Ginger Cheesecake

While it may not be healthy, cheesecake certainly is vegetarian. I made this recipe just this week for a farewell gathering of graduate students. It is a cinch and so creamy with a lovely robust flavour imparted by the ginger.

1 package Honeymaid graham crackers

2 Tbs. butter

2 pounds cream cheese, softened

zest of 1/2 of a lemon

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup + 2 Tbs. sugar

4 eggs

2 yolks

*75 ml heavy cream

(infused with 3 oz. fresh ginger)

1/4 cup + 2 Tbs. All purpose flour

Boiling water

Pour cream into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Meanwhile roughly chop the unpeeled ginger. When the cream is hot, add the ginger, stir, turn off the heat, and place a lid on the pot. Allow it to steep for 30 minutes. Afterwards, strain the mixture pressing the ginger against the strainer with a wooden spoon to extract all the cream. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 10" springform pan with baking parchment and wrap the outside base with aluminum foil to seal the seam. Place on a sheet pan that has 1/2 to 1 inch sides.

In a food processor pulverize the graham crackers. Empty into a bowl and set aside. Melt the 2 Tbs. butter over low heat and mix into the graham cracker dust. Line the bottom of the springform pan with the graham cracker using a straight-sided glass container to tamp down the crackers, if needed. Toast the base in the oven for 7 to 10 minutes. Remove the pan and lower the oven temperature to 300 F.

In a stand mixer beat the cream cheese and sugar with a paddle at low speed. You never want to mix too much air into a cheesecake so if you find you are spending too much time readying the remaining ingredients, you may want to turn the mixer off. Otherwise you can proceed with the recipe adding the ingredients in the order listed.

I like to crack my eggs with my vanilla and zest into a small pitcher. Pour this mixture into the cream cheese in three additions allowing the egg to fully incorporate. Stop the mixer to scrape the sides and base of the bowl twice. Add the ginger cream, then the flour. Pour the mix into the springform pan. Place the pan on the oven rack and pour boiling water into the sheet pan until it is about 1/2 to 1 inch deep. Do not allow the water to rise above the aluminum foil seal you created around your pan. Carefully push the oven rack into the oven and set the timer for 40 minutes. The cake should hardly wobble in the middle when you shake it. It may take up to an hour to finish baking.

Grapefruit and Dark Chocolate truffles

Here is a recipe I will be using in next week's chocolate class. I've been cooking up all sorts of flavour infusions to make luscious truffles. The addition of the flavour is just like making tea - warm and steep. I have Jerry Traunfield of The Herbfarm to thank for introducing me to the method.

1 1/4 cup heavy cream

1 pound dark chocolate (60 to 70%)

1 grapefruit

1/2 cup good quality cocoa

Heat cream in a saucepan on stove. Meanwhile peel the grapefruit with a vegetable peeler. You want the zest or skin only no bitter white pith. When the cream begins to boils add the peel and submerge it. Take the cream off the heat, cover, and allow to steep for 3o minutes. Strain the cream pressing the peels against the strainer to extract any extra flavour. Measure the cream to be sure you still have 1 1/4 cup. Add extra cream if needed. Rewarm the cream on the stove. Place 1 pound of chocolate chips (I like Ghiradelli 60% chips) or chopped chocolate bars in a large bowl. When cream boils, pour it over chocolate and allow it to sit for 30 seconds. Stir mixture with a spatula to combine. The next bit I tried out and it worked very well. We will need to cool off our ganache quickly in class in order to form our truffles and this is what I came up with. Pour the ganache into a large ziploc bag. Press out the air. Be sure the bag is completely sealed and lay the mixture on it's side on a metal tray. Even out the chocolate by pressing lightly with your hand. Place in freezer for 2o minutes. Remove ganache - it should be solid but you will still be able to mark it with your fingernail. Use a knife and cut the plastic bag open and fold it back. Using a knife you can now cut your ganache into 36 pieces to portion it - 6 rows and 6 columns will do it. Warm the knife by running it under hot water, but be sure to dry it completely before using it to cut. You can usually make 2 cuts before your knife needs to be warmed again. Allow the ganache squares to warm about 20 minutes then roll them between your palms to form balls. Fill a large bowl with cocoa and drop 5 - 10 truffles in at a time. Roll them around to coat.

