Friday...
Well this weekend was busy and productive! I usually get done a little early with work on Friday, so after finishing up charts I headed home around 3 to meet my husband. We enjoyed the sunny warm weather and walked down the block to meet with our daycare provider for this baby. She literally lives half a block away, she is so sweet and is open to our plan to use cloth diapers...which to me, was pretty big. (I know most people are uncomfortable at the mention of cloth diapers, or just think I'm plain crazy...I'll keep everyone updated as to our trials & tribulations in the future!) After that I spent most of Friday evening sitting on a heating pad on the couch because my sacroiliac, or SI joints, were killing me! Honestly, I have enjoyed this pregnancy for the most part, but I'm not used to having too many aches & pains, and it's very frustrating when
Saturday...
My daughter & I kicked off Saturday morning with a stop through the Caribou Coffee drive-thru for coffee for me & her favorite smoothie for her. Our plan was to go shopping and find an outfit that she could wear for her upcoming spring vocal concert, Easter, & my son's graduation. The hard part is she's 11, and she doesn't really like dresses or skirts, or really anything |
| Cold pressed coffee & Mango Orange Key Lime Smoothie |
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| Striking a pose in her new romper |
We got home and the best husband ever had already started making the pizza crust for our homemade pizza night. We used Bob's Red Mill gluten free pizza crust mix, and it usually turns out pretty good. We had bought some nitrate free pepperoni, and ham while we were out shopping, as well as organic pizza sauce because it didn't have high fructose corn syrup like most traditional brands. We order out pizza like normal people too, but once in awhile it's fun to make your own & get the kids involved. Reese & I walked our dog Mugsy for 1 mile before it started raining, and then I fit in the 21 day fix yoga workout before we ate dinner. (We had covered a lot of ground shopping, but I wanted to make sure and get some exercise in while I was feeling good!)
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| You can find this in the health aisle at most grocery stores |
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| Working on a Hawaiian pizza |
Sunday...
Okay, down to the good stuff, my big plan for this weekend was to recreate the meal that my mom & I had at The Cheesecake Factory a couple of weeks ago for my family...cheesecake and all! I lived in Dallas, Texas for 4 years while going to graduate school, and every year on my birthday, I'd go to The Cheesecake Factory, because c'mon everything there is DELISH. Needless to say, living in Sioux City for the past 8 almost 9 years...I have had very few dates with my beloved restaurant. So, in my habitual crazy person fashion, I like to set nearly impossible expectations for myself to whip something up that I've never made before...and then critique it accordingly.
So here's the menu, Tuscan Chicken over brown rice noodles (their's was served over farro, but my kid's go nuts for noodles) & salted caramel cheesecake on a blonde brownie crust...I know let the drool run free!
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Look at that presentation...I mean c'mon!
So, it's not like TCF (the cheesecake factory) was just just going to hand over their recipes, and I couldn't find a 'copy cat' one that I liked well enough on the internet, so I resorted to my usual methods. Looking through multiple recipes on Pinterest, using what I 'think' went into these dishes, and then compiling all of my ideas into a new recipe. It's organized chaos at best.
Let's start with the Tuscan Chicken because it was less complex & it's the main course. My ingredients:
- 5 ultra trimmed hormone & antibiotic free chicken breasts
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil (2 spins around the pan)
- 2 tsp Minced garlic (the kind you buy in a jar)
- himalayan sea salt
- ground black pepper
- dried thyme
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2/3 cup water
- 1 heaping TBSP raw honey
- 3-4 TBSP butter (cut into chunks)
- 2 TBSP capers
- 1 bunch asparagus (washed & trimmed)
- 2 pints grape tomatoes (washed & halved)
- 1 bunch fresh basil
- pesto (for garnish)
- 1 can artichoke hearts quartered (for garnish @ the end)
- 1 16 oz. package brown rice spaghetti noodles
Method:
Okay, so I know the menu says grilled chicken, but I decided to cook mine in a pan on the stove top, because I feel like I have slightly better control over the cooking time, and I didn't want these to dry out. So, start with two spins around the pan with some EVOO. I turned my burner onto medium-low heat while I butterflied each of my chicken breasts so they would cook evenly, so my 5 chicken breasts now were 10 thinner breasts. I didn't measure out how much salt, thyme, & pepper I used, I just sprinkled it over the chicken. I threw my garlic in the pan right before my chicken just until fragrant, and then put half of the chicken in, seasoned side down. My pan was only big enough to take 5 pieces of chicken at a time, but if yours is bigger, you could cook it all at once. I seasoned the side facing up in the pan with my salt, thyme, & ground pepper, and let the chicken cook about 3-4 minutes before flipping, and letting it cook an additional 3-4 minutes. Repeat until all chicken is cooked.
*If you are like my husband & need measurements, I would just use 1 tsp each of the salt, pepper, & thyme in a small bowl and use that to season your chicken, if you need more, stick to a 1:1:1 ratio again.
