Baking on Friday: Bailey's Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Okay, okay, you got me.  It's actually Saturday.  But I started this recipe yesterday.  It's best made one day and then finished the next, since it has to cool completely before moving on to the last step.  Of course, I'm talking about cheesecake!

We're having a good friend over for dinner tonight, and as I was mulling over what to make, Mike requested this cheesecake that I haven't made in at least 15 years.  It is an oldie, but a goodie.  And what's a dinner party without a few artery-clogging foods on the menu?  With this dessert, you'll want to be sure to take your statin when you go to bed.

I found this recipe in the March, 1989, issue of Bon Appetit.  Since today is youngest child Matthew's 27th birthday, how better to make myself feel really old than to make a recipe that was published over two decades ago?  All kidding aside, this is easy to make, and truly delicious.  A Bon Appetit reader requested the recipe after having it at a restaurant called Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, Texas, which is (amazingly) still in business after all these years.  So here is the recipe for those of you who love cheesecake:


Bailey's Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
Recipe By :  Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, Dallas, Texas, and published in Bon Appetit, March, 1989
Servings: 12
For crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons melted butter

For filling:
2 1/4 pounds cream cheese -- room temperature
1 2/3 cups sugar
5 eggs -- room temperature
1 cup Irish Cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

For Coffee Cream:
1 cup chilled whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon instant coffee powder
Chocolate curls -- optional

For crust: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Coat a 9-inch diameter springform pan with nonstick vegetable oil spray. Combine crumbs and sugar in pan. Stir in butter. Press mixture into bottom and 1 inch up sides of pan. Bake until light brown, about 7 minutes. Maintain oven temperature at 325 degrees.

For filling: Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually mix in sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in Irish Cream and vanilla extract.

Sprinkle half of chocolate chips over crust. Spoon in filling. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips. Bake cake until puffed, springy in center and golden brown, about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Cool cake completely.

For cream: Beat cream, sugar and coffee powder until peaks form. Spread mixture over cooled cake.

Garnish cheesecake with chocolate curls (watch the video), if desired. Cut into thin slices to serve.

Notwithstanding the name, I use an inexpensive version of Irish Cream (any inexpensive generic will do).  I don't know if it makes a difference, but I couldn't bring myself to bake into cheesecake a full cup of Bailey's Irish Cream.  It's a family favorite despite this frugal substitution. 

Also, I tried to go all out and make chocolate curls this time, watching several videos to learn how to do it.  Unfortunately, I chose Baker's chocolate to make my curls with.  I should have known this, but Baker's chocolate comes packaged in one-ounce "hunks," rather than a long chocolate bar.  I couldn't make "curls" out of those, but I still think my little chocolate "shavings" turned out just fine.  I simply used a vegetable peeler and peeled them right onto the cake.  If you feel a lack of confidence about how that will look, just shave them onto a paper towel first, and then sprinkle them over the cake.  It's easier than making curls, and your guests will be impressed!

Also on tonight's menu: 

White Bean Dip with Pita Chips
Wheat Thins with Cream Cheese (leftover from the cheesecake) and Hollerin' Huckleberry Pepper Jelly
Roasted Cornish Hens with Cherry-Port Glaze
Dill Fingerling Potatoes
Fresh Asparagus with Maple Vinaigrette
Cranberry Spinach Salad with Gorgonzola

If I get requests for any of these recipes, I'll be happy to share them in a separate post.  Just say the word.

Happy Holidays!

 

Merry Christmas morning, my friends! Although the day is young, the season is over for our small family. We've had our Christmas feast, and we're ready to get on with the New Year. 

As expected, there was no time for sewing yesterday. I spent all of my morning finishing off the two desserts I had planned. I needed to add a topping to the cheesecake and make some chocolate curls. I only attempted chocolate curls for the first time a few years ago. They're actually pretty easy to make. I followed this video from YouTube. In my kitchen, it takes the chocolate too long to set up at room temperature. I put mine in the refrigerator for just about three minutes to get it to the right "hardness." And here's my finished cheesecake. This is a Bailey's Chocolate Chip Cheesecake, but I've taken to calling it an "Irish Cream Chocolate Chip Cheesecake." We're not using expensive Bailey's Irish Cream in baked goods. I just use something with a lower price tag.

