Espresso Cheesecake Brownies -- Tuesdays with Dorie

Time for Tuesdays with Dorie! I sure have missed participating in TWD during my little blog summer vacation -- I did bake along on a couple of recipes though, the banana bundt and the brownie buttons, both were great. The treat of the week featured today are brownies! Espresso Cheesecake Brownies to be exact, picked for us to try by Melissa of Life in a Peanut Shell, thank you Melissa! You can visit her site here for the recipe.

I decided to bake these in a 9 1/2 inch heart shaped springform pan (Wilton) instead of the square pan as suggested. Since my base was a little wider, I had to use all of the brownie mixture to line the bottom and didn't have any left for swirling with the cheesecake. Not a big deal because these were delicious swirled or not. I did swap out the bittersweet chocolate in the base and use semisweet instead, just personal preference.

I liked the contrast of the sour cream topping with the cheesecake layer and the brownies and think these make these more of a dessert brownie than a grab and go snack brownie that we are used to. My kids all loved these, my husband does not like anything cheesecake so he passed on tasting, silly guy. These were a fun pick and I enjoyed making them :)

Barefoot Contessa White Pizza with Arugula

I'm so excited, today is my day to pick an Ina Garten recipe for the Barefoot Bloggers! I have been a member of the Barefoot Bloggers for over a year now and have absolutely loved participating in this online cooking group. We have tried so many fun recipes that I would probably have never even attempted, were it not for this group -- and the best part is, just about all of the recipes turn out delicious dishes that I want to make over and over again.

If this is your first visit to my blog, welcome! If you've been a reader and have wondered where I've been the past month, I'm sorry to have not posted for so long. It's just been a crazy summer and after having house guests and doing a family road trip at the end of July, I just couldn't get back into the swing of blogging, and as soon as I tried, I had a computer crash! But that's all over now, thank goodness because I really missed Nummy Kitchen and all of my blogging friends :) Now let's get to the recipe -- this is a pretty long one...

White Pizza with Arugula
Ina Garten

For the dough:

1 1/4 cups warm (100 to 110) water
2 packages dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
Good olive oil
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
Kosher salt
4 cloves garlic, sliced
5 sprigs fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

For the topping:

3 cups grated Italian fontina cheese (8 ounces)
1 1/2 cups grated fresh mozzarella cheese (7 ounces)
11 ounces creamy goat cheese, such as montrachet, crumbled

For the vinaigrette:

1/2 cup good olive oil
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces baby arugula
1 lemon, sliced

Mix the dough.

Combine the water, yeast, honey and 3 tablespoons of olive oil in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. When the yeast is dissolved, add 3 cups of flour, then 2 teaspoons salt, and mix on medium-low speed. While mixing, add up to 1 more cup of flour, or just enough to make a soft dough. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until smooth, sprinkling it with the flour as necessary to keep it from sticking to the bowl.

Knead by hand.

When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a floured board and knead it by hand a dozen times. It should be smooth and elastic.

Let it rise.

Place the dough in a well-oiled bowl and turn it to cover it lightly with oil. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Make garlic oil.

Place 1/2 cup of olive oil, the garlic, thyme and red pepper flakes in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over low heat. Cook for 10 minutes, making sure the garlic doesn't burn. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. * I dropped the oven temperature down to 425 * (Be sure your oven is clean!)

Portion the dough.

Dump the dough onto a board and divide it into 6 equal pieces. Place the doughs on sheet pans lined with parchment paper and cover them with a damp towel. Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes. Use immediately, or refrigerate for up to 4 hours.

Stretch the dough.

Press and stretch each ball into an 8-inch circle and place 2 circles on each sheet pan lined with parchment paper. (If you've chilled the dough, take it out of the refrigerator approximately 30 minutes ahead to let it come to room temperature.)

Top the dough.

Brush the pizzas with the garlic oil, and sprinkle each one liberally with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the pizzas evenly with fontina, mozzarella and goat cheese.


Drizzle each pizza with 1 tablespoon more of the garlic oil and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until the crusts are crisp and the cheeses begin to brown.


Make the vinaigrette.

Meanwhile, whisk together 1/2 cup of olive oil, the lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

(I could only find an arugula blend -- not a problem!)

Add the greens.

When the pizzas are done, place the arugula in a large bowl and toss with just enough lemon vinaigrette to moisten. Place a large bunch of arugula on each pizza and a slice of lemon and serve immediately.

TIP Make sure the bowl is warm before you put the water and yeast in; the water must be warm for the yeast to develop.

