Valentine's Day Dreamcatcher

I 'dreamed' up the idea of the kids creating Valentine's Day dream catchers for their classmates this year. Together, we picked up the following supplies: pipe cleaners, yarn and beads (I forgot about the feathers so perhaps we'll add them to the finished project).

We started this project last weekend and managed to make 10 (and have 32 to go). It's a good thing we started the craft weeks before Valentine's Day. 

I'll have to post the step by step instructions when we pick up where we left off as I was tinkering with the right technique for my 4-yr old and 6-yr old to use.

The easy part is bending the pipe cleaner into a heart shape. I've randomly tied the yarn at various points but I'm not happy with the level of difficulty required for this project. I had to restring most of their work in order to have the webbing taut inside the heart. 

I sure hope my children's friends appreciate receiving their very own Valentine's Day Dreamcatchers as their Valentines this year.

Peppermint Bark Cheesecake

I had an ultimate cheesecake experience at The Cheesecake Factory this past holiday season... It's called Peppermint Bark Cheesecake. 

I had a craving for the divine cheesecake so this would be my weekend experiment.

I like a graham cracker crust under my cheesecake so I decided on a lighter crust. Also, I recall that there were far too many chocolate chips so I kept that tidbit in the back of my mind.

Let's start with the graham crackers. Ever since I made homemade graham crackers, I have vowed never to go back! The recipe is courtesy of Martha Stewart's Cookies book. 

As far as the cheesecake was concerned, I have a trusted recipe from Serious Eats by Dorie Greenspan. I've used the cheesecake recipe for cheesecake cupcakes before but have never made a whole cheesecake with it. I didn't know how much candy cane or chocolate to add so I winged it. I ended up using 1 tablespoon of candy cane and 1/4 cup of tri-colored chocolate chips.

This was my version of my The Cheesecake Factory inspired (less is more) peppermint bark cheesecake. Not quite an exact replica by any means but I plan on being more generous with the key ingredients next time.

I also wasn't very keen with the chips cracking the top of my cheesecake. I've since found some copycat recipes that contain flour which apparently reduce this problem. Luckily I still have a giant candy cane left in the pantry.

For the most part, this baby hit the spot!

This is my go to cheesecake recipe from Serious Eats by Dorie Greenspan.

Ingredients

yield: 16 servings

• For the crust (omit the crust for Passover or see above):
• 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
• For the cheesecake:
• 2 pounds (four 8-ounce boxes) cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups sour cream or heavy cream, or a combination of the two

Procedures

1. 1
   To make the crust:
2. 2
   Butter a 9-inch springform pan—choose one that has sides that are 2 3/4 inches high (if the sides are lower, you will have cheesecake batter leftover)—and wrap the bottom of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil; put the pan on a baking sheet.
3. 3
   Stir the crumbs, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl. Pour over the melted butter and stir until all of the dry ingredients are uniformly moist. (I do this with my fingers.) Turn the ingredients into the buttered springform pan and use your fingers to pat an even layer of crumbs along the bottom of the pan and about halfway up the sides. Don't worry if the sides are not perfectly even or if the crumbs reach above or below the midway mark on the sides—this doesn't have to be a precision job. Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven.
4. 4
   Center a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 350°F and place the springform on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Set the crust aside to cool on a rack while you make the cheesecake.
5. 5
   Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.
6. 6
   To make the cheesecake:
7. 7
   Put a kettle of water on to boil.
8. 8
   Working in a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until it is soft and lives up to the creamy part of its name, about 4 minutes. With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition—you want a well-aerated batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the sour cream and/or heavy cream.
9. 9
   Put the foil-wrapped springform pan in the roaster pan.
10. 10
    Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula, just to make sure that nothing has been left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl, and scrape the batter into the springform pan. The batter will reach the brim of the pan. (If you have a pan with lower sides and have leftover batter, you can bake the batter in a buttered ramekin or small soufflé mold.) Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into the roaster to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan.
11. 11
    Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top will be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just a little above the rim of the pan. Turn off the oven's heat and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon. Allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath for another hour.
12. 12
    After 1 hour, carefully pull the setup out of the oven, lift the springform pan out of the roaster—be careful, there may be some hot water in the aluminum foil—remove the foil. Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack.

