Bon Appetit Desserts (49 page)
Read Bon Appetit Desserts Online
Authors: Barbara Fairchild
Place remaining ¼ cup sugar in shallow bowl. Add cranberries and toss until completely coated.
DO AHEAD
:
Can be made 6 hours ahead. Cover and let stand at room temperature.
Serve steamed pudding warm with candied cranberries and Grand Marnier Hard Sauce Rosettes.
Grand Marnier Hard Sauce RosettesHard sauce—a rich blend of butter, sugar, and flavoring—is often made with brandy or rum, but here takes an orange flavor from Grand Marnier. Piping the hard sauce into rosettes is fun and adds a playful touch, but if you don’t feel like doing that, just put the sauce in a serving bowl and pass it at the table.
Makes 8
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1½ cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur
Line small baking sheet with waxed paper. Using electric mixer, beat butter in medium bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar, then liqueur. Transfer to pastry bag fitted with large star tip. Pipe 8 large rosettes onto prepared baking sheet. Chill until set, about 1 hour.
DO AHEAD
:
Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and keep chilled.
Wine with Cake
Cake is synonymous with celebration, and a glass of wine alongside adds to the special-occasion feeling. But serving dry wine with sweet cake makes both things taste awful: The sugar in the dessert wrecks the flavors in the wine and makes it taste bitter. (If you’ve ever been served dry [brut] Champagne with birthday cake, you’ve experienced this.) Both still wine and sparkling wine can taste great with cake. A good rule of thumb: Make sure that what’s in the glass is as sweet if not sweeter than what’s on the plate. But the best dessert wines shouldn’t overwhelm with their sugar level: They should have enough acidity to balance their sweetness. Typically, dessert wines can have flavors of peach, apricot, citrus, nuts, and toffee, among others. Here are a few to look for:
MOSCATO D’ASTI
, a gently fizzy Italian wine, which also has a low alcohol content
VOUVRAY MOUSSEUX
, a bubbly Chenin Blanc from France’s Loire Valley
LATE-HARVEST RIESLING
grown from sweet Riesling grapes; especially good ones come from Germany, France, and Australia.
SWEET CHAMPAGNE
from France, of course. Look for extra-dry or the sweeter demi-sec.
SAUTERNES
, from the Bordeaux region of France, arguably the greatest dessert wine in the world. It’s some of the most expensive, too, especially if aged.
Lemon Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust
Orange Blossom Cheesecake with Raspberry-Pomegranate Sauce
Peach Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust
Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake with Cranberry-Raspberry Compote
Key Lime Cheesecake with Tropical Dried-Fruit Chutney
Vanilla Bean Cheesecake with Guava Topping and Mango-Lime Salad
Deep Dark Chocolate Cheesecake
S’mores Cheesecake with Summer Berries
Double-Decker Raspberry and White Chocolate Cheesecake
Pumpkin Cheesecake with Marshmallow-Sour Cream Topping and Gingersnap Crust
Crème Fraîche Cheesecake with Honey-Rum-Roasted Pineapple
Mascarpone Cheesecake with Balsamic Strawberries
Mascarpone Cheesecake with Candied Pecans and Dulce de Leche
Mascarpone Cheesecake with Quince Compote
Almond Cheesecake with Sour Cream and Blackberries
Peanut Butter-Brownie Cheesecake
Individual Cheesecakes with Mixed Berry Sauce
Cream Cheese Pie Topped with Peaches and Blackberries
Vanilla Cheesecake Tartlets with Vanilla-Vodka Berries
No-Bake Blueberry Cheesecake with Graham Cracker Crust
New York-Style CheesecakeMade popular in New York City in the 1920s by Jewish delicatessens, this cake is identified by its graham cracker crust and smooth cream cheese filling. Baking the cake in a water bath allows the rich filling to cook at an even, steady heat, giving the cheesecake its signature creamy quality. For a slightly fluffier and drier version (which may crack as it cools), bake the cake directly on the oven rack at 300°F until the center is softly set, about 1 hour 20 minutes.
12 servings
9 whole graham crackers, broken into pieces
5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
3 tablespoons sugar
5 8-ounce packages Philadelphia-brand cream cheese, room temperature
1½ cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon unbleached all purpose flour
CRUST
: Preheat oven to 325°F. Grind graham crackers to coarse crumbs in processor. Add butter and sugar. Process until blended and crumb mixture begins to stick together. Press crumb mixture onto bottom (not sides) of 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2¾-inch-high sides. Bake crust until golden and firm to touch, about 25 minutes. Cool crust in pan on rack. Wrap outside of pan with 3 layers of heavy-duty foil. Maintain oven temperature.
FILLING
: Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually add sugar, beating until blended. Beat in eggs and egg yolk 1 at a time just until blended, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl. Beat in lemon juice, vanilla, and salt. Sift flour over; beat on low speed until blended. Scrape filling over crust in pan.
Place cake pan in large roasting pan. Add enough hot water to roasting pan to come halfway up sides of cake pan; place in oven. Bake cheesecake in water bath until center is softly set, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Let stand in water bath 5 minutes. Place cheesecake in pan on rack. Cut around pan sides to loosen cake. Cool completely at room temperature. Cover and chill overnight.
DO AHEAD
:
Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.
Cut around pan sides again; remove pan sides. Cut cheesecake into wedges.
Technique Tip:
Give It Time
When making cheesecake, plan ahead. Many of the recipes in this chapter require that the cheesecake chill overnight to firm up properly—this results in the best texture and easiest slicing.
Crumb Crusts
Virtually every cheesecake in this chapter (unless it’s a crustless cheesecake) features a crumb crust made from graham crackers, gingersnaps or another kind of cookie, or nuts. In many ways, these are the simplest crusts to make, as they don’t involve preparing or rolling out dough. But there are still a few handy tricks to know.
To grind cookies, wafers, and graham crackers into crumbs, try one of two methods:
BY MACHINE
Put broken-up cookies or crackers in a food processor. Use on/off turns to pulse until the crumbs are evenly ground to the desired coarseness.UNPLUGGED
Enclose broken-up cookies or crackers in a heavy-duty resealable plastic bag. Pass a rolling pin over them until they’re evenly crushed to the desired coarseness.Blending the butter, crumbs, or ground nuts with other crust ingredients in a food processor will give you the quickest and most uniform results (although some simple crust recipes call for the ingredients to be blended in a bowl, so check the instructions).
To press crumb crusts evenly into a pan, wrap your fingertips in plastic wrap to prevent sticking and press firmly. Make sure to create a crust of even thickness.
Red-Berry CheesecakeThis cheesecake is the perfect dessert for showcasing summer’s best berries. It’s worth scouring the farmers’ market for the ripest, most fragrant raspberries and strawberries you can get your hands on.
12 servings
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature
⅔ cup coarsely ground graham cracker crumbs
3 8-ounce packages Philadelphia-brand cream cheese, room temperature
1¼ cups sugar, divided
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
4 large egg whites, room temperature
2 cups sour cream