One mixing bowl desserts and cakes... you gotta love that, right!? I came across a recipe via a Facebook ad thrown at my face that sounded sort of souffle-ish, sort of custard-ish, sort of cheesecake-ish... and I thought it sounded pretty good, but would be better with a few adjustments. Lo and behold, it came out great first time around! What I didn't know is that there is a name for these sort of dishes - the French call it clafoutis. This is my version with blueberries... not super sweet, which is the kind of desserts we prefer. You could most certainly sprinkle the top with powdered sugar or cinnamon-sugar if you wanted.
Had a cover of a Depeche Mode song come on the speakers while I was typing this recipe out and I was like, "Who is this?! I like this!" Turns out, it was No Use For A Name doing "Enjoy the Silence". Give it a go! -jen
BLUEBERRY CLAFOUTIS Prep Time: 10 minute Cook Time: 50-55 (with an additional 30 to rest) Difficulty: Easy Serves: 6-8
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
6 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1+1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1+1/2 cups fresh blueberries
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9" round cake pan with non-stick cooking spray - bottom and up sides.
Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar together until smooth. Add melted butter, ricotta, yogurt and vanilla, mixing until smooth. Add flour, salt and baking powder - mix until combined.
Pour batter into prepared cake pan. Sprinkle blueberries over the top. Bake at 350F for 50-55 minutes. Edges should turn golden brown and tester inserted in center should come out clean. Cool in pan on baking rack for 30 minutes. Serve room temp or chilled.
Oh, you read that right... Strawberry. Cheesecake. Banana. Bread.
Born from the need to use up very ripe fruit before it went to waste! Truthfully, I was hoping the cheesecake would swirl into the bread more, but I think the cheesecake layer is just too runny for swirling into such a thick batter! No matter! It was just a delicious layer of strawberry cheesecake atop my banana bread! I'm wondering if muffins would be a better form of this recipe? To be tried next time! In the meantime, I made it this way, I know it works, and I know it was bomb!
This band keeps popping into my punk stations on Pandora and when they come on, I'm always like, "Oh yeah, I like this song, who was this again?" So I think it's time I buy an album or two! The Loved Ones - Pretty Good Year. -jen
2 tablespoons granulated sugar (use 3tbsp if you like it on the sweeter side)
16-ounces cream cheese, room temp (2 bricks)
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
Banana Bread Batter
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups of ripe, mashed bananas (about 5 medium-sized)
2 eggs, slightly whisked
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease two loaf pans (9" or 10") with nonstick cooking spray or butter and set aside.
Place sliced strawberries in a bowl and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of sugar, set aside. In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; make a well in the center. In a medium bowl combine mashed bananas, 2 eggs, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar and coconut oil, mix well. Pour the wet ingredients into the well you made in the dry ingredients and mix by hand, just until all of the flour is incorporated.
Using a stand mixer or electric mixer, whip softened cream cheese. While the mixer is running add the 3 eggs and vanilla and mix until completely blended. Then add the strawberries and all of their syrup and mix until just combined and most of the strawberries have broken up. (It will look like Strawberry Quik!)
The left pan is swirled, right is about to be swirled.
Set aside 1 cup of the banana bread batter and pour the remaining mix into the loaf pans, half into each. Smooth it out until even. (If you have extra strawberries, I think I'd add a bunch to the top of the banana batter before this next step!) Then pour the strawberry cheesecake mix on top of that. Take the set aside cup of batter and spoon 1/2 down the center of each loaf. Take a butter knife and just zig zag across the whole loaf pan once, from top to bottom. (It doesn't swirl well, but I think it gives the cheesecake batter something to "hold on to".) Bake for 75 minutes and use a butter knife to check for doneness - stick the butter knife straight down the center of one of the loaves (the largest one if yours are uneven), then pull it out. If it comes out clean, your loaves are done. If you're using 9" loaf pans, you may need 10 more minutes or so - just keep checking with a clean butter knife.
Allow to cool at least 30 minutes in the loaf pans - the cheesecake portion will need to "set". Then remove from pans, slice and serve! (Since this has a top layer of cheesecake, I store leftovers in the refrigerator.)
We had some bananas that were perfectly ripe and I had 2 bricks of cream cheese in the fridge for no particular reason, so I decided to do a cross between my Banana Cream Pie Bars, my Cranberry Cheese Squares and my Peppermint Mocha Kahlua Chocolate Chip Cheesecake (man, that was a long, dumb title, but a delicious cheesecake!) These came out bomb... as I knew they would, because all three of those recipes are bomb!
It also helps that we live a block from a corner store... so it's quite easy to run down there and get some of those mini bottles of liqueur!
