Month: March 2023

Basque Burnt Cheesecake

~ nancyruth ~ Leave a comment

I had seen these on the internet and wanted to make one. Now that the cost of eggs has decreased slightly I figured I could afford to use 5-6 eggs on a dessert. There were so many recipes to choose from so I went with King Arthur Flour. It had the shortest list of ingredients. I did however add vanilla extract and baked it at a slightly lower temperature than the recipe called for. Here is the link: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/basque-style-cheesecake-tarta-de-queso-recipe

  • 3 8-ounce packages cream cheese at room temp
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 5 large eggs at room temp
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream (I used 1/2 cup half-and-half and 1/4 cup evaporated milk.)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Interesting pan preparation: crumple sheets of parchment paper and line the 9-inch springform pan in an overlapping fashion to fully cover the bottom of the pan and then fold up and over the sides over the edge of the pan. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. I used this temperature because I thought 500 was too hot and the other recipe I used for reference had the oven set to 400. Hubby suggested the in-between.

KAF wants the batter mixed until it is smooth and lump free. They suggest an 11-cup capacity food processor. Mine is only 9-cup. So with all the ingredients in the bowl I mixed it in my stand mixer and then used an immersion blender to smooth it out which is the alternative method suggested by KAF. This makes a lot of air in the batter which may account for how light it tasted. Not a bad thing!

Poor into the prepared pan and bake. I set the timer first for 25 minutes but the top was not “burnt” so added 10 more minutes and it was nicely browned and not too jiggly in the middle.

Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack until room temperature before removing from pan. They don’t tell you how to remove the cake smoothly from the parchment paper so mine broke a bit.

I chose to make the Hot Cocoa Drizzle from https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/vanilla-burnt-basque-cheesecake/ just because, with the only substitute being evaporated milk for the heavy cream.

Brown Bag Banana Bars

~ nancyruth ~ 6 Comments

Having two very ripe bananas languishing on my counter and having recently talked with my sister who was baking banana bread, I needed to do something with these. I planned for banana bread but found this recipe in my King Arthur Flour cookbook. It only calls for one egg and less than a cup of sugar so I thought these would not be too sweet. I added mini chocolate chips and walnuts instead of the poppy seeds and golden raisins included in the original recipe.

  • 1/2 cup butter or margarine; I used margarine! Hey, it was in my fridge’s freezer so…
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas; I used the two I had.
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour; I used whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/4 cup cornmeal
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Put this together the usual way: cream butter, sugar, and add the egg. Beat in banana and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients and add, mixing just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. This is baked in a 10 x 14 inch greased pan at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes.

Thoughts: I was hoping for a banana brownie-like bar cookie but this is light and cake-like. It tastes a bit salty and I am wondering if I accidentally doubled the salt. Actually, thinking about it now, I think I used fine crystal sea salt and that may be saltier than ordinary kitchen salt. I wonder if baking it in a 9 x 13-inch pan would make a difference? Even though I was going to say “nothing to write home about” I do find myself nibbling on these when i want a “Little Something” as Pooh would say.

I have just learned that Hubby is getting me a baguette pan, so it’ll be baguettes at our house for awhile!