I love breakfast. No doubt about that. If I’m feeling especially indulgent, I’ll whip up some pancakes (or waffles, if I’ve planned *really* far ahead.) What better way to start off 2010 than with a batch of banana pancakes topped with fresh (and local!) whipped cream, and drizzled with lavendar honey?

The mojito tart—quite literally—made my mouth water after the smallest of bites.  The fresh, bright lime flavors gave way to a subtle (yet sublime) mint finish.  The blueberry mint sauce was a lovely color addition, though I thought too scarce to play a substantial role in the devouring of said slice of heaven was plated before me.

I found dehydrated navel orange slices at Trader Joe's while on vacation. I've never seen them in another store.

I ventured into my cupboards, adding in the challenge of using some of the more unusual ingredients I’ve picked up on various trips.

1 1/2 c old fashioned oats
3/4 c powdered milk
2 scoops protein powder
1/4 c chopped almonds (raw)
3 dehydrated navel orange slices, chopped
5 orange essence pitted prunes, diced
—
1/2 c orange blossom honey*
1 egg
1/8 c fresh squeezed orange juice
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 t pure orange extract
1/8 c natural applesauce

*I got the orange blossom honey while I was in Nicaragua. If you can’t find it, feel free to use whatever honey you have access to. I wanted a lighter honey so as not to overpower the orange flavors. I’ve read Fireweed honey has a citrus flavor, but didn’t have any to experiment with.

Mix the dry ingredients together, then the wet ones.
Add wet ones to dry ones.
Spread in greased pan. ( I used a 6×8. Feel free to double the ingredients and use a 9×13)
Bake at 325˚ for about 20 minutes, or until edges start to brown.

Verdict:
The flavor was pretty good. Next time, I’d reduce the amount of honey, and increase the baking time. My bars were still pretty moist. Using quick oats vs old fashioned would probably work better too. Easily worth another try.

To kick off a weekend of birthday festivities, I rounded up a bunch of friends for mediterranean tapas at Michael Smith’s Extra Virgin, located in Kansas City’s Crossroads district. {tapas: small Spanish savory dishes, typically served with drinks.}

My two favorites from the many tried:
Sautéed tiger shrimp - summer peaches & celery
Baked pasta formaggi - mozzarella, pancetta & herbs

I washed it down with a basil-honey mojito (Mmm!) while my friends made friends with pitchers of Sangria. (Beware: the $36 pitchers of Sangria are not on special during happy hour!)

Salad prepared with imported Burmese tea leaves, tomatoes, lettuce, dried shrimp (or vegetarian), fried garlic, sesame seeds, peanuts, and split yellow peas.

I went through a cheesecake phase about ten years ago, due largely to a friend who liked ‘em. It’s been a while since I unwrapped the dump truck of cream cheese for a recipe, so I suppose I’m overdue.

As the recipe called for, I carefully wrapped my springform pan in foil in preparation for the bain-marie.

toasted hazelnuts, fancy cocoa, and toffee bits

Now, I recently made something called “mile high strawberry pie” that used a graham cracker crust. It was great, largely due to the fact I crushed the graham crackers by hand. The varied sizes of graham cracker chunks probably had something to do with it. I wanted to see if I could bolster it up into something even MORE special for the DB challenge, so I pondered my flavorings and eventually settled on chocolate and hazelnut. Given that, adding some chopped toasted hazelnuts to the crust seemed like a no-brainer. Adding bits of toffee was my curiosity showing. Once mixed, everything held together pretty well. (I suspect I would’ve had some troubles if the graham crackers were a uniform near-pulverized mass of dust)

The other thing I thought I’d try for the challenge: making a layered cheesecake. Getting the batter mixed together was pretty straight-forward and once mixed, the batter was divided into thirds. One third went in the pan. One third reserved for later. One third was the subject of my undivided attention. (Enter in the fancy cocoa and Frangelico.)

cheesecake, released from springform pan

Getting the cocoa-fied batter spread evenly over the first layer was a little tricky, but with some patience, success was MINE. And just to prove it I got to demonstrate again with the last third of the batter.

Baking…well into the night. So sleepy, but the kitchen smelled so sweet.