Chocolate Short Dough

I have a goal of posting one recipe per month. It's not a lot, but I rarely visit this site. So here goes working towards a goal. I am teaching pastry courses right now and I thought I'd upload some of the recipes we are working with in class. The following is a double chocolate tart I am tinkering with at the moment. It is a combination of a few recipes from Tamasin Day-Lewis' Art of the Tart. Yesterday I prepared the chocolate short dough and today I will roll it out and make the filling. Here is the short dough recipe.

4 oz. or 1 cup All purpose flour

2 tsp. good dark cocoa powder

1 heaping tsp icing sugar

2 oz or 4 Tbs. cold butter cut into small cubes

1 egg yolk

1 to 2 Tbs. cold water

Sift the dry ingredients together into the bowl of a food processor. Add the cubes of butter and pulse the machine briefly until the butter becomes incorporated and broken into smaller than pea sized chunks. Add the egg yolk and 1 Tbs. cold water (add ice cubes to the water if necessary). Run the processor briefly. If needed add another Tbs. of water. The dough will darken although it may not seem to come together. Simply open the food processor and press the dough with your hands. If it comes together, it is ready. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour. I will post the finishing steps and some photos later!

Rhubarb and Ice cream

We have rhubarb! Honest to goodness rhubarb, in the grocery store! And it doesn't look like the rhubarb they tried to sell me in Arizona, brown, limp, weeping. It is robust, rosy, and cheap! So I had to bring some home to surprise my husband. He has been whining for dessert after dinner these last few nights and I think he will be excited by cooked rhubarb and ice cream.

1 pound rhubarb

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp. lavender

Slice the tops and tails off the rhubarb. Next divide any wide pieces in half down the middle. Chop the rhubarb into 2 inch long lengths. Find a skillet wide enough to accommodate the rhubarb in one layer. When it cooks down it will release a lot of moisture and the large surface area of the skillet will aid in evaporation. Combine your herb, sugar, and veg. Cook on medium heat stirring occasionally until the rhubarb releases moisture and the sugar dissolves. Then turn down heat to medium low and stir every ten minutes or so. Cook until tender 30-40 minutes. Cool and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Fool

We made this dessert for dinner guests this weekend. I was in the mood for ginger, and thought I would make a cake; but lost my motivation. Fool is an English dessert, something I learned to make when working in London. It is layered much like a parfait, but it doesn't require the arduous fiddling with eggs.

16 oz. greek yogurt

1 cup heavy cream, whipped to soft peak

6 peaches, pitted and large dice

1/4 cup sugar

a generous grating of fresh ginger

1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger (optional)

There a lots of little tips I can give you with this recipe. The first, don't substitute anything for the greek yogurt. It has a natural tartness to it that is a beautiful foil for the fat and sweetness of this dessert. But if you must, if you cry, "Claudine, I cannot find greek yogurt for sale at my local grocery store", then try plain FULL FAT yogurt.

Secondly, I like to have fresh ginger to hand, but found myself constantly buying it, using a miniscule amount and then laying it in my crisper drawer to be forgotten and to become moldy. Then some clever cookbook recommended I keep it in the freezer and simply grate the frozen chunk into whatever recipe calls for it. Pure genius. The ginger will change in consistancy and become quite sodden with water if it is defrosted, but that should never be neccessary. Remember, freeze and grate.

Enough tips - let me outline the simple recipe for you.

