Coconut & Lime

Ingredients:
for the crust:
1 1/2 cups of speculoos crumbs (I used my Vita-Mix but a food processor would work)
6 tablespoons of butter, melted and cooled slightly

for the cheesecake:
4 eggs
32 oz (regular or reduced fat) cream cheese
16 oz plain Greek yogurt (full fat, 2% or 0% are all fine)
4 1/2 oz 70% dark chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
1 1/4 cups sugar
2/3 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla


Directions:
Preheat oven to 250.
For the crust- Mix the crumbs and the butter until damp. Press firmly into the bottom of 6 4 inch springform pans or 1 9 inch pan. Set aside.



For the cheesecake-
In a large bowl, slowly cream together the chocolate, cocoa, sugar, cream cheese and vanilla. Add the eggs and yogurt, mix thoroughly. Pour into pan(s). Allow to sit 2 minutes, then tap the pan(s) on the counter to encourage any air bubbles to come to the surface and burst. Bake 2 hours or until the surface is mostly set- the middle inch or so might still look even less set, almost jiggly-keeping in mind that smaller pans might require less time in the oven, perhaps. Remove to the counter and run a knife or thin spatula around the edge of the pan. Allow to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until firm. Refrigerate leftovers.

My thoughts:

When I was obsessively reading everything I could about Belgium in preparation for our trip (thankfully the Flemish sites always had a English section and I got a lot of use out of my HS french) I came across a mention that cheesecake in Belgium is often made with a speculoos crust. We didn't end up eating any cheesecake while in Belgium (too busy eating moules et frites, croquettes aux crevettes grises and our wonderful 10(+!) course meal at Patrick Devos) but I loved the idea and made a mental note to make it myself when we got back. It took a little while but I am glad I finally made it. The cookies make the perfect crust, crisp and flavorful. The cheesecake is really creamy and chocolate-y, not too sweet. I bet this crust would also be great with a vanilla bean or even spiced cheesecake. I may have to experiment again.

Since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, I used a set of Wilton heart shaped springform pans I found at Target. I couldn't find the set online, but I found what seems to be identical pans sold individually.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup dark brown or dark Candi sugar
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Whisk together the dry (except sugar) ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside. Cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the egg. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients until well combined. It will be rather thick. Roll out on a clean surface to a little less than 1/4 inch thick. Use speculoos molds to press into shapes, a speculoos pan, use cookie cutters or just cut into squares. Alternatively, press into a cookie sheet with shaped cavities. Bake for 15 minutes or until the cookies are browned but still slightly soft in the center. Cool on wire racks.

My thoughts:

When we were in Belgium, we knew we had to check out what is possibly Belgium's favorite cookie, speculoos. Speculoos is a crisp, spice cookie somewhat similar to gingerbread. When I mention speculoos to anyone locally I am normally met with a blank stare but they actually are available here under a different name; if you have ever had a packaged Biscoff cookie, they are actually speculoos packaged for the non Belgian population by a Belgian company.

Especially when we were in Bruges, speculoos cookies were at every bakery and some specialty baking shops that traditional speculoos molds to make the cookies at home. There was even speculoos spread (think Nutella but made with cookies!) in both chunky and smooth textures at every grocery store. We brought back a couple of cookie molds, a jar of the spread, some of the special sugar they use in the cookies and some speculoos from a bakery in Bruges so I could orally deduce the ingredients. A note about the sugar:  you can use regular dark brown sugar but as we learned upon arriving home, Candi sugar is used in home beer making so it is actually fairly easy to locate online or in brew shops. It it is a little moister and darker than the brown sugars sold here in the US.

Traditionally, speculoos is more of a Christmas or St. Nicholas Day treat but well, we are trapped here in a blizzard in Baltimore and I think that is as good excuse as any. For these cookies, I used our speculoos molds and this Wilton 12 cavity cookie pan (which is the closest thing to a speculoos molded cookie sheet that I've seen here in the US) but you could simply cut them into squares, rounds or use a cookie cutter in any shape you'd like.

Ingredients:
for the filling:
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
6 oz miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup Nutella
1 egg, at room temperature

for the batter:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar (sounds icky, but makes them nice and fluffy)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
for the filling:
Cream together the Nutella, cream cheese and sugar. Beat in egg until well mixed. Fold in chocolate chips. Set aside.

for the batter:
Whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa and baking soda in a large bowl. Add water, oil, vanilla and vinegar. Beat VERY thoroughly. Line mini muffin pans. Fill pans less then 2/3 full with chocolate batter. Do not overfill. Drop approximately 1/2 teaspoon of the filling on top. Bake on the center rack for 20 minutes or until toothpick stuck in the center of a center cupcake comes out clean. Cool briefly in the pans on a wire rack. Remove from pan and cool completely.

Yield: 6 dozen.

Note: Resist the urge to use a standard sized cupcake pan, the ratio of chocolate to cream cheese filling gets thrown off and they just are not nearly as good.

