This lovely cheesecake replaced my ($55) Cheesecake Factory Vanilla Bean Cheesecake this year. Now the kids want me to make it every year. Even the one guest who didn’t like fruit liked this cheesecake, but that may have been the chocolate ganache talking. lol

Recipe comes from VeryBestBaking.com.

Orange White Chocolate Cheesecake
1 1/2 c. Chocolate Graham Cracker Crumbs*
1/3 c. Butter, melted
2 8 oz. Pkgs. Cream Cheese, softened
1/3 c. Sugar
1 12 oz pkg. White Chocolate Morsels
1/2 c. Orange Juice**
1 .25 oz pkg. Unflavored Gelatin
1 c. Heavy Whipping Cream
2 TBL. Orange Zest**

Preheat oven to 350*. Line bottom of 9″ Springform pan with parchment paper. Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter; press into Springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes; cool on wire rack. Beat cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl until combined; set aside. In a double boiler, melt chocolate morsels. In another pan over medium heat, stir together orange juice and gelatin until gelatin is dissolved. Add melted morsels and stir until fully combined. Gradually add chocolate mixture to cream cheese mixture, mixing to combine. In another bowl (I used a Kitchenaide while adding chocolate to cream cheese), beat whipping cream until soft peaks form. Gently fold whipping cream and zest into cream cheese mixture, stirring gently until no lumps of whipping cream remain. Pour mixture over crust, cover, and refrigerate for 6-24 hours or until firm. Remove from pan and garnish with orange slices or as desired.

We garnished it with chocolate ganache, pouring it carefully over the top and making sure it went up to the edges so it would drip over.

The chocolate ganache is a good match but it does drown out the orange a bit, making it more of a hint of orange flavor (kind of like the dark chocolate oranges they sell in stores at the holidays). So if you want a stronger orange flavor, you definitely want to use a different garnish or even just use orange slices as recommended by the original recipe.

*I ended up using Chocolate Teddy Grahams because the store was out of Chocolate Graham Crackers.

**I actually didn’t measure this. I just used the zest of one large orange. Also, I’ve found using the orange I’ve zested will give me somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 c. of juice and I just use store bought OJ to reach the right amount of juice for the recipe. (I do this for any recipe that requires zest and juice.)

It really is a lovely recipe. But nothing like the Vanilla Bean (pile of heaven on a plate!), so I might make it at other times just because it’s really easy and does taste wonderful, but if we can afford our traditional cheesecake, that’s the one that will grace our dinner table at Christmas. The Cheesecake Factory has pretty much spoiled me for anything else. lol

Another holiday staple that I must make more of than any other cookie, I first found these in a Mrs. Fields cookie cookbook, but I’ve seen various recipes and names for them all over the place since. I also tend to have my kids make the actual cookies once the dough is ready, because they are quite messy. Again, we’ve made some minor tweaks to the original recipe that seem to make the cookies come out better.

Chocolate Crinkles
2 c. Granulated Sugar
1/2 c. Canola Oil
4 oz. Unsweetened Chocolate, melted & cooled*
2 tsp. Vanilla
4 Extra Large Eggs*
2 c. All-Purpose Flour
2 tsps. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
Powdered Sugar

** To melt baking chocolate squares if you don’t have a double boiler: fill a saucepan about halfway or so with water and place squares in a small skillet that can rest easily on the pan without falling in. Place on stove and bring water to a boil, moving the chocolate around in the saucepan frequently to avoid burning. Chocolate should melt nicely.

Mix granulated sugar, oil, chocolate, and vanilla. Mix in eggs one at a time. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover and chill for at least 3 hours.

Heat oven to 350. Take dough by rounded teaspoonfuls and roll into balls then drop into powdered sugar and roll until completely covered. Place about 2″ apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until almost no indention remains when touched.

Note: DO NOT make more than one batch at a time of these. I’ve burned out my mixer when doing so.

I love English muffins, and now that I’m making bread, I figured I could find an easy recipe. Apparently, easy is relative when it comes to English muffins, but I did find one that looked good and seems to be one of the most commonly used by newbs like me.

I have modified the recipe a bit according to what I’ve learned about bread baking, and I used butter rather than shortening because I’m not a big fan of shortening.

Recipe is originally from Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread.

