Happy Birthday, Mom!

I have been working on a blog about King Cakes since it is that season again, but I have hit a brick wall.  So much to say about the history of the King Cake for those of you that aren't familiar with them but also - how do I put that into something that is digestable.  What better way to get out of it than to dedicate a blog to my Mom on her birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!

My Mom is the reason I decided to switch gears and go to culinary school 41 years into my life.  After telling her this, she did something that she didn't think she would do, she burst my bubble.  The woman I always thought of as a wonderful example of  "stay-at-home-momness" (yes, I know it's not a real word), told me "Oh, I don't like to cook.  I just did it because I had kids and a husband to feed."  Insert scratched record sound here....What?!  I still love you Mom, but now I have a better understanding of you.

So in honor of her birthday today, I am indulging in a little bit of heaven known as Cheesecake.  My Mom's favorite dessert (I think).  And here is the recipe.  Simple - for those of you who don't like to cook or just want a nice quick to make dessert.  This recipe is best made the day before and chilled completely before serving.  Can be made in approximately 40 minutes and in my opinion rivals some of the "best" cheesecakes out there.  I have adapted this to be made in a 8x8x2 pan instead of the traditional springform pan used for cheesecakes to make it even easier.  The oven heats while you are preparing the crust and the crust cooks while you are preparing the filling.

Lemon Cheesecake

Makes 16 2 inch squares

FOR THE CRUST:

4 1/2 graham crackers (each 2 1/2 by 5 inches)

2 tablespoons sugar (I like powdered sugar)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

FOR THE FILLING:

2 pkg. (8 ounces each) cream cheese, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon (2 teaspoons zest and about 2 tablespoons juice)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract  (use Mexican or homemade vanilla extract if you have the opportunity)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. While oven is heating line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving an overhang on all sides. Crimp overhang under rim of pan.
2. In a food processor, blend graham crackers with sugar until finely ground; add butter and pulse until moistened.
3. Transfer crumb mixture to prepared pan, and pat in gently. Bake until beginning to brown, 10 to 12 minutes. While crust is baking, make filling.
4. Make the filling: Blend cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Note: I like using a hand held blender for this but you can use your food processor as well. Add eggs one at a time to make sure they are completely incorporated. Add lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla; blend until smooth.
5. Pour mixture onto hot crust in pan; smooth top and tap to remove any air bubbles. Return to oven, and bake until set (filling should jiggle only slightly when pan is gently shaken), 30 to 35 minutes.
6. Cool completely in pan. Cover very loosely with plastic wrap; chill until firm, at least 2 hours (and up to 2 days). Use foil to lift cheesecake out of pan. If serving as a whole cake, lift cheesecake from foil with a large spatula and cut into 16 squares. Otherwise remove the cheesecake from the pan and cut the squares while still on the foil. This will make it easier to put back in the pan for storage in the refrigerator. This will freeze nicely as well just be sure to wrap completely in cling wrap prior to placing in the freezer.

Cutting tip: This is a SOFT dessert. Be gentle or it will look like you let your 2 year old cut it with the Play-doh knife. You can use, unwaxed, unflavored dental floss. If you are using a knife, slice down through the cheesecake and then draw your knife out of it towards you. DO NOT pull the knife straight back up, you will just drag the filling with it. Rinse the knife and wipe it prior to making the next cut until all of your cuts are made.

Enjoy and Mom - Dad could make this one for you!

New Year's Eve 2009 - Margarine Earth Balance vs. Nucoa

New Year’s Eve 2009 was a very good day. Good friends, games, a little wine and dun, dun, dun….Dinner Impossible (or so it seemed)! One of my friends is lactose intolerant and her husband is diabetic - wow, what a combination to cook for! The biggest concern was the lactose intolerance though. Dinner - brown sugar, garlic glazed ham steaks, piquant sweet potatoes and garlic, lemon sautéed mushrooms. The sweet potatoes and mushrooms weren’t a problem we just replaced the normal butter in the recipes with olive oil. The ham glaze was made by sautéing finely minced garlic in a little Nucoa (no lactose margarine that my friend uses),  brown sugar and a little more Nucoa. The sugar and the Nucoa melted.  The Nucoa then foamed (just like butter would) but just sat on top of the sugar. Hum. Now I have never used Nucoa, never heard of Nucoa until then, so I wasn’t really sure what was happening at this point. I did know though that the sugar had caramelized and if we didn’t pull it off of the heat soon, it would be burnt sugar. So we pulled the pan from the heat and spooned the now liquid Nucoa off of the top of the caramelized brown sugar/garlic glaze. Glazed the ham steaks and back in the oven. They turned out fine.

Now I'm really curious about the Nucoa. I was able to locate Nucoa at a local grocery store and also picked up another brand Earth Balance (“vegan buttery sticks”). The first thing I notice is the “NO BURN” statement right on the front of the Nucoa box. Well that explains how we had almost burnt sugar with little to no change in the Nucoa. Nucoa is completely soy based giving it a very high smoke point  (about 450 degrees F). Under normal cooking circumstances it will not burn. I have read many articles about both of these products and how well they bake up. Being a culinarian, I personally would chose to use neither of these. I would use butter. But because the whole point of me looking into this was because of my friend who is lactose intolerant, I would chose the Earth Balance (EB) from a nutritional stand point. (Nutritional information at end of this entry). It is made up of expeller pressed natural oils not partially hydorgentated oils. The EB also has lower poly- and mono-unsaturated fats and no trans fats and is slightly lower in sodium and no artificial flavors. According to the box the EB also contains NO Dairy, NO MSG, NO Alcohol and NO gluten. Which makes EB a good choice for those who are gluten sensitive/allergic or who have Celiac disease, as well as dairy or casein allergies. I decided since I’m here I might as well compare how the two work in different cooking methods. These are my opinions and observations.  Both products are owned and distributed by GFA Brands, Inc.

