June ABC challenge: strawberry cream cheese coffee cake

The challenge this month was breakfast/brunch.  My favorite!  I used up some leftover frozen strawberries by making half the original recipe.

Here's what I used:

Strawberry Filling

3/4 cup frozen strawberries, thawed, drained, and cut into pieces

1½ tablespoons sugar

1½ teaspoons water

3/4 teaspoon cornstarch

Cream Cheese Filling

4 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1/8 cup sugar

1/2 large egg

Butter Cake & Crumb Topping

1 cup all purpose flour

3/8 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, cold and cut into chunks

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

3/8 cup sour cream (full fat)

1/2 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the strawberry filling, mix the strawberries and sugar in a pan. Cook briefly over low heat to warm (until the strawberries release their juices if using fresh, about 5 minutes). In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and water to make a slurry, then add to the strawberries and stir until well combined. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for another minute or two until it has thickened. Let cool to room temperature.

For the cream cheese filling, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar and ½ egg and beat until well combined.  Set aside.

For the cake, combine the flour and sugar in a bowl. Cut the butter into the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Measure out 3/8 cup of the mixture and set aside. Add the baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix well. In another bowl, beat the sour cream, ½ egg, and vanilla extract until well blended. Add to the flour mixture and stir gently until just incorporated. Spread the dough in a greased 8 x 4" or 9 x 5" pan that's at least 1.5 inches deep, patting down with damp fingers if necessary. Spoon the cream cheese mixture over the dough, then top with the strawberry jam. (Avoid letting the jam touch the edges of the pan to prevent sticking.) Sprinkle the reserved 3/8 cup crumbs over the strawberry filling. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack at least 20 minutes before slicing.

 

I had some difficulty deciding what pan to use.  I used a 9 x 5" loaf pan, so my cake was a little thinner than the original, and I think the high sides prevented proper browning on top.  Also, turned out the oven was at 375F for the first 20 minutes; I turned it down to 350 and baked it another 5, which was just the right amount of time.  It might need a little longer for a 350F oven, especially if it's a thicker cake.  The pan I used was non-stick and very slick, but I greased it anyway and the slice came right out.  The original recipe calls for a pan with a removable bottom, which would make for a nicer presentation but isn't necessary to get the cake free.

Conclusion:  This was much lighter than you might expect, and not too sweet.  (The cake part tasted just like a cinnamon streusel coffee cake my mom used to make.)  Very good.

Recipe:  Strawberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake via Food Wanderings (adapted from a blueberry version on Annie's Blog)

October ABC Challenge: Spiced Apple Cream Cheese Cake

For the cake:
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder 
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cardamom
¼ tsp salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
½ cup evaporated milk

For the cheesecake:
1 package (250 g) cream cheese, at room temperature
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp each freshly grated nutmeg and ground clove
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp all-purpose flour

For the topping:
2 tbsp unsalted butter
3 whole cloves
1 ¼ lbs tart apples, such as Granny Smith or Northern Spy (about 4 apples), cored, peeled and chopped into 1/3-inch cubes
2 tbsp granulated sugar 
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg 

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease an 8-inch round springform pan with butter and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper.

To make the topping, fold together apples, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Heat butter in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat until the foam subsides. Add whole cloves so they infuse the butter and then add the apple mixture. Toss until they just begin to soften, but not until they’re mushy, about 3-5 minutes. Transfer apples back to the bowl, discard cloves and set aside to cool completely while you prepare the rest of the cake.

To make the cheesecake batter, beat cream cheese in a medium bowl until smooth and creamy. Add sugar and vanilla extract and beat on medium speed until smooth and the sugar is mostly dissolved, about 40 seconds. Beat in the cinnamon, nutmeg and clove until combined. Add egg yolk and flour and beat just until incorporated and batter is smooth. Set this aside while you make the cake batter.

