Cherry Chocolate Cheesecake

Things were very hectic today. You know one of those days were one thing starts everything else rolling and spiraling almost out of control . And I say almost because you are always right on the edge,thinking you may fall off or maybe even leap off just to get away from the craziness. But then you look up and the day is over and you are looking into the eyes of someone who loves you, who can make the world calm again for you and make you realize what life is really all about. And a day of craziness turns into a sweet little night,watching my favorite,Anthony Bourdain, in Provence. Not just Provence,but Saint Remy-my perfect place. It's the place I go to when I need to center myself and calm myself. Just closing my eyes I can see the blue skies and the bright sun and smell the olives and lavender. Then in my mind I see the produce,the beautiful melons, the juiciest reddest tomatoes I have ever seen with a taste that I will never forget. The saltiness of the olives, the smell of the fresh herbs, the creamy tartness of the cheese..yes it's my part of the world I hold in heart always....

And now it's time for dessert....if only I had a bagful of cerise de Provence...cherries...I have always loved cherries. Growing up we had one of the most beautiful cherry trees in our backyard. Every spring it was so full of blossoms and bees-incredible. And we would watch the little green cherries grow and turn red and darken to a deep dark red. Then we would try and pick the most perfectly formed ones before the robins devoured them. That sweet taste,the dark stain on our fingers,the red cherry juice on our lips,those were wonderful times picking those cherries. In honor of that wonderful cherry tree I give you today's dessert for my Chocoholic Friday. Triple C- Cherries,Chocolate and Cheesecake-a perfect food for the end of the day. Something that reminds me of the beauty of Provence and the sweetness of youth.

Cherry Chocolate Cheesecake

Adapted from Deep Dark Chocolate Cheesecake
Bon Appétit October 2006
by Jeanne Thiel Kelley

Yield: Makes 24 small cupcake size servings
Crust24 chocolate wafer cookies (from one 9-ounce package)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1/2 cup blanched almonds finely chopped

Filling
1 9.7-ounce bar Scharffen Berger 70% Cocoa Bittersweet Chocolate,* chopped
4 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Scharffen Berger)
4 large eggs

Topping
3/4 cup whipping cream
6 ounces Scharffen Berger 70% Cocoa Bittersweet Chocolate,* chopped
1 tablespoon sugar
1 13oz jar of Chukar Cherries Raspberry Cherry Preserve & Topping

For crust:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin pan with 12 cupcake lines. Blend cookies and almonds in processor until finely ground; blend in sugar. Add melted butter and process until well blended. Press crumbs evenly onto bottom (not sides) of cupcake lines. Bake just until set, about 5 minutes. Cool while preparing filling. Maintain oven temperature.

For filling:
Stir chopped chocolate in metal bowl set over saucepan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove bowl from over water; cool chocolate until lukewarm but still pourable. Blend cream cheese, sugar, and cocoa powder in processor until smooth. Blend in eggs 1 at a time. Mix in lukewarm chocolate. This filling is very thick, I used an ice cream scoop and placed a scoop of filling into each cupcake liner. I used the scoop to flatten out the filling,it came to just about 1/4 inch of the top of the liner. Bake until center is just set and just appears dry, about 15-18minutes. Cool 15-30 minutes. Then chill overnight.
For topping:
Stir cream, 6 ounces chocolate, and sugar in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until smooth. Cool slightly. Take a teaspoon of the Chukar Cherries preserve and place on top of the cheesecake in the center. Pour the chocolate ganache carefully around the preserves so that you don't cover the cherries. Chill until topping is set, about 1 hour. Do ahead: Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover with foil and keep refrigerated.

Cheesecake and Chocoholic Friday

It has been a busy week, as am I sure is true for you too ! Work has picked up and I took on a new assignment-writing once a month for our blog at work . I'm very excited about that and trying to map out my strategy ! I'm a week away from first deadline and first blog so if I seem a little scattered it's because I am !
On top of that I had to do what we call "site visits", that is visit the hotels we sell as part of our tour packages so I know what I'm talking about when I make recommendations to our customers ! It couldn't have been a more beautiful day to visit Victoria, BC. The skies were blue, the waters calm and our boat, Clipper IV fast and comfortable.

In between site visits I discovered a wonderful little Scottish Pub that opened in Victoria just a little under 2years ago-The Bard and Banker. If you are in Victoria stop by and order the Pork Sliders for lunch. You will not be disappointed ! 3 little sliders of delectable pork served three ways, a spicy pork sausage with a sweet smokey sauce, a pulled pork with zesty barbecue sauce and coleslaw dressing and last but not least a crisp bacon,lettuce and tomato slider. Mmm Mmmm good. Definitely on my list to return to and should be on yours too.

