FoodMayhem

Around 4-5 years ago I focused on mastering cheesecakes. Dozens were made, some looked pretty bad (but still tasted good). These days, I can whip up a perfect cheesecake with my eyes shut, and even develop new recipes. Recently, I came up with a black and white chocolate cheesecake with harlequin decoration. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Makes:
1 Cake

Cookie Crust

• 0.5 cup melted butter
• 5.25 oz Cookie Crumbs

Filling

• 3.5 oz White Chocolate Chunks
• 3.5 oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks
• 24 oz Cream Cheese (room-temp)
• 1.25 cup Sugar
• 4 Eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• Scant 0.25 cup Heavy Cream

Icing

• 0.5 cup Sour Cream
• Scant 0.25 cup Heavy Cream
• 0.25 cup Confectioner’s Sugar
• Scant 0.25 cup Cocoa Powder

Chocolate Diamonds

• 3oz Couverture
• Scant 0.125 cup Heavy Cream

Instructions: Crust

1. Preheat over to 325 deg F. Boil a pot of water (in a tea kettle is preferable).
2. Wrap outside of 9-inch springform pan in aluminum foil.
3. Combine the melted butter and cookie crumbs in a bowl
4. Press into a 9-inch springform. Thinly at the bottom, and up the sides slightly.

Instructions: Filling

1. Cream the cheese and sugar together, approx 3 min in an electric mixer.
2. While mixing, add one egg at a time, allow about 20 seconds between each egg.
3. While mixing add vanilla and heavy cream. When blended, stop mixing.
4. Fold in chocolate chunks
5. Pour filling in to the spring form pan. Leave at least 1/4″ space from top of pan.
6. Move pan into a larger tray for water bath, and put in pre-heated oven. Fill tray at least one inch with water from tea kettle. Bake 45-55 min at 325… do not open the oven during baking! Around 45 min start keeping an eye on the cake. It should be set around the edges and slightly gelatinous in the middle. This means it is done.
7. When done, turn off the oven and open the over door about two inches. Leave it this way for another hour. Afterwards, wrap the pan (leave the aluminum foil on) in saran wrap and refrigerate over night.

Instructions: Decoration (optional)
Some fun things to do while the cake is baking. You can decorate the sides and/or top of the cake.

Top (icing):

1. Cut a diamond template in cardboard or paper. This may take some time, and is a good activity while the cake bakes.
2. When the cake has cooled (overnight), combine until smooth the heavy cream, sour cream, and confectioner’s sugar.
3. Remove the cake from the spring form pan. If the cake is not perfectly level, level it with a Pour icing over the top of cake and spread smooth with an icing knife or spatula.
4. Hold diamond template over wet icing, and sprinkle cocoa powder.
5. Refrigerate again after decoration.

Sides (chocolate diamonds):

1. Melt the chocolate and heavy cream together in a double boiler.
2. Temper and spread to less than 1/8″ sheet on cool marble. As it sets carve diamonds in the sheet.
3. After setting, cut out diamonds and transfer to the freezer until the cake has chilled.
4. Once the cake has been removed from the springform pan, press the frozen chocolate diamonds into the side.

Hey Soccer Moms! What are you packing for game day?

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are the best. No utensils needed, less to pack, and less to clean up. Plus, kids love them! The only question is how to make sure your peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are made of healthy ingredients.

Let’s start with the bread. Sure whole wheat is healthier than white bread, but some kids are sensitive to the color of their bread. Stroehman’s new Soft & Tasty looks like white bread, is 100% whole wheat, and tastes good too.

When it comes to the filling, look for all natural ingredients without added colors and sugars. Cream-nut’s 100% natural peanut butter is made of only slow roasted Virginia peanuts and a dash of salt: no preservatives, no added sugar, and no extra oil. And on the other side of the bread, Harvest Song has a variety of preserves from Armenia. Without added sugars, they taste amazing, and are lower in calories than most popular brands.

It’s really important to get kids involved in packing their food. So together with my friends Ben, Hannah, and Max, we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with Stroehman’s Soft & Tasty bread, Harvest Song Strawberry and Apricot Preserves, and Cream-Nut’s peanut butter. Instead of handing the kids knives, mix the peanut butter and the fruit preserves together into a squeeze bottle for fun and easy spreading. You love the sound of healthy ingredients but you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much the kids will enjoy the taste of them. These healthy ingredients were a hit!

Some fun and healthy variations:

- Add sliced bananas or raisins to the sandwiches;
- Cut the sandwiches with cookie cutters for fun, edible shapes;
- Use one flavor of preserves on half of the sandwich and another on the other half;
- Make a triple decker!