Meyer Lemon Cheesecake

Hello, to all of my faithful readers! Thank you for sticking around while I've been gone. I would like to apologize for taking so much time away from blogging... Things have been quite hectic around here, and I just couldn't seem to get time to cook and then blog about anything. And I've been trying to eat healthier, which seems to consist of a lot of the same things (or at least very similar things)... The good news is, I've lost 40 pounds in the past few months! I go to the gym 6 days a week every week - I have a workout plan that one of my personal trainer friends is helping me with, which I do every Monday, Wednesday, and Fridy, in addition to 45 minutes of cardio training on those days and then I do an hour of cardio training every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. It's definitely a lot of hard work. It sure didn't take this much work to put the weight on! I think if it took the same amount of effort to gain weight as it does to lose weight, there would be a lot more skinny people... ;-)

Anyways! On to my new recipe!!

Last week, I was at the grocery store and just happened to come across some beautiful little Meyer lemons. Living in northern Wisconsin, I've never seen or had them before, since I don't know anyone who lives in an area where they are grown and who would be willing to send me some. As you might imagine, I had never worked with them before. Needless to say, I was delighted to have come across them and scooped up two bags of the little beauties! Although, now I had to figure out what the heck to do with them, and it had to be something special...
It just so happened that I was talking to one of my good friends (Whom I also happen to think is quite handsome! :-)), and he recommended that I do a cheesecake - he's got quite a sweet tooth and loves desserts. I concurred that it was definitely a good idea, as I love cheesecake too, but I didn't want it to be just a normal cheesecake with merely some zest in there. He also recommended the candied lemon slices on top, which I thought were a great idea! I had never candied an entire lemon slice before, though, so I had to look into how it was done and came across a recipe from Martha Stewart that sounded easy enough. The only thing I did differently was to sprinkle a little bit of extra sugar on top of the lemon slices after they came out of the simple syrup bath.

Now, I just needed to make the cheesecake extra special...

Then, I remembered a project I had worked on last year, for Key Lime Pie Ravioli (which turned out rather spectacularly), and decided to make a Meyer lemon curd. I could swirl some of the curd into the cheesecake and then add a little more on top, after the cheesecake baked and cooled, to help hold the candied lemon slices in place. There are several different recipes floating around the internet for how to best make curd, and I don't remember where I found this one but I've been using it for a while now and have always had good luck with it. Except when I first tried to make orange curd using the same recipe, which requires a little extra acid...

The final product turned out to be quite delicious!

Printable Recipe

Meyer Lemon Curd:
1 c. Meyer lemon juice
4 tsp. Meyer lemon zest
¾ c. sugar
6 large eggs plus 2 egg yolk, room temperature
1½ sticks butter, cut into ½″ chunks

Cheesecake:
3 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, room temperature
1 c. sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
¼ c. brandy vanilla extract, or 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Candied Meyer Lemon Slices:
2 Meyer lemons, sliced thinly
1 c. sugar
1 c. water

For the Meyer lemon curd: Whisk together the juice, zest, and sugar in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Whisk the eggs and yolks in another bowl. Once the juice mixture is heated and the sugar is completely dissolved, take approximately 1 cup of the hot liquid and slowly whisk it into the eggs, whisking constantly. Pour the egg mixture slowly into the saucepan, whisking constantly. Add in the butter chunks a half at a time and whisk constantly. Continue whisking, after butter is incorporated, until very thick, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat and pour through a fine mesh strainer into another bowl or other container. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming and allow to cool 30-40 minutes, then chill for at least an hour or until cold.
For the cheesecake batter: Cream the sugar and cream cheese together in a large bowl until well-blended and the cream cheese has no more lumps. Beat in the eggs and the vanilla, just until smooth and creamy. Cover the bowl and allow the batter to sit overnight.
For the candied lemons: Bring sugar and water to a rolling boil in a medium-size, heavy skillet, stirring to dissolve the sugar. When the liquid is clear and bubbly, reduce heat to medium-low and add the lemon slices in a single layer; simmer until the rinds are translucent. Transfer the lemon slices to baking sheets lined with parchment paper and let cool completely.
To make the cheesecake: Preheat the oven to 325°. Prepare a graham cracker crust and gently press it into the bottom of an assembled 9-inch springform pan; pour the cheesecake batter over the crust. Transfer some of the Meyer lemon curd to a pastry bag fitted with a Bismarck tip (or just use a Ziploc bag with a small hole cut out of one corner) and pipe the curd into the cheesecake batter, making several circles around the pan until you reach the middle. With a toothpick, push the curd down into the cheesecake batter a little more and then cut through the curd and cheesecake to make a pretty pattern, going from the outside of the pan to the middle.
Place the cheesecake into a large cake pan or roasting pan and fill the outside pan halfway with water. Place the pan into the preheated oven and bake until the cheesecake is almost set, approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and let it continue to sit in the water bath for about a half hour; remove the springform pan from the water bath and place in the refrigerator to finish cooling. When the cheesecake is completely cooled, slice it into the desired number of pieces and serve garnished with a little bit of the Meyer lemon curd and some candied Meyer lemon slices.

