Merry Christmas: Cherry Cheese Pie

Merry Christmas!

I am celebrating a WHITE Christmas with my family today. I think I've only experienced one other white Christmas before, that I can remember anyways.

Even though it was cold, my mom's dog even liked the snow. She kept eating it.

Now onto the food. I made a cherry cheese pie for Christmas. The inspiration for this was whatever I could find in my mom's fridge and pantry, heh.

Ingredients
Store bought pie crust (if y'all have been following my blog for a while, you have probably noticed that I'm not a big fan of making dough from scratch, much less dealing with it in general)
1 can of cherry pie filling
1 package (8 oz) of cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract
(I pretty much just cut the recipe for the base of my cheesecake fillings that I typically use for all cheesecake recipes into a third)

Directions 
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Roll the crust out into a 9 inch pie pan/dish. The reason this is the first step is that I like to let dough come to room temperature before baking it.
Prepare the cheese filling by creaming the sugar and vanilla extract into the cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Then beat the egg into the mixture until everything is combined and smooth.
Pour the cherry pie filling into the crust first, then layer the cream cheese filling on top. You can also combine the cherry and cream cheese fillings together for a different taste and effect.
Bake for about 15 minutes at 425 degrees F, then lower the temperature to 350-375 degrees F and bake until the center is almost set (approximately 20-30 minutes). To check if the center is set, I always jiggle the pie and see if the center still moves, like jello or not. Remember that typically baked desserts like pies and cheesecakes continue to bake when taken out of the oven, so it's good to take it out when the center is ALMOST set, but not completely.

Don't be afraid to experiment with recipes you already know by creating new recipes from what you have already available in your kitchen. Especially if you're snowed in or can't bare to be out in the cold to go to the grocery store. You never know when something will turn out horrible great!

New goal for the next year: start trying to make dough for these kind of recipes from scratch!

What?! Tiramisu Ice Cream!!

I was soooo excited when I saw this at the grocery store, Blue Bell Tiramisu ice cream!

I've never attempted to make tiramisu because it's always been really intimidating to me (maybe one day!), so this ice cream was perfect for me to feed my tiramisu cravings. It has a nice mix of coffee flavor with whipped topping and caramel sauce swirled through, and chunks of cake pieces and dark chocolate. The dark chocolate is my favorite addition to this ice cream.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Note: Products were purchased by me, with my own money. All opinions are my own. 

Pumpkin Cheesecake, Two Ways

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

For the past two years I have made pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving. My mom and I aren't huge fans of pumpkin pie. I know, we're odd for not liking pumpkin pie. I'll eat it, but it's not my first preference when it comes to pies. This year, my mom requested pumpkin cheesecake again.

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving 2011

Even though these two cheesecakes look fairly different, the recipes are almost the same with a few minor adjustments.

Ingredients (first cheesecake)
Crust
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 tablespoon sugar
5 tablespoons butter
Filling
3 (8 ounces) packages of cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
Mix together the graham cracker crumbs and sugar with the melted butter. Press it into a 8" springform pan. In this case, the recipe makes too much crust and I ended up having the crust up the sides of the springform pan as well.
Bake the crust for about 5 minutes.
For the filling, cream together the cream cheese, sugar, and the vanilla extract with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in one egg at a time until smooth.
Mix together the pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a separate bowl.
Add in about a 1/3 of the cream cheese mixture to the pumpkin mixture and thoroughly combine. Set aside about 2 tablespoons of this mixture for the top marbling design.
Pour the pumpkin mixture into the graham cracker crust, then the cream cheese mixture on top to for a two layered cheesecake.
Drop the 2 tablespoons of the pumpkin mixture across the top of the cheesecake.
To make the marbled pattern, use a knife or a toothpick and follow the directions of the arrows in the picture below.

Bake the cheesecake for about an hour until the center is still a bit underdone because the cheesecake will continue to cook as it's cooling.
After it has cooled, store in the fridge overnight until the cheesecake is completely set.