From Vicpubco

But I digress, again and again. Back to Chocoholic Fridays-today I'm dedicating my White Chocolate,cinnamon blueberry , mouth puckering lemon cheesecake to Chocoholic Fridays ! I started working on this recipe on Tuesday and after 2 other combinations this is the recipe I came up with. Warning- this is not your one little bite won't hurt me cheesecake. This is give me the cheesecake or I will huff and puff and blow your house down cheesecake ! So don't say I didn't warn you.

White Chocolate,Cinnamon Blueberry, Mouth Puckering Lemon Cheesecake

Crust
1 cup finely crushed lemon shortbread cookies or make your own lemon shortbread !
1 cup finely crushed lemon snicker doodles -ditto
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon zest

Filling
1 1/2 lbs creme cheese,room temperature softened
2 cups coarsely chopped white chocolate
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup of sour cream (or whipping cream)
4 large eggs-room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup coarsely chopped lemon shortbread and lemon snicker doodle cookies
11/2 cups of whole blueberries
1/2 cup Hershey cinnamon chips.
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon mixed with 1/4 cup sugar
Zest of one lemon

Finishing touch
Confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 325F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
For the crust:
Toss the crushed cookie crumbs,butter and sugar together in the bottom of an 9" spring form pan. Press the crust into bottom of pan ,clean the sides of any stray crumbs and spray the sides lightly with a nonstick cooking spray. Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of lemon zest over the crust.

For filling:
In a mixer bowl, blend cream cheese,sugar,and sour cream until smooth, scraping bottom and sides of bowl to incorporate everything, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in eggs,vanilla,lemon and flour and blend well for 2-3 minutes on low speed. You don't want to beat and incorporate air into your batter.

Assembly:
Place the spring form pan on the parchment lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle 1 cup of fresh blueberries over the crust . Spoon one third of the cheesecake filling into prepared pan and top with half each of chopped cookies,cinnamon chips and the zest of one lemon and 1 cup of the coarsely chopped white chocolate. Dust on some cinnamon sugar. Cover with the 1/2 cup blueberries and another third of the cream cheese filling and then layer on more cookies,more cinnamon chips, and more cinnamon sugar. Add the last bit of filling and finish the top of the cake with cookie crumbs,coarsely chopped cookies in small pieces, cinnamon chips,the remaining white chocolate and a good dusting of cinnamon sugar. You want to end up with what looks like a streusel type topping.
Bake 55-65 minutes. Turn off the oven, open the oven door about 6 inches and let the cheesecake cool down inside the oven for 1 hour. Don't be alarmed if the center appears jiggly prior to chilling it-it should and it will firm up. Once cooled move it to the refrigerator and chill for at least 6 hours-12 hours is best. Carefully loosen the spring form pan from the cheesecake-you may need to slide a flexible metal spatula which has been dipped in hot water around the inside ring of the cheesecake to loosen it.

Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.

A Roomful of Memories at Easter

FROM MY GRANDMOTHER'S POST CARD COLLECTION DATED 1919

When I woke this morning , after making my coffee, I turned on the oven for some baking I planned on doing. As I turned the knobs and listened for the gas burners to begin I realized that this simple act brought so much comfort. It's an act that I have repeated thousands of times in the past but never really paid attention to it. Maybe because it's the beginning of the Easter Week end and all those childhood memories are coming back. I was raised as a very strict Catholic so the days preceding Easter Sunday were always somber and quiet days. I remember wanting to practice the piano one Good Friday and was stopped by my father in the middle of playing. I won't subject you to the lecture I received about the solemness of the day and how I should be thinking of sacrifice and the meaning of Easter. You've been there too ? My father was a quiet man , he had a gentleness within him, but was just stern enough to stop my fingers from any further frivolity on the piano keys that day. That memory stays with me today, even though I have drifted far from the church and have found my own spirituality.

FROM MY GRANDMOTHER'S POST CARD COLLECTION DATED 1919

But that little motion of turning the oven knob seemed to turn the door knob, opening a room full of memories revolving around this holiday. Dyeing Easter eggs and wanting pretty pastel colors and not the bright colors the dye produced; opening the refrigerator and smelling my mother's potato salad and quietly lifting the lid of the Tupperware cover and sneaking spoonfuls when I thought no one was looking. Watching my mother bake our Easter Paska, a Slovenian sweet and cheese filled bread that was only made at Easter. I can still hear her admonishing me to stop peeking under the towel at the dough - I didn't understand the rising process and was so curious to watch that clump of dough grow into something so puffy and smelling of sweet yeast and cheese. And then Sunday morning , just before church she would make  City chicken that she had  prepped the night before. No one made City Chicken like my mother's !

That was the final step before we all put on our new Easter clothes and piled into the car for the drive to church. Sitting on the hard wooden pews and kneeling on those wooden kneelers, all I could think of was the wonderful food waiting at home for us. I'm surprised I wasn't struck by lightening for those thoughts of food instead of concentrating on the church service !