Earth Balance vs. Nucoa

Appearance: Nucoa is yellow like a lot of margarines (artificial color) while EB is lighter than supermarket butter and about the same color as my home churned butter.
Straight taste: Because both are oil based they both have a solid, oily mouth feel (not pleasant or melty like butter). The Nucoa is definitely saltier. On toast they both melt similar to butter. The Nucoa has an only slightly better “flavor” on bread than the EB again artificially enhanced like the color. The EB tastes more like oil. Neither would I use for a spread on toast, biscuits etc.
Melting: both melted quickly in a moderately hot stainless sauté pan. The Earth Balance didn’t let foods stick though.
Baking: why not something that relies heavily on BUTTER - brioche. I used the same recipe for both loaves changing the milk to soy milk as well to stick to the lactose free theme.
Both doughs were very similar in texture and feel when working with them raw and surprisingly (or not so) not as difficult to work with as a real butter brioche dough. The EB dough came together better though and raised better.
Nucoa “brioche” - baked up in the expected amount of time and browned nicely on the top as well as the sides. Flaky more like a canned biscuit than brioche. Tasted like it was made with oil.
EB “brioche” - took an extra 7 minutes to bake but browned nicely on top and sides. Fluffy more cake like texture. Both internally were more like cake than brioche. Tastewise though the Earth Balance is by far better, still slightly oily in flavor but much better than the Nucoa.

Nucoa
GFA Brands, Inc.
Paramus, NJ 07652-1432
201-568-9300

Nutritional Information (from box)
Serving size 1 Tbsp (14g)
Liquid Soybean oil Calories 100 calories (from fat)
Partially hydrogenated soybean oil Total Fat 11g
Water Saturated fat 2g
Salt Trans Fat 1.5g
Emulsifiers(vegetable monoglycerides, soy lecithin) Polyunsaturated Fat 3.5g
Artificial flavors Monounsaturated Fat 3.5g
Calcium disodium EDTA Sodium 160mg
Citric acid Cholesterol 0mg
Vitamin A Palmitate Total Carbohydrate 0g
Colored with beta carotene (Provitamin A) Protein 0g
Contains no milk

Earth Balance
GFA Brands, Inc.
Paramus, NJ 07652-1432
201-568-9300

Nutritional Information (from box)
Serving Size 1Tbsp (14g)
Expeller-pressed natural oil blend (soybean, palm fruit, canola and olive oils) Calories 100 (from fat)
Filtered water Total Fat 11g
Pure salt Saturated Fat 4.5g
Natural flavor (derived from corn) Trans Fat 0g
Soy protein Polyunsaturated Fat 3g
Soy lecithin Monounsaturated Fat 3g
Lactic acid (non-dairy, derived from sugar beets) Cholesterol 0mg
Colored with beta carotene from natural sources Sodium 120mg
No MSG, no alcohol, no gluten Total Carbohydrate 0g
Protein 0g

Happy New Year! Let's make pizza...

Just a quick note to start off 2010!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season.  We are all looking forward to 2010.  I will be posting recipes and tips throughout the year and welcome your input.  If you see something that doesn't make sense or would like to correct information that you see in my posts, please contact me via e-mail and I will be happy to address your questions or make corrections as necessary.  If you have any recipes that you need help with (i.e. they just aren't right and you can't make them work) or can't find a good recipe for what you are trying to make let me know.  I love trying to "fix" recipes and getting you back in the kitchen. 

My first recipe for 2010 is a really simple but very good pizza dough recipe.  This is adapted from a recipe I found in The Pizza Book by Evelyne Slomon. This doubles as a really good pizzeria style dough for either a hand tossed pizza or a deep dish pizza as well as an Italian style bread if shaped in a loaf.
This takes 1 hr 20 min - 1 hr 45 min depending on how quickly your dough rises.

3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast (not rapid rise)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups luke warm water (105-110) - just warm to the touch, too warm and it will kill the yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil

Mix all ingredients except the olive oil together.  Lightly flour your work surface and knead the dough until it is soft and smooth.  This will take approximately 10 minutes.  Yes, it's a work out if you are not used to kneading dough, but well worth it in the end.  Place the dough back in your mixing bowl and cover either with a clean towel or cling wrap and place in a warm draft free area.  Let the dough rise until double (approximately 1 hour).  If your room is too cool, heat your oven to 200 degrees F, turn off the oven, open the door and let cool for 10 minutes.  Place the bowl with the dough in the oven and shut the door (MAKE SURE THE OVEN IS OFF).  This will shorten your rising time so be sure to check in on it at the half way mark.

Once the dough is double, pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees F. Punch the dough down and add the olive oil.  You will knead the dough again this time for about 5 minutes until the olive oil is worked into the dough and it is once again smooth and elastic.  Cover and set the dough aside for another 20 minutes to let it rest before working with it.    

For a hand tossed dough, divide the dough into four equal portions for a thin crust or two equal portions for a thicker crust.  Work each portion out into a 12 inch circle, and build your pizza as you like.  Once you have all your toppings in place, put your pizza in the oven for 10-12 minutes.  Your pizza will rise nicely and toppings and edge of crust will brown.  Enjoy!

If you are using a pizza stone be sure to pre-heat it in the oven when you turn the oven on.  You will need a pizza peel or non-edged baking sheet to build the pizza on and transfer to the pizza stone.  Be sure to lightly flour your peel with either all purpose flour or semolina (I like this option the best) and keep in mind, not to overload the pizza with toppings or it may not come off of you peel onto your stone.

If you are using a pan (round or rectangle)  to bake your pizza in, the pizza will need to bake longer (15-25 minutes), but the end result will look and taste the same.