banana-coconut cheesecake bars w/ rum soaked cherries

Any Cheesecake Factory lovers out here? Yes? Really the only reason I go there is for the crabcakes and then a big dessert. Small meal, big dessert. And personally I love the way they keep their restaurant so clean and shiny (cleanest bathrooms too). You know what cracks me up? They have a weight management menu, I mean seriously, The Cheesecake Factory and a diet menu are like an oxymoron. But hey you have to give them credit for appealing to all types.
They have the best tasting banana cheesecake. I have yet to find a similiar great tasting banana cheesecake, and they serve it with freshly chopped bananas. They do need a bit of help on their whipping cream though--it's really not that fresh tasting, does taste like it came out of a can. But that's ok, since I love the banana cheesecake so much. I have tried like the devil to recreate their banana cheesecake at home with no luck. On my last failed attempt I made these little gems. I'm still on my coconut kick so I had to add it to the base for these bars and I also wanted to add in some rum, but was afraid so I made rum-soaked cherries. Rum, can be at times a little overpowering, so I didn't want to chance it and ruin the cheesecake, after all all that cream cheese is expensive, so I added the rum to the cherries instead. It was a nice little hint of rum.
And if you do make this, make sure to grease your pans/tins. I forgot and it was impossible getting them out. Impossible. (as you can see in this photo the edges are frayed).

What is your favorite cheesecake?

banana-coconut cheesecake bars w/ rum soaked cherries
print recipe

for the base:
Butter, for greasing pan or tarts
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
9 graham crackers
¼ cup of dried coconut flakes (not the sweetened/moist kind)
1 stick unsalted butter, melted

for the filling:
16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 lemon, the zest of and all it’s juice
1/2 cup superfine sugar

topping:
¼ cup +/- of cherries, split in half or pitted, soaked in a bit of dark rum (soaked overnight is best)
Powdered sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Make sure to pit your cherries, slice them in half, place in a bowl and sprinkle with a bit of dark rum; just a coating. Cover and store in fridge until ready to use; they should marinate overnight or at least 5 hours.

The base:
Grease the bottom of a mini cheesecake square tart pans or muffins pans (or you could use a 9 by 9-inch baking pan) with butter. Spray with non-stick cooking spray. In a food processor, process the sugar, cinnamon, and graham crackers until you have the texture of bread crumbs. Then add in, by hand the coconut and mix.
Add the melted butter and pulse a couple of times to fully incorporate.
Scoop out the mixture and press into the tart pans or baking pans. Make sure to press down good and get into all the corners. I used a small spoon for the corners of the mini tart pans.
Bake in the oven for 12 minutes until golden. When done set aside to cool.

The filling:
Add cream cheese, eggs, mashed banana(s), lemon zest, lemon juice and sugar to the food processor and mix until well combined; you want a nice smooth, lump-free consistency. I then transferred the mixture to a pouring cup and poured the mixture on top of the cooled graham base.
Gently put about 3-4 of the rum soaked cherries on the top of each of the mini tarts—don’t push them down, just let them sit on the top. They might sink a little during cooking. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes, rotating pan halfway through or until the center only slightly jiggles. The baking time might be more if you are using a pan. The square tarts that I used only took 35 minutes. But I could have gotten away with cooking them 30 minutes as they were a little over-done.
Remove from the oven and cool completely before refrigerating for at least 3 hours.
Once set, they should remove easily from pan. If using the 9 x 9 pan, cut them into rectangular bars. Dust with powdered sugar.

I'm back... and I have pie (peach pie)

