Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving Mini Cheesecakes with Double-duty Cranberry Sauce




Cute Polymer Clay Witch

This polymer clay witch magnet was made by my cousin.  This cute figure and many like her (dentists, princesses, snowmen etc.) can be found for sale at her Etsy site.  They are hugely adorable and I think they would make great cake-toppers for kids (and adults) to be reused as magnets.  They have been coated so frosting/grease won’t penetrate the baked clay figurines and I even washed the chef guy because he had cranberry sauce all over him.  The little circular magnets are attached to the back.  Check them out HERE at her Etsy site, and click HERE for her blog.




Here’s the Polymer Chef.  He had a hand in the cranberry sauce as you can see.


For Thanksgiving dinner, I made cranberry sauce with a bag of cranberries, one cup sugar and one cup water (just like it says on the package!)  I love the jewel tones of the berries and the leftover sauce is perfect for topping the mini cheesecakes.  I always have tons of cranberry sauce leftover.




After brining my organic turkey, I dried it in the refrigerator overnight.  Then I roasted it back side up.  Here it is ready to be flipped around breast-side up to finish roasting.


We like tradition around here.  I stuff my turkey with plain ol’ bread stuffing.


Here’s the creamed spinach and mushroom.


I roasted some veggies too:  brussel sprouts, carrots, parsnips, beets, turnips and onions.

For the mini cheesecakes, I used this recipe HERE.

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TESTING, TESTING...MINI BLACK SESAME CHEESECAKES

Mini Black Sesame Cheesecake with Oreo Cookie Crust

How fortunate I am to be able to do some product testing and recipe experiments! It's a whole lot of fun (when stuff turns out beautifully delicious!) and quite hilarious when it doesn't too. My colleagues at work have been more than willing to taste-test my recipes and they are on the whole, quite honest. There are those that will hoover up anything and everything I give them, but they're just being kind I know because they don't want the stream of food to stop. They gave this cheesecake the thumbs up, and I think it's quite good too.

For this test recipe, incorporating "The Product"...an instant Black Sesame Dessert mix (it's a dessert soup), I decided to go the cheesecake route. The chiffon cake I made was a flop because the dessert mix threw off the delicately precise proportions of ingredients required to produce a proper cake. So, having a sort of black sesame epiphany, instead of cake, I made no-bake mini black sesame cheesecakes with oreo crumb crusts. They were smooth, creamy and delicious.

I began by pressing my cookie crumb crusts into my cheesecake molds

This is the product I have been testing. It makes my mom's favourite convenient dessert soup! What a coincidence...she's been buying it forever! If you're not Asian, you may not be familiar with dessert soups. It's somewhat akin to instant jello pudding mix. Except it isn't.

I looked on the side of the package to try to figure out the proportions of "other ingredients" aside from the black sesame. The starches and sugar that were in the mix were problematic for baked cakes, but should be okay for some of my other ideas...

Here's the cream cheese and sesame batter...

...and the whipped cream that'll lighten the texture of the cheesecake. The cheesecake is "Asian" in flavour and in it's tendency to be lighter in texture and less sweet than western cheesecakes.
I decorated the mini cheesecakes with some toasted whole black sesame seeds to indicate the flavour of the cute little grey desserts (important if you don't want to explain why your cheesecake is grey!)

Ta-da! They popped out of their molds perfectly!
The oreo crumb crust can be substituted with a graham cracker crust or even a cake crust

The texture is smooth, silky and creamy. You are hit with the black sesame flavour first, and then you experience the creaminess and the contrasting chocolatey oreo crunch
I'll be developing another recipe with this product soon. Stay tuned!
*****
Update: July 23, 2009 Recipe
MINI BLACK SESAME CHEESECAKES WITH OREO COOKIE CRUST
(recipe created by http://cakeonthebrain.blogspot.com/)

NB: this recipe can be easily adapted to make a Peanut-flavoured Cheesecake, using the Torto Peanut Dessert Mix.

