Goat Cheesecake

photo by Leah Paulette

I made a quick day trip to Savannah this week with my friend Leah*, who came spur of the moment to see me while her husband was off fighting fires for the Forest Service (impressive, I know.) We spent time on the beach reading aloud from Matilda, ran screaming from scary jellyfish water, walked for about 6 hours straight and ate seafood, icecream, bread, and cookies. And free samples of pralines on River Street.

I don't think most people understand my need to visit every bakery in a given city (this is hard in places like New York City, but believe me, I have tried). But Leah understands. She even reminded me about one we'd missed as we started to head home. Eric would've been praying I'd forgotten so we could get out of there- he doesn't really get it.

If you're planning a visit to Savannah, make sure you stop by Leopold's Ice Cream Shop, Harris Baking Company (AHmazing Ciabatta bread) and one that looked cool but we missed (cause it closes at 4pm), Back in the Day Bakery (a little ways from the main downtown area.)

*Leah and I have been officially best friends since 9th grade, when we stood in the bathroom at school and decided it was so. We shared family vacations. We lived together for a while in college. Then we did the whole maid-of-honor thing in each other's weddings. We're BFFs, no big deal.

So Leah came and hung out at work one morning while I baked. I rewarded her patience with bread pudding, which she confirmed is the best she's ever eaten. She even used her mad photography skills to capture images of this Goat Cheese Cake with Lemon Curd. Which, by the way, is DELICIOUS.

This Goat Cheesecake is one of the creamiest cheesecakes I've ever bitten into. Totally Luscious. The goat cheese flavor is subtle at first, then expands as you swallow each bite. The graham cracker crust is spiced with ginger and cinnamon. The addition of Lemon Curd isn't necessary, but the flavors are lovely together and it does bring it up a notch on the dessert-impressiveness-scale. Throw some strawberries or blueberries on the plate, and you have a dessert worthy of some fan fare. It manages to be tart and sweet, pungent and fresh all at the same time- also, people hear "goat cheese" and go nuts for some reason.

This is not your run of the mill NY style cheesecake with sticky berries in syrup, this is:

Goat Cheesecake with Lemon Curd and Fresh Berries. Inspired by Emeril's recipe.

Preheat the oven to 350. Get out a 9-in springform pan and a baking dish large enough to hold the springform pan.

For the crust:

2 cups finely ground graham crackers (or 2 cups gingersnap crumbs. if using gingersnaps, omit the spices) Using a food processor is the easiest way to get good crumbs.

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted butter

Stir the graham crumbs, spices and sugar together. Slowly add the butter until the crumbs are evenly moistened and stick together when you squeeze them.

Press this mixture onto the bottom and sides of the springform pan, creating the crust for the cheesecake. Use your fingers or a straight-sided glass or measuring cup to make the job easy. Freeze the crust for 10 or 15 minutes. This will help it keep its structure in the oven. After freezing, bake the crust for 10 or so minutes until it is golden brown. Set aside to cool.

Prepare the batter:

3.5 packages cream cheese (28 oz total), room temp

1 cup sour cream

12 oz goat cheese, room temp

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

juice of 1 lime

1 tablespoons Gran Marnier, Cointreau or orange extract

In a stand mixer or using a handheld mixer with a deep bowl, mix the cream cheese until creamy. Add the goat cheese and the sour cream and mix until smooth. Add the sugar and mix, scraping down the bowl occasionally with a spatula. Add the eggs one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Finally, mix in the vanilla, lime juice and orange liquor until the mixture is completely smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared crust and smooth the top. Wrap tinfoil around the sides and base of the springform pan to make sure no water penetrates the pan during baking. Set the pan into the baking dish and fill the baking dish with very hot water so it comes halfway up the side of the springform pan. This is a waterbath and will ensure the cheesecake doesn't crack during baking.

Bake at 350 for about 1.5 hours (or 2 if you have shady spotty oven like me). The center will move only slightly when the cheesecake is done- the edges will be completely set.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool on a rack. Once cool, chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

While the cheesecake is cooling, make the lemon curd:

1 t finely grated lemon zest

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 stick of butter

Whisk together the zest, juice, sugar and eggs in a heavy saucepan. Cook over med-low heat, whisking frequently, until the mixture has thickened and is bubbling.

