SMS: Fresh Peach Muffins

This week's Sweet Melissa Sunday is hosted by JoVonn of The Givens Chronicles, a true Southern Belle at heart, she chose Fresh Peach Muffins.

Did they say Fresh Peaches???

Oh my! I love fresh peaches!!! But sadly they are not readily available here. But fear not we've got canned peaches! I must admit canned peaches can be a bit mushy because they are softer than the fresh ones. So I have to be more gentle with the mixing of the wet and dry ingredients.

These turn out good actually, while it was baking it smells so good very cinnamony! I can easily gobble these things up quite easily. The peaches are a bit softer than what I would have liked, so next time when I do see peaches in my supermarket, I'll try these again.

No Baked Cherry Cheesecake

Yup! you read it right. I just made a No Baked Cherry Cheesecake.

I know what you are thinking NO BAKE??? You hate no baked!

Before I made this I'd say you were right. After having a BAD experience with no baked cheesecake before when I ate in a restaurant ran by one of the best culinary school here, they should have been great but they taste horrible. The second bad experience with no baked cheesecake was when I started out baking my cheesecake turn out like a bad jello.

For some reason this time I opted to make the no baked version instead. Our weather here is on and off rain, and when it's raining it pours but when it's not, it's very very hot outside. So standing in front of a hot oven is the lasting I wanted. I remember seeing in Food Magazine a no baked cheesecake version years ago. Since I don't have mangoes available, I omitted those. Surprisingly it was quite easy to make, I only had to bake the crust and mix all the ingredients together.

I'm glad to say they turn out quite good, it's very creamy and luscious which compliments the crisp pastry crust very well. To be honest, I was quite surprised it turned out good. It's a good surprised though. For my slice of cheesecake, I top it with the tart cherry topping for a good contrast. Only my slice because my brother doesn't like it, so for him it's plain cheesecake with chocolate fudge on the side.

NO BAKED CHERRY CHEESECAKE

Adapted from Food Magazine

• 2 tbsp. unflavored gelatin
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cup all purpose cream
• 2 cups cream cheese, room temp.
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. calamansi (is like our lemon here)
• Sweet Pastry Crust (I used Pierre Herme's version)
• Cherry topping - any topping of your choice

1. Preheat to 350 degrees. As evenly as possible press in the dough inside a 10" springform pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside to cool.

2. While the crust is baking, disperse gelatin in water. Mix well and let it stand for 3 to 5 minutes to allow the gelatin to bloom. In the food processor, process cream cheese, milk and all purpose cream until smooth. Pour in sugar and calamansi process until well blended.

3. When the gelatin blooms, microwave it for 20 minutes until the gelatin granules melted and softened. Do not let the mixture boil. Cool and set aside.

4. Pour the room temp gelatin mixture with the cream cheese mixture.

5. Pour in the mixture in the prebaked crust. Chill until firm for 3-4 hours in the fridge.

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

After my last Cookie Experiment, it seems like a lot of people are into the search for the best Chocolate Chip Cookies which is actually so much fun! You get to eat the rejects too! This time I used the New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies, with so many people recommending this version I'm willing to give it a try. For some reason I cannot find chocolate disk anywhere, so I opted to use chocolate chips. These turn out quite good, these aren't actually chewy but very soft like Soft Batch cookies which is my favorite store bought cookies.

This for now is one of my favorite CCC recipe, a bit of an indulgence with all the chocolate it calls for. This is definitely not a low fat cookie, great for those emotional and sentimental moments when you need a bit of comfort. A warning though they can be addictive! gosh I spend last weekend eating these non stop!

NEW YORK TIMES CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Adapted from Jacques Torres

• cups minus 2 tbsp. cake flour
• 1 2/3 cups bread flour
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. coarse salt
• 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
• 1 cup + 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp. natural vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks, at least 60% cacao content
• Sea salt

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them with out breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of a generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough or reserve dough, refrigerated for baking remaining batches the next day.

First Biscotti

Over the past few years coffee shops have been popping up in every corner, so it's no wonder why people specially the yuppies love their cup of joe. I must admit I'm not a huge coffee drinker I'm more into the frappuccinos and blended coffee drinks but I sure do love the smell of freshly brewed coffee, it smells so luxurious and very invigorating.