For the second cheesecake, I used the exact same recipe except the crust measurements from 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs mixed with 1/4 cup melted butter. I reduced the cream cheese mixture as well to make a smaller cheesecake, so I used 2 packages of cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and 2 large eggs instead of the previous recipes measurements. After mixing together the pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg. About 2 tablespoons of that mixture was set aside (for the marbling on top) before the entire pumpkin mixture was incorporated into the cream cheese mixture. The second cheesecake did not have the 2 layers like the first. With the marbling, I followed to same pattern as the arrows in the picture above, but then added in circular swirls into the top as well to add more affects in the marbling.

Tips in baking cheesecakes:
Bake the cheesecake in a water bath to make sure that the cheesecake doesn't cook at too high of a temperature. This helps in preventing cracking and burning.
I've also heard covering the cheesecake with foil as it's baking also helps prevent cracks, but I've honestly never tired this method. 
Let the cheesecake cool inside the oven with the oven door open, before letting it cool out of the oven. Making sure it cools at a slow rate will also help the cracks and consistency of the cheesecake.
When the cheesecake if finally out of the oven to cool, run a sharp knife around the edge of the springform pan to loosen the sides so it cools away from the pan and will not stick.
Also remember to let it completely set in the fridge overnight after it has cooled. Being patient with this step is worth it.

Personally, I like the taste of the second recipe better, but the look of the first one more since the second cheesecake is a bit too orange for my personal preference in its presentation. What do y'all think?

Two Kinds of Cake at Once

I recently bought a cake pan set that helps you create a checkered cake. It came with 3 shallow 9" round cake pans and an insert that you fill with two different kinds of cake batters to create this checkered effect.

Strawberry and Rainbow Chip Checkered Cake

Excuse the messiness on the bottom of the cake carrier. I traveled with the cake, and apparently I don't drive very smoothly and it shifted on the way, hah.

It was fairly easy to make this checkered effect, but it was messy! It was difficult to get the two different cake batters into each of the portioned sections of the cake pan insert.

The cake was frosted with a mix of homemade whip cream and rainbow chip frosting. Store bought frosting is too sweet at times, so I like to either make my own frosting from scratch or mix freshly made whip cream with some frosting.

Whip Cream

The recipe I used for the whip cream:
1 cup of whipping/heavy cream
1 teaspoon of powder sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

I decrease the amount of sugar because after I make the whip cream, I add in about half a cup of the store bought frosting. The result is a lighter, creamier frosting that isn't sickly sweet.

Can't make up your mind? Now you can have two kinds of cake in one!

Too Cold for Snow?

I always hated the fact that you could only get snowcones during the summer, but you don't have to worry any longer because Bahama Buck's is open all year long.

Half key lime pie and coconut cream pie with extra cream

You can get your snowcone fix anytime of year, with any flavor you desire. Bahama Buck's has a vast variety of flavors to choose from, and other menu items such as smoothies, paradise fruit, and even coffee drinks. The fact that they're open all year long, have some of the best shaved ice I've ever had, and have a ton of flavors is a plus, but they're pretty expensive for a snowcone. I do not indulge very often, but this is the place to go when it's cold outside!

Note: Products were purchased by me, with my own money. All opinions are my own.

"have one's cake and eat it too"

Sorry about all the posts only involving restaurant reviews in Austin. I promise I will start posting recipes again soon! I still have a few more posts from when I was in Austin since I've been back twice this month, once for a bridal shower, and the most recent was for my best friend's wedding!

Everyone that knew beforehand who was making the couple's wedding cake and the groom's cake were really excited, especially if they watched Cake Boss from TLC.

White Chocolate Champagne cake

Brian Stevens of Crazy Cakes made both the wedding cake and the groom's cake. Go check out his website, his gallery of cakes is AMAZING! Some of his cakes are so intricate that they don't even look like cakes, but more like sculptures. I was amazed when I saw both cakes in person.

Double Dark Chocolate Stout Beer cake

Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to meet him when he delivered the cakes because I was busy helping to bride get ready, but his work says it all. The cakes were also really tasty, and both cakes were unique flavors. The wedding cake was a white chocolate champagne cake, and the groom's cake was a double dark chocolate stout beer cake. My favorite was definitely the groom's cake, it was very moist, rich, and smooth, and the flavors were perfect together!

I never thought I would be at a wedding with Darth Vader.

I'm Cookie Monster!

Fresh, warm, gooey cookies delivered to your door. What more could someone ask for?