English Muffins

2 1/4 c. All-Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 1/4 tsp. Active Dry Yeast
1/2 TBL. Sugar
1 c. Milk at room temp
1 TBL. Butter, melted
Cornmeal for sprinkling

Combined flour and salt and set aside. Combine milk, yeast, and sugar; mix well and let sit 3 to 5 minutes; add butter. Add flour and mix until combined, adding more milk if dough is too dry. Kneed about 5 to 10 minutes (until smooth and elastic; dough will be soft, but shouldn’t be sticky), form into a ball, and place in an oiled bowl and roll to coat. Cover and let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Place parchment paper on cookie sheet, lightly coat with oil, and sprinkle with cornmeal. Split dough into 6 pieces and form into balls. Place balls on cookie sheet far enough apart to allow them to rise, cover, and let them rise another hour.

Heat oven to 350. Warm a skillet on medium heat and lightly coat/spray with oil. Gently place your hand over one of the muffins and flip into your hand using the paper and peeling it back once in your palm, then place in the pan. Being careful when removing the muffins from the parchment will help them keep their shape. Cook in the skillet a few at a time, 5-8 minutes per side—until nicely browned on both sides. They should flatten as they cook.

When done in the skillet, place on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for another 8-10 minutes. Don’t wait until they are all done in the skillet before moving the first batch into the oven: put first batch in the oven, then cook the second batch in the skillet at the same time.

Transfer baked muffins to a cooling wrack and let cool at least 30 minutes before cutting. Store in fridge in a plastic storage bag. To serve, cut, toast, pile on the butter, jelly, or whatever!

The look is off, but the taste is there, so hopefully it’ll improve as I practice. And it may just be how I put things together when mixing the dough, or the fact that I opted for butter instead of shortening. I’ll play around a bit and let you all know.

The Chef has this Salsa Tilapia recipe he does that’s just outstanding, and tonight we decided to make ti with a couple of twists and his Cherry-Almond Asparagus. It turned out to be a FANTASTIC dinner.

The salsa is pretty much the same as most any salsa or pico de gallo, only we replaced the tomato with mango and exchanged the yellow/brown onion with red. One of the recipes we looked at also puts in a jalapeño chile for some heat. We chose not to do that. Once we finished the salsa, we took a portion of it and blended it to make a marinade, placed it and the tilapia in a bag and marinated the fish for about an hour. When it was time to cook, the tilapia was placed in a skillet with a small amount of extra-virgin olive oil and browned on both sides. After flipping it, the mango salsa (not the marinade, but the chunky salsa) was placed on top and the whole thing allowed to cook for about 2 or 3 minutes—just enough to warm the salsa without cooking it or getting it mushy.

The fish is served over red rice with some of the salsa on top. Red rice has a beautiful flavor and aroma, but it came out a bit more firm than I’m used to for rice. Maybe we overcook our white rice. It was still very good.

Next to it is asparagus that had been steamed with slivered almonds and dried cherries. This worked out wonderfully. The cherries played off the mangoes and brought the whole plate together. And the colors worked together as well as the flavors. A beautiful dinner. It was a lovely, filling meal that I hope we have again.

When I first started making bread, I really had some problems with it. I initially started with a Rosemary-Olive Oil loaf, but it just wouldn’t rise/bake correctly.

So I went to something a little less exotic. Wheat Bread. Not whole wheat, but that was fine. The recipe was an easy one, and that’s what I needed. But I ended up with the same problems. So I hunted down information on baking bread, created a tips card, and using that card, I finally had success. The only thing I didn’t like is that the loaves seemed small, and I wanted store height bread.

So then I played with the recipe. First I tried a citrus version recommended by a friend. Didn’t go over so well with the family.

My last playing, though, was to take half the wheat and make it rye, and I increased the amount of dough by going to one and half times the recipe.

And the family loves it and the loaf is…well, here, take a look!

That loaf is fresh from the oven and, even though you can’t see it, was steaming at the time of the picture.

