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Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake is fun and easy to make and super delicious! There are only a few ingredients, and all you need is a mixer, measuring tools and a pie tin.
For one 9″ pie tin, you will need:
16oz Softened Cream Cheese
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla
2 Eggs, beaten
3/4 cup of your favorite uncooked Chocolate Chip Cookie’s Dough
Graham Cracker Crust
Mix the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla on medium until well blended.
Add the eggs, one at a time slowly, as they are absorbed.
Drop 2/3 of the cookie dough in 1/2 tsp rounded pieces into the batter, then fold in.
Dot the top of the cheesecake with the remain cookie dough again in 1/2 tsp rounded pieces.
Bake at 350F until the center is almost set, this may take 45 minutes or more.
For a graham cracker crust, you can buy a pre-made crust or do it yourself!
All you need is
Mix together and then press into the pie tin.
There are many areas of candy making, and this one is on the easier side, but takes special care and tools to get it done right. Since the sugar will reach 375F or more, burns are a concern. I would not let children help with this project.
Hard crack sugar can be used in several ways for garnish, and for making suckers and similar candy. In these photos, I used a 6-8oz ladle to create the dome and placed it over some melon pieces (called “Forbidden Fruit”).
This website at Baking911.com is a great starter for candy making.
Tools:
Ingredients:
Combine sugar and water and place on high heat. Do not stir once this has been placed on the heat. As particles form on the sides, use the pastry brush, dipped in clean water, to brush down the sides.
The optimal temperature for hard crack sugar is 375F. Because the sugar will continue to heat itself off the burner, you should take it off the heat about 350F or when you see the sugar start to caramelize to a light golden brown color. The color will get much darker, but be careful that it doesn’t go too far and give a burnt taste. While you are waiting for the right temperature, spray surface and shapes you will be using with food release spray, liberally.
Move pan to your work area, placing on a heat-resistant surface. Using a fork, dribble the sugar back and forth across the bowl shape in all directions so that it will hold that shape once cooled.
For corkscrews, use a spoon and dribble sugar along shape, spinning it so that it makes the desired shape.
When the sugar has cooled on the shape, it should slide off easily because of the food release spray. You will want to work quickly so that the sugar does not cool down so much it can’t be dropped in even strings.
The way you clean up is very important. Because of the nature of the sugar, if you were to pour hot, liquefied sugar down the drain, it would cool and harden in the pipes. This will clog and be very difficult to clean out. You must dilute the sugar in a lot of water before discarding. In a large stock pot, place your sauce pan and other items that have sugar stuck to them. Boil in water until they are clean. This water can then safely be put down the drain.
The name sounds weird, I know. Lemon curd is similar to a custard, but is used as a spread, or a filling in a lemon meringue pie. You can also make it from lime. It is relatively simple to make, the only trick comes in tempering the mixture into the eggs.
This recipe will make 1 quart, which will fill about two pies.
5 oz Butter
1 cup Lemon Juice
9 oz Sugar
1 cup Egg Yolks
Melt the butter in a saucepan, and add the lemon juice and sugar. Bring this to a boil and make sure all the sugar has been dissolved.
Temper the mixture into the egg yolks in a separate bowl, and return everything into the saucepan and cook on medium heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon. If lumps begin to form, remove from heat and whisk. Continue to cook until the curd coats the back of a spoon. Be careful not to cook it high and long enough to “scramble” the eggs.
When this is done, remove from heat and move to another container so that it cools more quickly. The curd will thicken as it cools.
Tempering allows you to add eggs to a hot liquid without the eggs being shocked, and scrambled in the process. If you start to see small white clumps, the eggs have been shocked and it is time to start over.
From there, follow the directions from your recipe.
Cook the pie crust first, just until golden brown and set. Let it cool and fill with your lemon curd. Top with meringue. Be creative and add peaks uniformly across the meringue. Bake at 350F until the meringue starts to brown.
This is a nice creamy sauce that goes well with fish, I served it with a white fish. It is basically a beurre blanc with a little twist. Here are the ingredients:
1 cup white wine
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp minced rosemary
1 tsp minced thyme
1 lb butter
1 /2 cup heavy cream
Salt and Pepper to taste
On medium heat, add wine, lemon juice, zest, rosemary and thyme. Simmer until it has been almost completely reduced.
Off the heat, start adding the butter, small pieces at a time. If the pot does not stay warm enough for the butter to melt, place it back onto the burner (which should still be warm) or turn on very low heat. When all the butter has melted, add the cream and balance with salt and pepper.
It’s that easy, and tastes so good!
By far this is my favorite thing I have made at school, plus it looks so realistic! This kind of thing is what I want to do after graduation. Eventually I would like to have my own business doing specialty desserts, cakes and pastries.
There are several components and may take a few hours to make, but it is well worth the effort. You will need the rice, fruit, marzipan, chocolate sauce, fruit leather and black sesame seeds. Tools-wise, you will need a sushi roll mat and some practice and patience. This recipe will yield about 24 maki and 12 nigiri.
Coconut Rice Pudding:
3 – 14oz cans of coconut milk
5 oz heavy cream
12 oz jasmine rice (preferred, but long grain will work as well) Rinse VERY well.
9 oz sugar
Put all ingredients into pan and cook until rice is done and all liquid has reduced. Spread onto a parchment lined sheet tray and allow to cool completely.
Fondant
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp hot water
2 tpsp corn syrup
Blend all ingredients thoroughly until sugar is completely dissolved and there are no lumps.
Marzipan
3/4 cup almond paste
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp + 1 tsp fondant
1 tbsp + 1 tsp corn syrup
green food coloring
Mix almond paste and 1/2 the sugar. Add the fondant and corn syrup. Add the rest of the sugar, a little at a time until the marzipan is moldable and not sticky. Color marzipan with green food coloring until it resembles the color of wasabi. Roll into small balls.
