Adult Hot Chocolate...and My Very First Cheesecake Creation!

I don't think I have ever tasted a beverage quite like this one before now. We tried this Adult Hot Chocolate recipe from my wonderful Baked: New Frontiers in Baking cookbook on Christmas Day, and I have to say it knocked our socks right off. It's craaazy good.

Since it is "adult," you can be sure that this recipe calls for some liquor. The Baked guys used amaretto, but we went with creme de menthe because it just seemed Christmas-y to us (plus, it was what we had!). Then, you chop up 7 oz. of chocolate (some milk, but mostly dark) and add enough boiling water to melt it. Boil some milk, heavy cream, and a touch of maple syrup, then add the melted chocolate and the liquor. Garnish with whipped cream if you like, and you are ready for the ultimate chocolate experience!



At first sip, you might actually think you are drinking pure, liquid chocolate. I mean, it is just that potent. Then, as you sip again, you can taste the creme de menthe, present but not hardly overpowering. This hot chocolate is definitely not for the faint of heart, and only the most serious of chocolate lovers should try it. After about 5 sips, I had about reached my limit, and I can usually overdose on chocolate with the best of them. It's just so rich. That said, it sure made the perfect holiday beverage, because it was just 100% indulgence. Yum.

Alongside this, I served a white chocolate cranberry cheesecake that I kinda invented myself. I posted about those cloned Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars a couple weeks back, and I had wanted to tinker with those bars a bit. Since we love those bars so much and we also adore cheesecake, I thought why not make a Cranberry Bliss Cheesecake? I have to say, I kinda love this idea. I made a shortbread cookie recipe, studded with dried cranberries and small chunks of white chocolate, and ground it to crumbs in my food processor. I pressed these crumbs down into my springform pan to form the crust. Then, I made a cheesecake layer that contained fresh lemon zest, ground ginger, melted white chocolate, and dried cranberries. To finish it all off, I garnished the cheesecake with more dried cranberries, and a drizzle of melted white chocolate. It was sooo good, and I am not just saying that because I created it myself! Everyone that tried it agreed that it was a winner. I would love for this cheesecake to become a new Christmas tradition for us!

Since my cheesecake recipe is something that I just had fun playing around with, I am not going to post the full, detailed instructions here. But if you email me, I'd be happy to share what I did, step-by-step! And here is the Adult Hot Chocolate, posted below. You were warned.




Adult Hot Chocolate
adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
makes 2 (very generous) servings

Ingredients
2 oz. good-quality milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
5 oz. good-quality dark chocolate (60 to 72% cacao), coarsely chopped
1/2 cup boiling water
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
2 Tbsp. creme de menthe liquor
Whipped cream, optional

Directions
1. Put the chocolates in a small heatproof bowl. Pour the boiling water over the chocolate, and make sure most of the chocolate is submerged. Let the chocolate sit for 1 minute, then whisk until smooth. Set aside.

2. In a small saucepan over low heat, bring the milk, cream, and maple syrup just to a simmer. Pour the chocolate mixture into the milk mixture and whisk until combined.

3. Turn the heat up to medium and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture is just about to boil. Add the creme de menthe, stir one more time, and ladle into mugs. Top with whipped cream if desired, and serve immediately.

MSC: Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

This month's Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club recipe is Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes, chosen by Nina of Nina's Cupcakes. This was the second time I've made these mini cheesecakes. I made them back in January for my father in-law's birthday (and you can find the full recipe in my post about them), and they went over very well. So when I realized I had an opportunity to make them again with the group, I was pretty excited. However, I decided to switch things up a bit, and use inside-out Oreos! The cookies I chose to use were vanilla cookies on the outside, chocolate filling on the inside. Yum.



One cookie is placed in the bottom of each cupcake liner, serving as the tasty crust to the mini cheesecake. Then, a very simple filling is mixed together and dispersed among the cupcake cups.



There's even more cookie goodness contained inside the cupcake batter, which really adds some great texture to the creamy cheesecake. These were loved by everyone who tried them (my husband brought them to work with him). It's always fun to surprise people with the Oreo cookie crust, and the fact that they had the chocolate in the center certainly didn't hurt, either!



Thank you so much, Nina, for choosing these cupcakes this month! It was great to revisit such a fantastic recipe. I'm even thinking about how good these would be with peanut butter-filled Oreos, or mint-filled Oreos at Christmastime. You've got options with this one. No matter what flavor Oreo you use, these are awesome! Make sure to check out the blogroll to see how the other MSC members fared.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