In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cardamom and salt. In another medium bowl, beat butter with both sugars until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla until combined. Add egg and beat until well incorporated and batter is fluffy, about 30 seconds. Add one-third of the flour mixture and beat on low speed until mostly combined. Beat in half of the evaporated milk until blended. Repeat this step by adding half the remaining flour mixture followed by the last of the milk, beating no more than 15 seconds between additions. After the last bit of milk has been added, beat on medium speed for 3-5 seconds to just make sure the batter is smooth. Fold in the last of the flour mixture by hand using a rubber spatula until evenly combined. 

Scrape batter into prepared pan and spread it out evenly. Spoon dollops of cream cheese mixture over the cake batter and use a butter knife or the back end of a spoon to lightly swirl it in to sort of fuse the two batters together. Gently spoon cooled apples over the batter in an even layer and bake until the cake wobbles ever so slightly in the middle, 45-50 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack and let cool completely.

Conclusion:  Cake was a little too sweet and not an interesting addition.  Better with cheddar.
Left skins on.
Added salt, about 1/2 t ? To batter, prob could use more.
Baked ~15 min longer for 2.
Cloves ground is fine.

Recipe:  Spiced Apple Cream Cheese Coffee Cake via Scientifically Sweet

The Chocolate and Cream Cheese Cake Tango

I don't like the inventor's name for this recipe:  "Rich Chocolate Cake with a New York Attitude".  It's brash.  It's confusing.  It certainly doesn't hint at what's going on here:  the sensual pairing of rich chocolate cake and creamy cheesecake.  This is so decadent it's probably banned by some religions.  So what word better describes this tempting union than... tango?  (Cue seductive Latin music.)

My (chocoholic) co-worker's birthday is this weekend, so I was looking for a cake to bring in today that was easily transportable and didn't require too much time to make during the week.  This recipe was perfect.  I split the work over two evenings by making the cheesecake mixture the night before and storing it in the refrigerator overnight.

The original recipe said it makes 3 9-inch cakes, but commenters said that even with 3-inch-high cake pans, their pans still overflowed.  I checked the quantities and realized that they were about double a normal cake, and that was just for the chocolate part.  Add to that the cheesecake part, and it's no wonder the pans overflowed.  So I cut the recipe in half and used a 9x13-inch pan and it worked just right.  (The original recipe is from a wedding cake challenge, which explains why the recipe is so large and baked in 3 pans.)  I also added espresso powder to enhance the chocolate.  I think almond extract would be a good flavor pairing in this recipe as well.

New York cheesecake swirl:

1/3 cup sugar

8 ounces (1 package) cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla (or almond) extract 

1 egg, room temperature

8 ounces semisweet chocolate morsels

Chocolate Cake:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup cocoa powder

2 teaspoons espresso powder (optional)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 ounces unsalted butter, melted and cooled

In a medium-sized bowl, beat the sugar, cream cheese, and extract on high speed until well combined. Add the egg and continue to beat on high speed, scraping down the sides. Once combined, stir in the chocolate morsels. Chill the mixture for approximately 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly grease a 9x13-inch cake pan and dust lightly with a little cocoa powder.  In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the sugar and stir to combine well.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and melted butter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in small increments, gently folding the mixture until well combined.  Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan and spread evenly. Randomly place teaspoon-sized dollops of the cream cheese mixture atop the chocolate cake batter.  (If your cheesecake mixture is soft, for a prettier appearance lightly swirl the two together with a knife or chopstick.   See Notes.) Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.  Before serving, dust with powdered sugar, if desired.

Spotted.  Not attractive.

Notes:  

• I expected the cake to rise up and cook around the cheesecake, resulting in pockets of cheesecake throughout.  As you can see, that didn't happen -- the cheesecake spread and formed  a nearly cohesive top  layer.  My cheesecake mixture was room temperature and soft, not chilled as directed, which might have been the cause.  While it didn't affect the flavor at all, the result was not very appealing visually.  Though the original directions didn't call for swirling the two parts together (perhaps because cold cream cheese doesn't blend well), it DOES refer to a cheesecake swirl, and I think the cake would look better that way.  Polka dots don't rank highly in food porn circles.