Easy Wheat-Rye Bread

1 1/4 c. Whole Wheat Flour
1 c. Rye Flour
2 1/4 c. All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2c. Warm Water (between 110-115 degrees)
1 1/2 pkgs Active Dry Yeast
3 TBL Honey
3 TBL Brown Sugar
3 TBL Butter, Melted
1 1/2 TBL Milk
1 1/2 TBL Unsweetened Applesauce (opt, but adds moistness)

Oil or butter a large bowl, set aside. Combine flours and salt in a bowl; set aside. In another large bowl, combine water and yeast, stirring until creamy (about 5-10 minutes), add remaining ingredients (I usually add the sugars and applesauce first, stirring in each before adding the next) and mix until well combined. Add flours. Knead until smooth and elastic—dough will feel slightly grainy and a bit sticky, though it won’t stick to your hands—about 10-15 minutes. Make a ball and place in oiled bowl, turning to coat. Cover with towel, set in warm place, and let rise 40 minutes OR until doubled in size. Punch down and knead gently and lightly until smooth; shape into a loaf and place into a greased loaf pan**. Let rise 30 minutes OR until about doubled in size. Bake 30-35 minutes at 350. If it browns too quickly, cover with tinfoil. Let cool a few minutes, remove from pan, finish cooling on wire rack.

** A regular loaf pan works; it makes the bread taller and wide. A taller loaf pan would keep the top from going to wide.

The results: beautiful bread:

I actually like the flavor of the rye-wheat combo better than the wheat only. The Chef says it’s okay, like he says the wheat bread is okay; he most definitely did not think the citrus bread was okay. lol

And the smell while it was baking was wonderful.

So I think this might end up being our regular bread from now on. And here’s my tips for anyone interested.

Tips For Baking Bread

1. Watch water temp by using a thermometer. Keep it between 85 and 115 for the best results with your yeast.

2. Allow yeast and water to sit sit at least 5 minutes to activate the yeast; it should be creamy and bubbly and have a yeasty smell.

3. Salt kills yeast. Do not add salt directly to the yeast mixture. I combine it with the flours and add the flours after all other ingredients.

4. If finding a warm place to allow the dough to rise is a problem, try using the oven. Turn it on to 200 degrees and let warm up, then turn it down at least halfway to off (one place recommends turning it off completely, but I’ve found that to result in an oven that’s too cool). Place covered dough in warm oven to rise.

5. Go by how far the bread has risen, not how long it should take. If it’s not doubled, it’s not ready.

6. For the second rise, do not over-knead the bread or add too much flour. Be gentle.

7. Softer doughs rise faster. If a dough seems too stiff, add a TBL of water before the first rise. Don’t add too much water, though.

With these tips, and the fact that my other breads seem to be working out fairly consistently now, I feel just about ready to tackle the Rosemary-Olive Oil Bread. I’ll post a picture if I manage to get it right.

I’m actually really impressed with myself this evening. This is the first dinner I’ve put together (other than my holiday meals) that I thought was really rockin’! And the kids, other than the grand baby, really liked it too.

Honey-Roasted Chicken
Tomato-Basil Goat Cheese Polenta
Caramelized Onions
Roasted Mushrooms

Most of these items came from here. Changes noted below.

The chicken quarters were slathered in honey and sprinkled with season salt, paprika, and garlic powder to taste. Baked covered at 425 until the last 10-15 minutes, then uncovered so they would brown. This is how I always do chicken: the meat remains nice and moist because all the moisture is kept in under the cover (we use foil), then it browns nicely in the last 10-15 minutes without losing that moistness.

The polenta followed the recipe as noted in the above link except we added 1 extra garlic clove and the cheese was a tomato-basil goat cheese. We only had 4 ounces of the goat cheese but the flavor still came through in a nice way.

For the caramelized onions, I used 2 brown and a little under half of a red.

Finally, for the mushrooms, we also minced 2 cloves of garlic and mixed that in with the mushrooms, salt, and pepper. We also roasted them a about 5-10 minutes longer. And they came out wonderful.

I plated the polenta first, topped that with onions, then the mushrooms, and with the chicken a little off to the side.

This really was a very satisfying dinner, and everything worked really well together taste-wise. Especially when making sure to get onion, mushroom, and polenta on the fork. The juices from the chicken and the chicken skin itself also really added to the flavor. I’m going to have to try this again, maybe with a little more of the goat cheese mixed in. I think the only thing I’d change is adding a green veggie to the plate, maybe some asparagus or something. The plate definitely needs a little more color. If the chicken hadn’t taken on the reddish color of the paprika, the plate would be nothing but yellow and brown.

I just might be able to make meals for the family that aren’t so boring. I remember before I met Chef, and my meals were pretty plain Jane. Heck, more often than not, I relied on boxed things—Hamburger Helper and the like. This dinner proves I don’t need to do that any more, and that I can play around with recipes successfully.

And that is just way cool.