Force the curd through a fine mesh sieve into a small bowl to remove the zest, and any eggy bits. Cut the butter into 1/2 in pieces, and add them to the curd. Stir until the butter is melted. If you're in a hurry, use an ice bath to cool the curd, stirring occasionally. (Simply place the bowl of curd into a larger bowl of ice water.) Otherwise, place a piece of plastic wrap over the top and refrigerate until ready to use.

Serve the cheesecake with a dollop of lemon curd and a smattering of berries.

Caramelized Bread Pudding with Cinnamon and Chocolate

Oh my gosh! So many people are getting married this summer! I'm estimating that we will attend at least 6 weddings this spring/summer...it's starting to remind me of the summer after college when all my friends tied the knot. I spent all my savings on gifts and bridesmaid dresses that summer.

Don't get me wrong, weddings are a blast and I'm so excited for all of our almost-married friends, but your boss starts looking at you funny when you tell him you'll need another weekend off for - "Let me guess, Mikaela. A wedding." Yup.

And that's not even the craziness thing that's happening...even crazier is that the first round of friends to get married? The ones from the summer after college? They're starting to have BABIES. Mind-blowing. BABIES. Inconceivable.

We want kids, lots of them even, but as we always say...just not right now. Sorry mom.

That said, I'll tell you what we do want right now, what marrieds and singles and parents and children all want right this very minute, even if they don't know it: We all want BREAD PUDDING.

Specifically we all want this bread pudding, and that is because it has a very high custard-to-bread ratio. Nothing is more disappointing than dry, clunky bread pudding, but I'll give you the secrets to bread pudding nirvana:

1. Chocolate layer on the bottom.

2. Only one layer of bread, smothered with butter.

3. A veritable waterfall of custard.

4. Hints of cinnamon and nutmeg.

5. And...wait for it...a caramelized top. That's right. You brulee the top before serving. Could this get any better? No! I attest it could not.

This layered bread pudding is a FANTASTIC respite from the dense bread puddings that seem to have been made from pureed bread.

The recipe is adapted from Suzanne Goin's Sunday Suppers at Lucques, phenomenal cookbook filled with recipes for entire meals organized by season. Every recipe is pure gold.

There's also a helpful video of Suzanna Goin making this bread pudding at Martha Stewart's website.

Caramelized Bread Pudding with Chocolate and Cinnamon

2 T unsalted butter, softened

5 slices brioche or white bread, crusts removed

3 egg yolks

3 eggs

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

1 1/4 cup whole milk

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 t salt

1 cup dark chocolate, chopped or chips

plus about a tablespoon of sugar for the caramelizing

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle the bottom of a 9x9 baking dish with the chocolate.

Butter one side of each slice of the bread, cut it into quarters, and layer on top of the chocolate. The edges of the pieces should overlap a bit, but there should be only one layer of bread.

Whisk the eggs and egg yolks with the brown sugar, then whisk in the cream, whole milk, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Pour the custard over the bread slices, and use your fingers to push down on the bread slightly to make sure it's not dry anywhere.

Place the bread pudding baking dish into a roasting pan and into the oven. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water so the water comes half way up the side of the bread pudding dish. This will help it cook evenly and keep the custard smooth.

Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes until the bread is slightly puffed up and the custard is set. Let cool for 10 minutes, then sprinkle the top of the bread pudding with sugar and caramelize with a torch or under the boiler. If using the boiler, watch it carefully so it doesn't burn and the custard doesn't curdle.

Scoop out of the pan with a large spoon to serve, making sure you get all of the yummy chocolate on the bottom.

Mmmm, enjoy. Seriously, this is so good I want some right now...I know what I'll be making at the restaurant tomorrow!

Spiced Whipped Oatmeal

I now present you recipe two from the healthy fixes series. It reminds me of oatmeal pudding. And we know that I'll eat anything that reminds me of pudding.

I was inspired to make whipped oatmeal by the blog Katheats. This girl is a serious oatmeal lover- check out her oatmeal tribute page; it's epic.

The Basic formula is this:

Make oatmeal with thin slices of banana, whisking like crazy during the second half of cooking.

Once you've mastered the (extremely complicated) basic formula*, the dish is highly customizable. You can use any kind of milk you want to prepare the oats and then add extras like spices, nuts, granola, peanut/almond butter, dried fruit, fresh fruit, yogurt or chia seeds.

* Its not extremely complicated, that was a joke.

Now, Why Oatmeal? I'll tell you.

