Ricotta Cheesecake

I had some leftover ricotta cheese, and I did not know what to do with it. I always wanted to try to make ricotta cheesecake. With some experimentation, I think I got a set recipe down.

Light Ricotta Cheesecake


Ingredients
Crust:
1 Package of graham crackers
2 tbs Brown sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
3 tbs Melted butter

Filling:
16 oz Ricotta cheese (Drained of most liquid)
16 oz Cream cheese (I think its 16 oz. Basically a block)
2/3 cup Sugar
1/3 cup Cake flour
2 Egg whites
2 Eggs
1 tsp Orange blossom
Zest of one orange and one lemon
1/4 Lemon juice

Directions for the crust
1. Melt butter
2. In food processor combine crackers, cinnamon, and sugar
3. Pulse everything until well blended
4. Slowly drizzle butter in
5. Line baking material bottom with crust

Directions for the filling (Preheat oven to 350)
1. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. (set aside in a bowl)
2. With a paddle mixer, beat the cream cheese and ricotta cheese together.
3. Put in the two eggs. (one at a time at low speed)
4. Add in sifted sugar and cake flour.
5. Mix very slowly or else everything will fly out.
6. Add in lemon juice, orange blossom, and zests.
7. Mix until well incorporated.
8. Fold egg whites into the batter
9. Prepare a water bath
10. Put batter in cake pan
11. Put cake into the oven for 45-60 minutes.
12. Let it cool and serve

Flan

While I was in Taiwan, they have this thing called "pudding". The thing with pudding is that pudding in Taiwan is not like American goopy mess. Instead it is more like flan. Actually it is flan. When you shake it at a certain lateral forces, it regains it's shape like jello like viscoelastic materials.

Anyways, the closest thing to "pudding" is flan. I prefer my flans to be creamy and not so much like jello.

Flan (makes 6 three inch ramekins)

Ingredients for flan
3 whole large eggs
2 Egg yolks
220 g Whole milk (1 cup)
290 g Heavy cream (1.5 to 1.75 cups)
75 g Sugar
1 Vanilla bean, split lengthwise (2 tsp Vanilla extract)
2 tsp Dark rum

Caramel
5:3 ratio of sugar to water by weight

Directions for flan!
1. Heat milk, cream, vanilla bean until 150F or well you see steam.
2. Separate egg yolks and egg whites (save egg whites for macarons or similar) while you wait for milk and cream mix to heat.
3. Dissolve sugar into dairy mixture by stirring continuously.
4. Add in rum and heat until 160F or until it starts to steam quite a bit (do not boil!!!)
5. In a mixing bowl, mix the egg yolks and whole eggs on low speed.
6. Slowly drizzle in dairy mixture while the egg yolks are mixing (do not make bubbles in the mixing process!)
7. Put mixer on stir.
8. Preheat oven to 300F
9. Boil water to prepare the water bath

Making caramel!
1. Dissolve sugar in the water on medium-high heat.
2.When dissolved, don't stir the caramel.
3. Turn off the heat when the caramel reaches a dark-golden color (darker than the picture's caramel)
4. Pour caramel into the ramekins, until the bottoms are slightly filled. (Note: the caramel will harden, don't worry about that because the oven will redistribute the caramel for the flan)
5. Turn off the mixer and put flan mix in caramel

Oven baking (reminder 300F)
1. Place ramekins in deep pan.
2. Place deep pan in the oven.
3. Pour boiling water into the deep pan until water reaches a little below the edge of ramekins.
4. Bake for 45-60 minutes, depending on your oven.
5. When 45 minutes is up, test to see if the flan jiggles a lot. If not, you are done!

Enjoy this creamy delicious treat! If you want, you can use 550g of whole milk and no cream at all or replace the heavy cream with half and half to get a less creamier texture.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ah... Seems like I haven't touched this in awhile ><. Well, it's because I have been busy with mainly school and a food club I started in my tiny apartment. Usually, I would be updating http://foodatucla.blogspot.com, but even I don't have time for that.