Cream Cheese mixture:
250 g /1 cup/brick cream cheese, softened at room temperature [Philadelphia brand is best]
150 g/3/4 cup heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks
50 g/1 pkg Torto brand black sesame dessert mix
61 g/1/3 cup milk
61 g/1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon unflavoured powdered gelatine
53 g/1/4 cup water

Oreo Cookie crust mixture:
114 g/9 Oreo cookies, crushed (graham crackers or digestive biscuits could be used interchangeably with the Oreos)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Garnish: (optional)
Whole black sesame seeds

Procedure:
Crust:
Have ready a mini cheesecake pan (Williams Sonoma) or a muffin tin lined with 12 foil liners. Alternately, 12 small ring molds lined with plastic wrap on a sheet pan may be used.
In a small bowl, combine the crushed cookies and melted butter. Divide the crust mixture evenly between the 12 molds. Press gently into the bottoms to make an even base. Refrigerate until needed.
Cheesecake:

1. In a small bowl, sprinkle the powdered gelatine over the ¼ cup water to soften. Set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and the milk over med-low heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved completely. Do not boil. Add the black sesame dessert mix and stir until thoroughly combined. Add the softened gelatine. Stir completely to incorporate. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, with the beater attachment, beat the cream cheese until softened, smooth and free of lumps. Add the cooled black sesame mixture to the bowl and continue to beat on low speed until smooth, about 1 minute.
4. Using a rubber spatula or large balloon whisk, stir in a quarter of the whipped cream. Gently fold in the rest of the whipped cream until thoroughly mixed.
5. Divide the cheesecake mixture evenly between the molds, spooning it onto the prepared refrigerated crusts. Gently tap the molds on a counter to level the mixture or release any air pockets.
6. Decorate each mini cheesecake by sprinkling whole black sesame seeds on the surface. Refrigerate until set, about 2 hours.
7. Remove cheesecakes from the molds and serve with whipped cream.
   
   Makes 12 mini cheesecakes.

Torto products are available all around the world. If you're from Canada, all Torto Instant Dessert products can be purchased at your local chinese grocery store. If you can't find it, visit http://www.canroxy.com/ or call (416) 321 8521 to find the closest retail shop near you. For anyone outside Canada, you can find it at your local chinese grocery store or email ettason@ettason.com.hk for more info.

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LOW-CARB MINI CHEESECAKES

i resolve to eat more cheesecake: low-carb mini cheesecake, to be exact

I apologize for the long bouts of nothingness. I am finding it difficult to post about desserts because I'm struggling with trying to start the new year by eating healthy. That means I have to cut back on my sugar intake. So far, I've gradually weaned myself off eating lots of sugar.

However, my food blog has suffered greatly since going low-carb. It seems almost impossible to maintain a food blog concentrating on desserts when you're watching what you eat.

But, I have found a way around this dilemma.

I'm going low-carb. No! don't go running away so soon! I do promise desserts! Some with sugar even (these will be donated to a worthy cause...my co-workers). However, I'll be adding low-carb desserts too.


For the next little while, I'll be posting more recipes for low-carb desserts. After my first baby, I gained over 60 lbs. Yes, 60. I know that you're only supposed to gain 25-30 pounds, but I had a thing for fruit. Especially watermelon. I ate healthily. I didn't eat fried stuff or junk food. But I ate a lot of fruit. All that sugar just turned into fat. My baby wasn't even that big. It took 2 years to get myself down (slowly and steadily) down to 10 pounds over my beginning weight. When I hit a plateau...and I hit several, I decided to go low-carb and eliminate all sugar and white, refined foods. This allowed me to come down to those last 10 pounds over my starting weight.

Before I could lose those last 10 pounds, I decided to have my other daughter. So it goes. Now, she's 2 and I'm kind of stuck with an extra 10 on top of the 10 I never lost. All in all, I want to get rid of those 20 pounds so I can fit some of my old skinny clothes. I'm frugal. I'm not throwing those clothes away! I buy pretty nice stuff and some of it is hardly worn. Most of the styles are timeless too.

Some people might say that I was too skinny to start off with, but I don't think so. I was within a normal BMI range and I'm Asian...which means I was just right. Some of us have small bones, you see. It's not as if you can compare all people around the world with the generally Caucasian-centric stats. I learned this goes for looking at your baby's weight and height too. Everyone's so into comparing their babies with the percentile rankings, but forget the numbers used are primarily based on Caucasian kids.

Since Chinese New Year's I've decided to commit to this Low Carb way of eating. No, I'm not going Atkins (though it did work for me the first time). I'll be eating some fruit and veggies and I do cheat with little rewards when I've been good. It'll take me longer, but at least this way I might be able to stick to it better.

Here's my first little reward. It's a mini cheesecake. I replaced all the sugar with Splenda. The cheesecakes are so little (portion control!) and taste quite nice with the dark chocolate. I thought of dipping them in low-carb ganache, but it was getting late so I didn't bother. The mini cheesecake was gone in 5 little bites. It was just enough to get me through a sugar hump. Now I'm good. I washed it all down with some green tea and I feel good!