TIP Salt inhibits the growth of yeast; add half the flour, then the salt, and then the rest of the flour.

TIP To make sure yeast is still "alive," or active, put it in water and allow it to sit for a few minutes. If it becomes creamy or foamy, it's active.

~~~~~~

Phew! That was a long recipe -- please don't let it intimidate you, this is a really easy recipe and you can make the whole amount of dough and use it at a later time for any kind of pizza. I've made the dough a few times and it always turns out nicely and is very easy to work with. You can even mix it on the dough cycle in your bread machine.


Now I have a bit of Barefoot Blogger catching up to do... The first recipe for August was Mango Banana Daiquiris picked by Veronica of Supermarket Serenade -- thanks for a fun fruity pick, Veronica!

I missed posting the two July recipes but I did cook along with everyone! These were two of my favorite Barefoot Bloggers picks...


First off was an amazing and easy dish, Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes picked by Cat of Delta Whiskey . Thank you Cat, this is a new favorite for me!


The second recipe for July was picked by Aggie of Aggie’s Kitchen who picked Peach & Blueberry Crumbles -- this is just a quick photo of the crumble (I made one big instead of littles) before adding the topping. The crumble baked up golden brown and beautiful and were delicious, I love the peach and blueberry combo, what a great summer dessert :)

Blueberry Orange Brioche Tart -- Tuesdays with Dorie

Our TWD treat of the week was picked by Denise of Chez Us, she chose Brioche Plum Tart, thank you Denise! You can visit her site for the recipe if you would like to give this a try.


I had plums all ready to go into this but this morning while my dough was resting I visited Michelle's site and fell in love with her blueberry brioche and since I had some blueberries to use up, I decided to save the plums for another day and go the blueberry route.


I used orange marmalade as my 'jam' since the blueberry orange combo is one I really enjoy.


I baked in my 10 inch heart tart pan at 375 (since it is a darker tart pan I didn't want it way over browned on the outside) for 25 minutes and my tart was done!


After trying this I have a hard time calling it a tart, to me it is more of a brioche baked in a tart pan :) While I was pressing the dough into the pan, I thought to myself I could probably do two tarts, one blueberry and one plum, and have a thinner "crust" but I decided not to, but now I know that would have worked out fine.


And there you have it, a very nice blueberry breakfast bread type tart that the kids really enjoyed and I had the pleasure of making!

Sweet Melissa Sundays -- Butterscotch Cashew Bars

Just a quick little very late post for Sweet Melissa Sundays -- I know I haven't posted in the past few Sundays but I've been trying to bake along, for some reason this has been the busiest time of year for us. Anyway, just wanted to share a picture of those Butterscotch Cashew Bars we made a few weeks ago, picked by Pamela of Cookies with Boys , thank you Pamela, these were wonderful! You can find the recipe for these bars here at Pamela's site. When it was my week to pick I asked my husband to guess which recipe he thought I was going to choose and he thought I would pick these since I absolutely love butterscotch and cashews :)



Yesterday was my birthday and I was planning on making the blueberry cheesecake, but we ended up taking a spur of the moment trip to Lake Michigan, after my husband suggested that and dinner at a waterfront restaurant, how could I say no? I'm hoping to make my cheesecake today, it sounds so good!

Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies -- Tuesdays with Dorie

This is going to be a super quick post, we've been having company and keeping extra busy over the long holiday weekend. Today's TWD treat is picked by Lisa of Surviving Oz, who recently won the TWD logo contest by designing a beautiful logo for our group, thank you Lisa! The brownies are done and look wonderful, won't serve them until later though so no comments yet on taste or texture. My only change was to use semisweet chocolate chips instead of the chopped chocolate, I'm excited about the cinnamon and coffee flavors and can't wait to give these a try. I baked in a small rectangle tart pan and they look so delicious!

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July -- we are going out of town today but I can't wait to get some free computer time and visit all of my blogging friends when we are home!

Happy 4th from my little messy guy!

My Kitchen My World -- Macedonia

For My Kitchen My World -- destination Macedonia, I found a recipe online for Macedonian Bread and after reading through the directions I thought these would turn out like mini pita type flatbreads and they did. These were very easy to make and puffed up with little pockets.