Oatmeal boosts energy without adding a ton of calories and fat. It is a complex carbohydrate, which means you feel full longer and have energy longer than you would if you'd just eaten cake and icecream, or even something like a peach. This means the oat/banana combination packs a one-two punch: Energy spike from the banana, sustained energy compliments of the oatmeal.

Oatmeal contain more soluble fiber than whole wheat, rice and corn. The soluble fiber helps eliminate heart-clogging cholesterol, and reduces the risk of heart disease. Oatmeal also contains goodly amounts of vitamins A, B and E, protein, iron and calcium.

What's more, when you choose oatmeal for your breakfast, you are totally in control of what you put in your mouth. Unlike cereal, the only ingredient in rolled oats are OATS. Stay away from the flavored instant varieties... they're full of sugar and it really doesn't much longer to prepare the real thing.

Here is my super tasty decadent version:

SPICED WHIPPED OATMEAL

1/2 cup oats

1 cup vanilla silk almond milk

1 medium banana

1/2 t cinnamon

1/4 t cardamom

There's no sweetener even needed, because the banana and the vanilla almond milk is sweet.

Combine the almond milk and oats in a pot over low heat. Thinly slice the banana into the pot and let the oats warm, stirring occasionally. Once you start seeing some simmering action, get out your whisk and whisk until the banana is dispersed and unrecognizable as banana and the oats are at your desired consistency. Stir in the spices. Mmmm fragrant and spicy. After writing this post, I definitely know what I'm having for lunch today.

If you want to really mix things up, instead of spices, try adding 1/4 cup chocolate chips when the oatmeal is still hot and stirring them in to melt. You could also add a little bit of cocoa powder and a sweetener like agave nectar or honey instead of the chips.

Calories: 340 Fat: 2.5 g Sugar: 30 g

Caramel Cake with Apple Filling

Apples often seem pretty plain jane to me. It was a fruit we always had in the house growing up,* and so I never thought it very special. This could be because I kind of hate red delicious apples, and pretty much any other apple that is sold at the grocery store in a plastic bag with ten other of its fellows. Not very special at all.

However, I declare Fall 2010 the Apple Revolution! Let us rejoice with the bounty of autumnal boughs hanging heavy with the crisp, sweet-tart fruit that is the apple!

And caramel. Everything I make has caramel in it these days.

Apple Revolution started a couple weekends ago when Eric and I went to Greensboro, NC for a wedding (shout out to Haley and Dave! Hooray!). We found there, surprisingly near our hotel and the highway, the absolute biggest farmer's market I have ever seen. It had three massive awnings that housed vendors selling everything from pumpkins to bread to flowers to apples. So many apples. I bought a very large bag filled with one of every kind I could find. We're talking Winesap and Arkansas Black and King Luscious and Duchess and Honeycrisp (aren't apple names just wonderful!)

Therefore...you will be seeing a lot of apple related desserts around here in the coming weeks.

The inspiration for this cake came from Honey and Jam, but I couldn't make the frosting from that recipe set. It stayed a caramel goo mess. Fortunately, I found a delicious recipe on Epicurious from Bon Appetit. If you beat the frosting a little, you get this dark, thick frosting that reminds me of caramels. If you beat it a lot, the frosting becomes lighter in color and very fluffy. Both are tasty, but I like the way the darker one looks better.

This combination is awesome, by the way. Truly awesome. The cake is a rare vanilla cake that stays moist for many days in a world full of dry cakes. The individual components take some time (mostly cooling time, so don't try to make this on a tight schedule), but you can spread out the making of the cake and it's not bad.

Vanilla Cake from Cakelove (it's best if you can weigh the ingredients, and so much easier)

I make this times 1.5 to come up with a three layer cake.

Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare two 9-in cake pans with parchment rounds in the bottom and butter or spray.

Dry Ingredients:

AP Flour, 7 oz or 1 1/4 cup plus 2 tbs

potato starch, 2 oz (you can sub cornstarch if necessary)

baking powder, 1 1/2 tsp

salt, 1 tsp

Wet Ingredients:

half and half, 1 cup

brandy, 2 tbs (can sub more half and half for this)

vanilla extract, 1 tbs

Creaming:

unsalted butter, room temp, 6 oz or 1 1/2 sticks

extra-fine granulated sugar, 14 oz or 1 3/4 cups (you can food process regular sugar to make extra fine.)

eggs, 4 large

Start by mixing the butter and sugar with in an electric mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix on med-low for at least 5 minutes, the more time the better. It will be very fluffy.