Okay, okay you geeks out there who cringe when they see Splenda...don't use it. If you're so against Splenda, go here and use sugar instead! :P However, I find Splenda does work out quite well considering. Baked goods come out generally drier (of course, because sugar acts like a wet ingredient in baking); but like I always say, it'll do. For a person who shouldn't be eating dessert, there's got to be some sort of a yummy reward. That's my motto during this low-carb era: it'll do! It's better than eating all that sugar and having my body go on a sugar high. I find when I haven't had sugar for a while, my body adjusts and I find I don't crave it.

LOW-CARB MINI VANILLA BEAN CHEESECAKES
adapted from Williams Sonoma recipe on the back of the bakeware box

For the Crusts:

1 cup (114 g) graham cracker crumbs
2 T Splenda
pinch of salt
2 T unsalted butter, melted

For the Filling:
16 oz (500 g) cream cheese
2 eggs
1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy cream
1/2 cup (125g) Splenda
[i added a vanilla bean, split; seeds scraped out and added to the cream]
pinch of salt

For decoration:
I used dark chocolate shavings, but you can use seasonal raspberries, strawberries and pitted bing cherries

1. Have all the ingredients at room temperature. Preheat oven to 350degreesF. Lightly coat the cups of the 12-cup cheesecake pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. To make the crusts, in a small bowl, stir together the cookie crumbs, sugar and salt. Add the melted butter and stir until combined. Divide the mixture evenly among the cups and using your fingertips, press it evenly into the bottom. Bake until the crusts are set, about 10 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely. Reduce the heat to 300degreesF.
3. To make the filling, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the cream cheese on low speed until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes. Increase the speed to medium-low and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the cream and beat until incorporated, about 1 minute. Add the sugar and salt and beat until incorporated, about 2 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
   Pour the batter into the crusts, dividing it evenly among the cups. Bake until the cheesecakes are set, about 15-20 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours beore unmolding.
4. To unmold, insert the dowel into the hole in the bottom of each cup. Gently push up to remove the cheesecake from the cup. Use a small spatula or butter knife to remove the cake from the metal bottom. If the cheesecakes are sticking to the pan, gently run a toothpick around each cheesecake to loosen it before pushing it out of the cup. Makes 12 mini cheesecakes.

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MINI PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE BRULÉE

there's no squash quite so adorable as the pumpkin!

Canadians will be celebrating Thanksgiving this upcoming Monday. I am gearing up by buying little decorative pumpkins for the kids and I'm looking around for things to do with pumpkin puree as I just opened this massive can and have so much left over!

mini pumpkin cheesecake brulées: smooth, creamy and not over-spiced!

I used my mini cheesecake pan from Williams Sonoma to make some Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes. I bruléed the tops after they finished their overnight cooldown in the refrigerator and topped them with these adorable little chocolate "plastic" pumpkins. No, it's not plastic! It's made out of quality bittersweet chocolate and corn syrup! These are more yummy than the fondant pumpkins I made last year for my cupcakes. "You can't go wrong with chocolate" is my motto. I have plenty of this chocolate playdough left over from making those chocolate roses from the other day. I'll be doing a chocolate rose tutorial soon. Come back and check it out later!The recipe I created makes only 8 mini cheesecakes. I just wanted to use one brick of cream cheese, and I kind of just made the recipe up along the way.

MINI PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE BRULEE

Crust:

• 1/2 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs
• 1 T sugar
• 1 T melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Combine all the ingredients together, mixing well. Press an equal amount into 8 mini cheesecake molds.
3. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool while making the filling.

Pumpkin Cheesecake filling:

• 8 oz (250g) Philadelphia cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, room temp.
• 1/4 cup canned pureed pumpkin
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. pie spices
• 1 T. milk

1. Lower heat to 300°F.
2. Beat cream cheese in a standing mixer until creamy and smooth.
3. Add the sugar, pureed pumpkin and spices and beat on medium speed until well combined.
4. Add the egg and continue to mix for about 1 minute. Finally, add the milk and mix thoroughly.
5. Spoon equal amounts of the cheesecake filling into all 8 prepared molds.
6. Bake the cheesecakes for 20 minutes at 300°F
7. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the molds.
8. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Remove the cheesecakes and brulee just before serving.