But I couldn't stop at just one dessert. Oh no. I needed to try something new. It was a good opportunity to try this new recipe I saw in the NYTimes recently. This is an Apple Skillet Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting. (I'm not sure if you can open that link without a subscription to the NYTimes. If you can't open it, email me, and I'll be happy to send it to you.) For this, the apples were first cooked and then cooled. Then, I mixed them into the cake batter and baked it. When the skillet cake came from the oven, it looked like this.

When it cooled, I made a caramel frosting by melting some soft caramel candies and then adding them to a frosting batter. When it was frosted it looked like this:

And let me just tell you...that frosting was to die for. We added finishing salt to each piece when we ate it. So yummy. I'll definitely make it again. Next time, I'd like to try making a "for two" version. Of course, I will let you know when I get around to that.

It was nearing lunch time when my baking was finished. I still wanted to get in a workout in the Chamber of Horrors. We've taken to calling the Bowflex "The Rack." So there was time to work out, and then a shower, and then it was time to head over to Erik and Mae's house. Mae makes the most beautiful charcuterie boards. This one was about half eaten by the time I thought to take a picture of it.

Around dinner time, their kitty Clementine showed up wondering where her dinner was. She's looking pretty disgusted with us for not thinking of her needs first. She's quite a talker too!

Clementine's sister cat, Cricket, showed up a little later. My picture of her was blurry, but here's a picture I took of her at a different gathering. She has the most interesting markings.

Eventually, it was time to eat. We had some delicious roasted vegetables, Burgundy mushrooms, a salad made with (amazingly!) lettuce from their garden. Erik did a superb job roasting the prime rib. It had a rub of around six different herbs. It was all so tasty. 

After some good wine, good conversation, and lots of laughter, we headed for home. The roads were a little slushy, but not dangerous when one traveled at a sensible speed. Fortunately, most everyone we encountered was driving as if their life depended on it...which it did.

Today we'll pull things back to normal. I'm ready for the Christmas quilts to be put away to make way for the winter quilts. With no tree in the house, we can set things back to normal pretty quickly. And then I'll get back to my sewing. It is a holiday, after all.

With that, my friends, I'm signing off. Have a wonderful holiday in whatever way you choose to celebrate. Tomorrow, I'll be joining the party at Meadow Mist Designs for the "Best of 2022" party. I hope I'll see you there.

Sewing Day Ahead

The past week or so has felt very busy, and yet, completely enjoyable. Today things will get back to normal, more or less. In fact, they'll be so normal that I'll be picking up the first share for this year's CSA tomorrow. We've been getting CSA veggies for about five years now, and so the first share of the season feels a part of our rhythm now.

It was a lovely Mother's Day yesterday. We had very nice weather...warm, but not too hot. Early on, we had a couple of visitors to our field.

They're probably sniffing out the rosebuds on our one rose bush. I'm surprised at how shaggy their fur is this time of year.

My first task for the day was to put the topping on the cheesecake and make an attempt at chocolate curls. These aren't half bad.

It would have worked better with a thicker Baker's chocolate bar, but I was using the thinner Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate. I stacked a couple of pieces on top of one another and used my Y-style vegetable peeler to make these. The pieces were stacked because I needed the height to accommodate the peeler.

With that finished, I got to work transplanting the tomato plants into their largest pots of the season. Usually, I go with a medium-sized pot first. These tomatoes seemed so big and sturdy, I thought I might be transplanting them again later in the week. The biggest pots were the better choice. Now, grow, You! Make tomatoes and be merry!

There was a lot to do getting ready for dinner with the kids last night, but I managed to make my way into the sewing room around 3:00. From there, I made 32 half square triangles and then puzzled out their placement.

Usually, I sew the wrong seam on these and have to take out one or two when I can't lay them out right on a second pass. Yesterday, I paid careful attention and got them all sewn together right...so far. When I left for the day, I still needed to sew the horizontal seams. There's still time to F-up.

It was time to stop for the day then. Erik called to say they were on their way. They arrived with two dozen roses, and Mae arranged them in a vase. So pretty.

We had a nice dinner and a nice conversation. Everything is going well in their world, and so it was all good news from them. Even Erik's beloved Trailblazers have made it into the NBA Western Conference Finals. Mike and I used to be Blazer Believers until a while back when they turned into the Jailblazers, and we lost interest. It might be time to start rooting for the home team again.

As for the cheesecake, it's always scary removing the "form" from the springform pan, but this one came off beautifully.

When you make this, you sprinkle chocolate chips over the crust, then add the filling, and then add more chocolate chips so that there is chocolate both under and over the filling. The topping is made from whipped cream, sugar, and instant coffee granules. It's such a tasty mix.