And then arriving home Easter baskets filled with chocolate bunnies,yellow and pink marshmallow peeps, and foiled wrapped chocolate eggs and what seemed like hundreds of jelly beans hiding in the green shiny straw lining the basket. All this incredible wonderfulness was wrapped in pink or clear cellophane and tied with a huge bow. The cellophane was meant to keep us from sampling chocolate before dinner but we were very clever children and always found ways to sneak our little hands in through a little break in the cellophane, pull out a bunny and take a bite from the bottom of the bunny,placing it back in the basket so no one would notice !

My sister, brother and I won't be sneaking into any Easter baskets on Sunday. We will have our traditional ham and my sister will make potato salad that tastes just like the salad we grew up with. Me, I'm going to surprise them with City Chicken and a new treat-"Cinn-a-Bun Cheesecake" .

Holidays are such wonderful times to wrap yourself in childhood memories. They feel like your favorite soft and worn blanket wrapped around you while you sit with your morning coffee waiting for the oven to heat up.

Mom, it's been such a long time since we were in the kitchen together, I know you are with me, watching me do all those things I watched you do when I was  growing up...Happy Easter and love and warm Easter wishes to all of you and your loved ones.

You can find the recipe for City Chicken here. And while there are hundreds of different versions of Easter Paska I found this recipe at Chow, published by Maggie at Doghill Kitchen, it was her great-great grandmother's recipe and is closest to what I remember about my mother's recipe. And the Cinn-a-Bunn Cheesecake was adapted from "a passion for Baking" by Marcy Goldman. If this book isn't in your kitchen library, it should be. You can buy it here.

 "Bake to celebrate-Bake to nourish-Bake for fun"
My kind of mantra !

Cinn-a-Bunn Cheesecake

adapted from Marcy Goldman's "a passion for Baking"

Crust
1 1/2 cups finely crushed cinnamon raisin cookies or other spice cookies
(I used Alki Bakery Snickerdoodles and Alki Bakery Ginger Molasses cookies at a ratio of 2 Snickerdoodles for each Ginger Molasses)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Filling
1 1/2 lbs creme cheese,room temperature softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup of sour cream (or whipping cream)
4 large eggs-room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup coarsely chopped cinnamon raisin cookie or other spiced cookies
1 cup raisins (plumped for a few minutes in hot water, then drained and dried off)
1/3 cup Hershey cinnamon chips-this is optional if you can find them they are delicious
1/4 cup butterscotch sundae topping-I used Dulce de leche and melted it in the microwave so it was pourable.
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon mixed with 1/4 cup sugar ( I used my vanilla bean sugar-it's the cannister I place all my used vanilla beans into )

Finishing touch
Confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 325F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

For the crust:
Toss the crushed cookie crumbs,butter and brown sugar together in the bottom of an 8" springform pan.  Press the crust into bottom of pan ,clean the sides of any stray crumbs and spray the sides lightly with a nonstick cooking spray.

For filling:
In a mixer bowl, blend cream cheese,sugar,and sour cream until smooth, scraping bottom and sides of bowl to incorporate everything, about 3-4 minutes.  Stir in eggs,vanilla and flour and blend well for 2-3 minutes on low speed.  You don't want to beat and incorporate air into your batter.

Assembly:
Place the springform pan on the parchment lined cookie sheet. Spoon one third of the cheesecake filling into prepared pan and top with half each of chopped cookies,raisins, and cinnamon chips.  Drizzle on the butterscotch or dulce de leche topping.  Dust on some cinnamon sugar.  Cover with another third of the cream cheese filling and then layer on more cookies,remaining raisins,more cinnamon chips, and more cinnamon sugar.  Add the last bit of filling and finish the top of the cake with cookie crumbs,coarsely chopped cookies in small pieces, cinnamon chips, and a good dusting of cinnamon sugar.  Don't put raisins on top or they will scorch.  You want to end up with what looks like a streusel type topping. This will be full to the rim, almost overflowing-deep breathe-it's ok, it will bake beautifully.

Bake 45-55 minutes.  Turn off the oven, open the oven door about 6 inches and let the cheesecake cool down inside the oven for 1 hour. Don't be alarmed if the center appears jiggly prior to chilling it-it should and it will firm up.  Once cooled move it to the refrigerator and chill for at least 6 hours-12 hours is best. Carefully loosen the springform pan from the cheesecake-you may need to slide a flexible metal spatula which has been dipped in hot water around the inside ring of the cheesecake to loosen it. I didn't find that necessary but I was very gentle and very slow in opening the ring and working it away from the cheesecake.

Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.

Sit back and enjoy the rave reviews !