Easter Cheesecake Time!

After recently running into an issue involving a cheesecake at school, I wanted to give it another good shot.  What better time than a family gathering on Easter? So I took this recipe and gave it a go. :) I also made a little mixed berry reduction to go with it.

I made two cheesecakes, and the only issue I had was with the first one. I was afraid of further cracking along the surface during cooling, so I read that if you look  a butter knife and freed the edge from the spring form, the cake could cool and contract on its own, rather than cracking. That was certainly true, but it caused the cake to  sort of have this odd tilt near the top of the edge. (Sorry, I didnt get a picture of this.)

Otherwise, I think it was a solid iteration. Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter :)
Below are several pictures of the cheesecake journey.

The first cake (Before it pulled away from the sides a bit too much)

Topped with the sweetened sour cream mixture

A little sauce going.(Mixed berries, a little vanilla and lemon zest...strained it and finished it with a little heavy cream)

Texture was very nice :)

Cousin Katie approves! :D

Guinness Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

For St. Patrick's Day, I thought I would bake something close to my heritage. I chose a recipe featured in a recent edition of People Magazine.  It is a chocolate guinness cake from Brian Leth, at Vinegar Hill House in Brooklyn.  He says "It's moist, dense but not too sweet."

I used a springform pan for the first time in a LONG time, so that was nice.  The batter starts out by melting 10 T of butter in a bottle of Guinness:


Cake ready to be baked:

Finished cake (pre-iced):

     I realized it didn't rise evenly along the sides, creating a dome effect I would have rather not have had.  I think the answer would be to next time not butter the edges of the springform and trust that the butter-rich batter wouldn't stick.  I think the lack of friction long the sides is why the edges didnt rise "or climb" up the sides of the pan.  All in all, it wasn't too bad looking, just a bit thin on the edges.

Iced cake with cream cheese frosting:

I know it looks like a ton of icing.  It is.  My mother was over my shoulder and insisted I use all of it. It took everything I could to stop her from making me put green sprinkles on it.  lol

Brian Leth is right, it is a super dense and moist cake, and not too sweet....the cream cheese icing I made a little sweeter than I usually do, to help it out some.  Not too bad of an attempt, next time, less or no butter on the edges of the spring form, and less icing on the cake (lol)

Well received by guest taster, John

Apologies for not having a direct link to the recipe, like I usually do; was unable to find one.

Hope to update more regularly folks,!  Culinary school has really been intense lately :)

-The Closet Baker

Soft Pretzels! Super Bowl Mania! (attempt #1)

Well I decided to try my hand at soft pretzels to have a nice snack for my friends to eat when they come over to watch the super bowl tomorrow. (Alton Brows recipe) Now, I've never even HAD a soft pretzel before, let alone made them, so this was gonna be a crap shoot.  The process was easier than it seemed, and I'm happy with the results, but with a little tweaking I can make them a lot prettier for tomorrow.

I did things a little out of sequence (oops) and I rolled them out BEFORE I set the water to boil. doh! This waiting allowed them to puff up a little too much again before I dropped them in. Tomorrow, when I roll them out, I will do so a bit thinner, and have the water/baking soda mixture ready to go.

The flavor is very good, and I am overall happy with try #1 and look forward to another go at it tomorrow! Going to be a great day...good friends, good football and...good food!

Stay tuned! :)

Blueberry Zucchini Bread and Challah attempt #1

Sorry for the late post, but the other day I was able to have another guest baker with me, fellow culinary student, John Constantino. (you can find his blog here..its pretty awesome) I intended to do a quick bread as well as a enriched yeast bread (Challah) The former came out well, however the Challah didnt have the texture I was looking for in an eggy dough of that nature. First the good news:

This bread was a simple recipe and it turned out extremely moist and delicious. It is a tad bit dense, but all in all, not a bad loaf. Would be excellent for a quick breakfast or a mid morning snack :)

The challah loaf was a bit tricky. The dough didn't seem to rise properly for some reason, and the result was a more dense bread than I was looking for. The second and most obvious problem with this loaf is the lack of the very deep, very dark uniform brown sheen on the loaf. I did a heavy egg wash, however in retrospect, perhaps an egg yolk only wash would do better?  Also john and I attempted to do a "turban loaf" braiding technique, but we gave up and ended up sorta doing a "ghetto turban loaf" :) It did taste pretty good though...  Anyhow I will be doing this one again later in the week for sure. Expect prettier results!

Still had a great time baking with a good friend. Guest bakers are always welcome! Let's take this baking journey together, guys! =)

Final products of the evening:

 

Stay tuned later in the week for  more challah! :D

Traditional French Bread: Round 1

Tonight I'm attending a sit down dinner party with some friends that are making goulash (Dr. King's favorite, supposedly) and I decided to attempt to bake a nice crusty french bread to accompany the meal, Im making two small loaves using this simple recipe 

The first loaf is cooling now, I think while not perfect, it doesn't look too bad !

