Pastry Class: Cheesecakes

Week Seven of Pro Pastry I was all about Cheesecakes.  This was a little intimidating at first, but it was super fun and not too hard at all.  First we made our own graham crackers to use for the crusts of the cake.  Who knew this flavor comes from using molases?

Passion Fruit Cheesecake

You could use almost any flavor inside the cheesecake, you just have to be careful about how you incorporate it.  Using the passion fruit puree was very easy, just mixed in about 3 teaspoons and it really brightened up the cake. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

This flavor was a little trickier since it's so dense.  I had to fold it in to a portion of the batter first, and then swirl that into the remainder of the batter. It was good but made the texture of the cake a little tougher, more like a fudge. 

For the Ricotta Cheesecakes we made our own Ricotta cheese which was also really easy.  It's just milk, cream and lemon juice! 

I really liked how these turned out, they are much lighter than the cream cheese version.  These mini cups also are the perfect portion.

I added some left over chocolate ganache, I couldn't resist...

For Recipes Check Out: The Gourmandise School

My Homemade Hello Dolly Bars

I wanted to make a party treat and thought these Hello Dolly Bars looked perfect! I used this recipe, which was very easy and quick.



First I mixed the graham cracker crumbs in with a stick of melted butter...



Then pressed the graham cracker into the bottom of the pan...



Layered coconut, pecans, butterscotch and chocolate chips...



Topped it off with some sweetened condensed milk, and baked for 25 minutes.



I cut them into very small squares, since they are so sweet.



They are really good, perfectly salty and sweet. Next time I might swap out the butterscotch for peanut butter chips.