Another reason of my love affair with coffee shops are the desserts that are temptingly displayed. One of the things I'm curious about is those little packs of biscotti that are reasily available right beside the cash counter. I haven't really have the chance to taste what real biscotti is suppose to taste like but that doesn't stop me from trying me hand into making my own biscotti.

Suffice to say it took me along time to find a biscotti without any butter in them. Most if not all the recipe I have for biscotti have butter in them, and for now I couldn't possibly use those.

Yes folks I ran out of butter again! What else is new right?

So butterless biscottis are the way to go. With much deliberation I finally decided on Nick Malgieri's biscotti which I got from his book Chocolate. The dough turn out to be very sticky, stickier than I expected, but in the end it turn out good. I didn't double bake it as long it says 20 minutes, but I took them out at 10 minutes cause my family specially my dad isn't use to firm cookies. They turn our pretty good, I got excited when it was time to cut these into their biscotti shapes, they do look like a real biscotti! They are very chocolaty with a nice crunch from the hazelnuts. To make it more chocolaty I drizzled some chocolates on top and leave them to dry overnight.

For non coffee drinkers like me and my brother, these are good with milk. My brother actually dunk the whole thing in milk!

CRISP CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT BISCOTTI

Adapted from Nick Malgieri's Chocolate book

• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Set a rack in the middle level of the oven. Preheat to 325 degrees.

2. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl. Stir in sugar and nuts.

3. Whisk eggs and vanilla together and add to the dry ingredients. Use a rubber spatula to stir the dough together.

4. Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and press it together. Divide into 2 equal roll each into a log the approximate length of the pan. Flatten each log with the palm of your hand.

5. Bake the logs for about 30 minutes, or until they are well risen and firm when pressed with a fingertip. Leave the oven on and place racks in the upper and lower thirds.

6. Cool the baked logs on the pan on a rack.

7. After the logs of dough have cooled completely, place them on a cutting board and use a sharp serrated knife to cut them into straight or diagonal slices, 1/2 inch thick.

8. Arrange the slices, cut side down, on the prepared pans and return them to the oven to toast for about 15 minutes.

9. Cool the toasted biscotti on the pans on racks.

10. Drizzle with melted chocolate(optional).

11. Enjoy! Either on their own or dunk into coffee or a glass of milk.

Cookie Experiment

If someone asks me what is my favorite cookie is, hands down, I would probably say it's Chocolate Chip Cookie.

I know you are probably thinking, What another chocolate chip cookie post? You are probably sick and tired of reading chocolate cookie posts everywhere, specially after the New York Times quest for the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie article which came out last year. It is an adaptation of Jacques Torres recipe, this version I haven't tried. However, Jacques Torres also has a recipe over at Martha's website which by the way is one of my favorites.

My love affair with chocolate chip cookies started in my early years of baking about 6 years ago. During one of my Food Network marathons, I was watching

Alton Brown's Good Eats episode of Chips for sister Marsha (one of my favorite episode). In this episode, Alton explains that there are 3 different textures of chocolate chips: the puffy/cakey, the crisp/thin and the chewy. I tried both the puffy and the chewy and I liked the puffy more, but then I realized just the other day that maybe I should give the Alton's version of chewy another chance because I only made it once and it seems that it didn't turn out great then and I just gave up which was wrong I know, but now I'm willing to give it another go. But wait! Alton's Chewy CCC whould be put on hold first.

I wanted to try two other chewy ccc recipe which is from King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion and from Cooks Illustrated Magazine. Why this particular recipe? Well...the different approach and ingredients that are suppose to make these chewy are so intriguing that I knew I have to try it. I don't often do two different recipes of a same thing at once but how can you compare same items if not eating them consecutively right? So here they are:

First is the Cook's Illustrated version (picture above), I found it more bothersome to make than the KAF version. These calls for melted butter so the cookie dough is messy and greasy to shaped and have such a dark cookie dough, I thought they wouldn't be good. I like the technique in how to produced that uneven top wherein you get a lump of dough, half it and squished the sides together with the ragged edges exposed on the top. It looks gorgeous however they are also oily! not very appetizing for cookies.Cookie #2 is the King Arthur Flour chocolate chip cookies, I was actually looking forward to these cookies. I often scoop my cookies out and bake them but when I opened the oven I'm disappointed to find out that they didn't spread not even a little and just puffed up. Trying to remedy that problem I did the CI technique of pull apart and squidge them back together well the outcome is an improvement to the hockey puck look of the scooped out version. Which is weird because I often use the scoop method with my ccc recipes and they don't turn out like hockey pucks. What a disappointment this one and the fact that there are vinegar and corn syrup that goes with this recipe that were supposed to make them chewy but I honestly couldn't tell the difference. Based on looks alone I think the Cooks Illustrated version won hands down. Taste? well that's another ballgame. I'm still asking around between my family which version they like better.

