Now, make 8 round balls out of this dough. Insert a finger into the center to form a hole.  (Make sure you stretch the hole, otherwise when the dough rises, the hole will disappear).  Let these balls rest for 10 min. cover them with a plastic wrap

Preheat the oven to 425 deg.F

Boil some water in a large pot. When it starts boiling, reduce the heat. Transfer these dough balls into the water making sure not to crowd the pot. When it is done, it floats to the surface. Let them sit in the water for 2 min. each side.  When done, take them out and repeat with the second batch, if any. Drain.

Final step, transfer them to a lightly  greased baking sheet and bake for 20 min.

Done!! Huh!!! Have it with cream cheese like I did..Hmm…pure bliss…this makes me forget all about what I did to get them in my hands.

Long process but every single step is worth it. I am not going back to the store brought bagels anymore. Thanks Kamran!

Sour Cream Streusel Coffee Cake

I have been wanting to make this for some time now after I saw Ina making this in one of her shows. I had all the ingredients except for sour cream. Now that the much needed ingredient has finally found its way to my refrigerator, I am absolutely ready and excited.  So buckle up, here we go. J Though the name is coffee cake, there is no coffee in it.

Recipe courtesy:  Ina Garten (Barefoot contessa), www.Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients:

For cake:

1 ½ sticks butter (room temperature)

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 ½ cup cake flour (I used 1 ¼ cup All Purpose Flour and ¼ cup Corn Starch)

2 tsp Baking Powder

½ tsp Baking Soda

½ tsp salt

3 eggs

1 ½ tsp. Vanilla Extract (good vanilla J)

1 ¼ cup sour cream

For Streusel:

¼ cup dark brown sugar

½ cup flour

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp salt

3tbsp. butter

½ cup sliced, toasted almonds

The process:

Preheat the oven to 350 deg.F Grease and flour 7 ½ inch. Bundt pan. (I used a small pan since I also wanted some muffins out of the same batter. You can use a 10" pan)

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Keep it aside.

In another bowl, take the ingredients for streusel, mentioned above and combine with your fingers. Keep aside.

In a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time while the mixer is still running making sure each egg is combined well before adding the next egg. Add vanilla and sourcream. Mix well. Now add the flour mixture slowly, mixing in between. Don’t overbeat the batter after flour is added.

Transfer some of the batter onto the bundt pan. Smooth it out and sprinkle the streusel on top and pour more batter, smooth it out and sprinkle more streusel on top.

Bake for 60 min.

I used the remaining batter for muffins.

Note:  

Let me  remind you that all the ingredients should be at room temperature, I mean the eggs, butter and sour cream.

I used sliced almonds instead of walnuts, next time I will use walnuts.

I skipped the glaze part, since the cake is already sweat.

I am so happy I made this.  It is fluffy, soft and airy and top part is crunchy because of  the streusel, a perfect partner for my cup of tea (No, I am not having it with coffee. I shifted my loyalty from coffee to tea long time back)

Now go ahead,  enjoy your slice with a cup of coffee (or tea J)

Apple Cinnamon 'Pielets'

Looks like the birds around here think I don’t have a clock. So they took it upon themselves to wake me, bringing all their friends along. So they give me a visit every day morning, singing and dancing, and I guess, today they were saying, ‘It is a wonderful spring day, so wake up, you sleepy head’ !!


I tried hard to ignore them covering my head with my comforter and then pillows, but then, I gave up. I put on my overcoat, still sleepy and opened the door to patio. The cool air hit me hard on face, awakening me and making me wide open my sleepy eyes. Hmm..how refreshing. Spend some time just listening and watching them, standing in my patio. My friends are right..it is indeed a beautiful day.. a perfect day for a long walk.

That is exactly what I did. I put on my walking shoes and a light jacket and went for a long walk, 1 hour each way. I should do it more often instead of hitting the gym in the morning. I focused on being present and mindful of what is happening around me and it is amazing what it does to you. It is a quiet, pleasant Sunday morning. Atmosphere is wet from yesterday’s rain. The floral aroma in the air, spring flowers all around in various colors, sprouting leaves, the colorful trees, those happy birds hopping from branch to branch ah..what an enriching experience. Spring in March feels wonderful. I wish I had my camera with me to capture this magnificent morning. But how do I capture this magic in the air. I can only feel it. I wish I could bottle it and save it for those ‘down in the dumps’ days. Let me put my allergy worries aside and take it all in.

An insatiable craving for an Apple Cinnamon Pie hit me later in the day. May be it is the ‘Fall like’ Spring day that did it. So here it is. Hmm..what do I call them..’Pielets’ I guess. My little apple cinnamon pies baked in a muffin tray. These bite size ‘pielets’ are awesome and with a generous scoop of vanilla icecream, just incredible. Here's how I made them.

Ingredients:


For Pie Crust:
All Purpose Flour: 1 1/2 cups
Salt 1/4 tsp
Butter: 1 Stick (chilled & cut into cubes)
Water:  1/3 cup chilled


For Egg wash:  1 egg beaten with a tsp of water.


For Filling:
Apples:  6 (peeled and sliced thin)
Lemon juice :  1 tbsp.
Cinnamon:  2-3 tsp
Nutmeg: pinch
Brown sugar:  1/2 cup
Flour: 2 tbsp.


Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425 deg. F.

In a blender, blend together the flour, salt and butter. Pulse few times. Add the water slowly with the machine running till the dough is formed. Transfer the dough to a floured surface. Roll and cut into circles with a cookie cutter. (2 circles per pie-bottom & top).  Chill for atleast 30 min. if the butter starts melting.

Grease a muffin tray really well. Arrange the circles onto the muffin tray (only the bottom part. while the crust is baking, keep the top part in the refrigerator) and press it lightly making sure not to tear the dough. Prick the botton with a fork so it doesn't puff up. Bake for 12-15 min. Your crust is ready.

Filling:

In a bowl, combine all the ingredients for the filling mentioned above.

Now spoon the filling into the baked crust. Take the top portion from the refrigerator and put it on the filled muffins. Press the edges gently with your finger or a fork so the juice doesn't ooze out when baking. Brush the top with egg wash. Bake at 400 deg.F for 20-22 min.

Enjoy with a generous scoop of vanilla icecream!!