Green Tea Matcha Cheesecake

I don't know why I've delayed from sharing this for so long. I made this for Valentine's Day dessert because my boyfriend doesn't like many sweet things, but really likes things that are green-tea flavored--and has ordered yummy green tea cheesecake in restaurants before.

This was pretty easy (although finding affordable matcha took me a while). I adjusted the original recipe for a heart-shaped pan...but I don't have pictures because unfortunately I left my cheesecake in the oven a little too long and it cracked! It was super delicious though! The matcha flavor was very subtle but perfect.

Green Tea Matcha Cheesecake
Recipe adapted from Dodol & Mochi

1.5-2 packs honey (plain) graham crackers
.75-1 sticks unsalted butter, melted and let cooled slightly

(A)
20 oz cream cheese, softened
6.60zcaster or granulated sugar

½ cup heavy cream
1.5 medium-size egg, at room temperature
2 ¼ tablespoons cake flour, sifted

(B)
4.5 teaspoons matcha powder
4.5 teaspoons caster or granulated sugar

2 ¼  tablespoons cherry brandy, or, kirschwasser (I couldn’t find it so used vanilla extract).

Lightly grease the sides of a 9-10 inch springform pan, and line with parchment; line the base of the pan with aluminum foil. Secure the ring (i.e. sides) to the base of the pan. Then wrap two layers of aluminum foil on the outside, around the base and sides of the pan. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Place the graham crackers into a Ziploc bag, press to force the air out of the bag, and seal the bag tightly. With a rolling pin, bash the biscuits into fine crumbs. Alternatively, a food processor will help you do the job. Mix in the melted butter, then press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan to get an even layer. Chuck the whole thing into the fridge to chill.

In the meantime, using a hand mixer, cream together (A) till smooth and creamy. Then, stir in the heavy cream, and followed by the egg, in two to three times to avoid curdling of the mixture. Next, mix in the sifted flour. Whisk together (B), and stir into the batter to combine. Lastly, mix in the liqueur.

Pour the batter over the crust, and place the whole pan into another larger baking pan that comes with sides taller than those of the springform pan. Prepare the bain-marie by filling the baking pan with boiling-hot water. Place the assemblage into the preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes, till almost cooked through and the cake’s surface begins to spring back when gently touched. Turn off the oven, leave the oven door opened ajar as you let the cheesecake cool to room temperature in the oven.

Remove the cooled cheesecake from the oven, the bain-marie, and then the layers of aluminum foil. Refrigerate for at least at least three hours, preferably overnight, before slicing to serve. Cheesecakes, including this one, keep real well in the fridge.

Individual Tiramisu

On Father's Day I asked my dad what his favorite desserts were. One of his top favorites was Tiramisu, so a few days later I made this for dessert. I like the idea of having individual desserts, and didn't want to use raw eggs, so when I found this recipe I knew I had to try it. It was a very easy tiramisu recipe--I do want to try making a large sized tiramisu with raw eggs to see how they compare, though--and super dense and creamy and delicious.

One fun fact about people here back home: I went to Safeway to find the ladyfingers (didn't want to make them from scratch since I was already cooking a dinner I'd never tried before), and everyone was so much nicer than I'm used to. I was walking around and people just asked if I needed help and were super happy about giving me help, and even when multiple people had to be asked to find the ladyfingers, everyone was very sweet. Even at checkout the lady and bagging-boy were so friendly. So not used to that, but it was a good change from the usual grumpiness back where I went to college!

Individual Tiramisu
Recipe (slightly adapted by me) from Foodiebride

Soaking Syrup
1/2 cup strongly-brewed coffee or espresso
1 Tbsp sugar

Filling
8 oz reduced-fat cream cheese
8 oz mascarpone
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp strongly-brewed coffee or espresso
2 Tbsp milk

Assembly
6 5/6-oz clear cups
24 ladyfingers, purchased or homemade
1 oz semisweet chocolate, grated

In a small bowl, mix espresso and sugar, stirring until the sugar has disolved. Set aside to cool.

With your mixer, cream the mascaropone, cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar on medium-high for 3-5 minutes, until light and fluffy. The mixture should feel smooth (not gritty) when rubbed between your fingers.

Remove half of the mascarpone mixture and transfer it to a smaller bowl.

Add 2 Tbsp of espresso and mix well.

Add 2 Tbsp milk to the remaining filling and mix (this is just to thin the filling, the type of milk - whole, skim, etc - does not matter) well.

Trim the ladyfingers so that they come just below the top rim of the cups. Reserve the excess pieces. (The trimmed ends of the cookie are "the bottoms," the rounded uncut ends are "the top.")

Working with one ladyfinger and one serving at a time, quickly dunk the top half of the cookie into the soaking syrup and place in the plastic cup coffee-end (top) up.

Repeat with 3 more lady fingers, arranging them around the cup (if your ladyfingers are thin, you might need to use more than 4).

Place one of the reserved trimmed ends of the cookies into the bottom, followed by a spoonful of the espresso filling, the plain filling, and top with more ladyfinger pieces (when you run out of trimmed pieces, tear additional ladyfingers into small pieces to fit the next layer). Repeat 2 more times to fill the cup.

Sprinkle grated chocolate over the top.

Repeat the process for the remaining servings.

Loosely cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.

Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

On the 11th was my friend's birthday, so the night before I made this cake for her birthday party. I wanted something easy that I had ingredients for or could easily get ingredients for, and this worked!

I used the same recipe for the cake as I did here except that I only used 2 layers. I still baked it for 30-35 minutes and it worked fine. I also used parchment paper which is a MUST. But everything else for that cake is the same--it's probably my favorite chocolate cake recipe now.

For the cream cheese frosting, I was originally going to make a red velvet cake for her but then the convenience store didn't have red food coloring, but I still stuck with a cream cheese frosting since I had all the ingredients for that. The cream cheese frosting recipe I tried was a new one, posted below. It was really great and I think it complemented the cake nicely...although I didn't eat the cake...so somebody who did get to try it should comment and let me know! It had a stronger cream cheese flavor than my other favorite used with these cupcakes. Ignore the lettering for her name--I didn't have food coloring so I just added some cocoa and was trying to rush so it looks ugly. That doesn't matter, because the taste was all that counted!

Cream Cheese Frosting
Recipe from Pinch My Salt

16 oz. cream cheese (2 packages), softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
pinch of salt

With an electric mixer, blend together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Turn mixer to low speed and blend in powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Turn mixer on high and beat until light and fluffy. Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to use. If refrigerated, the frosting will need to be brought to room temperature before using (after frosting softens up, beat with mixer until smooth).

Whoopie Pies (again!)

I've made whoopie pies before but wanted to try them again. I used the same cake/cookie recipe as last time, but changed up the frosting to be the same cream cheese frosting from the Red Velvet Cupcakes I made this summer. They were great! I loved this combination probably better than the buttercream last year, not that I remember that very much. I definitely want to try making different flavors of whoopie pies in the future, but I was just making them off what little variation of ingredients I have. I'm reposting the recipes below even though they can be found elsewhere on my blog.

Classic Chocolate Whoopie
Recipe from Whoopie Pies
Found on Bakerella

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a bowl, sift together, flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

In another bowl, beat butter, shortening and sugar with a mixer on low until just combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes.

Add egg and vanilla and beat for two more minutes.

Add half of the flour mixture and half of the milk and beat on low until incorporated. Repeat with remaining flour and milk and beat until combined.

Using a tablespoon, drop batter on baking sheet two inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes each or until pies spring back when pressed gently.

Remove from oven and cool for about five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

1 Tbsp of batter should make about 48 two-inch cakes or 24 pies.
2 Tbsp of batter should make about 30 four-inch cakes or 15 pies.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Recipe from Annie's Eats

8 oz. cream cheese
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth. Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.

New York Style Cheesecake with Strawberry Sauce

Lastly for my mom's bookgroup retreat, I made a New York Style Cheesecake with a strawberry sauce. They were reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel, by Jonathan Safran Foer, and since that's based in New York it seemed appropriate. This cheesecake is based off a recipe my mom used to make, so I don't know where it's from originally, but she has adapted it over the years. The strawberry sauce is just made by letting strawberries sit (either defrosted strawberries or fresh strawberries) and cut them up together and then mixing them with sugar to taste. It turned out great!!

Because I'm no longer home, I don't know the recipe...so if you want it, I'll post it later, so comment if you want it & keep checking back!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

For the 4th of July, my parents and I went to my mom's friend's party. My mom made a couple appetizers to bring, and I made the Nutella Cookies I made before, and these cupcakes. By the way, if you haven't seen those nutella cookies, MAKE THEM. Everybody LOVES them. These cupcakes were also a big hit. The FROSTING was the best cream cheese frosting I have ever made. I made a few changes to the original recipe for the frosting, which I show adapted below. This recipe made about 30 cupcakes for me. They were so cute!

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Recipe adapted by Saveur from Apple a Day, found at Annie's Eats

2½ cups cake flour
1½ cups sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1½ cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp. (1 oz.) liquid red food coloring
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. distilled white vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar. Beat on medium speed until well blended. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Let cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Recipe adapted by me, after being adapted by Annie's Eats from Confections of a Foodie Bride

12 oz. cream cheese
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
3 tsp. vanilla extract
3 ¾ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.

Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.

Mix in the vanilla extract.

Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.

Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.

Cinnamon Swirls

Yum. These were so good. The other people who tried them said they were a little different from what they were used to, probably because these cookies had no eggs and lots of cream cheese. They were flaky and perfect! Mine, of course, didn't turn out as perfectly shaped as I would have liked, but most of them still turned out great.I made these for a friend last week as a sort of goodbye/goodluck gift. I don't know if he really liked them, and maybe I should have stuck with making something more traditional and more cookie-like, but I had cream cheese and wanted to use it before leaving for winter break...and these were good. Try them out! I'd probably chill them in the fridge for more than just 1 hour, or chill them in the freezer.

Cinnamon Swirls
Recipe adapted from Taste of Home by Linda

1 cup butter, softened
One 8-ounce pkg cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

In a large bowl beat the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla until fluffy. Combine the flour and salt and gradually beat it into the butter mixture.

Divide dough in two and wrap each tightly in plastic wrap. Chill for 1 hour. Combine cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into a rectangle - about 1/4 inch thick. Spread the sugar mixture to within 1/2 inch of the edge. Roll up tightly - starting at either the short or long edge. (Starting at the short edge will give you a fatter log, and bigger cookies.) Wrap log tightly and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Slice logs into 3/8 inch slices and place two inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.