Hmmmm...I guess it's time to try the NYT Jacques Torres adaptation version. But I won't give up on the CI version, if I figure out how to make them less oily it would have been great.

Fudgy Brownies

It was a rainy Sunday afternoon, I was in a mood for something easy but definitely good. For this job I reached for my copy of Tartine. Tartine is a popular bakery and cafe in SF, California, which owned by Elisabeth Prueitt who is also the cookbook author. This is one of my favorite books because the pictures are just plain gorgeous and the instructions are very clear and seems easy enough to follow and with it's glowing review in amazon, I just know I have to try it. I must admit I haven't been using it that much but for the few times I did, it always turn out good, just like this one did.

First thing that caught my attention is that it calls for 455 grams of chocolate, that's almost half a kilo! Wow! this got to be good, right? I couldn't wait to give this a try. I got used to using just cocoa powder like this which I got from KAF, to get that chocolate kick which is fine because these tasted good too however sometimes I want my brownies fudgy and Tartine's certainly delivers that. This particular brownie doesn't call for any leavening agent, no baking powder, no baking soda, nothing. I'm like what? how can that be? Apparently, whipped eggs serves as leavening too! How cool is that? This I got to see. As my regular readers probably know, I'm lazy during Sundays so normally I don't bring out my heavy KA stand mixer. However, today is different cause I got curious :P

I got so excited making this that something disastrous almost happened. Can you guess what? I apparently forgot to the flour! Good thing is whenever I bake right after putting anything in the oven, while waiting for my baked goods to bake, I got into the habit of cleaning up, that's when I saw my bowl of flour! Zeez! at this point my brownies just got in the oven few seconds ago, so I quickly pull it out and sprinkle the flour all over, and with a wire whisk, whisk in my flour gingerly. I was afraid to deflate the batter, being it leavening free and all.

Twenty minutes later the house smells so good! I think that's one of the reason I like to bake, it makes the house feel so homey. Yum! Keeping in mind that there's almost half a kilo of choclates in them, I didn't want to dull the chocolate experience and simply decorate them with powdered sugar, just like what Nigella often do in her shows. Light dusting of powdered sugar makes them look more chic rather than leaving them bare. Don't they look pretty!

This is definitely a must repeat, if you know what I mean :D

Three Ways

I've bought Juniors Cheesecake Cookbook, probably last year and I'm a bit embarrass to admit it but this is the first time I have EVER used it. I have bought 2 kg of cream cheese in Price Mart (like K*mart) like a month ago, and haven't used those as well. What would I do with that much cream cheese? Well...make cheesecake of course, it's like killing two birds with one stone. I get to used up my cream cheese stock and try a recipe from this book.Not wanting the whole crust making thing, I opted for the little cheesecake versions which was so cute! Using the same cheesecake base, I topped them three ways with blueberries, cherries and chocolate fudge. I was a bit disappointed with these though the book said it makes a dozen little fellas, but I barely made it to 11. The cheesecake base was a bit thicker than what I'm used to, was expecting to spread out while baking but unfortunately they didn't. These babies have little humps underneath all the glossy fillings.I'm not ashamed to admit that I used canned pie filling for the cherries and the blueberries, which is a big mistake specially with the cherry. The cherries are a bit on the soft side, I'm not sure if it's natural for pie fillings but they didn't taste appetising. I expected a maraschino cherry texture, crisp and sweet, well next time I might try using those. The pie filling blueberries I like, I now nothing beats the fresh or frozen kind, but didn't have those handy and they can be quite expensive and a bit hard to find. The chocolate swirls are made with homemade fudge sauce that was suppose to top my stracciatella but they didn't make it in time, used the sauce here instead.All in all, I'm a bit disappointed with this cheesecake, they aren't as soft or as light as I expected to be, but instead they are dense which is fine but not what I was craving then. However, do expect another attempt in these little babies, I liked the idea of having handy little cheesecakes that you can just pick up and go about your way.