Meanwhile, whisk the dry ingredients in a bowl and sift together. In a separate container, combine all the wet ingredients.

After the butter and sugar are sufficiently creamed, add the eggs one at a time, blending well between each.

Finally, add the wet and dry ingredients in 5 alternating additions, waiting only until the ingredients are just incorporated before adding the next addition. Scrape the bowl and mix on medium speed for 15-20 seconds.

Divide the batter between the pans and bake for 25-28 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Apple Filling adapted from Honey and Jam

I doubled this for a triple layer cake.

2 large granny smith (or other baking-type) apples

1/2 t ground cinnamon

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

Peel the apples and grate with a box grater. Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and cook until the apples are tender and there is little liquid left. Cool completely.

Caramel Frosting from Epicurious

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup cream

2 egg yolks

1 stick unsalted butter, room temp

1/8 t salt

1 cup powdered sugar

Stir the sugar and water together and cook over med-high heat, swirling the pot occasionally (not stirring). Cook until the caramel is deep amber; watch it carefully, it will continue to darken a little after you turn off the heat. Remove from the burner and whisk in the cream (watch out for steam and bubbles). Stir until the caramel is smooth.

Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl, and gradually whisk in the hot caramel. Cool the caramel mixture.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and powdered sugar together until smooth. Beat in the caramel mixture. Let stand at room temperature until thick enough to spread, about an hour.

Spread the apple filling between the cake layers and frost the outside of the cake with caramel frosting. If you have time to freeze your cake layers, it makes frosting easier.

Go, enjoy this quintessential fall cake.

* Oddly enough, we also always had bananas around too when I was growing up, but that apparently had the opposite effect on me than the ever-present-bagged apple, because now I am slightly obsessed with the banana. Really, its the perfect fruit.

Cinnamon Oatmeal Praline Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

That name is quite the mouthful, eh? Let's add on to it and make it Smooth-Crunchy-Creamy-Chunky-Luscious-Cinnamon-Oatmeal-Praline-Chocolate-Chunk-Incredible Cream.

And after all that I have to admit that string of descriptors goes nowhere in describing how utterly divine, just how perfect it is. Thank you, David Lebovitz, for equipping me with the tools to make it.

disclaimer...this absurd number of egg yolks is for a double batch

This ice cream has three components: 1. A custard base, which means it uses a ton of egg yolks and remains soft and creamy in your freezer, rather than getting icy and hard like ice creams that use only cream and milk. 2. Oatmeal Pralines- toasted old fashioned oats tossed with hot caramel an sprinkled with sea salt, cooled in a sheet pan and smashed to bits with a heavy object. 3. Chocolate chunks- I recommend chopping up bar chocolate in slivers and chunks. I used ghiradelli baking dark, but I think semisweet would be just as good, if not better.

Order of prep:

1. Make custard, place in ice bath in fridge.

2. Make Oatmeal Pralines, set out to cool.

3. Chop chocolate, place in bowl in the freezer.

4. When custard is totally chilled (at least three hours later), churn in ice cream maker.

5. While churning, smash the praline to bits and place in bowl in freezer.

6. When ice cream is churned, put it in a bowl or tupperware and fold in the praline bits and the chocolate.

7. Cover bowl. Freeze for several hours (I recommend overnight) to soften pralines and firm ice cream.

8. Enjoy your hard earned ice cream. Try to share with your friends and family, and try not to stick your whole face in the bowl when you take it out of the freezer. Feel free to sneak a spoonful every time you pass the freezer.

Cinnamon Ice Cream, from The Perfect Scoop

Makes about 1 quart. I doubled it, and it still only lasted 2 days. There were 7 people though.

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

Pinch of Salt

Ten 3-in cinnamon sticks, broken up. I used 2 tablespoons of Saigon Cinnamon instead.

2 cups heavy cream

5 large egg yolks

Warm the milk, sugar, salt, cinnamon sticks and half the cream in a pot. Once warm, let steep for an hour to infuse the milk with the cinnamon. If you're using ground cinnamon, skip this step.

Heat the milk mixture, remove the cinnamon sticks and discard. Prepare your icebath- fill a large bowl with ice and a bit of water, and put a smaller bowl inside the big bowl. Pour the remaining cream in that smaller bowl. Have a strainer on hand to make sure there are no eggy bits in your ice cream.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Whisk the hot milk into the egg yolks a little bit at a time until the egg yolks are the same temperature as the milk mixture. Whisk the hot egg mixture into the milk mixture.

Stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. DON'T BOIL. You can also tell it's done when you can feel it starting to coat the bottom of the pan. If you think its coating the spatula, it probably is.

Pour the custard through the strainer into the cream in the icebath bowl. Stir until cool. Cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, then churn according to the instructions that came with your ice cream maker.

Oatmeal Pralines, also from The Perfect Scoop

3/4 rolled oats (not instant)

1/2 cup sugar

Pinch of coarse salt

First, toast the oats. You can either do this on a sheet pan in the oven, or, if it's a hot summer day and you don't feel like turning on the oven, you can toast them in a wide skillet on the stove top, stirring constantly. Like so:

Place a sheet of aluminum foil on a baking sheet.

Spread the sugar evenly in the bottom of a medium, heavy bottomed pan. Cook over medium heat and cook attentively. When you see the edges liquify, stir carefully to get the rest of the sugar to melt. Be aware that if you don't stir, the bottom can burn while the stop is still white. Once the caramel is deep golden, remove from heat and dump the oats in. Stir the oats to coat with the caramel, then scrape them onto the aluminum foil on the baking sheet. Spread them out as evenly as possible. Sprinkle with salt and let cool and harden.

Once cool, break up into pieces and put in a heavy duty plastic bag. Whack them into bits with a rolling pin or other heavy blunt object.

The pralines will be very hard, but will soften in the ice cream. I recommend mostly small bits, like the size of a fingernail.

Stir together ice cream, pralines and chocolate, freeze for a bit and enjoy!

Make it this weekend and tell me how you liked it!

Tres Leches Cake

The sad cake pictured above was the one and only time that my Sky High cake book failed me. I was excited by the prospect of a layered tres leches cake- I'd never seen one before.

And it turns out, there may be a good reason for the absence of layered tres leches cakes. This one failed, for sure. All the egginess sank to the bottom of the layers, becoming a hard, plastic-like shell. What's worse, I spent an hour stirring dolce de leche on the stove, and it turned out grainy and was only meant to be whipped into the cream for the frosting. The recipe is definitely fixable, but I won't have time to mess with that mess for a long time.

Anyway, I decided to go with one of the more traditional recipes, all of which consist of a basic sponge cake soaked in a mixture of sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream or half and half, all covered in sweetened whipped cream and cinnamon. Hard to go wrong there.

I sifted through many, many recipes, trying very hard not to make the Pioneer Woman's recipe, because seriously, a million bloggers out there have blogged about the recipe. But in the end, you can't argue with a million bloggers all claiming that Ree Drummond's Tres Leches Cake is the reason they get out of bed in the morning. So I tweaked it and made it- several times. For me, for the restaurant, and for a potluck. And it was very good. But I have a feeling that any good sponge cake recipe could yield you very similar results, if you'll forgive me for saying so.

I never cease to be astounded by the magical and versatile properties of eggs. I feel an egg post coming on soon...

And really, this cake is awesome in general. It's like the best parts of cake and custard combined.

Tres Leches Cake adapted from the Pioneer Woman

1 cup flour

1 1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

5 eggs

1 cup sugar, divided (3/4 and 1/4 cups)

1 t vanilla

1/3 cup milk

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

3 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup sugar

Cinnamon, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a 9X13 in pan.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Separate the eggs. Beat the yolks in your mixer with 3/4 cup sugar until thick and pale. Stir in the vanilla and the milk. Stir the egg mixture gently into the flour mixture.

Wash the mixer bowl, and beat the egg whites with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar on high speed until stiff peaks form. Carefully fold the whites into the batter, trying not to lose the volume. Don't over mix. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30-40 minutes. It's done when the knife or toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool. At this point you can transfer it to a pretty dish that has a rim, or you can keep it in the baking dish. Stab the cake all over with a fork. Combine the three milks in a spouted containing and mix well. Slowly, in stages if necessary, pour the milk mixture over the cake. It should all absorb into the cake eventually. It is best to refrigerate it overnight to allow complete assimilation of cake and milk.

The next day, beat the heavy cream and the 1/2 cup of sugar in your mixer at high speed until thick. Don't over whip, or it will get grainy and eventually turn into butter.

Spread the whipped cream over the cake and sprinkle with cinnamon. Serve. Enjoy.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of the finished, sliced cake. But if you feel the need for in-depth photo documentation of the whole process, check out the Pioneer Woman's site- she always documents every single step and detail of her dishes.