Recipe #3: "Family Style" Orange Pound Cake

I was super stoked to be making my first pound cake!  I checked with Suze (Susan Purdy, author of Pie in the Sky) just to make sure there wasn’t some disaster waiting to happen as I first attempted this feat at altitude.  She said that any pound cake recipe that she has tried below 7,000 feet has not required any changes…..hmmm…..part of me feels like I am jinxing myself when I read things like this BEFORE I make the dessert at hand.  As I read this, I was taken back to the cheesecake note from Ina…..

The pound cake kind of required a lot of detailed work (grating the zest of 6 oranges, juicing the oranges, making the syrup to pour over the two loaves, and then making the glaze for both of them, etc.)  for the not-so-pound-cake that came out.  Don’t get me wrong, I thought it tasted super great!  I got a lot of compliments on it, it was very moist (which is always a hit), and I think the best compliment came from my hubby when he said that it made him think of something from his childhood (he couldn’t put his finger on it though).  I, being hard on myself as usual, thought that it just didn’t have the pound cake consistency I was looking for.  Ah well.

My new contessa wondering:  Sifting???  Really???  I love my antiquey-looking sifter, but I wonder what difference it really makes, and what essentially is the purpose of doing it.  Am I alone on this one?

Final note: I think there is something to be said for getting your cookbooks smudged, smeared, or splattered with whatever you are making.  At the end of the recipe, I noticed that my orange pound cake pages had orange juice and zest sprinkled about.  To me, it somehow makes the book feel more authentic knowing that the kitchen got a little messy with the effort put into a new favorite, an oldie-but-a-goodie, or even a complete culinary catastrophe. 

Recipe #2: "Family Style" Frozen Key Lime Pie

So, I have never tried key lime pie.  That’s right.  I’ve never had the homemade option, and if I ever order a dessert at a restaurant, I normally go for a chocolate number.  So I was a tad nervous going into this as I wasn’t exactly sure how it was supposed to turn out (aside from the obvious title).

This is going to be short and sweet: this is pretty much THE easiest pie I’ve ever made.  It had minimal ingredients, and whipped up in no time (a total of a half hour to be exact).  To start, the graham cracker crust is the same as the cheesecake’s from last week….how easy (with one under my belt, the nervousness was gone)!  I tried to make it more even this time….more in the middle, less where the pan bends to vertical.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t too successful in that area, but in the tasty area, I definitely scored.

The filling and topping were both super easy.  I again used my mixer (love, love, love!).  It made whipping the egg yolks a serious breeze and the whipped topping of cream, sugar, and vanilla sooooo creamy and yummy (yes, I had a few spoonfuls before adding it to the frozen pie….again, purely for quality assurance purposes).  One note: I did measure out the lime zest (instead of grating it right into the mixer, as I had said I would do for the lemon zest in the cheesecake).  It was WAY easier to do with the lime zest…I’m not sure if this is the reason, but it seemed like the lime zest was drier and therefore, didn’t compact when measured as the lemon zest does. 

The pie was seriously so easy that I have little to report on the process (not good for my “content of interest” that blogspot suggests I have in order to be “googled”)!  I will say this though....I will be adding a small fruit juicing device (I've seen handheld ones or small countertop numbers) to my "Budding Contessa Wishlist".  Limes do not juice well just by squeezing them!  I used half fresh-squeezed juice and half juice-from-the-plastic-lime-bottles you find directly next to the real limes in an area I like to call the "lazy persons bin" of the produce section. 

My husband and I tasted it tonight, and it was delish!  I thought it tasted like a margarita and he thought it tasted like lime sherbet….either way, how can you go wrong?!  He said he would definitely have another piece….I think that means it’s a hit! 

Note for next week: I will be skipping the Espresso Ice Cream recipe that is next in line and moving straight onto Orange Pound Cake.  I had to cut some recipes, and since I don’t have all of the required equipment, I’ll save this one for another challenge. 

Room Temp Eggs & Cracking Cheesecake Tops

My contessa research for this week has led me to find some pretty good answers and tips.