(Not) French Chocolate Macaron

I had 6 egg whites left from this past weekends crepe cake and I thought "why not try baking French Macarons?" Big mistake. I have a salmonella phobia so letting the egg whites sit on the counter IS NOT much of an option for me. To make matters worse, I had no idea how to whip my egg whites into "medium firm peaks" so I guessed. I'm sure everything I didn't do contributed to the demise of my macarons. But, I hate to waste.

My failed macarons tasted alright after cooling - although they missed the entire entity of a macaron - mine were crunchy and chewy. Perhaps I will try them again when I get past my apprehension(s).

Anyway, I chose this specific recipe because it calls for almond meal or flour (my son has a nut allergy) but I can't recall where I found it. The recipe is noted below if you'd like to give it a go.

"Note: Adapted from "Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé," by Pierre Hermé and Dorie Greenspan. The almond meal (or flour) should be finely ground. If the almond flour and powdered sugar are a bit coarse, process them in a food processor for a finer texture before running through a strainer or sifter. Additionally, if the almond meal feels a bit moist, spread it out on a lined baking sheet and place in a 325-degree oven to dry out, about 3 to 5 minutes."

1 1/3 cups (5 ounces) blanched almond meal or flour

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (8.5 ounces) powdered sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch cocoa powder, plus more for dusting

1/2 cup (3 to 4 large) egg whites, at room temperature

1. Push the almond meal or flour, along with the powdered sugar and cocoa, through a strainer into a large bowl and whisk to blend.

2. Beat the egg whites in a mixer with a whisk attachment over low to medium speed until foamy, then increase the speed and continue just until they hold glossy, medium-firm peaks. Gently fold in the dry ingredients in 3 or 4 additions. When the dry ingredients are all incorporated, the mixture will be runny and look like cake batter.

3. Spoon half the batter into a pastry bag fitted with a half-inch round tip and, keeping the bag vertical and 1 to 2 inches above the sheet, pipe rounds about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and 2 inches apart onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

4. Rap the pan against the counter (or don't), refill the bag and pipe macarons onto the second sheet. Set the rounds aside in a cool, dry place for 30 minutes to rest.

5. Meanwhile, center a rack in the oven and heat it to 425 degrees.

6. Work with one baking sheet at a time. Dust the tops of the macarons lightly with cocoa and put the baking sheet on top of a spare sheet. Slide the set-up into the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 350 degrees. Prop the door open slightly using a wooden spoon (to reduce the heat as the macarons continue to rise and dry). The heat of every oven will vary; if the oven cools too quickly, do not prop open the door and instead quickly open and close the oven door every few minutes to gently release excess heat.

7. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the macarons are smooth and just firm to the touch. Transfer the sheet to a cooling rack.

8. Bring the oven temperature back to 425 degrees and repeat with the second sheet of macarons.

9. As soon as the oven has been reset, remove the macarons from the parchment . Lift the paper at one corner and pour a little hot water onto the baking sheet underneath the paper. Tilt the sheet to evenly dampen the parchment and leave the macarons on the paper for 15 seconds. Peel them off the paper and place them on a cooling rack. Match them up for sandwiching.

The Real Crepe Cake

I had a look back at when I downloaded the recipe and it was saved on January 22, 2009 (exactly 3-yrs ago today) taken from the website Cream Puffs in Venice. I'm sure glad I decided to go back it as it is the BEST crepe ever! I didn't get a chance to add some fresh fruit although I'm certain it would enhance the flavor of the cake. Overall, it's not very sweet, and I think that it's a crowd pleaser.

I've never done pastry cream so this was a first for me. I made it a day and a half before using (as instructed on the recipe) and initially thought I had made a mistake since it didn't "glue" together until the very last second. I then immediately took it off the burner and placed it in the bowl over ice.

I also mixed the crepe ingredients together and kept it in the refrigerator overnight.

Fyi I added a little something to my pastry cream in the morning - scraped vanilla beans - since I wasn't planning on adding the kirsch.