President's Cookies

I'm a huge huge Food Network fan, I love watching these celebrity chefs like Mario, Marcel, Gale, Alton and Wolfgang do their thing. Although, they don't make them like they used too, which is actually sad. What's much sadder is the fact that my cable doesn't carry Food Network anymore!!! Geez! now what? It's a good thing that I used to record my favorite shows on tape. Now whenever there isn't anything good on the telly, I get to reminisce and watch my old food network shows.

I can still remember the day I found out who Sherry Yard is. I was watching Wolfgang Puck's show and on that day, he had his Spago pastry chef visits and helps him out. She's so cheeky and funny, Wolfgang and her compliments each other that I like her instantly from then on I like it whenever Wolf brings along Sherry.

I actually bought Sherry's first book The Secret of Baking quite accidentally, our local bookstore was holding a sale and I saw piles and piles or her book on the floor, because at that time, they (the book people) are still organizing the shelves. I got intrigue by the title and the cover picture that I quickly bought it. This book is one of the best book I have in my bookshelf. It's no wonder when Sherry released her second book Desserts by the Yard, I bought that too! Her first book was about explaining the basics and her second one was really all her fun recipes she got to do throughout her career, even when she was starting, which for me is so cool! She made this recipe for then President Clinton, no wonder he likes these, these are good.

I've always been on the look out for a good oatmeal cookies and so far this is the best that I like. These are so easy to make and shape, I can even freeze these cookies and bake them whenever I get the craving. But of course I didn't do that because I'm already craving for it now!
Good thing I have golden raisins available at home courtesy of my sister's in-laws when they went to Egypt. The raisins got soak into what suppose to be white wine and bunch of other stuff, but didn't have those handy so I just use rum, was a bit afraid the cookies might turn boozy luckily it didn't. They are very very soft and chewy. They look a bit misshapen because I'm use to scooping out my batter but then I want to try my hand at rolling and slicing the dough which I must admit is much much easier than scooping each dough, although the cookies didn't turn out consistent in size. They might not look as pretty but these do taste good.

Straciatella

Are you like me that when there's an open carton of heavy cream in the frindge you must consume it as quick as possible? I'm always afraid that it might turn bad which with be such a waste since heavy cream is a bit expensive. Yesterday I actually didn't have butter in the house (can you believe that! a baker without butter?!) that's ridiculus I know. On a bright side, we have lots of eggs, so what sould a baker do? Why make ice cream of course! More specifically make Stracciatella.

Stracciatella (Strah-cha-TEL-lah) is an Italian version of an American chocolate chip ice cream. It's a fior di latte (vanilla) base with chocolate bits. But instead of uniform size of chocolates which is what you'd get with chocolate chips, melted chocolates are drizzled over the top of newly churned ice cream then mixed in to form chocolate needles.

I know it's already rainy season here in Manila and actually right now there's a storm that's building up, but what can I say I love ice cream. I first learn about stracciatella years ago when I was watching Gale Gand's Sweet Dreams episode of I Scream for Ice Cream on a lazy afternoon. Her guest who made the Straciatelle is a fellow pastry chef Wayne Harley Brachman. After watching him do them I remember telling myself someday I'll try that.

That day has finally come after so many years later...I didn't exactly used Gale and Wayne's recipe but use David Lebovitz's which is basically the same but they differ in the method. I've read somewhere quite recently actually that David explained the when the heavy cream is not heated and added at the last minute it makes the ice cream creamier which I would like to believe quite true.

I was actually thinking of making a Philadelphia style ice cream as oppose to a French style since I was feeling a bit lazy yesterday. Thankfully I was able to force myself into making the French style since French method tends to be smoother and creamier in texture. I was feeing so lazy yesterday that I was actually thinking of just sticking in the freezer and just let it freeze than I thought it might not turn out good without that air being curned into it. So I lugged out trusty Cuisinart, my godmother gave me years ago and started curning.

