Brownie Caramel Cheesecake. March 7, 2010

Cheesecake, Cheesecake, Cheesecake!

Who dosen’t like a good yummy chesecake mixed in with some brownie, and then some homemade caramel sauce. If you don’t then you must of come to the wrong blog.

This is actually the first Cheesecake I’ve ever made, and I must say I am proud of myself. If you have read, I’ve had a first pie too, and theres bound to be many more first’s in this blog because of my resolution for the year.

So to learn how to make this delicious yummy goodness, read on

 

 

First off, this cake can be made with a homemade brownie, or a brownie mix. For this case were going to use a brownie mix, but I will add a amazing homemade brownie to this blog in the very close future.

Brownie:

1 (10) ounce brownie mix.

1 Egg

1 Tablespoon Water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 or 8 inch Springform Pan.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together the brownie mix, egg, and water. Pour into springform pan, and bake for 10-15 minutes. When you take the brownie out of the oven, it’s not going to be completely done, but it will cook more when you cook the cheesecake.

Caramel Sauce:

1 (14) ounce package of Caramels. You’ll probally find them individually wrapped, you’ll have to unwrap all of them (I know, I know, there’s a bunch!)

1 small 5 ounce can evaporated milk.

1. Melt the caramels along with the evaporated milk over low heat in a small sauce pan. It’s going to take about 7-10 minutes till it’s smooth and creamy.

2. When creamy and smooth, pour most of the caramel sauce on top of the brownie. Reserve about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the caramel sauce for the top of the cheesecake.

Cheesecake:

16 ounces cream cheese

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs.

1. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla till smooth. Then beat in eggs one at a time.

2. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the caramel. Cook in oven for 50 minutes or until set.

3. Let cool one hour, and then in the fridge for two hours before frosting.

Fudge Sauce:

1/2 can sweetened condensed milk

2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a heavy pan melt all the above ingredients till smooth.

Frosting:

Criss cross caramel and fudge sauce over cheesecake, chill, serve, and enjoy!

Chocolate Cream Tart February 22, 2010

This is the first pie like food I’ve ever attempted. I’m not a huge pie fan, and I don’t try to do a lot with thing’s I don’t like. But when I first came upon a recipie similar to the one I’m about to share, I thought it sounded delicious, and I had to give it a try.

Do you see that? Seriously, I don’t know if it get’s much better than that. It’s a goey chocolaty button, then a homemade chocolate whipcream topped with Heshey’s chocolate shavings, then some more melted chocolate.

Delicious. amazing. perfect.

The first part of this pie is the pie crust. I’ve never made a pie before, and I’ve certaintly never made a homemade crust, so I skipped that this time and used a store bought crust, but if you have a crust you love use that instead.

1. roll out crust, and fit into pie pan. Cook in preheated oven of 425 degree’s for 10 minutes.

Now that that’s out of the way. Let’s get to the good stuff.

Filling:

1 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips.

1 can sweetened condensed milk (140z)

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

2 eggs

1. Place Chocolate Chips in microwavable bowl. Cook for 15 seconds, stir, then cook for 30 more seconds or until melted. Stir the chocolate until smooth.

2. In a large bowl, beat the condensed milk, whipping cream, egss, and melted chocolate. Pour the mixture into the prebaked pie crust. Bake for 15 minutes at previous temperature of 425 degrees. Reduce temperature t0 350 and continue to bake for 40-50 minutes. Cool for one hour, then refrigerate for at least two hours.

Topping:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder

Dash of salt

1 1/2 cup whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. In a medium sized bowl, place all incredients for topping. Using a hand wisk (which will take longer) or an electronic whisk (will only take a few minutes) whisk the incredients until the mixture becomes thick.

After the tart has cooled completley spread the topping over the filling, and then shave chocolate over the pie. Put in fridge till ready to serve. If you want melted chocolate when serving, melt two tablespoons of chocolate with 2 tablespoons of butter in microwave or on stove.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies February 22, 2010

So, I’m sure we’ve all had some peanut butter cookies in our lifetime. Personally, I was never a huge fan of peanut butter cookies growing up. Now though, I love them. There delicious.

But, do you know what make’s peanut butter cookies more delicious? Some sort of amazing chocolate smack in the middle that melts and become’s part of the cookie. There’s nothing better.

