A Late Post: Chocolate Chip Cheesecake (A Birthday Treat)

This post is coming far later than it should, and I’m afraid I’m a terrible food blogger because of it. Life and family and plenty of other things kept getting in my way, but I’m back now; I’m posting this entry and one on another dish tonight. Hopefully, with fall well underway, this blog will have more delicious entries.

Every year for my kid brother’s birthday in July I make a Chocolate Chip Cheesecake; it’s sort of a tradition in our family. I make it using a recipe I got from Eagle Brand cook book my Nanny gave me. The recipe is ridiculously easy, and after realizing that it tastes better with vanilla cookies for the crust, it was simple to master.

To make the crust you simply melt three tablespoons of butter, scrap the icing from the insides of your sandwich cookies, and finely crush them; I was in a bit of a rush, so I used the food processor to crush my cookies, but you can put them in a baggie and use a rolling pin to do the job. Once that is done, you simply mix the cookies and butter until the cookies are moistened and press them in the bottom of your springform pan. You do not need to grease the pan at all.

      

Next, you should toss your mini chocolate chips in flour so that they don’t sink to the bottom of the batter; it’s important that you make sure they are completely coated.

 

The next step is to beat the softened cream cheese until fluffy, but do not oversoften or overbeat it.

  

Gradually add the condensed milk, beating it until smooth; then add the eggs and vanilla mix well. Again, don’t overbeat or overmix your batter or the chips will not distribute well throughout the cake.

 

  

Gently stir the flour coated chocolate chips into the batter and pour over the prepared crust; sprinkle the remaining uncoated chips over the top of the cake as evenly as possible. Try not to touch the sides of the pan because then the clean up is a pain.

  

Bake at 300 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes, or until set; usually it takes the full 60 for me. Let it cool completely before removing it from the pan, and then chill it. If you do not let it chill, it will tear when you try to remove it from the pan.

 

Eagle Brand Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

1/2 cups finely crushed crème filled chocolate or vanilla sandwich cookie crumbs
2-3 tablespoons melted butter
3 (8oz) packages of cream cheese, softened
1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
1 teaspoon all purpose flour

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees
• Combine cookie crumbs and butter in a small bowl, press firmly into the bottom of an ungreased 9 inch springform pan
• In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy (do not overbeat). Gradually add condensed milk until smooth; add eggs and vanilla. Mix well
• In a small bowl, toss 1/2 cup chocolate chips with flour to coat; stir into cream cheese mixtures, pour over crust. Sprinkle remaining chips evenly over the top.
• Bake 55-60 minutes, or until set; allow to cool and chill.

Southern Style Deep Dish Pecan Pie (An Update)

As it turns out, it’s difficult to run a food and cooking blog when you are broke because decent ingredients are expensive. However, I did manage to make a very successful pecan pie recently, using my Grandmama’s recipe. This is the recipe I grew up with, and it’s the recipe I swear by. I’m pretty sure it’s a no fail recipe as long as you do not do anything silly.  It’s not difficult to make, and it’s delicious.

 

The recipe only calls for six ingredients and a deep dish pie crust (unbaked); before you begin, ensure that your crust has no cracks of holes in the bottom. If you don’t do this, then you may pull an upside down pie from your oven with the crust floating on top. Again I emphasize the need for a deep dish pie crust; a regular pie crust will be too shallow and will over flow.

 

This is a very sugary pie; dissolving the sugar in the syrup and butter doesn’t take long, but you must do it over low heat, stirring frequently, otherwise you’ll burn the sugar. The moment that mixture is dissolved, remove it from the heat to prevent over cooking it; this will also allow it to cool slightly and prevent partial cooking of your eggs when you mix them in.

 

I always combine my eggs and vanilla, blending them thoroughly with a spoon before I combine them with the sugar mixture. If you don’t, sometimes the eggs will not combine smoothly, and if the mixture is too hot, your eggs will cook partially, leading to a grainy texture.

 

There really is no correct way to handle the pecans for this pie. Some people finely chop their pecans, while others coarsely chop them; I usually use them whole, but because I wound up buying pre-chopped pecans, they are coarsely chopped here. I tend to mix my pecans in last, stirring them until they are thoroughly coated with the filling mixture. This gives them a somewhat glossy sheen when the pie is finished. I also usually use a bit more than the single cup of pecans the recipe calls for.

As you can see the pie crust is very full, and you have to move slowly and carefully to place the pie in the oven, otherwise you will be scrubbing sticky pie filling from the floor and bottom of the oven, which is in no way fun. To prevent, overbrowning of the crust, it’s always a wise move to cover the edges with aluminum foil or a crust saver, but I was in a hurry and feeling lazy, so I didn’t do that.

Bake at 325 degrees for approximately 45 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the filling does not jiggle too much; 45 minutes is almost always long enough. I don’t have pictures of the pie after it was sliced because it was made for my kid brother to take to school.

