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

Arlington Club

 

While in New York for the holidays I stopped by the recently opened Arlington Club for some drinks and desserts.  I love ALL of the restaurants by the Tao Group so I was extremely excited to see their new steakhouse.  The space was so beautiful and the food looked amazing, I definitely have to go back for dinner.  This was the Peanut Butter Chocolate Bar which was served with milk popcorn ice cream.  It was so good!  It was like a Reese's version of the ABC Kitchen sundae. 

This Sticky Date Pudding was to die for!! It's not something I would normally order, but it was exceptional.  This blurry photo doesn't do it any justice.  It was served with ginger ice cream, kumquat toffee, and was topped with amazing crunchy candied nuts. 

Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Peanut Butter Icing

I decided to make these Banana Cupcakes for a friends birthday, and felt that the perfect icing to match would be a Chocolate Peanut Butter Buttercream!

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First I mixed all the dry ingredients together...


Then mashed the bananas, and added the wet ingredients...


Mixed it all up really well, leaving the banana slightly chunky...


I used a small ice cream scoop to evenly portion out the batter into mini cupcake pans.


While they were in the oven, I made the icing...


I used the electric beater to make sure all the peanut butter was mixed well...


Put it into a piping bag...


And iced each cupcake with a swirl!


To show that they were banana flavor, I used a banana chip to top each cupcake. They turned out really well, and it was surprisingly easy!

Peanut Butter Cup Brownie

This Peanut Butter Cup Brownie from Vinoteque was really great. The brownie itself wasn't anything too special, but the peanut butter ice cream was. It sat on top of whipped cream with caramel sauce and chopped peanuts. Everything at this restaurant was great, I love Tapas, and I will definitely be going back.

My Homemade Puppy Chow

This is the easiest, and best, snack to make. All you need is Chex Mix, Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chips and Powdered Sugar.


Melt the peanut butter and chocolate chips in a bowl together...


Pour over the Chex Mix...


Mix it all up...


Put the whole thing into a giant Zip Lock bag and add powdered sugar...


Shake the bag until all the Chex's are covered in sugar, and eat!

Reeces Heart

I never write about mass-produced commercial desserts, because that's boring.. But, this year I tried a Reece's heart for Valentine's Day and it was SO good! Reece's holiday treats are always the best because you know they are fresh!


It was so cute and shaped like a box of chocolates!


Due to the massive size of this thing, there was so much peanut butter filling, which made it SO good. The outer chocolate shell was really thick too, which balanced out the salty center perfectly.

Todd English Candy Bars

I wanted to buy something to bring back to LA with me from the Food Hall, and these bars seemed perfect. The two kinds they had sitting out couldn't have been more up my alley.

The Salty Sweet bar was milk chocolate filled with peanuts, toffee and mini pretzel rods...







The PB & J bar was made of a crispy peanut butter creamy filling that was topped with a thin layer of jelly, covered in dark chocolate... this was my favorite of the two.





They were both so good, I may need someone to start mailing them to me regularly... hint hint...

Moose Tracks

My favorite thing about summer is all the ice cream that's around. Anyone who knows me knows my all time favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip, but if Moose Tracks was more of a common option, I would reconsider. I'm not sure what company makes this flavor, but my beach club in Westhampton has been serving it for years, and it has consistently been incredible. It's a vanilla ice cream with huge slabs of chocolate fudge and mini peanut butter cups. It's perfectly smooth, salty, sweet and crunchy. I love.

The Yard

For Sarah's birthday we had dinner and watched the Laker game at The Yard in Santa Monica, and the cake they sent over was so good! It was a dense chocolate cake with a thick layer of peanut butter in the middle. It was served with banana ice cream and completely surrounded by fluffy charred marshmallow. The entire combination was fantastic!

The Griddle

We went to The Griddle Cafe for breakfast since it has a reputation of having great pancakes. The menu alone for pancakes and french toast was somewhat overwhelming as there were a million choices, but one in particular called to me: Peanut Bubba Crunchy French Toast.

It is explained on the menu as "Our Mom's French Toast dipped in a peanut butter crunch, then grilled to perfection...topped with powdered sugar and whipped cream". It was really great - sweet and salty. The bread itself was super thick and warm, and the topping tasted like a gourmet Butterfinger. I could do without the mounds of whipped cream, but I would definitely order this one again!

Peanut Butter Brownie Cupcakes

This was inspired by Giada De Laurentiis, they looked so good I had to try and replicate this myself. They were amazing! Chocolate chunk brownie as the cupcake with a peanut butter cream cheese frosting. The brownie part was so soft and dense, and the chocolate chips inside added an amazing texture. The frosting was super dense and rich, that a little went a long way. This was the first time I piped anything, and it was just as easy as it looks on TV! Thanks Food Network!

Cake Monkey

I found this treat at Cabbage Patch, a relatively healthy, organic, restaurant on south Beverly. They have them at the counter, and as they are wrapped in tin foil, it was a gamble to try, but so glad I did! Cake Monkeys come in several flavors, but I've only tried two: The Black and White, and the Peanut Butter Marshmallow (seen below). Both of these mini cakes were amazing, the Black and White was better, and not photographed...but it was like an Oreo cookie, but with soft chocolate cake and layered with fluffy whipped cream with crunchies inside! I'll have to go back and take a pic of it...

The Peanut Butter Marshmallow was really good too, just not as unique. It needed more chocolate! It reminded me of a box cake, or an Entenmann's, which trust me I love, but wasn't as special as the B&W. The peanut butter marshmallo center was really good, and the vanilla cake was great, but together it was a little dry. If the cake was chocolate it would have been perfect! I found the menu online, there are so many more flavors and other pastries to try!!

Check out the Cake Monkey's Website for flavors.

Vosges Bon Bons

I had to add these because they are so pretty. Think of them as a glorified Reeces...very glorified. I love the peanut butter inside, it was so thick and creamy! My only complaint is that the sea-salt was a little too much for me...I'm not a salty person, clearly.

Joan's on Third

Joan's is a staple spot for good food and baked goods. They were looking particualrly festive this week in preparation for Halloween with fall flavored goodies. I took my cousin there for brunch and we had to get dessert, even though it was 11am. There was so much to choose from!






I got the Peanut Butter Cupcake. Clearly the right choice. I love when cupcakes, or cake, or anything has real peanut butter smeared inside. It was so delicious!




Brittany got the Chocolate Macaroon, one of her favorite desserts.