• If  I made this again, I would try the more traditional technique of mixing the sugar and cocoa powder in with the wet ingredients.  The cocoa powder is very lightweight, and tends to get kicked up into the air while trying to mix the dry ingredients.  

Conclusion:  This was very tasty and moist, and was well received at work.  But even though it has more cocoa powder than most cake recipes, it didn't seem that chocolaty.  (It might have been the cocoa powder I was using, which isn't my favorite.)  The cake also fell in the middle, though that might have had something to do with the oven door slamming shut mid-way through the baking.  (Oops.)  Of course, that only made the center of the cake that much fudgier.  No one complained.  (I should also mention the cheesecake part is mighty fine baked separately as its own dessert, warm or cool.)

Original recipe:  Rich Chocolate Cake with a New York Attitude via the Food Network

January ABC Challenge: Mole-spiced Brownies with Lime Cheesecake Swirl

To be honest, I approached this month's challenge with reservation.  Once upon a time, I was the type of person  who, if the dessert menu included Death By Chocolate, I was all over it.  The richer, more decadent a dessert was, especially if it included chocolate, the better.  But at some point several years ago, chocolate started to lose its appeal (gasp!), and rich foods of any kind quickly followed suit.  Besides that, the whole chocolate-and-cheesecake thing has been done a million times.  I had to find a twist or it wasn't going to happen.

A friend recently made a sweet bread with chocolate and spiced with chili and cinnamon.  I decided to go the same route with these brownies.  Interestingly, when one doesn't have a stake in the outcome, it really opens the doors to adventure!  Once underway, I decided to go even further and add the sweet spices from traditional mole along with some tangy lime, in keeping with the Mexican flavor.  (Okay, so Chinese 5-spice isn't Mexican, but it brought the anise and cloves to the party in one easy-to-use measure.)

A chopstick  really helped to break up the
thick chocolate batter and get it swirled in.

The directions call for cooking the butter and sugar "until the mixture is smooth and shiny."  Well, it was getting pretty thick after several minutes, but it still wasn't smooth.  I took it off the heat anyway.  As it cooled, it got even thicker.  (I wonder if this affected the final texture.)  Consequently, it was something of a challenge getting it swirled into the creamy cheesecake batter.

As it turns out, these brownies were a disappointment.  For one, they confirmed a growing suspicion...  I don't like cinnamon and chocolate!  I don't know why not.  They were also extremely rich, as I knew they would be.  I think the addition of chocolate chips was overkill.  They are already so intense, even with reduced sugar, and chocolate tends to steal the show anyway, no matter what.  I would have preferred a ratio of cheesecake to chocolate of about 3:1; the recipe is closer to 1:2.

Lastly, though  many people complained that they needed much longer to cook, mine were overdone in just 35 minutes.  I had halved the recipe and used an 8x8" pan, which is larger than half of a 9x13"  pan, so I should have started checking them after 25 minutes.  They didn't burn, but were a little on the gummy side, and the cheesecake had large air pockets throughout, as if there were too much egg  or something.  (Perhaps it was the flour...  Why is there flour in the cheesecake anyway?  And did I forget to cut the flour quantity in half??)

Besides the added flavors, I reduced the sugar, increased the salt, reduced the vanilla, and omitted the chocolate chips.  Here are the ingredients I worked with for a half recipe quantity, with my changes noted:

Chocolate batter
1/2 cup unsalted butter
*3/4 cup sugar (reduced from 1 1/8 c)
5/8 cup baking cocoa
*1 teaspoon salt (increased from 1/2 t)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
*1 1/4 teaspoon ground red chili (likely New Mexico hatch)
*1/2 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice
*1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

Cream cheese batter
8-ounce package cream cheese
3/8 cup sugar
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
*1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (reduced from 1 t)
1/8 cup heavy cream
1 large egg
*zest and juice of one lime



Conclusion:  This type of item doesn't appeal to me, so I would not make it again.  The flavor combination I used was interesting; I really liked the little bit of heat from the chili, and the tangy lime was a nice contrast against the richness of the brownie.  I will definitely use the chocolate/chili/lime combination again.

Recipe:  Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies via King Arthur Flour