Red Velvet Cheesecake!

I was sent this recipe from McCormick.....It's wonderful! :D  This cheerful double layer cheesecake is an indulgent new take on the traditional Red Velvet Cake.

Makes 8 servings.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Refrigerate: 3 hours

INGREDIENTS

2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract
2 eggs
2 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted
1 tablespoon McCormick® Red Food Color
1 prepared chocolate crumb crust (6 ounces)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating on low speed just until blended.

2. Measure 1 cup batter into medium bowl. Stir in melted chocolate and food color. Pour into crust. Top with remaining (plain) cheesecake batter.

3. Bake 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool completely on wire rack.

4. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight.

Tips

Test Kitchen Tip: Drizzle cheesecake with chocolate or hot fudge dessert topping just before serving.

Here's mine:

Keeper of the Home : A Year of Herbs: Ginger

Keeper of the Home : A Year of Herbs: Ginger


Oh, the wonderful things for which you can use Ginger! I'm so glad I saved mine. :)

Try it Tuesday ~ Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

This recipe is adapted from a Southern Living magazine (@1986?).  My family went crazy over it!

3 1/4 Cup all-purpose flour
2 1/4 Cup sugar
1 Tblspn plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 Cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 Cup milk - at least 2% if not whole
3 large eggs
 Chocolate-Peanut Butter Frosting
1- 6 oz package of semisweet chocolate morsels
1/2 Cup butter, softened - the real thing, please
1/2 Cup powdered sugar
1 1/3 Cup creamy peanut butter

Combine the first four ingredients in a large bowl & mix well.  Add butter, peanut butter, and milk.  Beat.  Add eggs & beat.
Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 9 inch cake pans.  Bake at 350' for 25 - 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes, and cool completely before frosting.

~I hope you haven't done like me and not realized your oven isn't quite large enough to properly accommodate three 9 inch pans and wind up with one layer not quite done in the middle! :)

Icing:
Melt chocolate morsels in microwave or double boiler.  Combine with butter, powdered sugar, and peanut butter.  Beat until smooth.

Ginger - Culinary Uses, Preserving, Storing Nutrition

Ginger - Culinary Uses, Preserving, Storing Nutrition


My daughter used a stir fry recipe tonight that called for fresh ginger; not knowing how to store it, I had to google it. In case you've been wondering as well, here's a link for you. :)

My Great Grandmother's Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie
Georgia Mae Smith
1879-1958

3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of each: salt, nutmeg, allspice
1 1/2 cup pumpkin (one can)
1 1/2 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Beat eggs & add sugars, flours, spices - beat slowly
Add pumpkin & milk
Pour into 9" unbaked pie crust and bake at 450' for 10 minutes
Reduce heat to 325' and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour
Knife inserted near center should come out clean

Try it Tuesday

When my husband and I were engaged, he asked me if I knew how to make biscuits. At the time, I thought it was a silly question....you just whacked open a can and baked them. (My mother had attempted to make biscuits from scratch, but they seemed to be mostly useful as dog bones as one of our dogs always promptly buried hers.) It was not long into our marriage that I learned the difference. I have tried many biscuit recipes over the past 22 years and have finally created a recipe of my own. It is a culmination of three of our favorite biscuit recipes. If you don't like the slightly sweet flavor of these biscuits, simply eliminate the sugar and vanilla and add just a touch more buttermilk. Enjoy!

2 Cups of all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur, unbleached)
1 Tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
3/4 teaspoon of salt
1/3 Cup of sugar
1/4 Cup of butter, cold and cut into pieces
1 Cup of buttermilk
1 teaspoon of vanilla, pure extract only

Combine the dry ingredients and cut in the butter with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles corn meal. Add the buttermilk and vanilla and stir. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead several times. Pat or gently roll out to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Cut out biscuits and place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees until lightly browned.

Red Velvet Cake

Anonymous said - could you please post the recipe? I have never had red velvet cake...what does it taste like?

Red Velvet Cake is a chocolate cake colored red with food coloring. I have two recipes. One is my mother's and one is the old Waldorf Astoria Hotel recipe. They are very similar in taste, but the Waldorf recipe uses a smaller cake pan and yields a "taller" cake. The Waldorf recipe can easily be found through an internet search. The link above will lead you to the one I found. Here is my mother's recipe:

Preheat oven to 350'
Grease and flour 3 - 9" inch round cake pans

1/2 Cup shortening
1 1/2 Cup sugar
2 eggs
1 Cup buttermilk
2 Tablespoons vanilla
1 1/2 ounces red food coloring
2 Tablespoons of cocoa (exact)
1 teaspoon salt (scant)
1 teaspoon soda
2 1/2 Cups cake flour

cream shortening, sugar and eggs
in a small bowl combine red food coloring and cocoa & add to creamed mixture
in a separate bowl, combine buttermilk and vanilla
in another bowl, combine flour, salt, and soda
fold in the buttermilk and flour alternately to the creamed mixture
pour into the 3 - 9" pans and bake for 30 minutes

Icing Problem Solved!

My family has a wonderful Red Velvet Cake recipe that has the most scrumptious icing. The last few years, I have had trouble with my icing's texture being rubbery in spots, so I decided to venture off on my own and try some new recipes. I finally decided to use one I found from Country Living magazine. It turned out wonderful. I highly recommend it. Here it is:

1/4 Cup, plus 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 Cups whole (I used 2%) milk
2 Cups unsalted butter, softened
2 Cups confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract


In a medium saucepan, whisk (important step) the flour and milk together until smooth. Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until thick -- about 5+ minutes. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature and set aside. In a medium bowl beat butter and sugar until light. Add the vanilla, reduce mixer speed to medium, and slowly (important step) add the cooled milk mixture. Beat for 1 more minute.

Enjoy!