Easter Dessert: A Tale of Two Cheesecakes

The occasion: Easter.  My mission: dessert.  The obvious choice? Cheesecake!  I have never made anything more complicated than Jello brand No-Bake-Cheesecake before, so it was quite an endeavor I was embarking on to actually make not one, but TWO completely from scratch.

I choose to make one chocolate cheesecake and one regular cheesecake for versatility.  For the chocolate cheesecake (recipe found here) I decided to top it with caramel pecan topping and for the plain cheesecake (recipe found here) I choose blueberry topping.  Did I also mention I was making the toppings from scratch too?  I definitely had my work cut out for me!

As they say, hindsight is 20-20 and my number one tip before starting the undertaking of baking cheese cake is read the recipe in its entirety.  Not just scan the ingredients as I did.  Let’s just say that the plain cheesecake from the Barefoot Contesssa baked at a high temperature for 15 minutes, then you turned down the heat and baked for an additional 75 minutes, and THEN you turned the oven off, opened the door, and let it sit for another half hour.  And, don’t you dare put it in the refrigerator after you take it out of the oven, it needs to sit at room temperature for another 2-3 hours.  The chocolate cheesecake from all recipes was a lot easier – just baking at one temperature for 65 minutes.       

 

Both of my tops on my cheesecakes cracked, but I wasn’t too worried because all of the topping goodness would cover up my mistakes.  After some research regarding where I went terribly wrong in my cheesecake process to cause cracking, I found that cracking is pretty common.  It can be caused by the cheesecake becoming too hot, by shrinkage when cooling, or over baking.  I guess I won’t beat myself up too bad over this.

Also, these recipes call for a springform pan, which I do not have. So I just used a pie plate.  That worked fine for me, expect I had a lot of batter left over!  You could always make “mini cheesecakes” from the leftover batter in cupcake tins, or you could just use a springform pan like a normal person! 

In another kitchen across the state I prepared my toppings - which turned out to be pretty easy.  These are versatile toppings you can use for your favorite cheesecake recipe! (or try one from above!)

Caramel Pecan Topping Recipe:

1 5 oz can evaporated milk
1 package of caramels (14 oz)
1 cup chopped pecans

For the caramel pecan topping I just threw everything into a nonstick pot and cooked it over low heat until all the caramels melted and incorporated with the evaporated milk.  I used a nonstick pan because anything sticky, ie caramel, will slide conveniently down the sides and onto your dessert rather than cling to the sides of your pot for dear life.

It took around 10 minutes to fully melt and incorporate.  I had plenty for the cheesecake with some leftover.  This would be great to leave out for people who want more of the good stuff, or to use later for another dessert or over your ice cream. 

Blueberry Topping Recipe:

3 cups fresh blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon cornstarch

 

For the blueberry topping, from Martha Stewart, I again dumped everything into a nonstick pan.  I simmered for several minutes per the instructions. 

The sauce looked kind of thin, so at this point I added more cornstarch.  Bad idea! The cornstarch formed little hard lumps (I am assuming from being sealed by the heat of the blueberry mixture) which I then proceeded to pick out of the topping by hand.  Not fun. 

So, I’ll sum up for you the lessons I learned on this baking endeavor:

1. Read all the instructions fully before deciding to make a dessert – this saves you from a cheesecake with a 2 hour-multi-step bake time.
2. The cheesecake with less baking time turned out just as good as the cheesecake with complex and long baking time.
3. Don’t just go tossing cornstarch wherever you want to whenever you want to.  This could result in weird white lumps in your dessert!
4. Don’t beat yourself up if your tops crack – it happens – just cover it with topping goodness and nobody will notice.

Valentines Day: Dessert

So even a week after the fact, I STILL want to share our Valentines Day dessert: chocolate covered strawberries!  It was a bit cliché, BUT they were sooo good!  This was my first attempt at chocolate covered strawberries and I was so excited to start.  They are very simple to make but come out looking elegant!  I choose to go with milk chocolate for dipping and red and pink chocolate for drizzling.  I wanted to keep the colors classic because it was Valentines Day after all.  To switch it up you could use white chocolate to dip, drizzle with any color you can imagine, or sprinkle toppings like crushed Oreos, coconut, or crushed hard caramel on top. 

