Chocolate Custard Cheesecake

A while back I posted a recipe for a chocolate custard cheesecake dip.  Since then, I’ve been working on modifying the recipe to be stiff enough to actually be a cheesecake, and this Thanksgiving, I think I’ve got it!

My favorite part, besides the taste, is that it is no-bake (after the crust is made), so no complicated baking regimens to prevent cake from cracking or browning.

Chocolate Custard Cheesecake

Crust*:

Cream:

1 stick of salted butter

1/2 t. vanilla

1/2 c. brown sugar.

Mix in:

1 eggs

1 egg YOLK

Add:

1 1/2 c. flour

1 t. salt

1/2 t. baking POWDER.

Stir until just combined.

Add:

3/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 c. sugar

Stir/knead until sugar and flour is incorporated.

Press dough into bottom and barely up sides of a large spring form pan (at least 9 inches in diameter).

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes, until crust is set, still soft, and only barely starting to turn golden (edges will be a bit darker golden brown).

*Alternatively, for an entirely no-bake cheesecake, you could use a traditional chocolate cookie crust (1 package crushed chocolate cookie pieces and 1/4 c. melted butter) pressed into a spring form pan.  Chill this in the refrigerator while preparing the rest of the crust.  I haven’t tried this, just read it online.

Cheesecake:

In medium saucepan, whisk together and heat to a simmer on MED:

¾ c. (or 1 small can) EVAPORATED milk

¼ c. flour

Stir in until melted, and remove from heat:

½ c. chocolate chips

Separately, beat until pale:

3 egg YOLKS

⅓ c. sugar

Slowly pour warm milk mixture into eggs, whisking constantly.  (If not done carefully, there will be small pieces of cooked egg in the custard, which should then be strained out before the next step.) Return to MED-LOW heat.

Mix in:

(another) ½ c. chocolate chips

2 t. corn starch

Cook until it thickens, about 5 minutes.  Keep stirring.

Separately, beat:

3 packages cream cheese (24 ounces total)

⅓ c. sugar

dash of salt

Pour chocolate custard into sweetened cream cheese and mix thoroughly.  Top crust with this custard mixture and chill at least 4 hours. When slicing, make sure knife goes all the way through crust; hitting chocolate chips feels like hitting the bottom of the pan sometimes.

To God be all glory,

Lisa of Longbourn

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

Full-Flavor Chocolate Chip Cookies, A Simple Recipe

Cream together in a stand mixer:

2 sticks of butter

1 t. vanilla

1 c. brown sugar

Add:

1 egg YOLK

2 eggs

Beat well.

Mix in until just combined:

3 c. all purpose flour (I live near Denver, CO.  If you live at a lower altitude, reduce flour by 1/4 to 1/2 c.)

1 t. salt

1 t. baking POWDER

Pour in:

1 1/2 to 2 c. semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips

1/2 c. white sugar

Stir/knead until sugar and flour are incorporated.

Refrigerate dough.

After at least a few hours (until the dough is thoroughly chilled) scoop out 3-T. sized cookies. Shape into balls, then flatten to about 1/4 inch tall and about 2 1/2 inches diameter.

Bake at 350 for about 14 minutes (ovens vary, adjust bake time accordingly). Sprinkle a little extra salt if desired, immediately upon removing from oven. Remove from pan and let cool briefly on a rack before gobbling up every gooey bite.

I don’t know about you, but it drives me crazy when I find a recipe on a blog and I have to scroll through pages of prep photos and stories about husbands, children, and grocery stores before I get to the need-to-know information to make the food!  So I put my recipe at the top.  But I do want to let my regular readers know that I have been researching and testing chocolate chip cookie recipes for about a year now, and I’m very happy with these results.  There is a more complicated recipe that I like slightly better, but this version is one of the best I’ve *ever* tasted!  

My sister makes amazing cookies.  I think that three things make them amazing: her laziness (using a stand mixer and taking frequent, sometimes day-long breaks), the huge size of the cookies, and using margarine.  I want big, soft, not-too-cake-like cookies myself, but faster and with butter instead of margarine.  These cookies are not crumbly.  They are not crunchy like store-bought cookies.  They are not flat.  

I like the flavor of butter in my cookies.  These have it. 

I like my cookies to have extra dimension in their flavor: sweet, chocolate, butter, salt, and a touch of caramel.  These accomplish that.

I like my cookies to be just a tiny bit gooey in the center, and not dark brown on the edges.  Here they are.  

A long time ago I read a suggestion of adding extra fat without too much extra liquid, by adding an egg yolk.  I’ve tried with and without the extra yolk, and I think it makes a difference in helping the cookie to stand up and stay gooey.  

Baking powder makes the cookies fluffier/taller than baking soda.  