Ham and Potato Gratin

Ah… Comfort Food… When it comes right down to it, is there anything better than comfort food? Don’t get me wrong, I love trying new, gourmet stuff! And I love experimenting with new recipes and trying different things. But, some days, you just NEED comfort food. I could eat sushi every day of the week and never get sick of it, but I don’t know if that can be considered comfort food… It always makes me happy, though! This time, what I’m talking about is honest-to-goodness, I-remember-when-I-was-little-and-my-mom-used-to-make-this comfort food. Toasted cheese sandwiches with the American cheese slices (always two) and a little bit of butter on the outside to make it brown really nicely, and always a bowl of hot tomato soup to dip your sandwich in. Mom’s extra creamy homemade potato soup with chunks of potatoes and ham. Now that’s some comfort food!
For me, potato gratin falls into the same category. When I eat it, I think of fond memories and get the warm fuzzies. I remember my mother making it when I was younger, but had shied away from it as an adult until just recently, opting for the bland substitute they offer in the red box on the grocery store shelf. I’m not sure why I didn’t make it myself before, but am going to guess it had something to do with the ease and length of preparation. Slicing 2½ pounds of potatoes is quite a daunting task when one doesn’t own a mandaline! (If you don’t already have a good one of these, I would highly recommend getting one. I have the Oneida brand one, from Kohl’s, and it works so well for cutting anything – I especially love the crinkle cutting side for making my own waffle fries. Whichever one you choose, be sure that it comes with different blades so that it is more efficient for and useful to you.)
When looking for the recipe I wanted to use for my potato gratin, I tried a few of them and eventually came up with this one after changing the one that turned out the best for me. I tried ones with Half & Half (which I don’t recommend because the milk and cheese will curdle more easily, leaving you with a weird gloppy mess) and ones with heavy cream. I tried one with different seasonings. I tried layering the potatoes and pouring the cream over them (which doesn’t work out that well for sufficiently coating all of the potatoes). The base that I used is Tyler Florence’s recipe, and then I added a few things and altered a few of them. The fresh thyme in this recipe is truly amazing! When I’m stirring the cream mixture before assembling everything, I like to try to make sure some of the thyme leaves fall off and stay in the sauce. And I like a little more flavor going on in my base, so I added some bay, shallots, and then a little more garlic, which I put through my garlic press - pressing garlic releases more of the juices than simply chopping it, plus it’s fast and easy! After all was said and done, this turned out to be the best potato gratin I’ve had.

Printable Recipe

3 c. heavy cream
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 shallot, chopped
6 garlic cloves, pressed
Salt and pepper, to taste
2½ lb. russet potatoes, cut into ⅛-inch thick slices
1 (16 oz.) pkg. diced ham
1 c. grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese, divided

Preheat the oven to 375°. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, heat up the cream with the thyme, bay leaf, chopped shallot, pressed garlic, salt, and pepper, stirring occasionally. When the mixture is heated, remove and discard the thyme and bay leaf and set the cream aside.
In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, cream mixture, diced ham, and ½ cup of each of the cheeses. Mix until all of the ingredients are thoroughly combined and then divide the potato mixture evenly between four gratin dishes, dividing any remaining cream mixture between the dishes. Set the gratin dishes on a cookie sheet and cover each one with aluminum foil; bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Remove the foil from the gratins and sprinkle with some more of the remaining cheeses; broil until the cheese is golden brown and bubbly.