Several months ago I was able to get my hands on Nielsen-Massey Vanilla bean Paste. Which is actually a good thing because when I was licking the bowl and cleaning up hmmm.. it tasted good and very fragrant too! With all those vanilla, you can actually see the flecks all throughout the custard. It looks so rich and decadent. At the time, I kept thinking it's such a extravagant purchase but then with how it makes this ice cream and taste looks good it seems so worth it.

For those who are curious what this looks like well let me tell you, it's not a whole jar of vanilla caviar/vanilla seeds like what it looks like when you opened a vanilla pod, but instead the vanilla seeds are suspended in the jar with thick syrupy substance that smells absolutely fabulous! I absolutely love this product, it's less hassle than opening a vanilla bean without compromising the taste and smell of a vanilla, truly a good investment for those who like to bake.

Give this recipe a try, you won't regret it. This batch of ice cream didn't last 3 days in my house. The chocolate fudge that I made didn't get it's chance to ripen. Believe me, it was that good!

STRACCIATELLA

Adapted from David Lebovitz, The Perfect Scoop

Makes 1 quart

• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups heavy cream, divided
• 3/4 cup sugar (I used Vanilla Sugar)
• A pinch of salt
• 1 vanilla bean (I used 1 Tbsp. Vanilla Bean Paste)
• 6 egg yolks
• Few drops of vanilla

1. Heat the milk, salt, sugar and 1 cup of the cream in a saucepan. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the milk with the tip of the paring knife. Add the bean pod to the milk (If using vanilla bean paste, scoop out 1 Tbsp. of vanilla bean paste to the milk and mix).


2. Stir together egg yolks in a bowl and gradually add some warm milk, stirring constantly as you pour. Pour the warmed yolks back into the pan.


3. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scrapping the bottom of the pan until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon. Strain the custard into the 1 cup of heavy cream. If using vanilla pod: Rinse the pod and put it back into the custard and cream to continue steeping.


4. Chill thoroughly, then remove the vanilla bean and freeze in your ice cream maker until hardens enough to scoop out and enjoy, minimum of 4-5 hours.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Is it just me or do these Chocolate Peppermint Cookies look like a smiling monkey? Goofy I know ...

I'm running low on butter and our stove isn't working properly, so I was looking at my hidden stash of unbaked stuff in my fridge a.k.a. my leftovers :D

Luckily I've got a leftover chocolate ganache that I used for the last month's Daring Baker's event and the dough for the Mallow cookies that I didn't get to finish was there too. I went ahead and roll these babies out and cut them into circles. I just fount out something, I can't roll levelly! some of my cookies are really thick and some of them are really thin! Gosh! I really have to practice my rolling skills, of all the things!
Anyway, I just pop these in the oven and let them bake for 10 minutes and they are ready to be gobbled up but wait! For the filling I made another batch of the same ganache and mix it with the leftover ganache and add a drop or 2 of peppermint oil and yummy! I can just eat these as is! But don't worry I did manage to control my urges and the ganache got sandwiched between two cookies. Don't they look adorable or what? I think the sanding sugar added a bit sparkle and made it more special.

These babies are messy to eat with the ganache oozing out with each bite, but definitely very tasty.

SMS: Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

I love peanut butter! Next to chocolates, of course :p However, that doesn't always seem the case, I remember when I was a child, I hate peanut butter. But every morning that what my yaya would make for breakfast, peanut butter spread on toast. It's easy and very efficient for her and we (my brother, my sister and I) didn't always had a time to eat a proper breakfast. We often overslept and was often tardy. Oh how I love to sleeping in during mornings, I wasn't a morning person, I still am not.

i have been baking for many years now, but believe it or not this is my first time in making a Peanut Butter Cookies. Thanks to the generous people of Sweet Melissa Sundays, I finally got the opportunity to do so. I actually could not believe that I haven't tried this before. It taste awesome very peanut buttery. It actually taste like Choc Nut, my favorite local peanut butter chocolate and a bit like the Chinese peanut bars my grandma used to buy for us in Binondo (China Town).

I had fun putting that criscross pattern with the fork. This is also the first time I made cookies that are just a tablespoon full each. I'm used to using my huge ice cream scooper that makes fabulous Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookies. All ends well, the cookies grew a bit bigger when baked and just the right size, to pop in the mouth.

Very Yummy! Definitely a sure repeat in my house.