Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. We were to take the basic recipe and make it unique - a showstopper of a dessert.

Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts. I've made it many times and in many different flavors. Recently I had a coupon for a free dessert at TGIF's so my husband and I tried the Vanilla Bean Cheesecake. We both fell in love with it! Apparently, we weren't the only ones who loved it, because when I did an Internet search for a copycat recipe, I found it on lots of websites.

TGIF's vanilla bean cheesecake is "made with real vanilla beans and layered with white chocolate mousse and shavings. Baked in a vanilla graham–cracker crust. Served with a fresh strawberry." I used Abbey's cheesecake recipe as the base and added the white chocolate mousse layer on top. I served it with a delicious strawberry coulis.

This is a very creamy cheesecake not a dense overly rich one, and everyone loved it. All the boys/men had a second piece. I would definitely make this cheesecake again.

Be sure and check out the other Daring Bakers' cheesecakes. They've out done themselves on this challenge and have created some amazing cheesecakes.

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

Crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 stick butter, melted
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water. (I didn't want to risk water getting into my springform pan so I just put a pan of water on the rack underneath my cheesecake.)
5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill.

WHITE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
1 cup whipping cream
2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
4 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
4 ounces white chocolate baking squares, melted
beans from one vanilla pod

In a cold mixing bowl beat cream until soft peaks form. Gradually add powdered sugar and vanilla beans and beat until stiff peaks form. Put this in a bowl in the fridge. In another mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, until fluffy. Add the white chocolate and beat until smooth. Fold in the whipped cream.

After the cheesecake has cooled spread the mousse evenly on top. Refrigerate several hours before serving.

Pumped Up Krispy Treats

I stopped buying cereal for my kids that was just fortified sugar and no fiber. They weren't very happy about it, but they've adapted.

When Kelloggs recently started selling a multi-grain Jumbo Krispies cereal that has 3 grams of fiber and only 90 calories for a one cup serving I knew I wanted to try it. I liked it better than regular Rice Krispies. I didn't feel the need to add sugar to it, and like eating it with a sprinkle of dried cranberries mixed in.

Jumbo Krispies were recently on sale, so I stocked up. They also had a coupon on the box for $1 off a bag of marshmallows, so of course Kelloggs is hoping you'll make Krispy Treats - which of course I did.

On the drive home from the market there was a commercial on the radio with Hans and Franz wanting to "pump you up." So I decided I should "pump up" my Krispy Treats. I added whole almonds, dried cranberries and white chocolate.

Since the cereal has fiber and you're getting protein from the almonds, I think they're not a bad after school snack. And who doesn't love a Rice Krispy Treat.

I mixed in the white chocolate chips with the cereal, but the mixture was too hot and melted them almost completely. Next time after pressing the mixture into the pan, I'll just sprinkle the white chocolate on top and press them into the Krispy Treats.

Pumped Up Krispy Treats

3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 package (10 oz., about 40) regular marshmallows (OR 4 cups miniature marshmallows)
6 cups Jumbo Multi-Grain Krispies cereal
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.(In microwave-safe bowl heat butter and marshmallows on HIGH for 3 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes. Stir until smooth.)
2. Combine cereal, almonds and cranberries. Add cereal mix to marshmallow mixture. Stir until well coated.

3. Using buttered spatula or wax paper evenly press mixture into 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle white chocolate chips evenly over pan and press into the top of the Krispy Treats. Cool. Cut into 2-inch squares.

POM Wonderful - Berry Pomegranate Smoothie

Janny from Pom Wonderful contacted me recently and offered to send me some POM Wonderful 100% pomegranate juice along with some information on the health benefits. I happily accepted her generous offer and a case arrived a week later with lots of the cute little bottles. Thanks Janny!

I had seen a lot of great pomegranate recipes on the net and was excited to try some new recipes. But my boys had other ideas. They wanted to drink the juice straight from the bottle. My first thought was no, it's my juice. But I knew how good the juice was for them and gave in and let them each chug a bottle. I thought it would be too tart for them, but they loved it.

I tasted it straight from the bottle, but it was too tart for me, so I mixed it with some OJ and loved it. Since I loved this combination I decided to try Recipe Girls' Pomegranate-Blood Orange Sorbet. I used regular orange juice in the recipe and left out the cinnamon. If I made it again, I would use white sugar instead of brown sugar.