You know how you read a title of a story that says "I'm back..." and what follows is "did you miss me?" I hate that. That is NOT what I'm going to say. You know why? I missed YOU guys. Holy smack-a-doodles did I miss you guys! I mean seriously, I felt like I was gone for a year. I know I led you all to believe that I was away on a nice, peaceful, relaxful vacation. I wasn't really. Something at home happened that made our lives just stop and go "whoa". It wasn't anything life threatening, but it was truly scary enough.
To make a long story short, all is fine now, our lives are back on track and things are finally coming around to a normal schedule again. Grateful. A HUGE thank you to all my friends for your emails and phone calls--you know who you are and I love that you cared about me and my family. Thank you, that meant the world to me and the hubster.
On to the good stuff! Let's talk about food and whats happening. Have I been the only one pigging out this summer? Tell me (lie please) you've been pigging out too? Make me feel better. The gym, my workouts have been non-existent. Bad, very bad. But I have been swimming, so that counts a bit. I've been swimming daily and nightly watching Shark Week on TV (in HD too--super wild that way). So while I'm in the water swimming away what thoughts go round and round in my head? Yes, those thoughts of humans getting bit by sharks! Always a ton of sharks in the water while I swim; this is whats played through my head as I swim back to the shore. Well, it gets me swimming faster, so........ Amazing what your brain will do when you let it ride on it's own, unsupervised.
I didn't know which latest food creation to share with you first so I picked the one I ate the most of this week: peaches. Lately those peaches at Whole Foods have been fabulous! So flavorful, so plump and huge. I've been eating a lot of them and saved a few for this wonderful peach and creme fraiche pie I saw over at Martha Stewart's website.

This is a peach & creme fraiche pie. The recipe is found here. Changes I made were adding double the crumb topping and serving it with fresh whipped cinnamon cream (just add a couple teaspoons of cinnamon sugar to your whipping cream while you're whipping it). Also, before you're ready to whip your cream add the bowl and beaters to the freezer. This way they'll be nice and cold when you go to whip it up--wonderful little tip. This pie was really good, I mean really good. I truly thought this pie would be heavy and dense, not at all. It was very light tasting, I'm sure it's not so light in calories, but the overall texture was light--surprisingly.

Peach & Crème Fraiche Pie
recipe from martha stewart
print recipe

My notes: Changes I made were doubling the crumb topping. Her version there was hardly any crumb. I also served this with fresh whipped cinnamon cream (just add a couple teaspoons of cinnamon sugar to your whipping cream while you're whipping it). Also, before you're ready to whip your cream add the bowl and beaters to the freezer. This way they'll be nice and cold when you go to whip it up--wonderful little tip.

FOR THE PATE SUCREE
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons ice water, plus more if needed

FOR THE STREUSEL
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup cold (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

FOR THE FILLING
1 1/2 pounds ripe (4 to 5 medium) yellow peaches, pitted and quartered
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
5 tablespoons creme fraiche

Make the pate sucree: Pulse flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor to combine. Add butter; process until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds. add egg yolk, and pulse. With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream through feed tube until dough just holds together. Turn out dough onto a work surface; shape into a disk. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour (up to 2 days).

Make the streusel: Sift together sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Using your hands or a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to about 1/8 inch thick. Fit into a 9 1/2- or 10-inch pie plate (about 1 1/2 inches deep). Trim edge to 1 inch; fold under, and crimp as desired. Pierce bottom of dough all over with a fork. Transfer to freezer for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cover edge of crust with foil. Line crust with parchment paper, and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake, covered, 10 minutes. Remove weights and parchment (keep foil on edge).
Bake until pale golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes more. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly; remove foil; reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees.

Make the filling: Put peaches into a medium bowl, and sprinkle with sugar and salt; gently toss to coat. let stand 15 minutes.
Spread 2 TB creme fraiche onto bottom of crust; sprinkle with one-third of the streusel. Arrange peaches on top; spread or dot with remaining 3 TB creme fraiche. Sprinkle with remaining streusel.

Bake pie until creme fraiche is bubbling and streusel is golden brown, about 50 minutes. Cover edge of crust with foil if it's browning too quickly. Let cool on a wire rack 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

a little break....

I will be taking a little time off from blogging for a while. I should be back in a couple months. In the meantime, I wish everyone a happy & safe summer. Keep on cooking and baking everyone!

morning glory muffin

There is a little bakery nearby where I live, and they used to be stellar--I mean really good. They had the best muffins--the best (as close as you can come to) croissants, and cookies the size of your head with oodles of flavor, textures and combo's.
But in the last few years they have seriously gone down hill. I think they've gone through about three different owners.

