A Passion for Desserts

I got a new cookbook yesterday at a local baking shop called Sweetwares, which you should check out if you ever get a chance. This cookbook is called A Passion for Desserts. It's by Emily Luchetti, and it is fantastic! I've been getting this book at the library repeatedly for a while, so I figured that I ought to just go ahead and buy it.

The photography in this book is absolutely gorgeous. The pictures are taken by Ngoc Minh and Julian Wass. The photographs really make the book, I think.

The recipes are organized by season, to highlight what is fresh and in season at the time. Recipes for summer have berries and nectarines. Fall has apples and figs, and so on. The recipes are really creative, and are made even more interesting by the authors little anecdotes  beginning the recipe. This book is really unique, and I can't wait to go to the farmers market and get some berries and fruit so I can start on one of these recipes!

Gingerbread Bars

I made these yummy nummy gingerbread bars for a camping trip to Loon Lake. These came out of the July 2009 Bon Appetit, which I have decided is my favorite issue I have gotten so far.

This wasn't the first time that I'd made these bars, but I guess I was too lazy to post them before. Actually, there are quite a few things that I've made and haven't posted.

But ANYways, these bars are quite yummy, as well as easy to make. Officially, these guys are categorized as bar cookies, but I would call them more like cake squares. The top of these are sprinkled with flour and sugar, which doesn't add much, taste-wise, but makes them look nice and pretty, like they're snow dusted.

These bars got better and better in the days after they were baked. They turned chewier, and overall just better. So my advice to you is to make these, wait and day or two, and then EAT!

Onto a new topic. I have just discovered the most delicious almond butter in the world. The brand is Justin's Nut Butters. The type that I got was the honey almond butter. And it is so good. The sweet in it is just enough that it isn't quite savory, but not enough so that it is too sickly sweet.

They load of other types of butters, including:

-chocolate peanut butter

-chocolate hazelnut butter

-maple almond butter

-regular peanut and almond butter

Oh yeah, and the packaging is uber-cute, which is always a plus. *eyebrow waggle*

If you see these butters anywhere, BUY THEM! You'll never go back to whatever brand you use now. 

Father's Day Cheesecake!

It took a while for me to find this recipe, but it was sure worth it. First, it was to my fave Gourmet Today cookbook, which had loads of fancy lemon cheesecakes. My first choice was the marbled lemon curd cheesecake. I take it to my father. Meh, I don't really like lemon cheesecake, he says. So, I decide that instead of going for fancy, I'll go for nice and simple. And delicious.

So I got out the Betty Crocker cookbook that was all old and dusty and crusty. Search for cheesecake ensued, and voila! The Company Cheesecake was found!

I was hesitant to make cheesecake (refer to post below.) However, this one didn't require a water bath (score!) and it didn't have to set for a bajillion hours (double score!)

So, onto the cake of the cheese. The crust was a usual graham cracker crust, which was one of the criteria of the cheesecake (according to my father.) It was good, because there were a load of graham crackers that were just taking up room in the pantry. The cheesecake itself had two and a half packages of cream cheese in it. Is that a lot or a little? I don't know, I haven't made that many cheesecakes. It also had lemon zest, and I think some vanilla. I put a topping of just plain sour cream on top.

The end result was a cheesecake that was really tasty. It had just the right tinge of lemon, and the graham cracker crust was crunch and delicious. My grandpa asked for it for his birthday as a cake substitute. I am glad to oblige.

While looking through the old Betty Crocker Cookbook (1969), I found some funny old recipes. It made me realize how foods come and go out of style kind of like clothing. Some of my favorites were:

-Grapes and Pineapple in Sour Cream

-Captivating Cantaloupe (cantaloupe slices stuffed with cherries, cream cheese, and almonds)

-Tangy Tomato Aspic?!

-Fruited Chicken Mold?!?!?!?!?!

The mere idea of a molded salad makes of shudder. Are they really as gross as they sound? Vegetable jello? I may never know...

Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake with a Shortbread Cookie Crust

This is just a lemon cheesecake I dressed up with some blueberries. This is an epicurious.com recipe.

Well, I know that with all of the other recipes I have made, I have had nothing but rave reviews for. This cheesecake was... okay. I don't think I would make it again, even though it tasted all right. It didn't have time to set up as much as it should have, which made it creamier than it should have been near the crust. The crust was actually pretty good; made with crushed shortbread cookies. However, it was very hard to spread on the bottom of the pan. Also, the recipe had no instructions on how to make sure that water didn't leak inside your spring form pan during the water bath inside the oven. My makeshift foil around the pan leaked a bit, making the crust a bit soggy. Not an awesome recipe

Lemon Cheesecake Squares with Fresh Berries

A creamy lemon cheesecake filling lies above a buttery, crumbly graham cracker crust. The whole thing is topped off with three fresh blackberries. This recipe is from the July 2009 Bon Appetit Magazine.

These were wonderful to say the least. The cheesecake was in perfect balance with the crust, not too much, not too little. It was also the right amount of lemony-ness, not too overpowering. The crust was soft enough to cut through with ease, but not soggy. I used blackberries on top because that was what was shown in the magazine picture, but any type of berry would work. Try blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries. I would make this again soon.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

This is a tried and true recipe out of The Joy of Cooking. The results were great. Sweet pineapple and a coffee cake-like cake paired together were fantastic. Did you know that pineapple upside-down cake was created to market canned pineapple?

This was a test run for a birthday cake request I got. Since I had never made pineapple upside-down cake before, I figured it would be better to try it once before I made for real, lest I muck it up. I really liked the fact that the cake was like a coffee-cake. The caramelized brown sugar on top really made the pineapple lose its acidity, and bring out its true sweetness. Even my sister who says that "pineapple makes my tongue acid-y" enjoyed it. It's a great recipe and I'm making it again soon.

Chocolate Chip and Peanut Blondies

Blondies are basically brown sugar brownies, which are actually pretty simple to make, and extra delicious. Watch out, because these will go fast. This is from the July 2009 Bon Appetit Magazine.

These blondies are almost more of little cake bars than cookies. Lots of reviews of this recipe that I have seen has said that they thought the blondies too salty. They were salty, but not overly salty, I thought. The chocolate chips balanced that out. The recipe made more than what is shown in the picture, these were for a family member to take for dessert at a friends house. According to them, the bars were gone very quickly. This is definitely a keeper.