Ingredients:

2 large bags of chocolate chips

Fresh strawberries - my carton came with 20 strawberries

Toppings of your choice – I chose red and pink drizzle

Directions:

Get a baking sheet out and line it with parchment paper.  Clear an area in your refrigerator or freezer for your strawberries to cool and harden.  Make sure to wash and dry your strawberries so all the excess moisture is off before you begin to dip.     

When your preperation work is done, use a double boiler to melt your chocolate.  I use an oven safe glass bowl over a boiling pot of water to create my double boiler. 

If you are using this method there are three important things to note: be absolutely sure your glass bowl is oven safe otherwise you will have a disaster on your hands and the heat could possible cause your bowl to crack or shatter; make sure that the boiling water is not touching the bottom of the bowl, this could also cause a disaster; and lastly make sure there is still water boiling in your pan and it hasn’t all evaporated.  The great thing about a double boiler is that it is the steam that is actually melting your chocolate so there is no chance of the chocolate becoming burned like it would be in the microwave or in a pan over direct heat. 

Put half your chocolate in your double boiler and melt.  I only put in half at a time because sometimes part the item you are dipping, in this case strawberries, will fall off into the batter and your hardened chocolate will have little bumps of the dipping pieces instead of being smooth. If you chocolate is thick you can add some Crisco or shortening to your chocolate to make it smoother as well.

When you are dipping the strawberries swirl them around in the chocolate to make sure they are all coated and after you have taken them out of the chocolate give them a shake to make sure the excess chocolate will come off the strawberry and will not pool on your parchment paper. 

You will notice that you still may have a little drizzle on the tip of your strawberry after shaking the excess chocolate off.  You can always turn it upside-down to seal the chocolate neatly. 

Then lay the strawberry on the parchment paper and repeat until all your strawberries are completed. If you wanted to sprinkle toppings on instead of drizzling them with chocolate sprinkle the toppings on now while the chocolate is still soft.

Then put your strawberries into the refrigerator or freezer to harden while you melt your drizzling chocolates in another double boiler.  If you choose to use the sprinkle topping method than your chocolates would be done once they were hardened.  I used red “Candy Dips” from Michaels to do my first drizzle of red.  After awhile of experimenting with drizzles on desserts I found that my old method of using white chocolate and food coloring to tint the chocolate just did not work and ruined the chocolate.  It became hard and crumbly, which was a far cry from the smooth and drizzly chocolate I was looking for.  I then discovered that there was a certain kind of colored chocolate that was meant for melting at Michaels, and I am sure you can find it other places.  The one I like to use are called “Candy Dips”, but it’s not just for candy you can use it on other kinds of desserts or chocolates.

After melting the Candy Dips, depending on the consistency of the chocolate, use a spoon or a fork to drizzle the chocolate over the strawberries.  If the chocolate is too thick you can always add shortening to make it smoother.  I use a fork when my chocolate is a little thicker, but for a thinner chocolate it falls through the fork right away so a spoon is best.  After you are done drizzling your first color, put the strawberries back in the refrigerator so the drizzle hardens.  If you skip this step and go onto the next drizzle right away you run the risk of having both of your drizzles run together instead of the perfect thin drizzle lines you initially created.

When your drizzle coat has hardened repeat the steps for your second drizzle.  For the pink color I just added some white chocolate to the red Candy Dips to create a pink.  The great thing about this is that Christmas has just passed and you might, as I did, have some leftover red drizzling chocolate from Christmas projects.  This is a great way to use that extra chocolate up!

After everything is hardened the next step is presentation!  No matter what you make if it isn’t presented well it will not have as awesome of an effect as you would if you paid attention to the look of your dish.  By this I don’t mean that you have to go all out with it, but make it at least a step up from serving it on the parchment paper pan.  I choose to put mine on a white square platter to make the strawberries pop.  Depending on what color you choose a different colored platter, serving tray, or two tiered dessert tray may be an option for you.  As always I am a fan of “work with what you have” so even a large plate will do for these.  If you wanted to get really into it, you could apply the second drizzle when the strawberries are already on your platter so you will get the drizzle on the platter for a fancier look.

The last thing to do is enjoy!  This is a great recipe for a romantic night at home, like we had, a cocktail party, movie night, or game night.  They are very easy to make, you can have them prepared in advance, and they are not messy to eat, so these strawberries make a great hors d'oeuvre for any gathering!