Mango Cheesecake

Description:
I used to love eating cheesecake but after a season of baking cheesecakes way too often, I guess I got tired of it. I recently found out that my mother-in-law loves cheesecake, so to score more in-law points (hahahaha!), I baked cheesecake over the weekend to send her some. I tweaked George Geary's recipe in his book "125 Best Cheesecake Recipes" and it came out creamy, smooth, with no cracks on top. I now use small loaf pans to make cheesecakes; I just find it easier to unmold and serve to eager dessert lovers.

Ingredients:
George Geary's Blue Ribbon Cheesecake (sans the sour cream topping)

Crust:
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted

Filling:
4 packages (each 250g) cream cheese, softened (or at room temperature)
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice (I didn't have any so I omitted this.)
1 tsp. vanilla

Decoration:
2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced (or our very best Manila mangoes, cubed)

Directions:
Crust: In a medium bowl, combine melted butter and graham crumbs. The mixture will resemble wet sand. Press unto the bottom of your preferred pan and freeze.

Filling: Beat cream and sugar on medium-high speed.
Add eggs one at a time, making sure everything is well mixed.
Stir in lemon juice and vanilla.
Pour over frozen crust and bake in a preheated 350F oven for 45-55 minutes.
Please adjust baking time according to the size of your pan.

This is where I tweaked the recipe:
Instead of baking the cheesecake for the full time indicated, I baked it halfway the time and while the middle is still jiggly and the top a little dry but not brown, I turned the oven off and left the cheesecake inside to continue baking.

Let the cheesecake cool completely then put in the refrigerator overnight until ready to serve. Garnish with fresh fruits on top.

It's Chocolate Cake once more.

I'm obviously obsessed with baking chocolate cakes this week (three times in a row to be exact) and I blame it on the rainy weather hehe. This time, I made it into a two-layer cake and I frosted it with Cote d'Or Belgian Dark Chocolate which I got as a "pasalubong" from Gatch (I'm blessed with generous friends, really). This version, I must say, is the best among the three. It really pays to use top quality ingredients; it's so worth it. This is my official chocolate cake from now on. Side comment: I decided to put Trixie's photo in the end because she helped me bake the cake and she happily waited for Brandon to finish taking the photos so we could sing a birthday song and blow an imaginary candle. :)

Ghirardelli Chocolate Cake

Thanks to my kumare Maybelle who gave me a big can of Ghirardelli cocoa (best gift ever!), I am happy to present this chocolate cake for everybody's visual enjoyment. This is just a simple but moist chocolate cake that I topped with satiny, bittersweet chocolate glaze, dark chocolate chips and chopped pistachio nuts-- really satisfying! Photos by Brandon who was rewarded with a slice after the shoot :)

Rainy Day Bread Pudding

What to do on a stormy day—this is one question I have an easy answer to.  Aside from keeping updated on the latest weather bulletin, I just find it so enticing to make something rich yet comforting on any rainy day.  We were lucky enough to experience only an hour of blackout, so while Brandon and Trixie practically napped the whole day, I made Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding.  I got the recipe from Periplus’ Crazy for Chocolate Cookbook (gift from Stew from way, way back) and the result was just what I wanted.  It’s really rich and satisfying being made from dark chocolate, yet it’s so homey and so easy to prepare since the base is just white bread.  It was great served warm with vanilla ice cream but it tasted heavenly served cold the following day.  I’m posting the recipe here for you to enjoy this on your rainy days! 

 

Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding

60g butter (I used only half)

6 slices fruit-loaf bread (I used soft white bread)

½ cup milk

2 cups thick cream

½ cup caster sugar (Plain white will do)

100g dark cooking chocolate, chopped (I used bittersweet couverture)

4 eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup dark choc bits (I used less than a half cup of Hershey’s semi-sweet choc chips)

2 tablespoons golden syrup (I didn’t have any so I omitted this)

 

Procedure

Preheat oven to 160C/ 315F.  Brush a 4-cup capacity baking dish with oil or melted butter.

Spread butter on bread.  Cut bread into diagonal quarters.  Place bread in dish in single layer, overlapping it.

Combine milk, cream and sugar in medium pan, stir over low heat until sugar dissolves.  Bring to boil, remove from heat.  Add chocolate; stir mixture until melted and smooth.  Cool slightly; gradually whisk in eggs.

Pour half the custard mixture over bread, stand 10 minutes or until bread absorbs most of the liquid.  Pour over remaining custard mixture.  Sprinkle with choc bits.  Drizzle with golden syrup.  Bake 40-45 minutes or until set and slightly puffed and golden.  Serve warm or cold with cream or ice cream.

Kakanin Craze

I just found out that Trixie loves kakanin when we got a box of Dolor's Kakanin over the holidays. She just loves it. So when we go to my store, I usually buy her a piece. Yesterday, I decided to give making homemade kakanin a shot and we loved it. Here's my version of Bibingkang Malagkit (aka Rice Cake), recipe from Annie Pascual Guerrero's Cooking with Coconut Cookbook. One good thing about making your own desserts is that you have control over the amount of sugar you put in, so I tweaked her recipe a bit and even added langka in the topping to make it more flavorful :) More kakanin recipes coming because I'm hooked!