Week in Review

Here is a breakdown of everything i've created this week:

BBQ Smoked Pulled Pork

Smoked outside for hours and then finished up in the oven until meat is falling off the bone. I love the smell of the air when the meat is smoking on the grill. Tastes so good you have to shut your eyes while eating. Hickory wood chips created the ultimate smokey flavor. Here is the basic rub recipe from Test Kitchen. This was a joint effort with C. I rubbed it, he smoked it. Here's the basic rub recipe we used.

Basic BBQ Rub:
1/2 c. chili powder
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c salt
2T ground pepper
2t cayenne pepper


Chocolate Chewies
Fat free, and under 100 calories per cookie, intense chocolatey taste, very chewy texture. Had to use up the left over egg whites from the cheesecakes, these cookies fit the bill. Recipe Complements of Cara's Cravings. Visit the link to her site to see the full recipe.

Beer
Bottled some Belgian Witbier and brewed some German Oktoberfest. M invited C and I over for our first brewing experience. Even the flat beer, before the yeast had time to produce carbon dioxide in the bottle, tasted amazing, a very labor intensive process but the flavor tastes so much better than your average store-bought varieties. I can't wait to try the final product once it is complete. M has also made homemade hard cider, wine, and mead.

Sanitizing the bottles and getting ready to cool the wort.


Steeping caramel grains and warming the malt extract (so it's easier to pour).

New York Style Cheesecake

Perfectly blonde, smooth consistency throughout, everything a cheesecake should be. Another Test Kitchen success story.

New York Cheesecake
America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients:
5 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted, plus 1 Tbsp melted unsalted butter
for greasing the pan
8 whole graham crackers (4 oz), broken into rough pieces and processed in a food
processor to fine, even crumbs
1 Tbsp sugar

2 1/2 lbs. (five 8-oz packages) cream cheese, cut into rough 1-inch chunks, at room temperature
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. (10 1/2 ounces) sugar
1/3 c. sour cream
2 tsp juice from 1 lemon
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 lrg egg yolks plus 6 lrg eggs, at room temperature

Directions:
-For the crust: Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees.
-Brush the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan with 1/2 Tbsp of the melted butter.
-Combine the graham cracker crumbs and sugar in a medium bowl; add 5 Tbsp of the melted butter and toss with a fork until evenly moistened.
-Empty the crumbs into the springform pan and, using the bottom of a ramekin, 1 c. measuring cup, or drinking glass, press evenly into the pan bottom, using a tsp to press the crumbs neatly into the corner of the pan.
-Bake until fragrant and beginning to brown around the edges, about 13 mins.
-Cool on a wire rack while making the filling.
-For the cheesecake filling: Increase the oven temperature to 500 degrees.
-In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the cream cheese at medium-low speed to break up and soften it slightly, about 1 min.
-Scrape the beater and the bottom and sides of the bowl well with a rubber spatula; add the salt and about half of the sugar and beat at medium-low speed until combined, about 1 min.
-Scrape the bowl; beat in the remaining sugar until combined, about 1 min.
-Scrape the bowl; add the sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla, and beat at low speed until combined, about 1 min.
-Scrape the bowl; add the egg yolks and beat at medium-low speed until thoroughly combined, about 1 min.
-Scrape the bowl; add the remaining eggs 2 at a time, beating until thoroughly combined, about 1 min, scraping the bowl between additions.
-Brush the sides of the springform pan with the remaining 1/2 Tbsp melted butter.
-Set the springform pan on a rimmed baking sheet (to catch any spills if the pan leaks).
-Pour the filling into the cooled crust and bake 10 mins; without opening the oven door, reduce the oven temperature to 200 degrees and continue to bake until the cheesecake reads about 150 degrees on an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center, about 1 1 1/2 hours.
-Transfer the cake to a wire rack and cool until barely warm, 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
-Run a paring knife between the cake and the springform pan sides.
-Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, at least 3 hours. (The cheesecake can be refrigerated up to 4 days.)
-To unmold the cheesecake, remove the sides of the pan.
-Slide a thin metal spatula between the crust and the bottom of the pan to loosen, then slide the cake onto a serving plate.
-Let the cheesecake stand at room temperature about 30 mins, then cut into wedges (see note) and serve with Fresh Strawberry Topping, if desired.

Chocolate Marbled Cheesecake
Beautiful, made for a co-worker's birthday. Cracked quit a bit because I doubted the cheesecake was done since I didn't have a thermometer to check the temperature, oops.


Raspberry and Cream Jelly Roll Cake
Fun to make. First recipe i've made from my Martha Stewart Cooking School cookbook so far. I added orange zest to the raspberry preserves for an added flavor. Made for a Tuesday night get together. I chose the recipe because Jelly Rolls take about 8 minutes to bake in the oven since the cake is baked in such a shallow dish. Due to this, I was able to bake and assemble the entire cake after work in under 1.5 hours. While jelly rolls have a whimsical final product, the cake is spongey and rather low fat so this isn't the sort of cake crowds rave never forget like they would about a cheesecake or brownies.



Chicken Broth
Made and froze some homemade broth that I plan on using this week for Chicken Tortilla Soup.