Salted Caramel Cheesecake

I LOVE cheesecake. So much so that it’s been my birthday cake for the past 11 years! It started out with my best friend making me a Cherry No-Bake Cheesecake for my 20th birthday, and it’s a tradition that stuck because I love it so much. Over the years it’s evolved into real cheesecake, but there is still usually cherry in it somewhere.
After cherry cheesecake, I would have to say that this is my favorite cheesecake. I came up with the idea to make this the cheesecake of the week at my work, and I’ve made it a couple times since, for private parties and such. It always goes over well! Who doesn’t love the age-old combination of salty and sweet?!
The cheesecake base is just a very simple recipe, as it should always be. I don’t know what the deal is with some recipes calling for you to add flour and a bunch of other stuff, but it’s really not necessary. The graham cracker crust is also pretty straight-forward, except that I don’t always add sugar to mine. I’ve never actually measured how much of those ingredients I use, but I would guess the measurements I listed are accurate. I don’t like an overly dry nor an overly greasy crust, so I only mix enough butter until it just holds together when you press it with your fingers. The caramel sauce is also very basic, but quite delicious. When you put everything together, and then top it with the Fleur de Sel, which you HAVE to use, it’s so amazing! I like to put a little of the caramel sauce on top of the cheesecake and set it back in the refrigerator to cool on top of the cheesecake, saving the rest to drizzle on top, but either way is just fine.
My favorite part about this cheesecake recipe is that the base is so perfect you don’t need to mess with it very much. If you want to have fruit in it, simply warm some berries with a little sugar and lemon juice until they’re softened, then puree the berries and swirl them into the cheesecake. If you simply want it to be another flavor, add that flavor to the already-made batter. I’ve made so many delicious variations from this one base recipe, I can’t even remember all of them… And they always turn out wonderful!

Printable Recipe

Cheesecake:
3 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, room temperature
1 c. sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
1 Tbsp. vanilla

Graham Cracker Crust:
2 c. graham cracker crumbs
6-8 Tbsp. butter, melted

Caramel Topping:
10 Tbsp. butter
⅔ c. firmly packed dark brown sugar
⅔ c. heavy cream
3 tsp. vanilla extract
Fleur de Sel

For the cheesecake: In a large mixing bowl, cream the sugar and cream cheese together until well combined. Slowly mix in the eggs and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Allow the cheesecake batter to sit overnight. (Mix in any flavorings before leaving it to sit overnight, making sure that any additions are also room temperature before being added.)
Preheat the oven to 325°. Prepare the graham cracker crust by mixing graham cracker crumbs and butter until just moistened; gently press the mixture into the bottom and partly up the sides of an assembled springform pan. Pour the cheesecake batter over the graham cracker crust.
Place the filled springform pan into a large pan and fill the outside pan halfway with water. Place the pan into the preheated oven and bake until the cheesecake is almost set in the middle, about an hour and a half. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and let it continue to sit in the water bath for about a half hour. Remove the springform pan from the water bath and place in the refrigerator to continue cooling.
For the caramel topping: Place the butter, brown sugar, and heavy cream in a medium saucepan and stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves; increase heat to medium and bring to a boil, allowing the mixture to boil for a couple minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Cool slightly and spoon over the cooled cheesecake. Sprinkle the cheesecake with fleur de sel just before serving.

