Key Lime Cheesecake

Once a month my good friend Greg throws a supper club at his apartment with Chef Ronald Hsu. Chef Hsu is a sous chef at Le Bernardin and prepares 4 absolutely incredible courses. He doesn’t specialize in dessert and invited me to make the 5th course. Obviously, there’s some pressure following a chef of that caliber and wanted to create something that complimented his meal. I saw ginger and citrus in each of his courses and I decided to continue the theme and use blood orange.

I happened to have dinner with Chef Jenny McCoy (formerly of Craft) and I asked her advice. She saw that Chef Hsu introduced a new citrus into each course and she pointed out that blood orange was already used. She helped me brainstorm citrus and I went with key lime. Jenny also introduced me to Fingerling Limes. These little pickle looking limes have these little citrus looking caviar inside of them - bursting with flavor. You can order them from Mikuni Wild Harvest.

I was super nervous but it turned out quite tasty. Its been an entire week and I’m still getting compliments from some pretty serious foodies.

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 cup AP flour
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 5 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp ginger syrup

Filling:

• 8 oz chevre / goat cheese
• 8 oz cream cheese
• ¾ sugar
• 2 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup greek yogurt
• 2 Tbsp lime zest
• 2 Tbsp key lime juice
• 2 Tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp of freshly grated ginger

Key lime Custard:

• 8 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
• 3 key limes, zest grated and juiced

Garnish:
Fingerling Limes

Instructions:

Crust:
1) Preheat oven to 350°f
2) In a small bowl, combine the flour, almonds, sugar, and ginger syrup; cut in butter until crumbly.
3) Press crumb mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 10 inch tart pan.
4) Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.


Filling:
1) In a small bowl, beat goat cheese, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy.
2) Beat in the eggs, yogurt, zest, juice and vanilla just until blended.
3) Pour over crust, and bake for 30 minutes or until filling is set.

Custard:
1) While cake is cooling, place the custard ingredients in the double boiler over boiling water. Ensure that the top pan does not touch the water.
2) Cook and continuously stir until mixture begins to gel or thicken, for about 15-20 minutes
3) Pour over cake while still warm and spread it, using an offset spatula if needed

Garnish
1) Cut fingerling limes and scoop out filling
2) Place the filling (caviar looking)  around the rim and in the center or however you like garnish with fingerling limes.
3) Refrigerate until ready to serve (up to 2 days)

Serving:
1) Remove from fridge 20 minutes before serving
2) Slice with a hot knife
3) Serve

Le Pain Lapin

Last weekend I visited Rabbit Island which my friend Rob bought from an ad on Craig’s List. You can learn more about it from the Kickstarter (they funded an Artist Residency) and from the website. A big group of us went out there to build various things - I made bread, a cobbler and helped with a big dinner for 22 of us. It was a fantastic experience and learned a ton from Kelly Geary, the founder of Sweet Deliverance and author of Tart and Sweet: 101 Canning and Pickling Reciped for the Modern Kitchen. Kelly got involved when Rob put out a post om search of recipes for his cookbook. She brought out two chefs from Madison, WI - Marc and Emily. They brought some Ramp Butter, which they put on top of the first loaf and that’s what made it glisten. I hope we have many more opportunities to cook together cause they ROCK! And I’m submitting this recipe for inclusion in the cookbook. Fingers crossed!

The kitchen on Rabbit Island consists of two gas burning stove tops (coleman’s) and a campfire. I made this bread in a dutch oven on the campfire. The photo above is the first of three attempts.  A few things I learned when making this recipe, let the bread rise as long as possible for the best texture (18-24 hours). You should put the dutch oven in the fire to heat it up before placing in the dough. Definitely put the oven on top of fire burning logs, and place two on top for even cooking. Get those gloves so you can reach right into the fire.  The shape of the dough when placed in the dutch oven is the breads final shape.

The photos below are my third attempt, and definitely my favorite. Also, I doubled the recipe and found that it had a better rise, and made two loafs back to back. They were eaten pretty quickly, but there were a lot of us out there!

Le Pain Lapin

(Makes 2 Loafs)

Ingredients:

• 6 cups bread flour
• 1 1/2 tspn regular yeast (I active yeast cause that’s all I could find)
• 2 1/2 tspn salt
• 3 cups water

Instructions 

Pt. 1. (day ahead)

1. Mix all the ingredients in a greased bowl
2. Form a ball and cover at least 18 hours

Pt. 2. 

1. Heat dutch oven in the fire (or oven if not camping).
2. carefully open lid and slide in half of the dough and place cover on lid
3. Cover the pot for 30 minutes and bake with lid off for an additional 15 minutes 
4. Repeat for second loaf or use a second dutch oven.