You can find the recipe for this Bailey's Chocolate Chip Cheesecake right here. Yes, it has a lot of cream cheese and a lot of eggs. Were you under the impression that cheesecake is diet food? Sorry if I've burst your bubble, but you'll be more successful in your weight loss efforts now that you know the truth.

Okay, so I'm taking it more easy today. I need to do a little work in the kitchen, but most of the day will be spent sewing. I'm catching up on my monthly blocks, but then I'm going to start sewing the Snow Globes together. It won't happen today, but later this week, I'll be coming for them.

Defying Gravity

It's been a morning of cooking for me so far.  I'm taking a break to get off my feet for a little bit before I get back to work.  Here's my Bailey's Chocolate Chip Cheesecake defying gravity as it bakes in the oven.

The kids are coming up tomorrow to help celebrate Mother's Day and Mike's birthday.  Mike requested this cheesecake for his dessert.  It's made with a full cup of Bailey's Irish Cream...of course, I don't use actual Bailey's.  That would be sacrilegious.  I use a less-expensive kind.  I've made this cheesecake at least two dozen times over the years, and I've never seen it over flow its pan to quite this degree.  I must have whipped it up higher this time than in the past.  It was a nail-biter watching it bake, let me tell you.

It's safely out of the oven now, and looking a little less--shall we say--poofy.  

It still requires a whipped cream topping flavored with espresso powder.  Yum.  If you love cheesecake, this is a good one.  I baked it up for a Baking on Friday segment once.  You can find the recipe right here.

Also, I made up my Tart Green Beans with Bacon for tomorrow's dinner.  I cooked those up for you recently.  You can find my recipe for those right here.  They are also a family favorite, and I think its a rare occasion that we don't have them when the family gets together.  Also on tomorrow's menu:  Artichoke Dip with Fontina, garlic mashed potatoes, a spinach salad made with apples and bacon, and prime rib.  All of that will have to wait until tomorrow, however.

For the rest of today I'm packing up all the stuff in my hutch because on Monday they're going to come in and refinish my wood floor in the kitchen.  I have a lot of treasures...nothing particularly valuable.  It consists of stuff I've either inherited, received as gifts, or picked up while traveling.

That's an Amish doll on the middle shelf on the right.  I picked her up while we were traveling on Cape Cod. Also on the top shelf, you can see pictures of my two boys receiving their high school diplomas.  Some of you with sharp eyes and knowledge of Roseville pottery might recognize that piece in the upper right hand corner.  That piece belonged to my grandmother.  Also, in the lower right hand corner are the little wooden shoes I picked up in Amsterdam.  I think it was a requirement.

On the other side of my hutch it looks just about the same.  There are a lot of little things the kids made for me and other various little gifts people have given me.  Sue likes to call this my "stuff".  Stuff consists of little things that don't take up a lot of space in a suitcase.  Sue and I are fond of gifting one another with "stuff" whenever either of us travels.  On the middle shelf to the right is a bone china teacup my mother gave me as an engagement gift when Mike and I got engaged.  She collected them, and I suppose she thought I might do the same.  I wouldn't say I collect them since the ones I have are mostly inherited, but I did get one from the Empress Hotel in Victoria, B.C., when Mike and I had high tea there.  You can see it on the middle shelf to the right.  Behind it is an antique tea kettle that also belonged to my grandmother.

Also in the bottom right corner is an authentic Japanese tea service that my dad brought back from Okinawa after World War II.  So none of this stuff is particularly valuable, but it is priceless to me.  So when I finish here, I'm going to go pack it away carefully so that the hutch and sideboard can be moved out of the room.

Late on in the week, we are having new carpeting laid in the living room and dining room.  I'll be able to unpack the stuff from the hutch by then, and turn around and pack up all this crystal and glass wear.  Again, most of it is inherited, although that little bud vase you can see on the second shelf kind of in the middle on the left side is one I brought back from The Czech Republic.

It's a good time to be doing this since the glass shelves in both units are terribly dusty.  Even if we weren't doing the floors, I would need to be taking all this stuff out to clean them.  I'm not a clean freak, you understand.  But I think the last time I cleaned off those shelves was about five years ago.  Keep in mind that we live on a dirt road.  There is a lot of dust.