Before I get to the recipe, I have to tell a little story about a pen pal I had (back when I was in school) that lived in Macedonia. After we had been pen pals for a while I got a surprise letter saying that my pen pal's family had won a visa lottery of sorts to leave Macedonia and come to America and he wondered if I could help his family get to the USA. I got my mom involved and soon we found a Macedonian church that would help his family start out their American dream, it was such an adventure going to the airport -- not for a vacation but to welcome a family to the USA for the first time. I remember us leaving the airport and driving my pen pal and his family to a Macedonian home for a big welcome dinner. Here we were, three families who had never met before, all sitting down to share a wonderful meal and coming together like we were one big family. I'm so sorry to say I lost touch with this pen pal many years ago, I hope he and his family are doing well and would love to sit down now that we are 'all grown up' and reconnect.

Macedonian Bread

(mini flatbreads)

1 package (1 tablespoon) active dry yeast
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar

In a mixing bowl, combine yeast with 1 1/2 cups of flour. Combine water, oil, salt, and sugar and add to yeast mixture. Beat for 1/2 minute with an electric mixer at low speed; then beat for 3 minutes at high speed. Work in remaining flour by hand to form a smooth and elastic dough.

Put in a greased bowl in a warm spot, cover, and let rise for 45 minutes. Punch dough down, divide into 12 pieces, and roll each into a ball. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Flatten each ball into a 5-inch circle. Place on a greased baking sheet; cover and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 200°C. (392 F -- I used 395)

Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, until puffed and lightly browned on bottom. Immediately wrap in foil and cool.

These were delicious little breads, open to lots of serving possibilities, I think I'd like them best served with a Greek style salad or falafel -- or both. They were also great with butter and guava jelly :) My favorite part of this recipe is the step at the end about wrapping the breads in tin foil and letting them cool wrapped up. This provided a great chewy texture that I'm used to restaurant flatbreads having, but I haven't been able to recreate at home until now. This is a great recipe to start with if you are nervous about making a pita type bread. I'd love to use it again and add some herbs and maybe garlic to the dough, yum!

If you would like to cook along with us as we "travel" the globe through recipes, please visit My Kitchen My World, next up: The Bahamas!

Pizza Party

One of our favorite family dinners is pizza. I think everyone loves pizza, it is so versatile, it's fairly easy to make, and the topping combinations are endless. When I heard Bread Baking Day was having a Pizza Party for their 2nd anniversary, I just had to bake along :)

Lately I've been trying lots of new crust recipes, some with semolina flour, all purpose, bread flour, etc. but I'm still having the best of luck with this recipe, which is super easy to start in the bread machine and easily doubled. I recently bought a pizza stone and have been using that for an extra crispy and crusty crust, we have a double wall oven and the smaller bottom oven is not used that often so the stone stays down there, which works out great.

I have a pizza baking 'system' that I've come up with -- I usually bake my pizza on a pan (cookie sheet) and then slide it off of the sheet right on to the oven rack for the last couple of minutes and turn on the broiler to brown the topping. That has worked out the best. The first couple of times I used the pizza stone the top was underdone in my opinion, while the crust was a little too crusty. So I've gotten to the point where to get pizzas just perfect I start on the pan, bake almost completely, broil for a minute to get the top "well done" -- then slide the pizza into the lower oven on the pizza stone for a couple of minutes to crisp up that bottom. It sounds like a lot of work, but really it's not that bad, and it makes the absolute best homemade pizza I've been able to come up with. I'm always getting compliments, and even my super picky husband loves my pizza, although we of course disagree on toppings :)

My old basic pizza sauce started with tomato paste, but lately I've fallen for San Marzano tomatoes, and am experimenting with different brands to find my favorite. My last order of San Marzanos were DeLallo Organic, with the controversial DOP stamps on the label.


These tomatoes are wonderful, they do contain basil, which some San Marzano fans say masks true flavor, but I like basil and don't mind the extra big leaf packed with my tomatoes. Below is a photo of exactly what you get in a can of DeLallo San Marzanos. Yum! I would order this brand again.

To make a simple sauce with the San Marzanos, I just mash they gently with a potato masher, add a touch of sea salt and a touch of sugar. Sometimes I add some minced fresh basil, as well as roasted garlic for a deeper sauce flavor.

I'm also a fan of white pizzas, which I've heard refer to both pizzas with an alfredo sauce or pizzas with no sauce or just olive oil. This one is a Greek inspired white pizza...

topped with Halloumi -- one of my favorite cheeses, thanks to many trips to Greektown when I was younger -- and also crumbled feta and sliced jumbo black olives, drizzled with olive oil and baked. So delicious!

My husband doesn't like black olives or tomatoes, but prefers a more traditional American pizza with lots of cheese and pepperoni. The kids love pizza nights and making their own creations, and are getting more adventurous with their toppings, which is always nice for me to see. Pizza night is fun night around here!