Blog Envy: Top Ten Recipes You’ve Been Meaning to Make.

For this month's Top Ten Challenge from Food Nerd, we are to make a top ten list of recipes we have been meaning to make.  We are then supposed to select one, let that blogger know we are going to make their recipe, then make it and post about it.  So, this is my top ten list of recipes to make.  Some of them have been on my list for quite some time.  However, that doesn't mean that I haven't been dreaming about making them someday.  So, here is my Top Ten list of recipes I have been meaning to make.  The recipe I will be making for this challenge is the top recipe for Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls.  So, I will update this post once that part of the challenge is completed.  Be sure to check out the other tasty recipes on this list.  Ooh, it was so hard to choose just one to make.  I'm sure the others will be made, all in good time. :D

1.  Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls from Joy the Baker

2.  Lava Cookie from Cake Spy

3.  Guiness Bread with Molasses from Simply Recipes

4.  Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream from David Lebovitz's Blog

5.  Brownie Chunk Cookies from Jumbo Empanadas

6.  Raspberry and Pink Peppercorn Macarons from Cannelle et Vanille

7.  Vanilla Bourbon Bread from Genesis of a Cook

8.  Cake Doughnuts from Bakerella

9.  Biscuits with Sausage and Sage Gravy from Pinch My Salt

10. Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake from Smitten Kitchen

Update on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 11:46PM by [Sarah]

Well, I made Joy's cream cheese cinnamon rolls! They were absolutely divine right out of the oven. They were still incredibly delicious later, when they were room temperature. One thing I have wondered about with cinnamon rolls, is how to avoid the centers popping up higher than the rest of the cinnamon roll during the rising and baking time. If anyone has any good advice, that would help me out a lot!

I made a few tweaks to the recipe. I omitted the raisins and used only walnuts. I also increased the salt a tiny bit and used more cinnamon. I also made cream cheese icing using 4 ounces of cream cheese, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1/4 cup milk and 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar.

Super recipe! Give it a try!

Black Bean Soup

This soup, although not the prettiest soup in the world, is mighty tasty.  There's lots of cumin, ham and vegetables!  I adapted this recipe from the New Best Light Recipe.  This soup lasts for days and it tastes even better the second day! I was a little concerned about cooking dried beans without soaking, but the recipe assured me that soaking the beans was unnecessary.  It worked out fine, so there really is no need to soak dried beans ahead of time.

Black Bean Soup

Adapted from the New Best Light Recipe

Ingredients:

Beans

6 cups water

1 pound (2 cups) dried black beans, rinsed and picked over

2 bay leaves

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Soup

9 ounces ham, finely diced

3 celery stalks, finely chopped

2 large onions, finely chopped

1 large carrot, peeled and finely chopped

8 garlic cloves, minced

4 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin (I actually didn't have enough and ground up cumin seeds in my coffee/spice grinder.  It was really fresh and tasty, so if you have cumin seeds, try grinding those up for this soup.

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 canned chipotles in adobo sauce, minced

4 teaspoons of adobo sauce (from canned chipotles)

4 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

Garnish with:

1 avocado, diced and mixed with a little lime juice

low-fat sour cream

raw onion or scallions

cilantro

red pepper flakes (to taste)

salt

Directions:

Cook the Beans:

Bring 5 cups of the water, the beans, bay leaves and baking soda to a boil in a large lidded saucepan over medium-high heat.  Skim off any "scum" on the top.  Add the salt and switch heat to low.  Cover and simmer until the beans are tender.  This should take  from 1 - 1 1/2 hours.  Mine were ready way before I expected so they were slightly overcooked.  Check them often near the end of the cooking time and taste several beans to make sure they are all cooked.  If there isn't enough water, add an extra cup of water and continue cooking until the beans are soft, however, when the beans are done, there shouldn't be a lot of water with the beans, most of it should have cooked out.  I did not need to add extra water to cook my beans.  When the beans are cooked, do NOT drain them.  Take out the bay leaves and set aside.

Make the soup:

In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil.  Add the ham and cook it until lightly browned 2-3 minutes.  Add the celery, onions, carrot, garlic, cumin, pepper flakes and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until vegetables are soft and browned.  Stir in the cooked black beans and their cooking liquid, 4 cups of chicken broth and the chipotles and adobo sauce.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, partially covered.  Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to simmer for 30 minutes.

