Mini-Cheesecake

I’ve been meaning to try out my mini-cheesecake pans for a while.  It wasn’t until this weekend I took my chance.

I offered to make a cheesecake for an gathering at a friend’s house.  Since most of the ingredients come in enough quantities that I don’t use all of them for a single cheesecake, I only needed to get one extra brick of cream cheese to do this.

Given the size differences between the large and small pans, I estimated I would only need 1/3 of the ingredients for all three mini-cheesecake pans.  Or two, if I wanted a thick cake.  I went for three.

I made both the big and small sets side by side.  Except for running out of vanilla, I didn’t run into any issues.

Baking was where I was most worried.  I was pretty sure if I tossed everything in for the 50 minutes the big cake needs, the small ones would be crispy.  So I checked on them at 15 or 10 minutes intervals.  One of the small ones came out at thirty minutes, the other two at forty.  I stuck them in the fridge immediately.

The topping was blueberry, which I made the next night.  I had more than enough for all four cakes.

So how did it turn out?  I don’t want to say great, but it turned out.  Comparable to the big cheesecake.

This opens up a lot of options for me.  Since most of the ingredients are things I usually have around my kitchen, I can make three small cheesecakes for the cost of the cream cheese and any flavoring or toppings I might want.

Secondly, I can make the cheesecakes as a dessert option without the risk of throwing away a bunch of left overs.  I’ve discovered that I start to get bored with a meal after three or four meals in a row (not just dessert, any meal), and this opens up some options for late afternoon snacks.

Third, I can experiment with new cheesecake recipes without the risk of a whole cake being ruined.

Glad I finally got around to this one.  Lots of new possibilities to consider.

Danish Braids

First post this month?  Man, time flies when you’re baking danishes.

I found this two part recipe for a danish braid, one for the dough and one for the filling and topping.   It seemed the best of the recipes I found.  I was a little worried about working with yeast, it’s not something that works out for me all the time.

I managed three attempts at this recipe combo, changing the fruit filling.

Attempt One: Black Cherry

I made a number of mistakes with this one, but luckily none of them made the resulting braid inedible.

For starters, I mixed up the butter in the blender, adding all the ingredients at once.  This was a mistake, as the butter all stayed at the bottom and didn’t let the flower mix in at all.  I had to spoon it out a little bit at a time into my smaller food processor and work it in batches.

The second mistake was adding the frosting before the braid had cooled down enough.  The frosting melted and flowed right off the braid.

What was left was ugly and tasted pretty good, but I felt I could do better.

Attempt Two: Apple

I made a point of clearing off the biggest part of my small kitchen counter space so I could work the dough properly.  I mixed the butter and flour in batches.  I still couldn’t get the braid exactly like the pictures, so instead of two medium sized braids I got two small braids and five miscellaneous shapes (circles, triangles, squares).  I also cooled it in the fridge before adding the frosting; it stayed on much better.

If there was an error with this one, it was the filling.  The apple did not turn out well.  Next time I’ll use an apple pie filling recipe.

Attempt Three: Raspberry

Raspberry is normally a very strong flavor, so I was worried about it overpowering the braid’s natural flavor.  Much like the Apple, I ended up with smaller braids and a bunch of odds and ends.  The raspberry turned out well, not as strong as I worried.  Lots of friends got to enjoy it.

(and some how, I didn’t get a picture of it).

Result

The dough is surprisingly good and buttery.  I need to work on how I handle it more, but that may be my inexperience with dough in general.

Cinnamon Rolls

Yummy.

I gave this recipe two attempts this month, both because the ingredients were pretty simple, and because my first attempt looked less like rolls than taquitos.

I used this recipe here, without the vegan constraints.  For the first batch I added the cream cheese / confectioner sugar frosting I learned to make from the Cinnebon  cheesecake, but I decided to skip it on the second.

I had some issues with the dough, again that my apartment is not warm enough for yeast to rise unaided.  I kept this in my oven on the lowest warmth, but I don’t think it rose as well as it should have.  I’ll need to find some solution to that particular problem.

Rising problems aside, the rolls at least taste good, with or without frosting.  Yes, one looks a bit odd (the tower one was an end piece), but they are of decent size and one makes a good breakfast.

For future attempts, I might try this but using honey instead of butter and cinnamon sugar.  Or jam?  Something else sweet.  I also want to try and solve my rising problem.  But a batch of these should be me through a week’s worth of breakfasts.  And simple enough