1.       What is the big deal about bringing eggs to room temperature when baking?  I am SO glad I did some investigative journalism on this one.  According to JoyofBaking.com (and come one, who doesn’t trust the Joy of Baking name), eggs whip to their maximum volume when they are at room temperature.  This is super important for anything that needs volume….cookies, cakes, etc. (especially in Denver, where you need all the help you can get to make recipes that lack high-altitude adjustments come out not looking like pancakes) I also read the same thing in other places like my “How to Cook Everything” cookbook by Mark Bittman (SUCH a good reference book for, of course, everything!) and an oh-so-cute blog called Over the Hill and On a Roll.  I am officially a believer, and will be bringing my eggs up to room temp every time. 

2.       How do I get my cheesecake not to crack (whether it be at this mile-high altitude or not)?  I was less concerned about this one because, lets face it, the cheesecake can crack as long as long as I top it with fruit.  But I still wanted to get to the bottom of this.  I went to my “Pie in the Sky” book by Susan Purdy because my gut feeling was that this recipe that Ina said would crack did because of the intricacies of being up so high.  She says that the tops of cheesecakes tend to crack when steam escapes as the cake cools.  Because everything cools faster at altitude (as compared to sea level), cheesecakes cracks are more common….no wonder mine was no different!  Suze says to cover the cake with a plan cardboard cake disk right when it comes out of the oven….this should slow down the rapid escape of steam and hopefully prevent the cracks.  I looked up a “cardboard cake disk” and I can pretty much use a clean piece of cardboard free of any wax, labels, etc. cut into a round disk. 

I am SO excited to use these tips, combined with the slight changes I would make to the original recipe.  And I can do it all in a spring form pan thanks to a coworker who brought one to work for me in exchange for another cheesecake.   That is definitely in the future, but first, frozen key lime pie!

Recipe #1 Continued: The Verdict!

I am happy to report that overall, everyone loved the cheesecake (a big woohoo for my first blog recipe)!  Almost everyone said it was delish, had good texture, had a great fruit topping, and that the crust was yummy.  I too thought it was good, but there are definitely some things I would change:

-          Less Zest:  The first thing that came to my mind (as well as my husband’s…who, first and foremost, definitely liked it) was that there was a bit too much lemon zest in it.  Most of my coworkers either didn’t notice or didn’t mind, but my husband and one of his friends thought something was just a little off about it.

-          Less Filling:  I think next time I will try putting in just a little bit less filling in my 9” pan (picky note: Ina says her spring form pan states that it is 9” when it really measures 9 ½ …perhaps this accounts for the excess filling I had).  This might make a better filling:crust ratio.

-          More Fruit: I actually only used 1/3 of the fruit topping, thinking that the full amount would be too much.  Now that I’ve made it, I think 2/3 would be perfection.

By the way, I loved getting the honest feedback!  I can only get better if people tell me what they really think.  (But it was great getting the compliments too!)   

Biggest lesson learned?  Cheesecake texture is apparently a very personal thing!  While some people like their cheesecake creamier, others like it with a little more bite.  I don’t think my current contessa status is up for the “perfect texture” challenge.  I think I’ll stick to the semi-basic recipe tweaking for now.

Recipe #1: “Family Style” Raspberry Cheesecake

I have to preface this by saying that the verdict on this recipe will have to wait until tomorrow or even Tuesday.  Having too much to do on Saturday, I went to the grocery store this morning to get all of my goods for this tasty looking first recipe….and then realized that once it’s cooked, it has to not only sit for 2 hours but refrigerate over night.  Boo.  Anyway, the recipe calls for a 9” springform pan, which I do not have, but I decided against purchasing for 2 reasons: 1) I can put it on my newly created “Budding Contessa Wishlist” and 2) I’m going to need to tote this to work for some coworker tastings.   

Crust contemplation: For some reason, I was nervous about making a graham cracker crust from scratch (even though there were only 3 ingredients with extremely simple directions….but still).  When it asked for 1 ½ cups of graham cracker crumbs, I thought, “how big do graham cracker crumbs need to be”?  What if they are too big?  What if they are too small?  I had a moment, but I just crushed them in my hands and went with it.  Needless to say, the crust mixture pressed into the pan just fine and the kitchen smelled like a buttery cookie even after the 8 minutes it required to bake/brown.