Puree 1 1/2 cups of the beans and 2 cups of the cooking liquid in a blender (be careful!).  Return the blended mixture to the pot and stir.  If the soup is too thick, add more chicken broth, if it is too thin, either puree more beans for cook it for a little longer with the lid off. 

Remove from heat, stir in the lime juice and serve with the garnishes.  This soup improves over time and can be stored for 3-4 days in the refrigerator.

The Finale: Oreo Cheesecake

For the finale on the week of treats, I brought this Oreo cheesecake to the end of the year party after school on Thursday (It was only a 4 day week).  This is an Oreo version of the Daring Baker's cheesecake I posted last month.  One thing I learned is that you should only make cheesecake if you have plenty of time for it to cool. I *knew* this, but was determined to make cheesecake anyway.  Well, although my cheesecake was very tasty, the texture was not what I wanted. It was a bit more pudding-like.  I am sure it was because I didn't let it cool all the way to room temperature before putting it in the fridge (it was late and I had to go to bed!).  It didn't have time to set up all the way.  It annoyed me that I had overlooked this important detail, but it was happily enjoyed by myself and my co-workers anyway. 

It has been a fun ride and I will miss all the wonderful people I work with!  Have a great summer guys!

Oreo Cheesecake

Adapted from Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake 

crust:
3 cups / Oreo crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 1/2 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 1/2 tbsp Kahlua

12 Oreo Cookies, chopped into thirds or quarters (for inside the cheesecake)

About 1/3 cup extra coarsely crumbled Oreos for the garnish

Fudge ice cream topping (I used Mrs. Richardson's or you could make your own)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath. Wrap the outside of your cheesecake pan with 2 or 3 layers of aluminum foil to avoid water seepage during baking.

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. (I used a glass with straight sides to make my crust nice and even on the bottom and sides. There wasn't a huge knob of crust in the corner when I did it this way)

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, and Kahlua and blend until smooth and creamy.  Stir in chopped Oreos.

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.

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. Once fully chilled, spread the fudge topping on top and sprinkle the outside with the coarsely crumbled Oreos.

Bars! Bars! Bars! - The Ode Continues...

As a tribute to my awesome co-workers, I have been baking them something every day.  I wasn't able to post Tuesday's treat due to an unfortunate incident* which sucked away all my time for the evening.  I thought it was more important to bake for the next day than post about  that day's treat! 

For Tuesday, I made Dorie's tasty Brrrrr-ownies, with a few adaptations.  I put the minty treats in the lounge with a silly sign that said, "You guys are so cool, so I made these minty brownies for you!"  They were nearly gone by lunch.  I have read that a lot of people like these brownies chilled, but I disagree.  Having tried them both ways, I prefer them at room temperature.  I think the texture changes too much when they are chilled and they become (gasp) too fudgy.  However, opinions vary.  Try them both ways and decide for yourself!

For today's treat, I made two different kinds of bars because I couldn't decide which one to make.  I made S'more bars and the experimental Salted Nut Roll Bars.  The S'more bars I have made before and they are rich and delicious.  I found them on the blog Baking Bites.  I tweaked it a tiny bit, but it is generally the same.  The Salted Nut Roll Bars were inspired by this free magazine that comes to my house every now and then, Cuisine at Home.  They had a recipe for Salted Nut Roll Bars in the most recent free issue I got.  I liked their idea, but I wanted mine to be a little different. 

So, I tweaked the S'more bar recipe and came up with the recipe below.  It worked out pretty well.  If I were to do it over however, I would halve the cookie dough base.  The bars were pretty thick and I think half the recipe would do the trick.  In fact, I am going to write up the recipe to reflect this change.  If you want to have a thick tall cookies base like in the picture, just double the cookie base ingredients.

Minty Brownies

Adapted From Brrrrrownies by Dorie Greenspan

10 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
6 oz. semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/3 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp pure mint extract
pinch of salt
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 bag of York Peppermint Patty Baking Bits or 2 cups (12 oz.) York Peppermint Pattie Bites (or an equal weight of patties), chopped into bits
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 F. Line an 9x13-inch baking pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.

Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Put the butter in the bowl, top with the chopped chocolates and stir occasionally until the ingredients are just melted - you don't want them to get so hot that the butter separates. Remove the bowl from the pan of water. (You could do this in the microwave, just be very careful by stirring a lot and using short bursts of heat).

With a whisk, stir in the sugar. Don't be concerned when your smooth mixture turns grainy. Whisk in the eggs one by one. Add the mint extract and whisk vigorously to bring the batter together and give it a shine before gently stirring in the salt and flour; stir only until incorporated. Switch to a rubber spatula and fold in the peppermint pieces and semi-sweet chunks. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with the rubber spatula.

Bake the brownies for 30 to 33 minutes, or until the top is dull and a thin knife inserted into the center comes out almost clean. (The tip of the knife may be a touch streaky.) Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature.

Smore Bars

Adapted from Smore Bars from Baking Bites

1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 - 12 oz bag milk chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)
2 - 7 oz jars of marshmallow creme/fluff

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9x13 baking pan with foil.  Spray with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined. Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan.

Scatter the milk chocolate chips over the dough.  Drop the marshmallow fluff by small spoonfuls over the dough and gently spread with a spatula (a little cooking spray on the spatula might help).  Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together).  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned.
Cool completely before cutting into bars with a long, sharp knife lightly oiled with cooking spray.

Salted Nut Roll Bars

Cookie Base

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/3 cups flour

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup crushed (or finely chopped) salted peanuts (I just put mine in a baggie and smashed them with a rolling pin)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping

1 - 11 oz bag of caramels (I used the unwrapped caramel dots, but you could use regular wrapped caramels)

large pinch of kosher salt

2 Tablespoons water

10 oz peanut butter chips, divided in 1/2

1 bag mini marshmallows

14 oz salted dry roasted peanuts

Directions

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9x13 pan with foil and spray the foil lightly with cooking spray.

Beat butter, peanut butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla, beat well.  Stir together graham cracker crumbs, crushed peanuts, flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.  Add to the butter mixture beating until blended.  Press the dough into the prepared pan.  Bake 25 - 30 minutes or until lightly browned.  

While the base is baking, mix the caramels with the water and kosher salt in a microwave safe bowl.  Melt the caramel in the microwave, stirring often.  Once the caramel is melted, add 1/2 the bag of peanut butter chips.  Stir until smooth.

Once the bars come out of the oven, pour half of the peanut butter caramel mixture over the bar base.  Sprinkle with 1/2 the peanuts and some peanut butter chips.  Spread the mini marshmallows on top and press down gently.  Bake for about 2 minutes, until puffy but not brown (or the marshmallows will be crunchy).  Remove from oven and immediately pour the remaining caramel over the marshmallows.  Pour more peanuts over top and press down gently.  Cool.  Slice with a long sharp knife lightly sprayed with cooking spray.

* The unfortunate incident did have a happy ending.  After an extra long day at work, I decided to stop 1/2 through my 45 minute commute to shop for the Smore Bars and Salted Nut Roll Bars.  I also needed a few other things so my shopping took about an hour.  Only after all my items had been rung up did I realize I had left my wallet at work.  I had taken my wallet out of my purse in order to pay for something and forgot to put it back!  At the end of my rope, I asked them to hold my things while I drove back to work to get my wallet.  I called my husband, crying from the stress at this point, to tell him I would be much later than usual.  I didn't even think to ask him to drive out and rescue me, but he offered.  He drove all the way out to where I was and paid for the items.  He was the hero of the day!  So without my awesome husband, these treats wouldn't have been possible!  It would have been so close to bedtime by the time I got home, I wouldn't have had any time to put them together!  What a great guy!

A Pyramid of Chocolate Awesomeness and an Ode to Great Co-Workers

 

I have really been enjoying Pure Chocolate by Fran Bigelow!  One dessert that caught my eye immediately was the Triple Chocolate Pyramid.  Mine is not nearly as perfectly shaped or frosted as the one in the book, but I feel it is good for my first attempt.  Besides, it tasted amazing!  It is layers of flourless chocolate-almond cake, with hazelnut milk chocolate filling, glazed in dark chocolate ganache.  This cake was featured at a joint birthday party that went on this weekend and it was well received by all.  It is very rich and decadent, so I knew there would be plenty to take to work on Monday to share with all my work buddies.