White and Green Asparagus Gratin

I love asparagus. Steamed. Sauteed with a little butter. Simmered in a cream sauce. However one makes it, I am not opposed to eating it. Just recently, I happened to find some white asparagus at my local market, and it was on sale for the same price as the green stuff! Needless to say, I couldn't pass it up... I had never worked with the stuff before, but I had seen it around (for, usually, a pretty penny) at the stores more than once or twice. Being that it was always more expensive than the green variety, as is the purple variety, I hadn't been able to justify splurging on something that I wasn't sure about. But, since I now found it for the same price, I couldn't very well walk on by!
White asparagus is actually the same species as green, but it's usually kept covered under soil or mulch so that it won't be exposed to the sun, thereby maintaining it's white color. Blah blah blah, chlorophyll borophyll... While doing my research, I did read that the white asparagus is supposed to be more woody than the green and so you are supposed to peel the very outside before preparing it. When I made this recipe, I used it peeled and unpeeled, just because I was curious if it really made a difference, and I didn't notice anything different in the texture. I think that if you let it sit around for a long period of time, then it would start to become woody and tough, much like the green stuff, but if you use it right away it's just fine.
When looking for recipes to use the white asparagus in, there didn't seem to be very many... Or, at least, not many that were truly unique. I've had gratins on the brain for a while now, though, since I insisted on having 6 new gratin dishes! (In my defense, they're not all the exact same! Two of them are black with white polka dots - LOVE!!, two of them are dark blue, and two of them are light blue! :-) You may remember the lighter blue ones from my post about the Chocolate Cherry Crisps...) I had originally considered using a recipe by one of my favorite fellow bloggers, Kevin from Closet Cooking, but decided, in the end, to go with a different one that I had found via the New York Times Diner's Journal blog, written by Elaine Louie. The version that she blogged about was much more grand than mine, but I really wanted to asparagus to be the one and only star of the dish. I used the recipe she posted as a guideline, and then just made it what I really wanted it to be. The sauce part was really what I was most interested in, and it was AMAZING!! I'm not sure if I didn't reduce it as much as I was supposed to, but the sauce wasn't very thick at all... That is really of little consequence, though, as we just dipped pieces of fresh, yummy bread into it to soak it all up. Who doesn't like that?!
I made two batches of this recipe, one the day before and one the day I made it, and they came out with equal results. So, if you're planning to make this for a holiday dinner, it's definitely easy to prepare ahead of time! I left mine sit out at room temperature so that it would have a similar cooking time as the ones I made the same day, but I mixed everything and arranged it in the gratin dishes ahead of time. You could also easily make this in a larger baking dish, making sure to check the asparagus for doneness and all of that, but it may take some extra time. But, I'm sure you could certainly find a way to justify buying a couple of gratin dishes of your very own, too... ;-)

Printable Recipe

1 c. heavy cream
2 shallots, minced
2 sprigs fresh thyme, bundled together
¼ c. dry white wine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ bunch green asparagus; trimmed and cut diagonally into ½-inch slices
½ bunch white asparagus; trimmed, peeled, and cut diagonally into ½-inch slices
1⅛ c. grated Parmesan cheese
¼ c. panko bread crumbs
2 Tbsp. melted butter

Preheat the oven to 400°. In a medium saucepan, combine the cream, shallots, thyme, and wine; place over medium heat and simmer until reduced by half, 20 to 30 minutes. Discard the thyme bundle and season the cream mixture with salt and pepper.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the asparagus, reduced cream, and 1 cup of the Parmesan cheese; mix well and place in two individual (approximately 16 ounce) gratin dishes, or other equal-sized ovenproof baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan over the tops of the asparagus. In a small mixing bowl, combine the panko bread crumbs and melted butter; sprinkle the bread crumbs on top of the dishes. Place the gratin dishes on a baking sheet, set in the oven, and bake until the asparagus are tender, the sauce is bubbling, and the bread crumbs are golden brown, 6 to 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Traditional Italian Tiramisu

Oh, Tiramisu… How I love thee!

