Awesome, if I do say so myself. I have to start giving myself a bit more credit for creativity.  Not decorating, mind you, but for making recipes my own. Pay no heed to the lousy picture – I am out of town at the moment, and I made this and froze it before I left.  Of course, I had to taste a bit and it was phenomenal.

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Jenny gave us a basic cheesecake recipe, and set us loose, telling us to make it our own.  I did just that by (1) eliminating the crust – yes, I made this without a crust!; and (2) flavoring it like a creamsicle, that outstanding orange and vanilla frozen concoction hustled by our local Good Humor Man.  Those were the days.  I also used low fat cream cheese, and a mixture of cream and low fat sour cream because that’s what I had on hand.

I made this in a heart-shaped springform pan, which is the only pan I have that will allow me to use a water bath.  I also lowered the temperature to 325 F on convection bake, and the cake turned out creamy, smooth, and perfect, right on schedule.  It did not crack.  It did not burn.  No water leaked into the pan (I double wrapped in heavy duty foil). A shockingly successful endeavor, all around.

Be sure to check Jenny’s blog for the original recipe, and the BRAND NEW Daring Baker’s website!  I am without the internet at the moment, but when I get back in town, I’m looking forward to seeing what everybody made!  My adaptation after the jump.
continue reading "The Daring Bakers, and an Awesome Creamsicle Cheesecake"

This week, we were allowed to go back and do a “rewind” recipe (one that we may have missed), instead of making this week’s choice, creme brulee.  I jumped at the chance because (1) I couldn’t find any butane for my torch, and (2) I don’t like the “brulee” on creme brulee.

I chose Orange Berry Muffins (page 3 of Dorie’s book), and they were fantastic.  I swapped cranberries for the blueberries, sprinkled a bit of cinnamon sugar on top of each one before I baked them, and I whipped up the whole thing in my food processor, so not too many pans to clean!

I usually use an ice cream scoop to fill muffin cups, but if you decide to do that, be aware that you will end up with nine muffins instead of twelve.  If you have empty muffin cups, fill them with some water to keep the pan from warping, like you see in the photo to the left.

These really are wonderful – a soft, cakey, moist crumb, perfumed with orange, but not so much that it overwhelms.  I love the sourness of the cranberries combined with the orange.  Definitely on the repeat list, and one of my favorite Dorie recipes so far!  You can find the recipe after the jump, and be sure to check the TWD blogroll to see what others did this week. 
continue reading "TWD Rewind- Orange Berry Muffins"

I had all of these gorgeous blood orange rinds left over from my recent foray into homemade marmalade, and I could not bear to throw them out. So I decided to candy them, using Elise’s recipe over at her wonderful blog, Simply Recipes.

What a revelation.

These make most candied rinds out there taste rather bland and insipid. I had to pack them away before a nibble here and there wiped out my stash. Why? Because I have Big Plans for these little babies, Big Plans, indeed. In a word, “fruitcake.”

I’ll give you a moment to recover from the shock. For, you see, last year out of sheer stubbornness I decided that somewhere there had to be a fruitcake that was not only edible, but genuinely delicious, and I was determined to find said rare beast. And I did: I discovered a great fruitcake recipe this past Christmas, and it was a huge hit. It actually tasted really, really good, and I can only imagine how it will taste with homemade candied citrus rinds. I’ll be posting the recipe in the near future so all you fruitcake lovers out there (snicker) can plan ahead!

Note: my one deviation from Elise’s recipe is that I cooked the rinds until they were translucent, not until all the sugar syrup was absorbed.

No Tuesdays with Dorie for me today, but I’ll be back next week for Gooey Chocolate Cakes! Be sure to check out the ever-growing blogroll to find your way to Dorie bloggers and this week’s creation, Caramel-Topped flan. I am taking a break this week because I simply cannot spend three hours per day at the gym. Not even for flan.

What I did do with my time the past couple of weekends was to tackle two culinary projects that used up the huge amount of citrus stored in my refrigerator: Meyer lemons, blood oranges, and Seville oranges. I turned to the recipes that I had bookmarked at Elise’s site, Simply Recipes.

First up: Preserved Meyer Lemons. I followed Elise’s recipe exactly, and everything is looking good! Meyer lemons are so precious, I couldn’t bear the thought of having to discard any before I could bake with them some more, so I decided to preserve them. They will turn up in a Moroccan tagine in the near future. Or a Smoked Salmon and Gruyere grilled cheese sandwich. Mmmm.

Next: Seville and Blood Orange Marmalade.

Elise’s recipe calls for four cups of Seville orange juice, and I had enough oranges to yield 2 3/4 cups, so I made up the difference with the juice of Blood oranges (thus, the dark color of the marmalade). I used one regular lemon, 8 cups of sugar, and threw in one plus one-half vanilla beans for good measure, inspired by a Meyer Lemon and Vanilla Bean marmalade recipe that I found in Bon Appetit.

I grew up eating things that most American kids in the 60s and 70s were not eating, in part because we traveled so much, but also because my father was an immigrant, and my mother was a fabulous cook who rarely resorted to prepared foods. One of the things we had in our house was Dundee orange marmalade, not Welch’s grape jelly (a very rare treat), so I developed a fondness for the sharp bitter tang of this orange jam, and have yearned to make some for myself. Through Rose Levy Beranbaum, I discovered a mail order source for Seville oranges, and took the plunge. I can’t tell you how proud I was to have a piece of toast for breakfast, spread thinly with my jewel-toned creation!

Elise’s instructions are fabulous, especially the “wrinkle” test to determine when the marmalade is done. It took a lot longer to set up than I had expected, but I’m so glad that I didn’t give in to temptation and pull the whole batch off the flame before the jam was ready. The recipe doesn’t call for the addition of any pectin, but relies on the naturally occurring pectin in the seeds and membranes of the fruit (photo of pectin bag to the right), a technique that I had never used before, so I was a bit nervous about having 12 cups of orange soup on my hands. Nevertheless, I girded my loins and stuck it out – Elise’s recipe works! Woo-hoo!

I have quite a few Blood orange rinds sitting in the fridge, and I’m just itching to make candied orange peel. I’d better get started – I have to make those Gooey Chocolate Cakes for next week’s Tuesdays with Dorie!