My thoughts:

I love Nutella. When we were in Belgium this fall we brought back a huge "family sized" jar of Nutella. The customs people looked at me like I was crazy but it was worth it, Nutella is tastier (no HFCS) and cheaper in Europe. Last year for Nutella Day I made Nutella Cheesecake Squares which ended up becoming one of my most read/made recipes in the nearly six years I've been posting recipes here. I loved the Nutella/cream cheese combination so I decided to revisit it in a twist on the black bottom recipe my family has been making and perfecting since I was born. Or at least the early '80s. I can't remember a year when we didn't make a batch (and often, a double batch) of black bottoms at least once. These black bottoms lose a bit of their color contrast drama thanks to the Nutella, but they are so delicious, I don't think anyone will mind. I think of black bottoms as being a marriage between cupcake and cheesecake and these are no different, they just have shot of chocolate-y hazelnut-y lusciousness. I sent some home with my mother and she called three times to say how good they were and how everyone who tried them to loved them.


Six dozen sounds like an insane number but they are very small and take a fair amount of effort so I don't mind making a lot. I only have one mini cupcake pan but it makes two dozen cupcakes at once so it goes pretty quickly. If you make them in batches refrigerate the batter and filling between batches. While the recipe can be doubled, I do not recommend halving it. Luckily, black bottoms freeze really, really well. Since we are only a two person household, I like to make a batch and freeze some in individual portions to send home with friends when they visit and for dessert emergencies. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator or on the counter. They taste best at room temperature.

Ingredients:
16 oz lump crab meat
12 oz evaporated milk PLUS enough milk to equal 2 cups
2 cups shredded asiago
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
salt
freshly ground black pepper
panko
minced Italian parsley
1 lb small or medium sized pasta, cooked (I used cavatappi aka cellentani)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. In a medium pan, melt the butter. Add the flour and spices and stir until smooth. Add the milk, mustard and evaporated milk and whisk together until slightly thickened. Whisk in the asagio until smooth. Stir in the crab meat. Pour over the drained pasta. Pour into a lightly oiled baking dish with a lid. Top with a sprinkle of panko and parsley. Bake covered about 15 minutes, then uncover and cook until hot and bubbly, about 10-15 additional minutes.

Yield: 4-6 meal sized servings or about 8 side dish sized servings.

My thoughts:

When the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board approached me about developing a recipe using a Wisconsin cheese to share on their new Macaroni & Cheese Blog, I couldn't say no. It had been entirely too long since I made mac & cheese. I decided to use fresh asagio because it has long been a favorite. While I've had lobster macaroni and cheese before, I've never had crab. Being a Baltimore girl, this just seemed wrong. I had to make a crab macaroni and cheese and asagio seemed like the perfect cheese to pair it with, mild enough that it wouldn't overpower the crab but distinctly flavored and most importantly, it melts well. Adding smoked paprika and mustard gave it some bite and blended seamlessly into the simple cheese sauce. It ended up being a very easy but elegant macaroni and cheese. Fancy enough for company but quick enough for a weeknight.

Ingredients:
2 cups grated extra sharp cheddar
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 shallot, minced

Directions:
Place the cheese, cream cheese, shallot, horseradish and Worcestershire sauce in a blender. Pulse until smooth. Scrape into a bowl. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store in refrigerator overnight. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Note: This would make a great cheese ball. Simply chill it for 30 minutes and then roll it into a ball. Roll in herbs or crushed nuts, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

My thoughts:

I first made this recipe as part of our 1950s night. When flipping though vintage cookbooks and my reproduction of that masterpiece, 1950's Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook. I didn't come across a recipe I particularly liked but I was pleasantly surprised by how robustly flavored cheese spreads, cheese balls and dips were. Strong mustard, cheese and horseradish were all used with great abandon. So I created a recipe that used a bunch of horseradish and my favorite extra sharp cheddar cheese. The spread is wonderful on celery sticks (as suggested by Betty Crocker), apples and of course, a variety of crackers.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sour cream, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup lemon juice (about 1 large lemon's worth)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, at room temperature
zest of 2 large lemons

ethereal lemon frosting

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease or line 12 wells in a cupcake pan. Whisk together the dry ingredients. Set aside. Mix together the oil, zest, sour cream, lemon juice and eggs. Slowly add the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Fill 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick in the center of the center cupcake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before icing.

My thoughts:

These are the best lemon cupcakes (or even cake) I've ever had. They strike the perfect balance between tart and sweet. I normally generally make butter based cupcakes but I decided to make these with oil because that give the cupcakes a lighter, fluffier more cake mix-like texture and since I was making these for a friend's party where some cake mix lovers might be lurking. Which isn't to say that these cupcakes taste like they came from a mix at all-no fake lemon flavor or chemicals here-but they do have a chiffon like texture that I find that people who are not used to denser, buttery homemade cupcakes prefer. They garnered rave reviews at the party. I loved them too, they had lots of bright lemony flavor that was perfect for a lighter cupcake.

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
4 egg whites
pinch salt
zest one lemon

yellow food coloring, if desired

Directions:
In a medium saucepan, bring sugar, zest and lemon juice to a boil, stirring occasionally. Continue to boil until it reaches soft ball stage (when a drop of the syrup forms a soft ball when dropped in cool water) while continuing to stir occasionally. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites and salt to soft peaks. Keep the mixer running (you need a stand mixer or a friend to complete this next step) while you strain a continuous stream of the molten syrup into the egg whites. Add the food dye. Beat for about 5 minutes or until the frosting is fluffy, glossy and cool. Frost cooled cake.

My thoughts:

I love this frosting! Citrus is at its peak during the winter and I love taking advantage of that and making some really citrus packed recipes. This frosting is light and fluffy-almost marshmallowy- but has a strong, true lemon flavor. Sort of like a lemon meringue pie in frosting form. It is perfect on lemon cupcakes or even plain vanilla.