This is my last week at my current job working as an elementary special education teacher.  I am closing this chapter of my life and moving on to go to graduate school.  I have worked at the same elementary school for the past 5 years and it has been a wonderful experience.  I work with such awesome people, that I have decided to do a week of treats as an ode to how great they are.  :D

It's starts with this pyramid.  I made this pyramid for all the people who deserve something rich, sweet and amazing (birthday friends and awesome co-workers included).

Triple Chocolate Pyramid

Adapted from Pure Chocolate by Fran Bigelow

*Note* When making most cakes, it is best to have all ingredients at room temperature.

Ingredients

Cake

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

3/4 cup sugar

8 ounces almond paste, cut in little pieces

4 large eggs

2/3 cup Dutch processed Cocoa, measured then sifted

1/2 teaspoon espresso powder

1/4 - 1/2 cup Frangelico (optional)

Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Filling

3 ounces semisweet chocolate

8 ounces milk chocolate (good quality, I used Green and Blacks)

1 cup Praline powder (or you could probably just use 1 cup ground toasted hazelnuts)

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

Dark Chocolate Ganache

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup heavy cream

Directions to bake cake

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Lightly butter two 9x13 pans.  Line them with parchment paper and butter the paper (I just use baking spray). 

In a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Slowly add the almond paste pieces, one at a time.  Beat until smooth, about 4-5 minutes.  Scrape down the bowl several times.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly between each one.  Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the cocoa powder with a rubber spatula.  

Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops. (The layers will be thin).  Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.  Cool completely, then refrigerate.

To make Milk Chocolate-Hazelnut Filling

Melt the semisweet and milk chocolates together in a double boiler (Honestly, I just use the microwave. You have to be really careful with milk chocolate in the microwave though.  I start at 30 seconds and then do small 20 second bursts in the microwave and stir a lot in between so I don't scorch the chocolate).  Stir in the hazelnuts or praline powder and cool to 90 degrees. 

In a mixer, beat the butter on high speed for 5-6 minutes.  Pour the chocolate-hazelnut mixture all at once into  the whipped butter.  Beat 5-6 minutes on high speed.

To Make Dark Chocolate Ganache

Place the chocolate in a bowl.  Heat the cream in the microwave until it begins to boil, about 1-2 minutes (watch it very carefully so it doesn't boil over).  Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and let sit for 1 minute.  Stir with a spatula.  Chill 1/2 cup of the glaze for 30 minutes and cool the rest to room temperature or about 80-85 degrees.

To Assemble the Cake

Loosen the cakes from the pans and invert onto a wire rack.  Remove parchment and invert onto a cutting board.  Cut the cake in half lengthwise (hot dog style! You will end up with two long rectangles.  You could use a ruler if you want it to be perfect) After cutting the layers, I set three aside and put 1 in the center of my cutting board.  Using a pastry brush (I used one of those silicone ones) gently brush the cake layer with Frangelico, being sure to cover the cake evenly.  Spread about 1/4 of the Milk Chocolate-Hazelnut filling evenly over the cake layer.  Place the next cake layer on top and repeat this process until all the cake layers and filling are used.  Use a metal spatula to smooth the sides.  Chill for 1-2 hours until set.

At this point, you can glaze with the dark chocolate ganache as described below, chill it and serve it.  If you want to make the pyramid, I think you will need to see pictures and I forgot to take some when I was completing this step.  This website does a good job demonstrating how to make the cake into a pyramid shape.  After you have the cake in this shape, chill it again. 

Put the cake on a wire rack over a foil lined sheet pan.  Frost the sides of the cake with a thin layer of the chilled glaze.  Make a smooth even coat.  Pour the unchilled glaze slowly and evenly over the cake. Use a spatula to make it smooth and even.  After the glaze has been poured, let it sit for about 15 minutes to set up.  Take the glaze that fell on the foil lined sheet tray and pipe it onto the cake in a decorative pattern using a star tip.  Make sure it is not too warm and not too cool.  Mine was too cool and ended up looking bad, but it still tasted great.  Store in the fridge.  Take out about 30 minutes before serving so it is easy to cut.  It keeps for 3 days in the fridge.