Anyways... Last week, my club made pumpkin desserts, and I thought to share with my readers (if any are left) my cheesecake recipe.

This cheesecake is not an ordinary cheesecake. It is extremely light, airy, and fluffy.

Pumpkin Cheesecake


Ingredients for Filling
4 slabs of Cream Cheese (room temperature)
3 egg whites
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup Milk or Cream (depends on how healthy you want to be)
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Pumpkin Puree
2 teaspoons Ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon Allspice
1 teaspoon Ground ginger
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Ingredients for Crust
1 package of Graham crackers
1 tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Allspice
½ tsp Ground ginger
1 tbs Dark brown sugar
3/4 stick butter (room temperature)

Prep work Crust
1. Preheat oven 325F
2. Make sure butter is softened
3. Crush graham crackers coarsely
4. Line Bottom of springform pan with parchment paper
5. Mix all the dry ingredients together
6. Add dry ingredients and butter on the bottom of the pan evenly
to form the crust
7. Prepare a large and deep dish for a water bath by filling it with
water.
8. Line bottom of the springform pan

Prep work Filling
1. Beat egg whites until soft peaks
2. In a mixing bowl with paddle attachment, add the cream cheese
and whip on low speed for 3 minutes
3. Add egg yolks, milk, sugar and mix for 1 minute until everything
evenly incorporated in the mix
4. Slowly add the flour, allspice, ground ginger while mixing on low
5. Add vanilla extract and pumpkin puree and mix for about 2
minutes or until evenly incorporated. (Don’t forget to scrap the
edges of the bowl while your mixing).
6. Gently fold in egg whites.
7. Gently zig zag pour the batter into the springform pan.
8. Place pan in the water bath
9. Stick the cheesecake in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour
30 minutes.
10. Allow the cheesecake to sit in the oven for 30 minutes before
putting it in the fridge.

Red Bean Shaved Ice

It's summer. It's hot. It's boring. I'm being lazy. I decided to buy another kitchen toy, a shaved ice machine. Having shaved ice is the best thing ever invented. I am not talking about Hawaiian shaved ice with all that artificial crap. I am talking about Taiwanese shaved ice with mangoes or red beans etc. On a hot summer day, it is so refreshing to eat shaved ice, while baking the skin until cancer forms.

Red Bean Shaved Ice

Ingredients
12 oz pack Azuki red beans
2 tbs Brown sugar
5 tbs Granuated sugar
Condensed milk
Ice block
Water
1 tbs corn starch
3/4 cup water

Cooking the red beans
1. Soak the red beans in cold water overnight
2. Wash and drain the red beans
3. Add enough water to cover the red beans in the pot and 4 inches more
4. Boil the red beans for 1 hour and add brown and granulated sugar
5. Boil for an additional 15-30 minutes until the red beans split open or are cooked.
6. Drain the liquid into another pot.
7. Reduce the liquid in half
8. In a separate container, mix corn starch and water
9. Add slurry mix to the red bean liquid
10. Add liquid to the red beans
11. Set in a cool place and move to the refrigerator to cool
12. After red bean is cooled, begin shaving the ice into fluffiness
13. Scoop red beans on top of the ice and add condensed milk

Enjoy some coolness xD

Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I seriously have a sweet tooth! I am always craving ice cream, cake, and etc. other stuff that is bad for you and me. Even though I have such an addiction to sweets, like Gin-san from Gintama (an anime series that you must watch), most of the time I refrain from buying sweets at Ralphs or Trader Joes.

I guess I had a good excuse to make sweet stuff today. I have never made cupcakes before. Ah, cupcakes, so small, sweet, and delicate. It is just the right serving size for dessert, and I don't think cupcakes are hated by anyone in the world. Well, if there are any out there, they are evil and I deem them an enemy of Earth!

