Sunday, April 29, 2012

Homemade Nutella and Reese's cheesecake

Yesterday I got a call to make dessert for a family dinner today. I guess I felt creative! I wanted to make a cheesecake. I have NEVER made a cheesecake and it looks tuff. I mean, you have to use a special form with a little release clasp. That makes it tuff to make right!?! It was so easy to do. I took a basic cheesecake recipe and folded in reese's cups and then decided to get real fancy and melt reese's chips with heavy cream and spread it on top! Looks delicious. Hopefully it doesn't poison my family. Haha!


 
Cheesecake recipe:
Master Recipe for Rich and Creamy Cheesecake (from allrecipe.com)
Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon softened butter
  • 3 tablespoons crumbs from Famous Chocolate Wafers, graham crackers or ginger snaps, OR
  • 1 (3 ounce) package soft ladyfingers (24 total) left whole, but trimmed to fit pan (optional)
  • 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • Heavy-duty foil for pan

Directions

  1. Adjust oven rack to middle position, and heat oven to 325 degrees. Brush interior of a 9-inch springform pan with butter. Add crumbs of choice and tilt pan in all directions to evenly coat, or line pan sides with ladyfingers. Tear off two long strips of heavy-duty foil, overlap in a cross pattern, and set the pan in the middle. Bring up sides, crimping around exterior top of the pan and forming a tight seal. Set it in a roasting pan large enough to hold it.
  2. Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually add sugar and beat on medium speed until fully incorporated. Scrape down bowl sides and beat again until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl after each addition to ensure a creamy batter. Slowly beat in vanilla, then cream and sour cream. (Meanwhile, bring tea kettle of water to a boil, then turn off heat.)    In this step I added 9 Reese's peanut butter cups. Cut them up in 8 pieces and fold in.
  3. Pour batter into prepared pan. Set the roasting pan on oven rack and pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up the side of the springform pan. Bake until cake perimeter is set but center still jiggles, about 40 minutes (some flavor variations will take longer). Turn off heat and leave oven door ajar; let cheesecake sit in oven so the residual heat continues to cook it, about 30 minutes.
  4. Remove pan from water; set on a wire rack. Let cool to room temperature. During cooling I made the glaze for the top. I melted 10 oz. of Reese's chips (in the chocolate chip area) in double broiler and mixed 1/2 cup heavy cream. While cheesecake was still cooling on cooling rack I spread over the top. Cover and refrigerate until well-chilled, about 3 hours (can be refrigerated up to 4 days). Run a sharp knife around the edge of the pan, loosen the spring siding and serve.
I am excited to eat it tonight! Yummy.

I didn't stop there with my creative cooking though. I decided to make homemade Nutella! Yum. I love Nutella. (It is healthy right!?!) Ok that is a joke. Have you heard of the recent Nutella lawsuit. Someone is sueing Nutella for false advertising that Nutella is healthy. HAHA! Read labels people. Anyways, I made it. I couldn't believe that it was so simple and tastes just as good!
Roast 7 oz. hazelnuts for about 10 min on medium. Then cool completely
Stick hazelnuts in food prodecessor until smooth like peanut butter. Takes a while. (I was making the cheesecake at the same time!

 Over double broiler, melt 9 oz. dark chocolate
mix in 1 can sweetened condensed milk
 .
Then mix in the hazelnuts.
 It will be thick. So add milk until it is the consistency you want. I mixed about 1/4 cup of milk.
 Stick in jars/containers and enjoy. Unlike Nutella, you do have to refridgerate after making.
 Yummy!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Caines Arcade

What a talented boy with a very supportive dad! And for Nirvan to take the time and stop to give a little boy a smile! This video is definitely worth watching!