Adding the white sugar at the end causes the outsides to caramelize during cooking, for an ever-so-slight crispiness encasing the soft cookie.  Using a little more brown sugar than white also contributes to the deeper flavor.

I’m liking Guittard’s Real Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, all GMO free, yummy flavor, and excellent melting.  They’re sold at my local Safeway and Sprouts stores.  

To God be all glory,

Lisa of Longbourn

Read Full Post »

Chocolate Pudding

Have I ever mentioned that I think chocolate pudd+ is # world’s perfect food?  I always forget to list it with my favorite foods, but it really is.  Just recently I realized that # temperature of # pudd+ is a significant factor in its quality. 

 

For years my family has teased me about my chocolate obsession.  One of my favorite places to eat was Country Buffet (a treat usually reserved for visits from Grandpa and Grandma) because #re I could get my pick of this feast of desserts.  Instead of choos+, however, I put them all together.  Start with a brownie or hot fudge cake.  Add a help+ of chocolate soft serve topped with chocolate syrup, chocolate chips, oreo pieces and hot fudge.  Beside that add a spoonful of # chocolate pudd+ (# sugar free dessert offered there; but I really don’t recommend # sugar free variety).  The mixture of chocolate flavors was exceptional, and usually filled me up for # whole day afterwards. 

 

I say all this in past tense like I’m over it. 

 

Anyway, one of the highlights was # pudd+, super-chilled by way of its proximity to the ice cream. 

 

When I took lunches to school or work, for years I brought along a snack pack pudd+ cup, those highly preserved room-temperature servings of the world’s perfect food.  They’re good, oh, yes, and far better than noth+ at all, but noth+ beats cold pudd+. 

 

I still remember a happy day when Pizza Hut still had dine-in locations everywhere and they even had a lunch buffet.  Including salad and a variety of pizzas, it was always a close tie whether I preferred # best pizza in # world or the heap+ piles of cold chocolate pudd+. 

 

So even if I were to refrigerate # little snack cups, where would be # seemingly bottomless portions of my buffet-spoiled childhood? 

 

Recently a few developments have made my life considerably happier.  (Amaz+ what dessert of # chocolate variety can do for a woman’s mood!)  The first was get+ a car, which actually occurred about four years ago.  With this advantage I can go shopping by myself for things I want.  Secondly, # office where I work acquired a refrigerator, which currently houses # third and final innovation of my recent life in # direction of blissful foods: a six-pack of chocolate pudd+ cups, # creamy refrigerated kind with an expiration date – which means it’s healthier.  This way, unfettered by the watchful portion control of parents, grandparents, teachers, or lack of supply, I can have as much chocolate pudd+ as I desire. 

 

Happy day. 

 

To God be all glory,

Lisa of Longbourn

 

PS: For the regular-font version, see my other blog. 

 

 

Read Full Post »

One is Better than Two

When I buy cookies, I can’t buy two.  Every time I do, I burn one. 

Paradise Bakery has the best chocolate chip cookies.  They stay soft forever, and are just delicious.  So why do I want to microwave them before eating?  I don’t know.  I got buy one, get one free before a ladies retreat and took the free cookie with me.  At the retreat location I put the cookie (still inside the decorative bag – with ink on it advertising the bakery) into the microwave and set the time for one minute.  At home it worked perfectly.  I promise. 

When I came back to the horrifying smell of smoke, it was too late.  My cookie was smoking, and couldn’t be eaten (obviously).  The entire night the retreat center smelled like burnt popcorn (associated with the paper packaging more than the food?).  It was so embarassing. 

But I don’t learn.  Tuesday at Safeway I bought two cookies for 98 cents (actually cheaper at regular price than Paradise Bakery, but a lot less yummy).  I ate most of one on Tuesday, and the other I decided to improve today by…

… microwaving it.  This time I was smart.  Thirty seconds in our new microwave on power level six (which is one of those intermediate settings that you’re supposed to use for thawing foods if your tastebuds hadn’t been accustomed to bland TV-dinner, ultraprocessed foods already and you cared about flavor) rendered the cookie almost perfect, but the chocolate chips were still hard.  So I returned the cookie to the spinning plate and set the machine to fifteen seconds on power level seven (this is the canned corn setting at my house, and typically has no other uses.  We live in the 8-10 power range).  The dessert emerged sizzling, barely transferrable on its almost penetrated napkin.  After cooling about fifteen minutes I bit into a carmelized sort of cookie, and gave up on the unnecessary parts, nibbling at the chocolate chips and leaving the hardened rest. 

Never buy two cookies when you could buy one.  Maybe I’ll start buying three. 

To God be all glory,

Lisa of Longbourn

Read Full Post »