Chocolate Cupcakes adapted from Food and Wine Magazine (makes 10-12)


Ingredients
100 g Cake flour (A MUST HAVE!)
25 g Unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Baking soda
Pinch of salt
2 Large eggs separated
75 g Canola oil
100 g Sugar
2 tbs Water

Direction of sweet doom
1. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl
2. Mix well until everything is almost evenly distributed
3. In another bowl, add egg yolks, sugar (reserve 2 tbs), oil, and water, and mix well (I suggest using electric mixer with paddle attachment)
4. On low speed, slowly add the dry cake mixture to the liquid mixture until smooth
5. In another bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks (here's a tutorial that 101cookbooks explains about how to beat egg whites).
6. Add 2 tbs of reserved sugar to the egg whites and beat until stiff peaks.
7. Fold in 1/4 of the egg whites at a time into the cake mix until white streaks disappear
8. Preheat oven to 350F
9. Spoon cupcake mix into little cupcake holders
10. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes depending on the quality of your oven
11. Check with a toothpick to see if it will come out cleanly
12. Remove from the oven and set to cool on a rack
13. After cooled, add favorite frosting

Now onto the cream cheese frosting I had for this!
Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
4 oz Cream cheese softened
4 oz Unsalted butter softened
2 cups Powdered sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Directions
1. Cream butter and cream cheese with a whisk
2. Slowly mix and add powdered sugar to the mix until smooth and creamy
3. Add vanilla extract
4. Put on top of cupcakes

Apple Crumble 100th post!!!

Ah. Summertime summertime summertime ...
What a great way to relax and do nothing at all. Well, nothing for a week because summer classes are starting next week.

Yay! Summer classes this year due to fail at finding an internship : (. That's alright. I got a new guitar and amp. I shall be practicing some new songs and relax before I graduate next year. I guess this summer will be the last summer I'll have to relax before I enter the working world.

As for this blog... I am writing my 100th post! Have I really blogged this much? This is more usage of a blog than Xanga (if anyone still remembers what that is: sidenote*: I read my old Xanga posts from middle school and noticed how lame my middle school self was)

For this special post, I shall be baking a simple and sweet dessert. Why is baking something special?

To tell you the truth, I absolutely suck at baking, so I rarely attempt a disastrous nuke going off in my oven. Because this is the 100th post, I will give it my all and attempt apple crumble. I was inspired by all the apples in my refrigerator and my lack of any ingredients to make a cake.Let us begin this wonderful spiral into disaster.

Apple Crumble

Ingredients for a sweet tooth
Filling layer
5 Apples (I used Granny Smith)
1/4 cup Granulated sugar
1/5 cup Brown sugar
1/2 cup water
6 Rose petals (like the ones you put in tea, you can take out the water and substitute it for 1/4 cup of rose water)
1 tbs Cinamon
1 tsp Lemon juice

Crumble mix
1/2 cup Wheat flour (all purpose is good ... I'm going to try using bread flour next time)
1/3 cup Brown sugar
1/4 cup Oats (quick cook ones)
1 cup Butter - unsalted (1 stick or 8 tbs)
Preheat the oven for 400F


Directions of how I can possibly !@#%$ up
Filling
1. Peel and remove the core from the apples
2. Cut the apples into approximately 1/2 cm thick slices by 2 cm high shapes (like triangles)
3. In a bowl, put in brown sugar and mix apples in the bowl until the apples are coated (set aside for 5 minutes)
4. In a pan, boil the water and throw in the rose petals.
5. Reduce rose tea until 1/4 cup is left.
6. Strain the rose tea
7. In another pan, add the rose tea, apple mixture, cinnamon, and lemon juice.
8. Cook until the apples are slightly soft or until there is a syrupy texture of the liquid
9. Remove filling from the stove and put into baking dish.

Crumble part
1. In a bowl mix all the ingredients until crumbly
2. Place the crumble mix on top of the filling
3. Put into the oven for 30-45 minutes or until top is browned.

Well to my surprise ... it turned out pretty good. Why the rose? I thought it might go well with apples because rose apple tea is pretty good xD.

Here's a fresh out of the oven photo.