This song was on in the car the other day. I always feel like I need to smoke a pack of cloves before I attempt to sing it... heheh. Alkaline Trio - Sleepyhead. -jen
BANANA LIQUEUR CHEESECAKE BARS Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 45 minutes to cook, 1 hour to cool Difficulty: Medium Makes: 18-24 squares
Crust:
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
2/3 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoons of butter, softened
Filling:
2 large bananas, sliced into 1/4"-thick rounds
1 pound (two 8oz bricks) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs, room temp
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup banana liqueur (or 2 of the small 50ml "airplane" bottles)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a 9"x13" baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
In a food processor, combine all of the crust ingredients and pulse several times until all flour is incorporated and mix is lumpy. Spread evenly into prepared baking dish and then press it firmly into the pan and about 1" to 1.5" up the sides with your hand. Bake at 375 degrees F for 15 minutes. Remove and set aside. (This is called "blind baking".) Leave oven on!
While crust is baking, place softened cream cheese in a mixing bowl and beat until creamy using a stand mixer or hand mixer. Add sugar and beat until combined. Add eggs 1 at a time until combined. Then add vanilla and banana liqueur, mix until smooth and creamy.
Layer sliced bananas over crust that's been blind baked, then pour batter evenly over the top. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes until top is lightly browned and center is springy to the touch. Let cool for 1 hour, then store in the refrigerator.
Option: If you knew they were all going to be eaten right away, you could always make some homemade whipped cream (or Cool Whip, but I say go with the former!) and spread it over the entire top of the cooled dish. I knew we'd have a bunch leftover to store in the fridge and I didn't want the whipped cream to melt over them all, so I just did it per serving.
I've had a huge bag of cranberries in my freezer since Christmas (and it's April), so I decided it was about time I used them in something. I'd considered doing cranberry cheesecake, but decided to cross cheesecake with bars instead. (I like bars!) They came out so good, that I made another batch with the remaining cranberries to send with Justin to work so he could share (and double-checking my recipe writing!)
The topping and crust is a little salty, the cream cheese filling is lemony and the cranberry sauce is tart with a cinnamon and vanilla warmth. All three layers just seem to compliment each other so nicely, I was way pleased with this recipe! It's a little time consuming but I've made them twice now and they're really not that hard - you just have to dedicate some time to them.
Justin was feeling like something early from The Offspring. "Jennifer Lost The War" from their 1989 self titled album. This was actually the first time I've heard this song, I think. -jen
1.5 cups rolled oats (also known as old fashioned oats)
1 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
Cheese Filling:
8oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
zest of 1 lemon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Make the
cranberry sauce first by bringing water, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon
and salt to a boil in a large sauce pan. Add cranberries and bring back to a boil, then
lower to a steady simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring intermittently - cranberries will pop and
begin to break down. (Careful not to let it boil over!) Remove from
heat and refrigerate to cool while you continue with the other steps.
Grease a 13"x 9" baking dish with nonstick cooking spray, butter or coconut oil. Set aside.
For
the crust, combine the flour, oats, pecans, brown sugar and salt in a
mixing bowl. Stir in melted butter and coconut oil until combined and all flour is absorbed.
Mixture should be slightly clumpy but break up easily. Set aside 1.5
cups for topping but spread the remaining mixture into your prepared
baking dish, pressing it evenly into the bottom of the pan. Bake at 350
F for 15 minutes. Set aside.
While crust is baking
and sauce is cooling, make the cheese filling. Using a hand mixer or the
whipping attachment on your stand mixer, whip the softened cream cheese
on high for 2-3 minutes until very smooth. Add remaining ingredients
and mix thoroughly on high until smooth (remember to scrape the bottom).
Spread the cream cheese mixture
evenly over your baked crust. Stir in corn starch to cooled cranberry sauce, then gently dollop over
the top of the filling and gently spread it evenly with the back of a
spoon, trying not to mix it into the cheese filling. Sprinkle the
remaining flour and oat mixture evenly over the top. Bake at 350 F for
40 minutes. Let cool completely before serving. I like to refrigerate them overnight.
This is the only new recipe I made for Thanksgiving this year. It was a weird, rare holiday for us... we stayed home and just had dinner for two. Usually we spend it with family, or we host it at our house for friends. But we were invited to dessert and partyin' at a friend's house afterwards, so we told her we'd bring dessert. I was inclined to make something pumpkin-based, but she said her roommate was making a pumpkin dessert. So in a panic, I looked through my pantry and decided to go with peanut butter, pecans and cream cheese because that's what I had. Admittedly, I got a little inspiration from a well-known indulgent southern cook... but I changed up her boring recipe, and it came out awesome. (Plus, her cooking times were jacked up and anyone who would have used her recipe would have been eating her "cookies" with a spoon.) Mine is like a peanut butter cup crossed with cheesecake. WAY easy, too!
I'm not sure why, but I decided to go with some Gimmes for this recipe. Peanut butter is always "fun" for me, and so are the Gimmes. It was so hard to choose which song I wanted to use! But what says peanut butter more than sailing? Duh. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes playing their live cover of "Sloop John B". -jen
Prepare a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, combine all of the crust ingredients. Press dough into the pan, making sure it covers the entire bottom evenly and goes up the sides just a little. Bake for 15 minutes until lightly browned and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar and vanilla, beating until smooth with an electric mixer. Incorporate eggs one at a time. Fold in by hand 1 cup pecans and chocolate chips and spoon over partially baked crust, smoothing it out until it's even. Bake for 40-45 minutes until edges begin to brown and the center doesn't look wet and jiggly. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.