Time flies when you're neglecting your blog. I really can't believe it is the last week of January already, and a month after Christmas. I feel like this whole month has been a blur. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that the kids and I were sick for a while and we're still just barely getting back into the swing of things after the long winter break. Plus, we're trying our best to eat healthier in the new year, which means that sweets and treats will be made fewer and farther between.
But that won't stop me completely! We celebrated my father-in-law's birthday this past week. I know that my in-laws love Oreo cookies, so I thought I would use that as an excuse to finally dig into my Martha Stewart Cupcakes cookbook. I'd been eyeing this recipe for a while, and it was time to bust it out.
Well, I sure am glad I did! The method for these little cuties, titled Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes, is simple enough. To assemble the cupcake-sized cheesecakes, you simply drop an Oreo cookie into each cupcake paper liner, and that becomes your crust. Then you mix together just a few ingredients, and voila! Just 22 minutes in the oven, and you get a perfect little cheesecake that tastes like a cross between cheesecake and cookies and cream ice cream. Plus, when you flip the cupcake over, you can see the Oreo cookie peeking through the wrapper. Heavenly, and adorable!
The pictures hardly do these justice, but take my word for it: they're awesome. I've posted the recipe below because I couldn't find it anywhere on Martha Stewart's website. I highly recommend making these. The recipe can be easily cut in half; that's what I did.

Cookes and Cream Cheesecakes
makes 30 cupcakes

Ingredients
42 Oreo cookies (30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped)
2 pounds (4 packages) cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
pinch of salt

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.
3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.
4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-filled cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely.
5. Refrigerate (in tins) at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

The Year of the Pirate

So this year, we decided to dress the boys up as pirates for Halloween. We didn't jump on the pirate bandwagon last year, when it was really popular, but better late than never, right? It was hard to get a picture of them together, or with their hats, for that matter. But we did manage to sneak a few good ones of them separately!

Xander had a wonderful time trick-or-treating this year. In years past, he has requested to come home early, and last year he had way more fun handing out the candy than actually receiving it. This time, though, the fun of the whole knocking on peoples' doors and getting some candy thing really took over. He was high on life for hours that night! Evan had fun, too, even though he had no idea what was going on. He did enjoy watching the spectacle around him.

I felt bad having Evan receive candy from people, considering he won't be eating any of it. So we just walked along with Xander for the most part, and let him get all the loot. I think we got plenty of candy, even without Evan getting some! And Xander barely eats any of it, so we are better off.

Well, this post felt naked without a food picture and recipe, so here it is. Spiderweb Pumpkin Cheesecake. Now, I don't actually like pumpkin-flavored things, so I did not eat any of it, but I hear it's really good! You can find the recipe here. Enjoy!

Birthday, Anniversary, Easter Egg Hunt, Oh My!

Wow, it is really exhausting having two kids sometimes! I just can't imagine having more than that, I think I'd be in over my head. Today was busy and crazy, but finally here I sit, ready to write. That is, if I don't fall asleep first.

Xander has had a very full week, but the highlights had to have been his weekend with Nana and Papa, and Daddy's birthday on Monday. Luckily, his behavior has for the most part been much improved, even though last week he did some truly ridiculous things. Let's see. Decorating kitchen chairs with stickers? Check. Giving Fred, his trusty stuffed dog, a bath in the sink? Check. I sometimes wonder if he sees that I'm busy with Evan and tries to come up with the most obnoxious thing he could possibly do to grab my attention. Well, he succeeded.

Back to this past week, though. We went to the Easter Egg Hunt at Eckert's Farm over the weekend and had a great time. The weather was gorgeous and we hit the farm early enough that the real crowds hadn't shown up yet. That evening, Andy and I had an actual date. We finally got to try The Pasta House, a restaurant we've been wanting to go to for a while, but had never been. I wish I could say we had a spectacular experience there, but I'd be lying. The food was just okay, and the service wasn't much better. For the price we paid for the meal, we'd have been better off going to The Olive Garden. It would have been closer to home, too!

Andy got to take off for his birthday on Monday, which was nice because he rarely ever does. Evan had his four-month checkup that morning, and we drove there with snow coming down. It was ridiculous to me; it is April, right? Luckily the snow didn't last very long, and it didn't accumulate at all. Evan's appointment went well; he is 16 lbs. now, 25 in. long. The doctor told us we could start feeding him cereal, so we figure we'll wait until after Easter weekend to try that, since we'll be away for a couple of days.

The rest of the birthday was, I hope, relaxing and fun for Andy. He requested baked ziti for dinner and a lemon cheesecake for dessert, and I was happy to oblige. He responded by buying me flowers! He set them up on our windowsill with a bit of Andy quirkiness mixed in. Back to the cake. I really enjoyed making it, as it's been forever since I've made a cheesecake. On the other hand, I have sworn off such evil goodies for the duration of my diet, so it was hard for me not to be able to try it. I hear it's good though!

Most exciting was the fact that Andy could finally buy the Wii Fit with his birthday money, and he picked it up on Sunday night. We're already kind of obsessed. And sore. That thing really does work you out! It's been too long since we have been active like that, and it showed in our muscles the morning after our respective workouts. I'm so glad we have it now, though. It should be easier to use during stolen moments that we aren't too busy with the kids.

I'll end with something random. Andy got a little trigger happy with the camera when we were taking food pictures, and made a silly piece of hummus art. Here you go.