So, the cookie’s above are not normal peanut butter blossom cookies. Typical peanut butter blossom cookies are made with Hershey Kisses in the middle, but these were for a Valentine’s Day Party, so I used chocolate heart’s instead. But there great with Kisses too. I think they taste best with the Hug kisses, but you could use any flavor for a different taste an outcome.

The Cookie:

1/2 cup Shortening

1/2 cup Peanut Butter

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1 Egg

2 Tablespoon’s of Milk

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

1 1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon of Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Sugar for top of cookies

1. Preheat your over to 375 degrees.

2. Cream together the shortening, Peanut Butter, Brown Sugar, and Sugar. Add the eggs, milk, and vanilla and cream together.

3. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt to mixture. Mix till it forms a stiff dough.

4.  Shape the dough into 1 – 2 inch balls. Flatten slightly with your hand, and place on cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Sprinkle with Sugar and then cook for 12 minutes.

5. Immediatly after cookie’s come out of the oven place them on cooling rack, then place chocolates in center.

Tips:

If your making these for a party or event, cook them a couple hours before hand if you want to display them together. The chocolate melts, then hardens again so it will take awhile for that to happen if you want to display them nicely. If you want to eat them staighout of them oven though with the chocolate melted, there Amazing that way too.

Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake With Fudge Frosting. February 22, 2010

The other day, I was out applying for jobs in a bakery. Where I live, in my town there are not a lot of real bakerys around, really only one. So I was out applying at mostly grocery store bakeries and then the one that’s in town. While I was in there waiting to talk to the manager, I of course was taking a look at all the delicious goodies that had out in the display case.

Well, they had this peice of Chocolate cake, you know that kind of really rich looking care, with a thin layer of fudgy frosting? Well, there was one of those. I didn’t buy it though, because I was applying for the job, and would have felt odd. So after I left I regretted it, and the next day I dreamed up this, amazing, delicious cake.

This cake is the absolute epitamy of Chocolate.

Sorry for the lower quality picture too. It was taken from my phone and not a real camera.

The Cake:

1 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate squares (cut them in half)

1 1/2 cups of flour

1/2 cup Cocoa Powder

3/4 Teaspoon baking soda

1/2 Teaspoon salt

3/4 stick softened butter

1 1/2 cups Sugar

2 Eggs (Large)

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

3/4 cup & 3 Tablespoons Whole Milk

1. Preheat the over to 350 degrees.

2. Melt the chocolate on medium heat on the stove. You can use a double boiler, but I don’t own one so I just melt it in a small sauce pan. Just watch it carefully.

3. In a bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set this aside.

4. Put the butter in a larger bowl and mix for 30 seconds. You can either use a hand mixer, or a stand mixer. I used a stand mixer for this recipie. Add the sugar and beat together. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat for a few more minutes, then add the Vanilla Extract and Melted Chocolate. Then mix in the flour mixture we made in step 3 and the milk. Add part of one, then part of the other until all is mixed in.

5. Pour the batter into prepared pans. (This recipie is for a 10 inch round or a 9 inch square). In preparing your pans, you can just use Pam, or you could use butter and flour. I just use pam.

6. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool and then put in the fridge to cool more for an hour before frosting.

The Frosting:

1 stick of unsalted butter

1/2 cup of Sugar

1/2 cup of Evaporated Milk

5 ounce squares of semi-sweet chocolate

3 ounce squares of unsweetened chocolate

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Put the butter, evaporated milk, and sugar in a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat. Stir frequently untill the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Let the mixture simmer with small bubbles for 1 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and add chopped chocolate. Let sit for a minute so the chocolate can soften, then stir untill all the chocolate is melted into the mixture and smooth.

2. In a seperate bowl, put the powdered sugar, and the chocolate mixture together. Stir by hand, untill all the way mixed and smooth. It doe’s not thicken for a few minutes, so wait a few minutes, and keep going back to it for about ten minutes. After ten minutes put the frosting into the fridge.

Frosting the Cake:

About half an hour after you put the frosting in the fridge, and the cake had been cooling in the fridge for about an hour, take the cake and frosting out and frost the cake. Serve the cake with Vanilla Icecream for best results.

Advice: I put my cake back in the fridge, and the frosting turned into fudge and I had to microwave the cake to soften it. You can store the cake in the fridge, but take it out about a half hour before you want to eat it, or just leave it out.

Hope you all enjoy!