Ha! I tried to make it fancy... but it looks pretty globby. I'm still working on the pictures, man! I only have a point-and-click camera and some shitty kitchen lighting!
I'm not really much of a potato person, but I do love a good twice-baked potato. They seem like such a waste, though. You can't scoop all the inside out, or your shell is too thin, and then most people just eat the stuffed innards and toss the skin. With this recipe, we use it all! It's like twice baked potato casserole... but, it's once boiled, once baked. Whatever it is, it's awesome.
If you have cholesterol problems or are a physician, you might not want to continue.
Here's a little Social Distortion. They go with potatoes really well. -jen
Thoroughly clean potatoes and dice into large cubes, leaving the skin on. Place diced potatoes into a large pot. Add water just to cover the potatoes and stir in the salt. Turn heat on high and bring to a boil. Once boiling, cook 10-12 minutes until potatoes are fork tender. Drain.
Meanwhile, chop bacon into small pieces. Heat large skillet over medium-high heat and add bacon when skillet is hot. Stir to keep from sticking and brown bacon until crispy, 7-10 minutes. Remove using a slotted spoon and scoop onto a paper towel covered plate to drain. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, combine potatoes, 6 tablespoons butter, cream cheese, and cream. Using a hand held mixer, blend until desired consistency - we like ours chunky. Stir in shallots, chives, bacon and 1.5 cups of the cheese, setting aside the remaining 1/2 cup. Pepper to taste.
Using the remaining tablespoon of butter, generously grease a 8x8 baking dish. Spoon in mashed potatoes.
Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup cheese on top and bake an additional 15 minutes, or until cheese has begun to brown.
I have no intro to this recipe, really. I love cheese and garlic biscuits. I wanted some. Been on a bacon kick. Decided to add bacon. Made them. They rocked!
(As much as I love bacon, I don't think I'm ready to make this monster yet, though. Look, two recipes for the price of one!)
We both reeeeeeeeally liked these biscuits; they didn't last long at all.
Don't remember what I was listening to when making these - it was a while ago; I've been slacking with the posting. But as I wrote it up tonight, I was listening to a little Lars Frederiksen and The Bastards (and some Rancid, and some Choking Victim, and some Minor Threat...) But here's a little Lars and a little biscuits. -jen
GARLIC CHEESE AND BACON BISCUITS
10 strips bacon
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons dill, dried (optional)
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
few grinds of fresh cracked black pepper
1 cup milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup monterey jack cheeese, shredded
Preheat oven to 425 F.
Chop uncooked bacon into small pieces. Cook over medium high heat until crispy. Drain and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, dill, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper. Mix well. Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture and add milk, butter, bacon and cheese. Mix by hand just until dry ingredients are combined (mix as little as possible!) Using a 1/4 cup measurement, drop biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet about an inch apart.
Bake until golden brown, 20-22 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. I recommend removing them from the pan immediately (or at least flip them and let them rest on their tops). Otherwise the bottom of the biscuits continue to cook and can get too dark.
Makes about 8 biscuits.
Check out that fancy paper plating! Hey, I've got the rustic veggie thing going on behind it!
I can't really take credit for this recipe... this one, like the beans in the last post, is my mom's recipe. Only she made it with Bailey's, which is also pretty kick ass! Always a favourite of the whole family... I didn't even like cheesecake until she started making this recipe! But I've had the Peppermint Mocha Kahlua hanging around since Christmas and it's not getting used, so I thought it'd be tasty. -jen
Doh! Forgot to put down what we were listening to while I baked last night! Kind of defeats the purpose of a punk rock cooking page, doesn't it? Then it'd just be a boring cooking blog that nobody followed... instead of a kick ass punk rock cooking blog... that nobody follows. And actually... we weren't even listening to punk rock while I baked. Had an electronic 80's Pandora station on - lots of Gary Numan, New Order, Depeche Mode.
Crust
Nonstickcooking spray
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, melted
Filling
2-1/4 pounds (4.5 bricks) cream cheese, room temp
1-2/3 cups granulated sugar
5 eggs, room temp
1 cup Peppermint Mocha Kahlua
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Coffee Whipped Cream
1 cup chilled whipping cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon instant coffee powder
For Crust: Preheat oven to 325 F. Coat 9-inch springform pan with nonstick vegetable oil spray. Combine crumbs and sugar in pan. Stir in butter. Press mixture into bottom and 1" up the sides of pan. Bake until light brown, about 7 minutes. Maintain oven temperature at 325 F.
For Filling: Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually mix in sugar. beat in eggs 1 at a time. Blend in Peppermint Mocha Kahlua and vanilla. Sprinkle half of the chocolate chips over crust. Spoon in filling. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips. Bake cake until puffed, springy in center and golden brown - about 1 hour 20 minutes. Cool cake completely.
For Whipped Cream: Beat cream, sugar and coffee powder until peaks form. Spread mixture over cooled cake.
This one isn't going to have the delicious coffee whipped cream because I'm taking it in to work. Going to try to get pictures of it out of the springform pan!