When it finally came time to release the pan from the cheesecake, I was a little disappointed my thirds didn’t come out as equal as I’d hoped. Worse yet, the foil did not prevent the edges of my crust from getting soggy. In an attempt to rescue it, I flipped it upside down and pulled out my kitchen torch. It seemed to do a bit of good in drying out the edges, but it wasn’t worth the effort.

cheesecake cut into wedges

I also decided to cut the cheesecake ahead of time. I imagined some of the fancy bakeries using parchment paper around the blade to help separate the pieces, but when I tried it, it turned out to be a clumsy demonstration in futility. I bet I needed a straight blade as a guide.. I abandoned that idea for simply cutting  the round in to little wedges. It was at that point when I saw evidence of how entirely uneven my layers were! (Oh riiiiight… it’s like footprints on how quickly I poured the batter into the pan. Why didn’t I think of that?)

All in all, folks liked it a lot. I was a little disappointed in how subtle the hazelnut flavor was. I’d use less cocoa next time in my middle layer. Most importantly, I’d get a better waterproofing method for my pan.

The recipes

Crust:
20 graham cracker squares
1 1/3 c. flour
1 1/2 T. sugar
1 t. salt
2 T milk
1/2 c. Mazola [corn] oil

Cheesecake Filling:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too – baker’s choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil “casserole” shaped pans from the grocery store. They’re 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

First, let me say I took one look at the recipe and found myself curled up in a ball, sucking my thumb. I’ve *tried* making pasta before. Just once–with a pasta maker–from a recipe that came with the contraption.  It was disasterous; one of the few times I’ve has to classify something as “inedible”.

But alas, I didn’t join the Daring Bakers so I could simply wimp out on a basic egg-flour-spinach combination. So after some fussing and fretting, I cleared off the counter, threw down some flour and cracked open the eggs.

I worked the spinach into the egg, then the flour into that. And it was ooey-gooey…at first.

Then it dried up. Seemingly, a lot.

And that’s an awful lot of flour to keep trying to work into the dough.

Right about here, I decide I gotta cry “uncle” and let the dough rest. It felt really dry to me, and I was worried about how it would hold together while rolling out. With the flour that was leftover on the counter, I decided I had enough spinach left over to improvise a second batch and with one, I added the flour by ‘feel’.  Both batches rested after kneading as the recipe called for, and I was pleasantly surprised to feel the ‘dry’ batch had seemingly found some moisture. My second batch felt a little more tacky, but still quite workable.

Both batches were rolled out, floured, turned, flipped and rolled some more.

Rolling out the dough was a pretty time consuming process. A few times, the edges got a little dried out, but you can see how thin the dough was.

I cut the sheets into rectangles about the size of my pan and let them dry out on my stackable cooling racks .

While those were drying, I started the bechamel sauce. I’ve never made one before, nor have I worked much with rouxs. I found it surprisingly simple and felt a bit like a giddy school girl as the flour/butter started to bubble.  Added the milk, watched it thicken. But adding the nutmeg was the best. The whole kitchen started to smell like irresistable.

After making the bechamel sauce, I cooked up a red sauce too (vegetarian style).

Then came the assembling the lasagna, layer by layer. I had too much of my marinara sauce, not enough bechamel, and the pan wasn’t deep enough for the tower of lasagna I was hoping have in the end. (But maybe that was my appetite growing.

The cheese I bought was in blocks, so I spent a good chunk of time grating them. Every time I dusted on a layer, I thought the curls looked so pretty.

All in all, a successful pasta-making adventure. The lasagna was good, but I felt like the overall texture was a little flat, what with pasta and a couple of sauces as the ingredients. I wanted a few veggie speed bumps to offset the smooth ride across my palette.

