Chocolate Chip Cheesecake April 26, 2010

When the baby was born, my in-laws came with food. When they left, the freezer was full, the refridgerator was stocked, and random non-perishables filled the cabinets . Among them, I found two pie crusts-one nilla wafer and one oreo. I’m a HUGE advocate of making my own crust-you could call me a crust snob, but I’m also not one to complain or waste food (especially if it was free). SO, I set about to try and use these ready made pie shells-to no avail.

The other day, however, while perusing the baking aisle at my local Kroger and trying to figure out if I needed to make some Sheila’s Dream bars (a most delicious treat with coconut, pecans, chocolate chips, and sweetened condensed milk, in a graham cracker crust-you know the recipe on the back of the sweetened condensed milk can), I thought “CHEESECAKE!” I navigated away from the baking aisle to the cheese aisle. Cream cheese, sugar, eggs-right? I bought 4 packages of cream cheese and was on my way.

After some Internet searching when I got home, I was dismayed to find that most cheese cake recipes called for a CUP of sugar (isn’t that a little excessive people?) and….sweetened condensed milk (dang it). Until, all of a sudden I stumbled upon a highly rated allrecipes.com recipe. It is as follows….

Ingredients

2 8oz packages of cream cheese (I used low fat-next time I’ll use one low fat and one fat free)

1/2 Cup of brown sugar (is the a more delectable way to eat sugar? I think not)

1 teaspoon of vanilla

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

1 Cup of chocolate chips

1 ready made pie crust (I used Oreo).

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

Mix the cream cheese and brown sugar until it’s blended well and then beat in the eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour in the ready made pie crust and bake for 50 minutes. Voila! Chill overnight for optimum enjoyment.

A word on the doneness of cheesecakes…

I’m certainly no cheesecake expert-I’ve only made one before this and that was in college-probably 10 years ago. So, when I pulled it out of the oven at 50 minutes I wondered how to tell if it was done. This is what I learned after some research…a perfectly baked cheesecake should look done around the edges and a little soupy in the center. Kind of like cookies-who knew? Cracks indicate it has been baked to long. Mine had cracks. So, my advice is this, while baking this cheesecake-start checking it at 35-40 minutes. I’ve baked in about seven ovens at this point in my life-and they’ve all been very different.

A word on spring form pans…

I don’t have one, but I bet this recipe would be even more delicious if baked the accurate cheesecake baking way.

A word on the cheese cakes’ name…

If they look like pies, are shaped like pie, and eaten like pies-why do we call them cakes? Sounds like another research project.

The end. Enjoy!

Oh yeah, let me give credit where credit is due…thanks Denise Smith and allrecipes.com. You rock!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Blueberry Cake April 9, 2010

Well friends and loyal readers (all two of you) it’s been too long and I have learned that blogging with a newborn is much harder than I originally thought. Currently my little one is happily? swinging in her fisher price swing, but I sence some restlessness coming, so I’ll make this fast. There’s much to be talked about on this blog…being a new mom, healthcare reform and the mid-terms, some movies I’ve seen recently, etc, etc….BUT for now let’s stick with something simple…cake.

While parusing one of my favorite magazines, Better Homes and Gardens (which by the way hales from good-ole Des Moines, IA) over a bowl of morning granola I stumbled across this recipe. Let’s face it, since I’m in love with chocolate and berries of all kinds, I immediately tore it out and made it within the week. You don’t know this, but I’ve been living on post baby left-overs from my mother in law’s visit a month ago and really haven’t cooked anything more than a loaf of banana bread because I had bananas rapidly browning on my counter and one batch of Jumbalaya because I had a sausage link that was nearing expiration (well actually it was one week expired-but who’s counting?). So the fact that I made this cake so quickly indicates my intrigue.

So here it is….and I hope you enjoy it as much as Matt and I have the past day. It’s half-way gone and before I start let me add one thing-it’s only 6 grams of fat per serving! YEA! Guiltless chocolate cake at that-how sublime.

Combine in a mixer:
1 Cup of whole wheat flour
1 Cup of sugar
6 T unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt

Mix in a blender:
1/2 C of blueberried (fresh) I think you could actually use more than this.
1 egg
3/4 C of water

Add the blueberry mixture to the dry mixture and beat until smooth. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Combine in a microwave safe bowl:
1 C of frozen whipped dessert (the recipe calls for lite but uh…that’s no fun)
1/2 C of Semisweet chocolate chips

Melt in the microwave for about a minute and stir until smooth. Pour this mixture over the cooled cake.

In a blender mix:
1/2 C of blueberries
1/2 C of whipped dessert

Garnish your cake with this sauce.

Enjoy along side a huge glass of milk or some black coffee (if that’s how you roll).

Thank you thank you to Dorothy Olsen of Provo, Utah who created this recipe (and won the Better Homes and Garden Annual Recipe Challenge award for the Good and Healthy Category). Your cake is awesome!