So I didn't do any sewing yesterday.  After I wrote my blog post, I laid down on the couch and went to sleep.  I was tired after our long walk.  And I won't do any sewing today either since I'm spending all my free time on the computer writing blog posts and helping Smitty edit the pictures he took this morning.  And...it's unlikely I'll get to do any sewing tomorrow either.  Monday while they're here doing the floors, I'll have plenty of time.

Nevertheless, I received some fabric in the mail.  I found this fat quarter bundle on the Jinny Beyer website, and I fell in love with these colors.  Usually, her stuff is a little too dark for my taste, but I thought these were lovely.

They have a sort of crumpled paper appearance.  I think I'll be able to use these in lots of different ways.

So, if you don't hear from me tomorrow, you'll know I'm cooking and packing things up.  I hope you all have a delightful Mother's Day with family close by.

Frenzied Friday

It's been a busy morning already. Tomorrow I'm hosting the whole family--six at our table now--for what has been playfully dubbed the Birthday Bash-A-Bration. We are celebrating three birthdays during the month of May, and tomorrow was the first day we could all sit down together. As I write this, I have our dessert for tomorrow in the oven: a Bailey's Chocolate Chip Cheesecake.

I've written about this cheesecake before, and so if you want to see what goes into it, click right here. It works out well because I can get the cake part of it baked today, and then add the topping tomorrow. Also, I'm going to try to get all fancy and do chocolate curls this time rather than just shaved chocolate. "Try" is the operative word in that sentence. It seems to me I've tried this before without success...thus, the shaved chocolate you see on the one above.

Also on the menu for tomorrow:

Roasted Shrimp Cocktail (super easy and a real crowd pleaser)
Crisp Skin High Roasted Chicken (I don't do the potatoes...too greasy)
Apricot Glazed Roasted Asparagus (beautiful asparagus in the grocery stores right now)
Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Chive Pesto (made with chives from my herb garden)
Spinach, Bacon, and Apple Salad (a family favorite)

You'll notice that everything (except the salad) is "roasted", which makes it easy for me. All I have to do is heat up the oven, throw in the food, and it roasts itself with very little effort from me. I can make up all the dressings, pestos, toppings, etc., ahead of time and then I can enjoy my family while they're here. That is the whole point, right?

So it wouldn't feel like a frenzied Friday except that we're taking the boat out this afternoon for the first time this summer. We have to make hay (and go swimming) while the sun shines, you know. The rain will be back tomorrow. I doubt we'll do much swimming today as the water will be far too cold. Still, it'll be Erik, Mike, and me, and we'll just relax and float. I'm betting we'll see an osprey or two, and even a few Great Blue Herons. We almost always do. I'm taking my telephoto lens today just in case.

Yesterday I got started on my next small project called Yukon Sanctuary. Here's the picture from the book:

It's another project from this book:

There are so many projects I want to make from this book that I barely know where to start. Actually, I do. I'm starting with this one. So yesterday I copied and made the template:

I put that pink arrow there to tell you that I'm seriously considering using white fabric for that one mountain. Look at the image from the book up above and see what you think. I like this project because it reminds me of the mountains we see from our house, except that our mountains are snow-covered year-round. So I'm thinking of making that mountain white instead of green. I can always lay a piece of white fabric there and see how it looks. I could change my mind, but that's where my head is right now. And I could choose a different mountain as well, I guess.

Anyway...all of that to say that I traced the "leading" onto my fusing medium...

then ironed it onto the black fabric (it's upside down in this picture). I'm using leftover black backing fabric from the Intel Underneath quilt for this, and there is puh-lenty!

Once I had it pressed down, I cut it to size, which meant cutting a 3/8-inch border around the whole thing.

Last night Mike spent quite a bit of time getting the boat ready for today, and I used the time to get most of the "leading" cut out. I just have a little bit left at the top.

The pieces for the trees were a little tedious and exacting, but the larger pieces aren't bad. This is the most tedious part of this technique. Once I have the leading cut out, it goes pretty quickly. I wrote a tutorial for the last one of these I did. I'll be posting my process as I go, but if you're curious to see how this is done, click right here to see my tutorial.

It's going to be a busy weekend, and so I don't know how much time I'll have to work on this. I'm hoping I'll have the day on Sunday to work on it.

So, better get going. Still lots to do today to get ready for this afternoon and tomorrow. I hope you have a Fabulous Friday. And don't forget to stop by the Blogger's Quilt Festival that started today.

You can see my "Shine On" quilt right here, and there's lots of other eye candy to peruse as well. Enjoy the festival and enjoy your day!