The recipes

Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna (Lasagne Verdi al Forno)
(Serves 8 to 10 as a first course, 6 to 8 as a main dish)

Preparation Time: 15 minutes to assemble and 40 minutes cooking time

10 quarts (9 litres) salted water
1 recipe Spinach Pasta cut for lasagna (recipe follows)#1
1 recipe Bechamel Sauce (recipe follows)#2
1 recipe Marinara Sauce, courtesy of You Say Tomato (recipe follows)#3
1 cup (4 ounces/125g) freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Method
Working Ahead:
The ragu and the béchamel sauce can be made up to three days ahead. The ragu can also be frozen for up to one month. The pasta can be rolled out, cut and dried up to 24 hours before cooking. The assembled lasagne can wait at room temperature (20 degrees Celsius/68 degrees Fahrenheit) about 1 hour before baking. Do not refrigerate it before baking, as the topping of béchamel and cheese will overcook by the time the center is hot.

Assembling the Ingredients:
Have all the sauces, rewarmed gently over a medium heat, and the pasta at hand. Have a large perforated skimmer and a large bowl of cold water next to the stove. Spread a double thickness of paper towels over a large counter space. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius). Oil or butter a 3 quart (approx 3 litre) shallow baking dish.

Cooking the Pasta:
Bring the salted water to a boil. Drop about four pieces of pasta in the water at a time. Cook about 2 minutes. If you are using dried pasta, cook about 4 minutes, taste, and cook longer if necessary. The pasta will continue cooking during baking, so make sure it is only barely tender. Lift the lasagne from the water with a skimmer, drain, and then slip into the bowl of cold water to stop cooking. When cool, lift out and dry on the paper towels. Repeat until all the pasta is cooked.

Assembling the Lasagne:
Spread a thin layer of béchamel over the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange a layer of about four overlapping sheets of pasta over the béchamel. Spread a thin layer of béchamel (about 3 or 4 spoonfuls) over the pasta, and then an equally thin layer of the ragu. Sprinkle with about 1&1/2 tablespoons of the béchamel and about 1/3 cup of the cheese. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with béchamel sauce and topping with a generous dusting of cheese.

Baking and Serving the Lasagne:
Cover the baking dish lightly with foil, taking care not to let it touch the top of the lasagne. Bake 40 minutes, or until almost heated through. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes, or until hot in the center (test by inserting a knife – if it comes out very warm, the dish is ready). Take care not to brown the cheese topping. It should be melted, creamy looking and barely tinged with a little gold. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and let the lasagne rest for about 10 minutes. Then serve. This is not a solid lasagne, but a moist one that slips a bit when it is cut and served.

#1 Spinach Egg Pasta (Pasta Verde)
Preparation: 45 minutes

Makes enough for 6 to 8 first course servings or 4 to 6 main course servings, equivalent to 1 pound (450g) dried boxed pasta.

2 jumbo eggs (2 ounces/60g or more)
10 ounces (300g) fresh spinach, rinsed dry, and finely chopped; or 6 ounces (170g) frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
3&1/2 cups (14 ounces/400g) all purpose unbleached (plain) flour (organic stone ground preferred)

Working by Hand:
Equipment:
A roomy work surface, 24 to 30 inches deep by 30 to 36 inches (60cm to 77cm deep by 60cm to 92cm). Any smooth surface will do, but marble cools dough slightly, making it less flexible than desired.
A pastry scraper and a small wooden spoon for blending the dough.
A wooden dowel-style rolling pin. In Italy, pasta makers use one about 35 inches long and 2 inches thick (89cm long and 5cm thick). The shorter American-style pin with handles at either end can be used, but the longer it is, the easier it is to roll the pasta.
Note: although it is not traditional, Enza has successfully made pasta with a marble rolling pin, and this can be substituted for the wooden pin, if you have one.
Plastic wrap to wrap the resting dough and to cover rolled-out pasta waiting to be filled. It protects the pasta from drying out too quickly.
A sharp chef’s knife for cutting pasta sheets.
Cloth-covered chair backs, broom handles, or specially designed pasta racks found in cookware shops for draping the pasta.

Mixing the dough:
Mound the flour in the center of your work surface and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs and spinach. Use a wooden spoon to beat together the eggs and spinach. Then gradually start incorporating shallow scrapings of flour from the sides of the well into the liquid. As you work more and more flour into the liquid, the well’s sides may collapse. Use a pastry scraper to keep the liquids from running off and to incorporate the last bits of flour into the dough. Don’t worry if it looks like a hopelessly rough and messy lump.