Chocolate Sauce
1 cup water
5 oz sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
2 oz cocoa powder
8 oz dark chocolate
Combine water, sugar and corn syrup and bring to a boil to make syrup. Slowly whisk in cocoa powder so that no lumps form. Add the chocolate to the syrup and stir until melted. Pour cooled chocolate sauce into small cups to represent soy sauce.
Fruit
Using about 4 kiwi and 8-10 strawberries, you will need to cut some into strips for the maki and some squared off slices for the nigiri.
Fruit Leather
Slice thin strips of fruit leather to wrap around the nigiri.
Black Sesame Seeds
Sprinkle the sesame seeds onto your working surface and roll the maki in them.
Assembly
By looking at the picture, you can get an idea on how everything fits together. If you ever rolled sushi before, this will be easy, just do it the way you do regular sushi! For beginners, smash the rice pudding evenly onto the sushi roll mat, about 1/2 inch thick, spread almost to the the sides and maybe 6 inches tall. Lay a continuous strip of both kiwis and strawberries across, on top of each other, some where around two inches from the bottom or top. Using the roll mat as a guide, roll the rice (from the fruit side to the other) so that the fruit is wrapped up completely into a roundish tube. Using a knife, slice sections from the roll about one inch thick. Wipe the mat between rolls.
For the nigiri, form a base for the fruit. The top and bottom should be flat so that it can both stand up and leave a surface for the fruit. It should be in an oval-ish shape. Place the squared off kiwi and strawberry on the top, overlapping and secure with a strip of fruit leather.
I’ve been really busy with school, and it has been draining my energy so I haven’t been on the computer much more than checking email the last week. But, for Superbowl Sunday, I made a dessert to share. I made Turtle Bars that turned out great, even though the picture didn’t.
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1-3/4 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 cup softened butter
3 Tbsp heavy cream
1 cup toasted pecans
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Pre-heat oven to 350F
Spread out pecans on a baking sheet and toast in oven for a few minutes, be sure they don’t burn. It can happen very easily.
Mix the flour, 1 cup of brown sugar, and 3/4 cup butter together until crumbly. Press into 13×9 pan and bake until golden.
Bring remaining brown sugar and butter with cream to boil. Boil for 1 minute, stir and remove from heat.
Sprinkle pecans over cooked crust and pour the caramel over that. Bake for 20 minutes or so until the caramel is bubbly and has darkened.
Remove from oven, sprinkle on chocolate chips. When they are mostly melted, smooth over the entire surface.
Chill at least 30 minutes until the chocolate has set.
I am taking a class regarding cost control and 60% of our grade is a huge project. We come up with a menu and cost out every ingredient, making everything from scratch, keeping track of everything, down to the last pinch of salt. From there, we do a bunch of calculations, eventually figuring out how much one portion costs, what to charge for the menu items and how much profit we are making. I decided to do an Italian themed menu, and here are the items I chose to do.
Starters:
Mozzarella al a Caprese
Mozzarella Fritta
Bruschetta
Pasta Salad
Entrees:
Tomato Basil Chicken Pasta
Mushroom Fettuccini
Spaghetti and Meatballs in Bolognese Sauce
Scallops in Roasted Garlic Sauce
Desserts:
Tiramisu
Chocolate Mousse
Lemon Sorbet
Peach Gelato
On the last day of working in the “pantry”, it was up to our team to come up with a pasta special to make to order, one serving at a time. We chose to do a noodle stirfry I found on the internet, and made a few additions. I have made some general proportions for making a family size dish, use your best judgement.
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced
2 Tbsp fresh garlic, minced
cooking oil
1 1/2 cups chicken, julienne
3-4 eggs, passed through a strainer
2 cups blanched broccoli
2 cups blanched carrots
1 cup onion, julienne
1 cup green onion, chopped
cilantro leaves for garnish
chopped peanuts for garnish
1-2 cups pasta for each serving
For the sauce, combine 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar, chili paste as desired, 2 tsp rice vinegar and a few drops of sesame oil. Heat in saucepan and stir until sugar is dissolved. Cool.
In a hot pan, coated in cooking oil, start by making egg ribbons by adding a very, very slow stream of the now liquid eggs. Using desired utensil, break up and stir the egg around so that it is in strips/ribbons. Add chicken and desired ginger, allow the chicken to cook most of the way through.
Add garlic, then the broccoli and carrots, allowing to soften a bit. Add onions as well, allowing them to become soft. Then add the desired amount of sauce at this time too, make sure the chicken is cooked through and add noodles.Mix until noodles are coated and heat thoroughly, serve.
Wednesday I got to stand out on the serving line and make pasta to order. But of course I forgot to take a photo of what it was I made. Think chicken with smoked walnuts, red flame grapes in a blue cheese cream sauce.
Here are the ingredients for the pasta:
Coat a large fry pan with cooking oil (when hot) and add chicken, garlic and walnuts. When chicken is almost cooked through, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup white wine to deglaze the pan.
When it is almost evaporated, add cream and grapes and allow chicken to fully cook. Be sure to coat everything with the cream. At this point add the cheese and cooked pasta, again coat with cream and heat thoroughly.
To smoke the walnuts, we placed a small amount off wood in a 4″ deep pan and lit it on fire, and blew out the flame so it smoldered. In a 2″ perforated pan of the same size, line with walnuts, and fit it into the 4″ deep pan. Cover it tightly with aluminum foil and let sit for 5-10 minutes. You can also do this with cheese, allowing you to get that nice smoky flavor without cooking it.