Happy Mother's Day

When I looked out the window this morning, I noticed another poppy had opened. The first one opened on my birthday. This one is opening on Mother's Day.

Just yesterday, I noticed more buds. The poppies in this particular whiskey barrel have something like ten buds between them, while the other whiskey barrel has at least two.

We're expecting a lot of rain next week, and so I'm hoping they don't get beaten to death in the deluge.

Smitty got too warm on his window perch yesterday morning. No problem. He just side-steps about of foot to where he can get on top of the china cabinet. It keeps his belly nicely cool.

Later, we let him outside, and he sat on the deck in a shady spot. He was feeling reflective here.

But not Sadie. She was feeling zoomie. She often gets the zoomies when she's outside, which is what makes it hard to get an in-focus picture of her.

Inside, I was putting the finishing touches on my Bailey's Chocolate Chip Cheesecake. I've linked to this recipe many times, but if you missed it, you can find it right here.

As far as cheesecakes go, this is a pretty easy one to make. It's a whole lotta cream cheese and a cup of Irish cream. (I use the cheap stuff for this...save the Bailey's for drinking.) For the first time ever, I got the chocolate curls right. I did them the way the Pioneer Woman does them. When that was finished, I got outside for my daily walk-around.

The hydrangeas are getting their first buds. They are some of my favorites in the garden.

I noticed the star lily is getting lots of buds. It has a ways to go, but I'm happy to see it return this year. I'm afraid the calla lily has gone to the big garden in the sky. It has not yet poked its head above ground, and I've given it up for dead.

These are little flowers on the thyme. They are no bigger than the head of a pin.

Here's the bright red azalea. The azaleas are the stars of the garden right now.

The white one is getting its first flowers.

The fourth rhododendron is getting flowers now.

The flowers are mostly open on the lavender one in front of the house.

This next one is always the last to bloom. It's a very dark purple, and my favorite of the bunch.

I noticed the rose has buds on it now. It's always hit or miss with the roses. Sometimes we get to see the flowers. Sometimes the deer eat them before they have a chance to bloom. The deer eat roses as if they are candy.

We'd taken out all our roses when the deer wouldn't leave them alone, and we replaced them with herbs. Then, for my 50th birthday (which was 16 years ago...I can't believe that...I think there's something wrong with my math), our former neighbor gave me this one. It's a mini rose and very fragrant. I'm surprised it has survived these many years, but I'm glad for it.

The golden chain tree is the current most-watched bloomer in the garden. Not quite there yet.

Soon, this peony will become the most watched flower in the garden. I expect this will be the first among the peonies to bloom.

You might remember when Sue and I visited Adelman Peony Gardens last year. I wanted to see the flowers before ordering. This one is called "Rosy Prospects," and below is the one we saw at the peony gardens last year.

You might also remember that I gave one of the peonies to Sue for her birthday last year. Yesterday, she sent me this picture of her bloomer. This one is called Coral Sunset.

I have one too, but mine is still a ways from blooming.

So, for a change, I thought I'd give you some long shots of the garden so you can get the lay of the land. In this next image, I'm standing on the sidewalk in front of the house. You can see the lilac right in the middle of the image. In front of it is the white azalea.

Walking over and standing near the lilac, we can turn around and see the front of the house. You can see some of the azaleas, the dappled willow, the andromeda, and the dwarf Japanese maple. You can see that the squirrels have denuded with top of the maple with their little sh*tty teeth. (Little rat bastards.)

Turning around and looking out toward the field, it looks like this. That's Mike's whirly-gig in the middle of the picture. He saw it at Costco, and he needed it badly. It has two "pinwheels" and it spins in both directions at the same time.

Walking around to the back of the house, you can see the peonies planted on the lower side of the wall. The herb garden is above.

Then walking around the bend, you can get a look at the herb garden and the catio. Also, that's the first rhododendron that bloomed...the peachy one. It is weighted down with flowers now.

And that's about all I have for you. We had a really nice get-together with the kids yesterday evening. We had a delicious prime rib...sometimes you get a really excellent cut of meat, you know, and this was one of those. Honestly, sitting with my adult children is like sitting with good friends. I'm so proud of all of them, and the lives they are building for themselves. Erik left his phone here last night, and so he'll be back again today to pick it up. Aside from that, I'm not sure what the day holds, but I know there will be sewing involved.

I hope you have a lovely Mother's Day. My day is going to be sunny and warm.