Tiff's Treats was always so tempting when I lived in the dorms at UT, especially if there was a lot of studying involved. It was a great snack and excuse to eat sugary things when I was studying hard for exams.

Their packaging is always really nice.

  

My favorite are their chocolate chip cookies...a classic! What's your favorite kind of cookie?

If you have a SWEET tooth

Cold sweet treats are always great if you don't want something too heavy. Rita's Italian Ice is just the place to satisfy that sweet tooth and to cause a brain freeze.

Gelati = frozen vanilla custard and key lime Italian ice and mango Italian ice

Their Italian ice is made fresh daily with fresh fruit, which adds some dimension to the texture and flavor. It doesn't taste fake like many ice cold treats. They also have a good variety of frozen custard flavors compared with other places. The frozen custard is very smooth and creamy, but it's a bit too sweet for my taste. I can only take small doses at a time.

The highlight of Rita's is definitely their Italian ice!

Dan Tat (蛋撻) aka egg tarts!

One of my favorite dim sum items is "dan tat". "Dan tat" is literally translated to egg tart. It is basically a pastry shell filled with a smooth, sweet egg custard. The pastry shell can be light, crispy, and flaky, similar to a puff pastry; or more dense and heavy like a shortcrust typically used for pies and tarts. I've noticed over the years that the crust has changed over time and seems to adjust according to how traditional or nontraditional a restaurant is; and if they have someone with the ability to make the crust from scratch. It is traditionally known to be a Cantonese baked good, but I've also seen Portuguese and Macau style egg tarts. Each kind having its own distinction. They even have flavored ones now like green tea egg tarts!

Cantonese style egg tarts during brunch in Los Angeles. I do not remember the name of the restaurant, but it was a traditional dim sum restaurant with the steaming carts full of goodies.

 Portuguese style egg tarts. This was at very non-traditional dim sum restaurant where they served dim sum straight from the kitchen and not from those carts.

My parents came to visit me this weekend, and my dad's first request..."will you make dan tat?!"

I've figured out how to make the egg custard part, but haven't attempted making the crust from scratch yet. I use store bought pie crust instead. I use a wine glass to cut out circles from the pie crust which I then roll out to make them thinner. They are pressed into a muffin tray. I then make the egg custard using this recipe that I've adapted from different recipes online:

Preheat the oven to 350-375 degrees.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1/4 cup evaporated milk
 <1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Scramble the eggs.
2. Then add the milk and mix thoroughly.
3. A trick to making sure everything is incorporated is to add the water in parts. Add half first, mix, then add the rest, and mix again.
4. I used two different types of sugars because the powdered sugar dissolves more easily, so it's added after the regular sugar, which then has more time to dissolved. Add the regular sugar first, before the powdered sugar.
5. Add the vanilla extract.
6. Pour the mixture through a sieve to remove any egg that didn't completely mix. The sieve helps to make sure your mixture is homogenized and that the custard will be smooth after baking.
7. Carefully pour the mixture into the pressed crusts in the muffin tin.

Bake for approximately 20-30 mins. or until the center is set.

This recipe makes 12 egg tarts. 

I really like these straight out of the oven when they're still warm. The next time I make these, I will attempt to make the crust from scratch. Wish me luck! I'll let you know how they turn out.

First Post!

I am excited to start a food blog...finally! It has taken me a long time to just sit down and start it. I am new to the blogging world but hope that this will be a nice outlet for me besides slaving away in the lab all the time. Here is a little bit about myself:

• Graduate student studying biochemistry (I know, I am a nerd).
• I spend most of my time researching in a lab.
• I like to take my lunch to work when I can. Especially if I cooked the night before and have leftovers.
• I am not a vegetarian, but at times it seems like I am one.
• My go to dessert when I need to bake something for a potluck or event is white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.
• I will try pretty much any kind of food at least once, unless it is still alive and moving or an insect. There are some creepy delicacies out there. Other than that, I am not a picky eater whatsoever.
• Balance is everything!

Anybody like cheesecake?! Here is sneak peak at one of my future recipe posts. 

Homemade white chocolate raspberry cheesecake with an oreo cookie crust (minus the cream filling).

Until next time, it is time for me to start remembering to take pictures of all the food that I eat. =)