A Year Food Blogging

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
2008 may have not been the best year for the economy, it may have been more stressful than most, and it certainly was one filled with drama and change on the news, but it was a FUN year for blogging!

I experimented with a new ingredient, verjus, in the first post of the year and showcased the best bread yet using my wild sourdough starter (my newest hobby) in the last post. Should you be interested in how to make a wild yeast sourdough using unsprayed organic grapes It is explained here.

In between there were lots more cookies recipes than usual, many savory and sweet recipes made using local ingredients, and an original and sort of silly recipe, Bacon Bittersweet Truffles.

In October I passed the 250th post mark and had the 2nd anniversary of blogging at Feeding My Enthusiasms. This will be the 285th post…hard to believe…but I’m still having a blast.

I managed to do all 12 Daring Baker challenges this year from Lemon Meringue Pie to French Yule Log, plus I wrote the 13 (Baker’s Dozen) bit of fiction in the Land of St. Honore’. Maybe we will return there in 2009 to see what the denizens of the land are up to. I was also the host, with the lovely Deborah of Taste and Tell, of the April Daring Bakers challenge where the many, many Darng Bakers who participated made an amazing variety of Cheesecake Pops…that was a lot of fun.

The great thing about the Daring Bakers is that you really stretch yourself to learn new techniques, to organized the tasks so that it all comes out right, and to learn from your fellow Daring Bakers…which I do all the time.

My favorite experiences, beyond hosting the Daring Baker challenge, were doing other challenges with two baking buddies, Mandy in May

and Hil in November.

They are both creative and skilled bakers and fun to share a kitchen with. Hope they will join the Daring Bakers themselves one day.

But it isn’t all baking on this blog. One of my favorite recipes this year was the Grilled Cheese and Basil Polenta. There is something about the creamy polenta, the fresh basil, the melty cheese and the crisp crust from grilling that is just wonderful. Although they DO involve baking, my other two favorites were the summer pudding from August.

and the July Daring Baker challenge. There is something about fresh berries that makes the pudding simple but perfect. The July cake was rich and somewhat complicated, but it sang with the flavors of dark chocolate and peanuts.

I also enjoyed making recipes from my childhood like savory stuffing for turkey (or chicken), chocolate pudding cake, easy saucepan fruit bars and simple rolled sugar cookies, and most recently home made hot cocoa. I hope to share more childhood memories and recipes this year.

Wishing you and those you love a very Happy New Year & lots of good food shared with each other.

April Pops

For my 201st post, return with me now to the Land of St. Honore':

This recipe is an adaptation of one from Jill O’Connors wonderful book called ”Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey.” It is a super pretty book as well as having recipes that are pure indulgence.

My co-hostess Deborah of Taste and Tell owns the book, too and we both wanted to make them, so thought they might make a good Daring Baker challenge for April. I hope you enjoy these confections. Deborah has been such a fantastic hostess on this challenge, plus she is a great blogger and a very supportive one for other bloggers. Do visit her site first.

You can find the recipe at Taste and Tell or you can go to the bottom of this post to the recipe. Be sure to use the Daring Baker’s Blogroll to check out as many as possible of the hundreds of wonderful renditions of these darling Cheesecake Pops.

As the Daring Bakers have grown, the talent and creativity of the group has grown, too. There are some truly amazing bakers who are Daring Bakers, too. It’s been a privilege to be a co-hostess this month for such a group.

Cheesecake Pops
Makes 30 – 40 Pops

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ cup heavy cream
Boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)

Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer set at low speed, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at lwo speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Lightly grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan). Pour the cheesecake batter into the cake pan and place in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly goldenon top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchemtn paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.
Introduction from Deborah & Elle

These cute little bites of cheesecake, held on a stick and dipped in chocolate and, if you like, decorations, are sure to make you smile. The cheesecake is New York style, the pops can be jazzed up with different toppings, and they are FUN…just right for a party. They are from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor. Isn’t that an alluring title for a cookbook?

We wanted to pick something that had potential for putting your personal stamp on. We like them for a challenge because the recipe for the cheesecake part makes use of the concept of a water bath, an essential tool for bakers, plus there are many ways to personalize them. And they are cheesecake!! The photo in the book showed the lollipop sticks twined with pretty ribbons and bows, too.

It is unclear if this recipe can be halved. A key thing is that the cheesecake be in a pan where it bakes deep enough to scoop out the balls.

Allowed Variations. Yes you can make some changes to this cheesecake as long as you promise to use the basic cheesecake recipe (although you can add a flavor to it if you like) and do keep it white (sorry, no chocolate or coffee or mocha), and keep the pops to the 2 ounce size.
The dipping flavors and colors are completely up to you.
If you want to use decorations, go for it. Same with drizzles and ribbons on the sticks. Or leave them plain after dipping them.
You can cut the cheesecake into geometric shapes instead of making balls…triangles or squares or diamonds…just keep them about 2 ounces each. We can't wait to see what combinations our Daring Baker come up with…just make sure to use the basic cheesecake recipe, to make the pops 2 ounces or close to that in size, and to dip each pop in chocolate or confectionary coating and have it on a lollipop stick.