I know that there are some (crazy) people out there who do not share my love of this heavenly “pick me up” breakfast snack dessert, but anyone who’s ever had a good tiramisu knows exactly how I feel. I don’t even like coffee unless there is enough sugar and creamer mixed in so that it doesn’t even taste like coffee anymore! But I looooove tiramisu…
I found this recipe in a copy of Cook’s Illustrated Italian Favorites magazine, which I came across at one of my local grocery stores, and was immediately entranced. You can also find the recipe on their website, but you need to be a paying member to access most of their content. I would highly recommend checking them out, especially if you are newer to cooking, as they do offer a lot of good advice and information about many cooking subjects. One of the important things they covered was how to properly dip the ladyfingers in the espresso and rum mixture so that you don’t end up with a soggy dessert – rolling the ladyfingers across the surface of the espresso mixture rather than submerging them in it.
The only thing that I changed about their recipe was the mixture of strong coffee and instant espresso powder, as I don’t think it’s much of an inconvenience anymore for people to find some brewed espresso. There are so many coffee shops that will make the amount you need for the recipe, and at a rather decent price, so there’s really no need to spend a lot of money on the fairly expensive instant espresso. Or, if you own a French coffee press, you can buy regular espresso and brew it in that, which is what I did for this recipe… I have a French press travel mug that I bought for making tea, which also worked out really well for brewing the espresso. My travel mug has two fine strainers which did a pretty good job of keeping the ground espresso in the mug, but you could easily remedy any issues you might have by running it through a coffee filter. Another option is just letting it sit after brewing until it reaches room temperature, and then any particles will settle to the bottom and can be easily discarded. If you don’t want to mess around with any of that, you can also ask them to grind your espresso a little more coarse than normal, which will ensure the grounds stay trapped under the strainer. It’s entirely up to you!
When it comes to the mascarpone, you definitely do not want to try substituting anything else. Cream cheese is NOT the same thing, and will yield different results… It is also important to know that when you’re working with mascarpone it doesn’t behave the same as cream cheese. Mascarpone is much more delicate and requires a little bit more attention and care – if you forget about it and leave it out at room temperature, there’s a very good chance it will break and be un-useable in most recipes. Therefore, you should leave the mascarpone in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it and return it to the refrigerator if you’re going to be completing other tasks.
I made this tiramisu for my family’s Thanksgiving get-together, as my mama will be in Italy over the holiday, and everyone loved it! Mama may be a little bit biased, siding with me and all, but she said this was the best tiramisu she’s ever had. Even better than what she’s had in Italy! Who am I to disagree with her?! We’ll not say anything about partiality and a mother’s love… ;-)

Printable Recipe

2½ c. prepared espresso, room temperature
9 Tbsp. dark rum
6 large egg yolks
⅔ c. sugar
¼ tsp. table salt
1½ lb. mascarpone cheese
¾ c. cold heavy whipping cream
14 oz. ladyfingers
3½ Tbsp. natural cocoa
¼ c. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, grated

Stir the espresso and 5 tablespoons of the rum in a wide bowl or baking dish; set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks at low speed until just combined. Add the sugar and salt and beat at medium-high speed until pale yellow, 1½ to 2 minutes, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula once or twice. Add the remaining 4 tablespoons of rum and beat at medium speed until just combined, 20 to 30 seconds; scrape bowl. Add the mascarpone and beat at medium speed until no lumps remain, 30 to 45 seconds, scraping down bowl once or twice. Transfer mixture to large bowl and set in the refrigerator to keep cool.
In the now-empty mixer bowl (no need to clean bowl), beat the cream at medium speed until frothy, 1 to 1½ minutes. Increase speed to high and continue to beat until cream holds stiff peaks, 1 to 1½ minutes longer. Using a rubber spatula, fold one-third of the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture to lighten, then gently fold in remaining whipped cream until no white streaks remain. Set mascarpone mixture in the refrigerator again to keep cool.
Working one at a time, drop half of the ladyfingers into the coffee mixture, roll, remove, and transfer to 13 by 9-inch glass or ceramic baking dish. (Do not submerge ladyfingers in coffee mixture; entire process should take no longer than 2 to 3 seconds for each cookie.) Arrange soaked cookies in single layer in baking dish, breaking or trimming ladyfingers as needed to fit neatly into dish.
Spread half of the mascarpone mixture over ladyfingers; use rubber spatula to spread mixture to sides and into corners of dish and smooth surface. Place 2 tablespoons of cocoa in a fine-mesh strainer and dust cocoa over mascarpone.
Repeat the dipping and arrangement of ladyfingers; spread remaining mascarpone mixture over ladyfingers and dust with remaining 1½ tablespoons of cocoa. Wipe the edges of the dish with a dry paper towel, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate 6 to 24 hours. Sprinkle with grated chocolate, if using; cut into pieces and serve chilled.