The first step is one we used in England, and I skimped on it quite a bit when making the fool this weekend. I will let you decide whether you want to do it or not. I was taught to turn the yogurt onto a double or triple layer of cheesecloth. Gather the ends of the cloth and secure them. Then hang the whole contraption suspended over a large bowl and leave it to sit in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning you will find a thin yellowish liquid in the bowl, dispose of this. You have effectively leeched some of the liquid out of the yogurt making it thicker and creamier in consistency. If you would like to cheat, I will tell you that this weekend I only drained the yogurt for 2 hours, and had good results.

Combine the chopped peaches, 1/4 cup sugar, and grating of ginger in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat. Stir the mixture occassionally to prevent the sugar from catching and burning. You need only cook the peaches for a short time, perhaps ten minutes, only long enough for the fruit to soften and the flavours to combine.

Remove the pan from the heat and cool off the mixture. I placed the whole thing in the freezer and stirred it every ten minutes. You won't want to add it to your cream/yogurt mix until it has cooled. Lukewarm would be permissable.

Lastly whip your cream to soft peak. For those of you who aren't familiar with this term, soft peak refers to the type of mound you should see in the cream when you touch and pull your finger, a fork, a beater away from the surface. It happens shortly after you notice the cream thicken. And it should create a little mountain which falls over on itself at the tip.

Okay, I said this way easy...so here goes.

In a bowl large enough for the cream and yogurt stir your yogurt with a utensil to break it up and soften it. Add your cream and gently combine the mixture. Now you are ready with all your layers. Simply combine them yogurt, fruit, yogurt, fruit in a container for serving - or in individual containers - think glasses....

If you are using the crystallized ginger, it is typically very spicy, so be spare with it.

AND if you are like us and overfeed your guests you will find yourself with leftover fool. No matter. This recipe is fabulous on top of waffles in the morning, especially if you have candied nuts around. Or you can pop it all in the freezer for an impromptu semifreddo, simply be sure to stir the mixture every 1/2 hour to prevent untasty ice crystals from forming.

Last Night's Dinner

We had some good luck last night when we made dinner for our friends. Tandoori chicken, curried green beans, and almond raspberry tart. I am including the recipe for the tart here because it was so gosh darn easy. If you find nice raspberries at the store, I highly recommend it. I found it in last month's issue of Sunset magazine.

Raspberry Almond Tart

The crust of this tart tastes more like a frangipane than a sugar dough and you simply press it into the bottom of the tin - no pesky walls to break. Then pop it in the oven for baking without pastry weights or docking!

Crust

3/4 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup All purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

1 egg + 1 yolk

1 tsp. almond extract

Preheat oven to 350. In a food processor, pulse almonds and sugar until finely ground, being careful to stop before they turn into nut butter. Add flour and salt and pulse to blend. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. With motor running, add egg, egg yolk, and almond extract. Stop as soon as dough comes together. Press dough into the bottom of the tart tin and bake until golden - about 25 minutes. You may need to turn the tart once if your oven heats unevenly. Let tart cool and remove from tin.

Ganache

3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 tbsp. cream

This most definitely flies in the face of any ganache I have made, but really the quantities are so small that the method works. Heat chocolate in a bowl or double boiler over steaming water. Make sure the water is never too hot, and remember to stir the chocolate less it burn; and never, never, drip any water into your bowl of chocolate. Once your choclolate has melted add your cream. The chocolate will cool and not readily combine with the cream. Simply continue to stir the mixture over the hot water with a spatula until it all comes to a consistent temperature and combines. Pour ganache on top of cooled crust and spread it out to the edges. You can leave a little crust bare around the edge like a pizza for a better appearance.

Cheesy Goodness

4 oz. mascarpone cheese

1/4 cup + 2 Tbs. powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 cup cream

Beat whipping cream with a whisk in a stand mixer or with any other sufficient kitchen contraption. Once it begins to gain volume but before it has much stiffness add the mascarpone. You will need to turn down the mixer a little until the cheese softens, and it will not combine right away. Give it a moment. As the mixture begins to smooth add the powdered sugar with the beater on low. Once the ganache is set and cooled spread cheese on top of tart.

2 pints raspberries

Decorate tart with lots of raspberries!