Serving:

• Sprinkle granulated sugar over each cheesecake and use a brulee torch to caramelize the sugar until golden brown.
• Top with a mini chocolate pumpkin. Form small balls of chocolate plastic with your hands and use a toothpick to form grooves on the pumpkin and veins on the leaf. see tutorial

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MINI VANILLA BEAN CHEESECAKES WITH FRESH BERRIES

School's out!

Yay! And kids think they're happy to get out.

Where's the first place I headed right after school on Friday afternoon?

Williams Sonoma. I thought that if I drove down Granville Street on the way home, and there "happened" to be a parking spot, it would be some sort of karmic thing and it was meant to be that I go shopping. I wasn't going to cheat either by circling the block a few times. Just one shot.

Lo and behold, I found a spot off of Granville on a little side street with shady trees. I only had to walk one block and I didn't even have to cross any streets. Zowie. That's baking karma.

on the back of this box is a recipe for cheesecake that is supposed to fit the capacity of this baking tin. i ended up having about 1/2 a cup extra cheesecake filling.

I zeroed in on the bakeware section first as usual, to see if there was anything new. I saw some really neat baba molds. The charlotte molds were so cute too. What caught my eye though was a single box left of the mini cheesecake molds. I thought these would be more versatile.

these nonstick mini cheesecake molds have a removable base. they even provide a dowel for the purpose of assisting unmolding.

I was hoping to find some nice plates. I've been eyeing the French-made Pillivuyt line of dinnerware: the rimless white dishes made of porcelain. I haven't yet been able to legitimize buying a set of these dishes, though I yearn for them each time I go into this store. You see, I have a perfectly fine set of white IKEA dishes. Yes, Ikea. The thing is these Ikea dishes are so darned resilient. I haven't broken or chipped any and I'm beginning to wonder how I'm ever going to break them all require a new dinnerware set.In the end, after circling the aisles a couple of times, I settled on this ceramic ivory cake stand with ruffles. It was so adorable. I hardly ever make cakes this small. But, now that I have this cake stand, I really do need to start!

I was very happy with the performance of the mini cheesecake pan and in the future, instead of a baked cheesecake, I may do a refrigerated one using gelatin instead so I can incorporate fresh fruit into the batter: like mango! As well, I was thinking of making other pastries and desserts with this nifty pan. I was thinking of making mini mousses using a biscuit joconde for the base, flavouring that with some syrup and then topping that with chocolate mousse. I'll have to see if that idea is feasible for these tiny molds.

i grated dark chocolate on the cheesecake tops before topping them with fresh seasonal berries

MINI VANILLA BEAN CHEESECAKES WITH SEASONAL BERRIES

adapted from Williams Sonoma recipe on the back of the bakeware box

For the Crusts:

• 1 cup (114 g) chocolate cookie or vanilla wafer crumbs [i used digestive biscuits]
• 2 T sugar
• pinch of salt
• 2 T unsalted butter, melted

For the Filling:

• 16 oz (500 g) cream cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy cream
• 1/2 cup (125g) sugar
• [i added a vanilla bean, split; seeds scraped out and added to the cream]
• pinch of salt

For decoration:

• I used fresh seasonal raspberries, strawberries and pitted bing cherries
• dark chocolate shavings

1. Have all the ingredients at room temperature. Preheat oven to 350degreesF. Lightly coat the cups of the 12-cup cheesecake pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. To make the crusts, in a small bowl, stir together the cookie crumbs, sugar and salt. Add the melted butter and stir until combined. Divide the mixture evenly among the cups and using your fingertips, press it evenly into the bottom. Bake until the crusts are set, about 10 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely. Reduce the heat to 300degreesF.
3. To make the filling, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the cream cheese on low speed until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes. Increase the speed to medium-low and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the cream and beat until incorporated, about 1 minute. Add the sugar and salt and beat until incorporated, about 2 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. Pour the batter into the crusts, dividing it evenly among the cups. Bake until the cheesecakes are set, about 20 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours beore unmolding.
5. To unmold, insert the dowel into the hole in the bottom of each cup. Gently push up to remove the cheesecake from the cup. Use a small spatula or butter knife to remove the cake from the metal bottom. If the cheesecakes are sticking to the pan, gently run a toothpick around each cheesecake to loosen it before pushing it out of the cup. Makes 12 mini cheesecakes.

More about → MINI VANILLA BEAN CHEESECAKES WITH FRESH BERRIES