Dinner Party Chez Moi - Cherry Tomato, Truffle Oil Tartines

I spent a memorial day weekend at a friend’s Lake House and found myself cooking meal after meal for up to 25 people. When we came back to our regular lives I felt a suden emptiness and decided to invite the group over for a sunday night dinner. Chez Moi.

I made homemade pizza dough from Bon Appetite and made a bunch of toppings. Meatballs from scratch, caramelized onions, blanched asparagus with barata cheese, olive oil, salt & pepper. I also made two tarts, a Meatball, mascarpone, asparagus and the other was a strawberry Rhubarb. Both I just whipped up. Which surprised me. Oh and I was nervous there wouldn’t be enough food so I made a bib lettuce salad with a homemade mustard vinaigrette. 

What’s pictured are tartines, the base is bread I picked up that morning from Scratch Bread. The best bread bakery and it happens to be around the corner from me. 

 Cherry Tomato, Truffle Oil Tartines

Ingredients:

• 8 oz Ricotta Cheese
• Fresh 8 Grain loaf of bread
• 20 Cherry Tomatos (one small create)
• 2 table spoons Honey
• Sprinkle Salt
• Sprinkle Pepper 
• 2 Table spoons of Truffle Oil

Instructions:

• Slice bread into somewhat bite sizes
• Spread ricotta cheese
• Slice cherry tomatos and place on top
• Drizzle honey, salt & pepper
• Top with Truffle Oil

Chocolate Chip Banana Beer Muffins

Tonight I just felt like baking and playing around with my Livestream Profile and live blogged the baking of these muffins!

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2 medium bananas, mashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter or margarine
• 1/4 cup beer
• 3/4 semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

Bacon & Beer Chocolate Truffles

Inspired by last weeks Oreos and wanting to play with beer and chocolate again, I decided to add one more ingredient to the party: Bacon. As a good Jewish girl, I don’t have all that much experience working with bacon, so thanks to my roommate I learned a few things, like don’t crowd the pan. Keep the heat low so it can cook evenly and have some patience. Otherwise, this recipe is quite easy. And it’s even more fun working with beer, chocolate and bacon when the football game is on in the background. Not that I know too much about it, but The Giants won. And there’s going to be a lot of hoopla over a NYC team playing in the Superbowl. These treats might be a fun one to bring to the party!

Ingredients

• 9 Ounces of Dark Chocolate
• 1/2 Cup of heavy Cream
• 3 Tablespoons of Dark Beer (I used Brooklyn Brewery Dark Chocolate Stout)
• 1/2 pound of bacon, crisp and smashed to bits
• 1/2 cup of Unsweetened Dutch Cocoa Powder

 Instructions

1. Cook the bacon in large frying pan until its quite crispy. Drain, place in a plastic bag and smash to bits
2. Place cream and chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water
3. Stir until incorporated and remove from heat
4. Stir in beer until fully incorporated
5. Stir in Bacon until fully incorporated
6. Pour into a ceramic or glass bowl, cover with plastic wrap to protect from moisture and let it set for 3 hours
7. Pour cocoa powder in to a bowl
8. Use your hands to roll the chocolate into small truffle sized balls
9. Cover with cocoa powder, tap off excess and transfer into another bowl for serving

photos and styling by Amy Wilkinson

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Homemade Oreos with Chocolate Beer Ganache

Searching for what I was going to make for a potluck I wanted to do something traditional with a twist. So, I added beer ganache to Oreos. How did I come up with that idea? Well, I have a cute neighbor and I wanted an excuse to text him and see if he had any beer. I ended up chickening out and my roommate (and food Stylist - Amy Wilkinson) grabbed some Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout from our neighborhood deli while walking Rue. (photo of the glorious dog below!). 

Starting on Thursday, January 26, find additional potluck dishes from fellow Gojee contributors. Simply go to gojee.com and enter “gojeepotluck” into I Crave. You can also follow #gojeepotluck on Twitter. 