Filling feelings:  So my Kitchenaid stand mixer is currently residing in our laundry room, waiting for some free counter space.  I need to take a moment here and say that I LOVE my Kitchenaid mixer (once again, thanks mom!).  It is an oh-so-cute buttery yellow color and it makes everything easier….not to mention the fact that I feel way more like a creative Contessa when I use it.  BUT, since it was downstairs, I figured why not just mix the filling with my hand mixer instead of lugging by buttercream baby up to the kitchen?  My advice to you: lug.  I started mixing the cream cheese and sugar to “light and fluffy”, and realized that it would have taken me way longer than 5 minutes to do it.  Into the mixer it went, and of course, it was whipped up in no time.  I added in all of the other necessary ingredients (side note: I would zest the lemon directly into the mixing bowl as opposed to packing it into a measuring spoon like I did…it will distribute more evenly once mixing commences), taste tested (strictly for quality assurance purposes) and started to pour it over the cooled crust.  Well I don’t know what happened, but I filled that baby to the tippy top, and still had left over filling.  I scooped some out just to be safe, and popped it in the oven.

Baking uncertainties:  After the first 15 minutes, the cake rose to epic proportions, and I was sure this blog would be entitled “Raspberry Cheesecake, and How to Properly Clean an Oven”.  I definitely thought that the top was going to topple over, so instead of placing a pan under the cake to catch any spillage, I just reduced the heat like it told me to and hurried back downstairs, half afraid to look and half leaving it all up to fate.  Thankfully, the cake came out beautifully.  The only downside?  Ina (yes, we are on a first-name basis now…and by “we” I mean me) said that this is the only cheesecake recipe that she has found doesn’t crack, but mine did (play sad Charlie Brown music).  I am almost positive this is a result of me living and baking in the mile-high city as opposed to the sea-level Hamptons.

This brings me to a new addition of my 2-day old blog…. Things I Must Research to Obtain Contessa Status.  This week’s edition includes the following:

-What is the big deal about bringing eggs to room temperature?
-How do I get my cheesecake not to crack at altitude?

More on those items, as well as the tasting verdicts, in a few days….until then, dreams of sweets!

Contessa Challenge

I love desserts.  I love making them, tweaking them, and of course, eating them (that's right...I said it).  It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside whenever I get asked for the recipe of a dessert I have made and brought to a shindig, dinner, or some other casual hangout.  The thing is, the recipe is never my own.  It’s always from some fabulous cookbook like Martha Stewart’s “Cookies” or Susan Purdy’s “Pie in the Sky” (I live in Denver).  I want to be able to make something (scratch that….many somethings) that are memorable, delicious, and most of all, of my own creation.  One of my favorite chefs, Ina Garten, effortlessly creates and cooks, all without formal training!  I too want to reach a point where I can mix, whisk, prepare, and decorate sweets without them falling into some awful mess or tasting like day-old fruitcake.  So, on the heels of the book/movie “Julie & Julia” as well as the crock pot blog “A Year of Slow Cooking” http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/, I have decided to search for and ultimately find my own inner Barefoot Contessa by making one Ina Garten dessert recipe every weekend of 2011.

The Details: One recipe per weekend from Ina Garten’s “Barefoot Contessa Family Style”, “Barefoot Contessa At Home”, “Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics”, and her newest “Barefoot Contessa How Easy Was That?” (thanks mom!).  All four books have a total of 63 dessert recipes, so I’ll have to cut a few.  The primary judge of my desserts and dessert-making abilities will be my wonderful husband (he literally likes everything, so while getting through home-cooked dinners and choosing restaurants is a breeze, knocking his socks off is another story….this accomplishment will be an added perk of my year-long journey).  Other judges include my nearby family, friends, and coworkers. 

So here I go.  Off to discover and challenge my dessert-making self….

And ps:  during my pursuit of desserts, I will also be working on regaining my love for running (after what I like to call my “pregnancy hiatus”). Who says you can’t have opposing passions?