I gave the batter a quick whisk before straining and it looked rather runny. I decided to add an extra tablespoon (or two) of flour and whisked some more. I strained the batter through a fine mesh sieve and gently poured the batter onto a hot crepe pan around noon.

One would think that crepes in general are "delicate," but as an inexperienced crepe maker, I found them to be pretty fool proof. Sometimes there would be too much batter that it would create drip marks at the other end of the crepe, other times my batter was so thin that the edges would crisp and brown so fast. But either way, it made no difference, as they were all lovely once they were all stacked.

You know how I added those extra tablespoons of flour? Luckily, I did it because there were many lumps of flour left in my sieve. Phew.

I'm not sure if I managed to get all 20 crepes in end. Regardless, this cake was going to happen! I was finally done and it was almost 2 pm which leads me to think that I need to invest in another crepe pan. I decided to get myself and my children ready for dinner so I could build and chill my cake for the recommended 2-hours prior to serving.

It was time to fold the whipping cream into the pastry cream and this was a beautiful sight! There wasn't much sugar added to the whipping cream itself so I decided to add more vanilla extract. I love my vanilla.

The crepes were perfectly cool and I started the stacking them.

It was difficult to spread the cream from the counter so I decided to use my revolving cake stand.

That made a world of difference. My next dilemma, the 1/4 cup of cream didn't look like an adequate amount between the layers but I kept the faith and kept on churning.

I don't own a mini torch so I ended up decorating the cake with the scraped vanilla bean pod and icing sugar. 

I extremely excited to place it on a special cake stand from April, of April Cakes, so I had the cake do some modeling in my home before placing it on the cake caddy.

It arrived at our destination just in the nick of time for dessert. I also brought some coconut syrup for those who required an added sweetness (or dimension) to the crepes.

Honestly, the real crepe cake is perfect as it is! And here's the recipe:

The Real Crepe Cake

from Cream Puffs in Venice

For the crêpes batter:

6 tablespoons butter
3 cups milk
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
7 tbsp. sugar
Pinch salt
vegetable oil

The day before serving the cake, make the crepe batter and the pastry cream. For the batter, cook the butter in a small pan until brown like hazelnuts. Set aside. In another small pan, heat the milk until steaming; allow to cool for 10 minutes. In a mixer on medium-low speed, beat together the eggs, flour, sugar and salt. Slowly add the hot milk and browned butter. Pour into a container with a spout, cover and refrigerate overnight.

To make the crepes, bring the batter to room temperature. Place a nonstick or seasoned 9-inch crepe pan over medium heat. Swab the surface with the oil, then add about 3 tablespoons batter and swirl to cover the surface. Cook until the bottom just begins to brown, about 1 minute, then carefully lift an edge and flip the crepe with your fingers. Cook on the other side for no longer than 5 seconds. Flip the crepe onto a baking sheet lined with parchment. Repeat until you have 20 perfect crepes.

For the vanilla pastry cream:
2 cups milk
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted
3 1/2 tbsp. butter

Bring the milk to a boil. Turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract then set aside for 10 minutes. Fill a large bowl with ice and set aside a small bowl that can hold the finished pastry cream and be placed in this ice bath.

In a medium heavy-bottomed pan, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch. Gradually whisk in the hot milk, then place pan over high heat and bring to a boil, whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes. Press the pastry cream through a fine-meshed sieve into the small bowl. Set the bowl in the ice bath and stir until the temperature reaches 140 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Stir in the butter. When completely cool, cover and refrigerate.

To assemble the cake:
2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons Kirsch
icing sugar (optional)


Whip the heavy cream with the tablespoon sugar and Kirsch. It won't hold stiff peaks but that's okay. Fold into the pastry cream.

Lay 1 crepe on a cake plate. Using an icing spatula completely cover with a think layer of pastry cream (about 1/4 cup). Cover with a crepe and repeat to make a stack of 20, with the best-looking crepe on top.

Chill for at least 2 hours. Set out for 30 minutes before serving. If you have a blowtorch for creme brulee, sprinkle the top crepe with 2 tablespoons sugar and caramelize with the torch; otherwise, dust with confectioners' sugar. Slice like a cake.