Homemade Oreos (as found on Smitten Kitchen)
Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies

For the chocolate wafers:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar [see recipe note]
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
• 1 large egg

For the cream filling:

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Chocolate Beer Ganache

• 9 oz. dark chocolate, 65% cacao
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons of beer

Instructions

Make the Chocolate Wafer:

1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.
2. In stand mixer mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While on a low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. The dough stayed crumbly for me but when I rolled it into balls it came together.
3. Round small circles of dough and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately with some good space (they expand a lot.) With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 8 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

To make the cream:

1. Place butter and vegetable oil in a mixing bowl
2. At low speed, beat in the sugar and vanilla. 
3. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

To make the ganache,

1. Place chocolate and cream in a heat-proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. 
2. Let the chocolate and cream heat up for 3 minutes and then begin to stir. 
3. Whisk until fully incorporated.
4. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.  
5. Stir in beer and incorporate fully (I like working with the ganache while its still liquid, but you can also cover, chill and make truffles)

To assemble the cookies:

1. Pair the cookies into similar sizes
2. On one of the cookies dab chocolate ganache in center of cookie.
3. Grab a small bit of the cream and roll into a ball.
4. Place the cream on the other wafer and spread out to the edge of the wafer
5. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. 
6. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with ganache and cream. 

Photos and Food Styling by: Amy Wilkinson

My first attempt at French Macaron!

Well, courtesy of photoshop these look okay but I made three trays of macarons and only about 10 came out. :-( These were much harder than I anticipated. The flavor was a vanilla cookie with a plum/rose butter cream. I didn’t do so good. I’ll try again next weekend and post the recipe if it comes out.

Things I learned:

1. Always put the cookie sheet in another cookie sheet. It keeps the cookie from getting to hot and cracking.

2. Let the cookie batter sit for a bit to dry out before putting in the oven. That really made a difference for the successful cookies.

3. Breathe. They are only cookies. (I kept repeating that OVER and OVER again)

Wish me luck on the next round!

Blueberry Cinnaman Streusal Muffin

It’s been a while since I posted and that’s mainly because I moved, changed jobs and didn’t have my kitchen unpacked until last weekend. It was my first full day at the office yesterday so I decided to bring in some muffins!

Ingredients

Muffin:

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberrie

Streusel:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees f
2. Place lined muffin cups in a 12 muffin pan
3. In a medium bowl Cream sugar and butter. Add egg and continue to mix well.
   
4. Combine flour, baking powder and salt;
   
5. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture in small batches while alternating with the milk.  
   
6. Stir in vanilla.
   
7. Gently Fold in blueberries.
   
8. Fill muffin cups about 2/3rds full.
   
9. In a small bowl, combine the first of the streusal ingredients: sugar, flour and cinnamon;
   
10. Cut in butter until crumbly.
    
11. Sprinkle over muffins.
    
12. Put the muffins in the center rack and bake for 25-30 minutes or until browned. (I had extra batter so I greased a Madeleine pan and spooned one tsp in each mold. They came out great, like muffin cookies and were a big hit!)
    

Lemon Madeline

I’ve been piping Madeline at Craft but I hadn’t yet made the batter and I’ve been dying to try. Over the 4th of July weekend I kept wanting to try but I didn’t have the ingredients or the tools. So Wednesday night I decided I wanted to do a google plus hang out in my kitchen and make David Lebovitz Lemon Madeline. I just made some slight changes.I also decided not to make the glaze he suggests because its really hot and humid in NYC and I didn’t think it would travel well.

Lemon Medeline

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 130g granulated sugar
• rounded 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 175g flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (optional)
• zest of one small lemon
• 120g unsalted butter

Instructions

1. Place the Madeline Mold in the Fridge
2. Brown the butter by placing it over medium/high heat and stirring just till it changes color. It will take about 12 minutes and as soon as it becomes a warm amber color take it off the heat
3. Strain the butter into a glass bowl and let it cool.
4. In the bowl whip the eggs, granulated sugar, and salt for 5 minutes until frothy and thickened.
5. Spoon the flour and baking powder into a sifter or mesh strainer and use a spatula to slowly fold in the flour as you sift it over the batter. 
6. Add the lemon zest to the cooled butter, then dribble the butter into the batter, slowly folding until just incorporated
7. Using a rubber Spatula scoop the batter into a medium pastry bag (I did two small bags) and seal the back end of the bag. (A Tip I learned at Craft: Place the bag over a bain (or large deep cup) when pouring in batter and it will be easier to fill the bag without making a mess!)
8. place the batter in the fridge for an hour or up to 12 hours.
9. Baking the madeleines, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
10. Pipe batter (directly perpandicular to the pan) placing the tip in the center of each indentation and putting in batter till its about 3/4 full.
11. Lightly but firmly tap the tray on the counter to release any air bubbles
12. Bake for 8-9 minutes or until the cakes just feel set.

These are best eaten day off, but they made it to two offices the next day and were enjoyed greatly. Though a lot of people didn’t know what Madeline were. I mean, Proust. I guess in America to have the same Proust reaction I’d have to bring around funnel cakes or something of that sort.