Next, I made a recipe from the POM Wonderful website - POM & Balsamic-Glazed Chicken. I didn't have any pomegranate arils, but I thought the sauce was great. My husband who doesn't like sweet sauces thought it was just okay.

My favorite recipe was the smoothie I made with the POM juice. My local paper had a good article this week about creating healthy smoothies and one recipe called for pomegranate juice. I didn't have the nonfat buttermilk it called for, so I substituted yogurt. I didn't have enough frozen blueberries, so I also added raspberries. The smoothie was deliciously tart and refreshing. I liked that I didn't need to use ice, because my blender always has a hard time chopping it up. I'd definitely make this one again.

I have one bottle left in the refrigerator and have my eye on an apple pomegranate tart recipe that Sara has on her blog, if I can keep my boys from drinking it first.

Berry-Pomegranate Smoothie
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup frozen raspberries
1 cup POM juice
6 oz. strawberry yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt

In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth.
2 Servings

Black Angus Cheesy Garlic Bread

I try to make healthy food choices most days, but some days I just want something fattening and bad for me. We would sometimes go to Black Angus just because we loved their cheesy garlic bread. Unfortunately, they closed all the Black Angus restaurants in Utah last year.

I served some boring garlic bread at a recent party at my house and knew I could do better. So I did an Internet search for Black Angus cheesy garlic bread and lots of websites had the recipe. Apparently it was given by David R. Ford, Black Angus Executive Chef to The Sacramento Bee, Mar 29, 1995.

It tasted just exactly like I remembered. Crispy, cheesy, flavorful, and fattening. The only thing I would change when I make it next time is to use two loaves of french bread instead of the one it originally called for, or use half the ingredients, because it was too much topping for one loaf.

Black Angus Cheesy Garlic Bread
2 Loaves French bread
1/2 C. Butter, softened
1 C. Shredded Asiago cheese
1 C. Shredded jack cheese
1 C. Mayonnaise
1 bunch Green onions, chopped
2 Cloves garlic, pureed

Split French bread loaf into halves horizontally. Mix butter, cheeses, mayonnaise, green onions and garlic in bowl, blending well. Spread the cut side of bread halves with spread. Bake at 350 degrees for 7 minutes, then place under broiler about 3 minutes longer. Cut into slices & serve.

Rhodes Warm-N-Serv Sticky Buns and Orange Pull-Aparts

I've been using Rhodes frozen bread dough and rolls for years now. I like to make Indian Fry Bread (we call them scones in Utah) with the bread dough and my all time favorite breakfast is Citrus-Cream Cheese Pull-Apart Rolls a Cooking Light recipe that uses frozen roll dough.

So when Rhodes contacted me and asked me to try their new Warm-N-Serv rolls I was happy to give them a try. I received a box that contained the Warm-N-Serv Multi-Grain Rolls, Buttery Dinner Rolls, Sticky Buns, and Garlic Butter Rolls.

The rolls are very convenient, light and fluffy, and it's always nice to have a fresh, hot from the oven roll with dinner. They are a bit smaller than many rolls, but only 80 calories each.


For Sunday morning breakfast I warmed up the sticky buns and made some orange pull-aparts with the buttery dinner rolls. Rhodes published a recipe for lemon pull-aparts in my local paper, but since I didn't have a lemon I substitute an orange.

The sticky buns and pull-aparts were a big hit and the four of us gobbled up all 18 of the rolls in one sitting. Although the pull-aparts weren't as amazing as my favorite Citrus-Cream Cheese Pull-Apart Rolls, they were delicious and best of all ready in 20 minutes instead of the hours it takes for my favorite. I would definitely make these rolls again.

Orange Pull-Aparts

1 pan Warm-N-Serv Buttery Dinner Rolls
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1 orange rind, grated

citrus glaze:
1/2 tablespoon butter, melted
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

Instructions
Remove rolls from pan and brush bottom and sides with butter. Place back in pan and brush top with butter. In a bowl, combine sugar and orange rind and sprinkle over top of rolls. Bake at 350°F 15 minutes. Remove from pan and place on cooling rack. Combine glaze ingredients and drizzle over rolls while still warm.