And with each new owner comes more 'scale-down' ideas; ways to save money, and also jack up the prices. Now this little bakery sits in the heart of tourist mecca; a perfect spot for any retailer to seize the opportunity to make money from the summer influx of tourists; plenty of parking and near all the other famous tourists attractions of the historic town. It's sad really to see such a beautiful spot (near the waters and marshlands) go downhill. Well, many years ago they used to have the best morning glory muffin. This is the muffin that used to make me go to the bakery in the early morning hours to get while it was still warm. They had perfected the 'muffin top': it was a huge top with crunchy edges, overlapping sides, and filled with fruit, carrots, coconut, nuts, etc... Today, sadly, this muffin is no more; a smaller version with no muffin top has replaced it, as well as being dry and fruitless. So with that said I had to recreate this at home, because every once in a while I crave a really good morning glory muffin. So, here is my latest re-creation or creation. If you adore the infamous morning glory muffin then you simply must try this recipe.




morning glory muffins
recipe by vanillasugarblog.com
print recipe

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup oat bran 
½ cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 ts baking soda
1 TB baking powder
½ ts salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
¾ ts powder ginger
½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 medium size eggs
¾ cup vegetable oil
1 ½ ts pure vanilla extract
¾ cup half & half (or whole milk)
1 cup shredded carrots
½ cup raisins
½ cup chopped toasted walnuts
½ cup unsweetened flaked coconut
Granola for topping, optional but wonderful

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 6 jumbo muffin cups (or 12 regular muffins). You can use paper liners, but I’ve never used them for my morning glory muffins.
In a large bowl, mix together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and ginger.
In a separate bowl mix together the carrots, raisins, nuts, and coconut.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, dark brown sugar, oil, vanilla, and half & half. Whisk well.
Pour the liquid ingredients into the large bowl containing the dry flour mixture. Mix until just combined, do not overmix! It’s perfectly normal to have lumps. Lumps are good! Then add in the “add in” bowl mix and “gently” mix that until just incorporated. Don’t overmix!
Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups. Top with granola before baking (optional).
Bake in preheated oven for 30- 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Makes 6-8 jumbo muffins or 12-14 regular muffins (see note below).
Note: I used the oversized muffin pan; they make better muffin tops. I've made these muffins using regular muffin pans, but they just didn't taste right, too dry. I'm certain the jumbo muffins ones are a better fit for keeping it nice and moist.

chocolate-peanut butter bread

When grocery shopping I'm amazed at how many food things consisting of the wonderful combo chocolate & peanut butter I go for. Sports bars, ice cream, muffins, cookies, etc... Seriously. I am also still floored everytime I go to Whole Foods and look at the energy bar section and see how many bars NEW bars there are with chocolate & pb combo. The latest find was a chocolate and spirilina bar! Yeah, pretty wild. I thought oh ick, this has to taste horrible. And with that said, I went ahead and bought one! LOL. To be honest it wasn't that bad. Granted it did not taste like a candy bar, but it did not taste like chocolate covered lawn clippings. It wasn't bad, really, and it was good for me. It had an ingredient list I could relate to (no chemical degree necessary to read it).
Well with all these constant cravings of things relating to the "chocolate and peanut butter family" I've always wanted to do a bread. Hence, my latest creation. This bread came out great. It's not that moist like a banana bread would be, but it truly did taste amazing when it was sliced, toasted with butter on top.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bread
(inspiration from Dinners for a Year)
print recipe

¾ cup dark brown sugar
¾ cup peanut butter (I used chunky)
1 TB vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
1 ½ cups buttermilk
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 cup whole wheat flour, sifted
4 ts baking powder
1/2 ts salt

¾ cup of milk choco chunks (I wanted chunks of choco in here)
3 TB of melted butter +/-
Raw sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a small bowl mix the buttermilk and eggs together. In another bowl sift the flours, baking powder, and salt.
In a large bowl, cream sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla; add in the buttermilk & egg mixture. Then beat in the flour mixture; beat well until just combined.
By hand add in the milk chocolate chunks.
Pour batter into greased loaf pan and bake for 50 - 55 minutes until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan 10 minutes before unmolding.
**note: on the last 30 minutes of baking I put a bit of melted butter on the top, then sprinkled some raw sugar chunks on the top of the bread, optional, but wonderful**

This recipe and photographs are copyrighted and the property of Dawn Finicane