I used a spray bottle to mist the oven periodically to create steam, and I think that helped the crustiness factor a great deal.  It sounds hollow and is crusty on the outside.  I wish it was a bit more brown..I noticed it wasn't browning well, so I added a real light egg wash on top for the last 3 mins of baking. (28 mins total time, by the way)  The next loaf is shaped and proofing now, I think ill add the egg wash earlier on to get a better color.  Stay tuned! :)

Sweet Potato Bread with Maple Glaze...round two.

Today marked the revisit of last nights disaster with this recipe.  I was fortunate to have a "guest baker" with me in the kitchen today, fellow culinary classmate, Michelle Faye!  We had a great time and I was glad she could help out!

Today went MUCH better, and we were both very pleased with the outcome.  The differences between yesterday and today were: I used cooking spray instead of buttering the pan; I let it cook ~15 mins longer (1hr 10 mins total) and I added about 75% more cinnamon for a little more flavor. Also, I let it TOTALLY cool before flipping it out of the pan (thanks, chef bland :Þ)  Michelle made the glaze and it was delicious!

 Last recipe for this week will be the revisit of this weeks first foray into regular potato breads using this recipe.

Successful day, guys! Thanks for the advice and support! =)

Sweet Potato Bread with Maple Glaze:  Attempt #2

Well this just happened! hehe

Just got my loaf of sweet potato bread out of the oven..it felt stable after baking for 60 mins, passed numerous toothpick tests, I even let it carry over bake awhile...then this happened when I went to gently roll it out of the pan:

Turns out it could have used a few more minutes, ya think? :P I see a darker spot that wasnt cooked fully near the middle that missed my toothpicking. Oh, well! You win some, you lose some.  We shall meet again, sweet potato bread!  

I did however taste the parts of it that were done fully.  It honestly tasted a bit bland, so i intend to add some additional brown sugar and perhaps some ginger when I give this another crack, later this week. :)  Tomorrow or the next day I will retry this weeks first potato bread recipe...

Week 2: Sweet Potato Bread

Tonight im trying a quick sweet potato bread that should eat more like a dessert bread.  It is glazed with maple icing, and has cinnamon and sugar in it also.  (You can look at the recipe im using here.) Ill have pics up later on this evening in this post!

Week 2: Potato Breads

Week 2 starts off with a pretty standard potato bread recipe for me.(you can look at it here I wanted to get it going early this week because i want to try a couple variations on it, including a tasty idea for a sweet potato bread with ginger (thanks for the idea, muroki!)  I have the dough proofing now, will update with results!

UPDATE:  Attempt one was hit and miss. First off, this loaf wouldn't win beauty pageants but I saw a lot of promise in texture and rise. The misshapen aspect of it is my fault, it got late and I didn't take as much time forming the dough in the pan as I will next time. smelled great, but it cooked a bit unevenly on the inside, again probably due to not forming it correctly prior to the final rise. Can't wait to try this again, most likely tomorrow. Should be good, lots of good potential here!

Rosemary Focaccia: Round 2.

Liked this dough from the start A LOT more. Final product turned out in my opinion, a lot better also.  the photo below kinda makes the loaf look not as brown as it actually is..it really is a pretty color. Next time might try brushing it halfway with olive oil to get even more flavor/browning. Texture and taste are even better than than yesterdays attempt.

Week 1 of the project: in the books. Stay tuned next week for potato breads! exciting! (..to some??)

Attempt #2

Options for next week

From a suggestion; I'm now thinking I'll do some kind of potato bread or sweet potato bread next week. If anyone has any experience or tips, or a recipe they enjoy, please let me know :)

Week 1: Rosemary Focaccia

This morning I'm making the rosemary focaccia I mentioned in the introduction.  Im using this recipe..because the picture looked pretty :P  Anyhow, I hope to have at best excellent bread, and at the very least, a learning experience :)   Dough is proofing now, pictures to follow later today. :)

Update:

Good news and bad! Bad news is, i got distracted by helping my dad outside with something, so i left the bread in the oven about 2 mins too long, so it is a little past "golden brown" color i was looking for.  However, it tastes INCREDIBLE and i got the "crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside" texture i was looking for.  Since I am staying home this weekend after all, i will bake another batch tomorrow and post results!

Attempt #1


final conclusion for today's attempt:  a bit too brown (oops), but dang tasty.


UPDATE:

01/06/12

Have a new batch of the dough proofing now, seems like a much nicer and less dry batch. High hopes for this batch :) Pictures of final product to follow later this afternoon.

Introduction

Baking is something I've begrudgingly enjoyed (secretly), but lately decided that i need to become much better at it.  So over the next 52 weeks, i will be trying out various new baking projects, at least one a week, posting results, both successes and abject failures :P  First up is some version of rosemary focaccia...details and results to follow soon!