Southern Style Deep Dish Pecan Pie

1 C White Sugar
3/4 C White Karo Syrup
1/2 Stick Butter
3 whole eggs
1 t vanilla
1 C pecans (chopped or whole), more can be added.
1 deep dish pie crust, unbaked

• Dissolve sugar, syrup, and butter over low heat, stirring frequently; remove from heat when completely dissolved
• Mix eggs and vanilla until well blended; stir into sugar mixture
• Add in pecans, stirring until thoroughly coated
• Pour into crust and bake at 325 degrees for 45  minutes

All-Bran Muffins (Healthy Breakfast from the Renegade Kitchen)

I know, I know, long time no food Nic. Well, let me just remedy that with a post about muffins. All-Bran Muffins to be specific, and yes, I’m talking about All-Bran Cereal, which pretty much tastes like cardboard by itself. I’m all about healthy food that tastes good, which is a rare find lately, and so when I come across something this good I have to share it. Although, to be honest, I’ve known about All-Bran Muffins since I was very little.

These fabulous muffins are something my grandmother makes, and for awhile I thought they were some secret R family recipe. But nope, they are actually from a recipe my Grandmother found on the box one time and she adds raisins and nuts to the mix. These muffins are fantastic because they are very healthy and very filling; I always double the recipe so that we have extra muffins because they keep so well. So now I present to you, All-Bran Muffins. I apologize for the lousy pictures, but we still don’t have lights up in the kitchen.

 

Notice that you don’t use the flakes, but instead you use the actual twig looking cereal. You mix the rest of your dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

 

Ok, now this is the unpleasant part, which is soaking the cereal in milk; clearly you have to soften the cereal so that it eventually makes muffin batter. This takes at least five minutes, sometimes more, and you will know that they’ve soaked enough when there is no visible milk in the bowl.

  

The new microwave has a butter melting function, which is pretty awesome; all I have to do is tell it I want to melt a stick of butter, and bam, it melts it. You beat the eggs and the butter into the cereal until smooth, and it makes a thick batter. I do not recommend wooden spoons for the recipe. You will break them.

 

Next come the dry ingredients, which are combined with your cereal mixture until smooth. Don’t over mix the ingredients. Again, wooden spoons will break because this is very, very thick. I was extremely grateful for my electric stand mixer because otherwise this would’ve taken forever and probably bent the spoon.

 

The final touch isn’t in the original recipe, but something about plain bran muffins disturbs me. In go the raisins and pecans, and I always add more pecans than raisins because I’m not a huge raisin person. There’s no set amount to add, just do it to your specific taste. I’m sure you can substitute walnuts or dried fruit of your choice too, but around here we do things pretty simple. Once mixed up you are ready to bake.

 

You will have to spoon the batter into the cups because its not going to pour at all. Make sure you spray the tin liberally with non-stick, and because this makes more than a dozen normally, you’ll have to wipe out the crumbs between batches. Also, gratuitous shot of our magnificent oven because its been so long since I’ve had a good oven to bake in and I have missed it.

 

I really wish my shots of the baked muffins had come out nicer, and I swear when we have lights and things the pictures will improve. Anyway, as you can see, they are not at all smooth on top, and the nuts and raisins are peeking out. I still wish I could’ve gotten a picture of one broken open, but I was in a hurry to get going and the light wasn’t cooperating.

Recipe for All-Bran Muffins

1 1/4 C all purpose flour
1/2 C sugar
1 T baking powder
1/4 t salt
2 C All-Bran Cereal (original, not flakes)
1 1/4 C milk
1 egg
1/4 C vegetable oil or butter

• Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt
• Combine cereal and milk, let stand for five minutes or until soft
• Add egg and oil to cereal, beat well
• Add dry ingredients, stirring only until combined
• Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes

Where Have You Been or Kitchen Remodels Make For Bad Bloggers

Since just before Thanksgiving, when I wanted to do a huge food and cooking post I have been without a kitchen, quite literally. I have been making do with an electric skillet, a dual burner hot plate, and a crock pot for almost two months. Crazy? Absolutely. So now that I’ve made that explanation, let’s get with the content.

What Have I Been Cooking?

Ok, so just prior to the destruction of the kitchen I used my Nanny’s cherry chip cake recipe, which I am not including here because I’m not actually going to talk about it in detail, to bake my mother a birthday cake. I put too much pudding in the batter, making it too moist and it fell apart. It still tasted delicious, but I was so disappointed by the fact that it was a crumbly mess that did not look pretty, even with my soft pink icing. Food failure!

At Thanksgiving, I attempted to make two pies, both of which lead me to the conclusion that I will not be buy Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts (the kind you roll and put in a pan) ever again. They tasted strange, like they had some kind of chemical taste, which is not something I look for in a pie crust. I tried working with an entirely different pecan pie recipe, and it was too syrupy sweet for my taste. I guess I will just stick to my Grandmama’s tried and true Southern Pecan Pie recipe. I also tried to make my Nanny’s No Fail Chocolate Pie, which I can normally make without problems; lesson learned, do not use a brand of cocoa powder you are not familiar with. Neither pie was spectacular, and I was very disappointed.

Where am I with the Remodel?

Good news, as evidenced by the pictures below (I apologize for the poor quality but there are no lights in the kitchen at the moment), we are rocketing right along now. Walls and ceiling have been painted, cabinets and counters have been placed and are almost set, oven has been mounted, sink has been placed, and the refrigerator is where it belongs. We ran into quite a lot of problems along the way, and entire walls have to be replaced; it turned into a nightmare.

    

   

Here’s hoping that we finish the kitchen today, as we have planned. However, I do not hold out a great deal of hope, all things considered.