Kneading:
With the aid of the scraper to scoop up unruly pieces, start kneading the dough. Once it becomes a cohesive mass, use the scraper to remove any bits of hard flour on the work surface – these will make the dough lumpy. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes. Its consistency should be elastic and a little sticky. If it is too sticky to move easily, knead in a few more tablespoons of flour. Continue kneading about 10 minutes, or until the dough has become satiny, smooth, and very elastic. It will feel alive under your hands. Do not shortcut this step. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and let it relax at room temperature 30 minutes to 3 hours.

Stretching and Thinning:
If using an extra-long rolling pin work with half the dough at a time. With a regular-length rolling pin, roll out a quarter of the dough at a time and keep the rest of the dough wrapped. Lightly sprinkle a large work surface with flour. The idea is to stretch the dough rather than press down and push it. Shape it into a ball and begin rolling out to form a circle, frequently turning the disc of dough a quarter turn. As it thins outs, start rolling the disc back on the pin a quarter of the way toward the center and stretching it gently sideways by running the palms of your hands over the rolled-up dough from the center of the pin outward. Unroll, turn the disc a quarter turn, and repeat. Do twice more.

Stretch and even out the center of the disc by rolling the dough a quarter of the way back on the pin. Then gently push the rolling pin away from you with one hand while holding the sheet in place on the work surface with the other hand. Repeat three more times, turning the dough a quarter turn each time.

Repeat the two processes as the disc becomes larger and thinner. The goal is a sheet of even thickness. For lasagne, the sheet should be so thin that you can clearly see your hand through it and see colours. Cut into rectangles about 4 by 8 inches (10 x 20 cm). Note: Enza says that transparency is a crucial element of lasagne pasta and the dough should be rolled as thinly as possible. She says this is why her housekeeper has such strong arms!

Dry the pasta at room temperature and store in a sealed container or bag.

#2 Bechamel
Preparation Time: 15 minutes

4 tablespoons (2 ounces/60g) unsalted butter
4 tablespoons (2 ounces/60g) all purpose unbleached (plain) flour, organic stone ground preferred
2&2/3 cups (approx 570ml) milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Using a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over low to medium heat. Sift over the flour, whisk until smooth, and then stir (without stopping) for about 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk a little at a time and keep the mixture smooth. Bring to a slow simmer, and stir 3 to 4 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Season with salt, pepper, and a hint of nutmeg.

#3 Marinara Sauce

2 tablespoons 0live 0il
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
6 oz tomato paste
28 oz crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons parsley
1/2 c chopped basil
salt & pepper

Heat olive oil in large pot. Add onions and cook down about 10 minutes. Add garlic, cook 1 minute. Add tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, parsely, basil, and season with salt/pepper to taste. Simmer 20 minutes.

I’d never made a flourless chocolate cake before…I was admittedly a teeny bit nervous. I’ve made frozen custard a bunch of times, so I thought I’d try a little something different; chai ice cream. 

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time:  20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.  Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

With three simple ingredients (chocolate, butter, and eggs) fretted about what kind of chocolate to use. I think my brain checked out though…and as I was melting it down, I had a last-minute change of heart (or stroke of common sense!); using 99% unsweetened cacao was probably not a good idea.  I used about 10 oz. of the Scharffen Berger, then 6 oz. of regular ol’ Baker’s semisweet.

Melted the butter, and mixed in. I couldn’t help but give it a taste. Soooo rich and chocolatey!

Everything went ok while whipping the egg whites and mixing the yolks with farm fresh eggs.

But once I started folding in the whites, I got nervous. it sure looked awful. (breath…keep folding…just keep folding!)

I discovered (too late) I was out of parchment, so I did an extra-good job buttering the spring form pan.

Came out smelling pretty good. I did my best to let it cool for 10 minutes before plating it (oh, the restraint!).

I found the chai ice cream, on it’s own, to be too sweet. I found the cake, on it’s own, to be too bitter (thanks to the semi-sweet chocolate). But together the two proved a killer match— too dangerous to kept in the house. While the cake was still warm from the oven, I played cake-fairy.

I’d love to try again, using some of the infused and flavored chocolates on the market.