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| Boiling my noodles |
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| Chicken ready to be covered |
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| Boiling my balsamic vinegar, water, & honey |
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| Gently cooked asparagus |
Once the chicken is cooked, remove from pan placing it on a plate, and cover it with foil to stay warm. While the pan is still warm, add in your water, balsamic vinegar, & honey. Bring to a boil while stirring frequently for about 2 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced by half, or become somewhat syrupy. Then turn the heat down slightly and add in your butter. From here I threw in my asparagus and using tongs, just tossed it gently for about 1-2 minutes, then added my capers, and returned the chicken (and any juices) to the pan. I sprinkled in half of my fresh basil, and then at the very end threw in the grape tomatoes. I garnished our plates with fresh basil, a drizzle of pesto, and artichokes. It was very tasty, and a hit with the fam! I can't say it was an exact replica...but it was darn close :D
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| My take on Tuscan Chicken |
Now for the EPIC cheesecake...
My ingredients:
For the caramel blondie crust:
- 2 cups AP flour
- 2 tsps baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 sticks butter (melted & slightly cooled)
- 2 cups light brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup homemade salted caramel*
- Heath Bar/ toffee bits (one bag)
For the homemade salted caramel:
- 4 TBSP butter
- 1 C light brown sugar
- 1 C heavy whipping cream
- himalayan sea salt or fleur de sel (I couldn't find any at our store)
- 1 tsp vanilla
For the caramel cheesecake filling:
- 4 blocks of cream cheese softened
- 4 eggs
- 1.25 C brown sugar
- 2 tsps vanilla
- 1/2 C heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 C homemade salted caramel
For the caramel pastry cream:
- 4 cups whole milk
- 1 TBSP vanilla or 1 vanilla bean halved
- 5 whole eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 10 oz sugar
- 3 oz cornstarch
For the homemade whipped cream:
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 2 TBSP confectioner's sugar
Yes there are a lot of steps to this cheesecake, and I had originally planned on doing a few steps Saturday & some on Sunday. However, I left my scribbled together recipe on my desk at work on Friday, and didn't go and get it until Sunday. It made for a long day on my feet in the kitchen, but OH MY GAWD...totally worth it! In hindsight, I would've halved the pastry cream recipe, because it made way too much. But I wanted to give it to you as I used it.
Method:
I first made my caramel sauce because it was fairly easy to do, and because it seemed I was going to need it throughout most of my other steps. So I melted my butter, brown sugar, and cream on the stove, and then let it boil for about 5-7 minutes stirring constantly so it didn't burn. After 7 minutes, I took it off the heat, poured a splash of vanilla (about 1 tsp) into the pan, and made a few turns with my himalayan sea salt grinder. Then I let it cool and thicken up for when I needed it.
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| cream, butter, & brown sugar melting in the pan |
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| caramel boiling for 5-7 mins. |
Onto the caramel blondie! Preheat oven @ 350 F In a medium bowl I combined my AP flour, baking powder, & salt and whisked it together. In my mixer I poured the slightly cooled melted butter, and brown sugar, and mixed until the sugar was slightly dissolved. Then I added in my eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Next I added my dry ingredients to my wet ingredients and folded them in with a spatula until everything was mixed thoroughly. This took some elbow grease, but c'mon I was totally going to dig into this epic confection later, so it was worth it! I prepared my 9 inch springform pan, and cut out parchment paper to fit into the bottom of the pan for easier removal later. I layered half of my blondie mix into the pan, then I drizzled the 1/4 cup caramel sauce on top of that with a handful of Heath Bar toffee bits to cover the top. Then I used the rest of the blondie mix and spread it evenly to the edges, and sprinkled a few more toffee bits (for good measure). *Save your bag of Heath bits, because some go into the caramel mousse at the end! Then I set it in the oven for 35-40 minutes to bake @ 350. When it is done, it will have a slight jiggle to it because of the caramel layer, and a toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean but with a thin layer of caramel. I let mine cool for 30 mins. on a wire cooling rack, and afterward I carefully removed the sides to my spring form pan. Next I set the whole blondie into the refrigerator to set up for at least 30 mins. I left mine in there until I was through my other steps however.
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| cooled caramel blondie ready to go into the refrigerator |
While that was cooling I moved onto my cheesecake filling. First I beat my cream cheese with the spatula attachment of my mixer, scraping down the sides as needed until it was a 'spreadable' consistency. Then I added in the eggs one at a time, brown sugar, heavy cream, vanilla, and finally the caramel sauce. I just mixed everything until the clumps were gone. Now, because I did this all in the same day, my 9-inch springform pan was occupied by the blonde brownie crust...so I borrowed my mom's 9-inch springform pan. I prepared it by buttering it, and then again cutting out parchment to line the bottom. I also used two sheets of the giant roll of heavy duty foil to wrap around my pan, and then filled the pan with my cheesecake filling. I used a big roasting pan for the 'water bath' by first setting my 9-inch springform pan wrapped in foil inside of it. Then I ran the tap until the water got hot, and started to fill my roasting pan until the water rose up about 1/4 inch, or just a little more up the side of my springform pan. I had my husband help me carefully carry it to the oven so I didn't splash any of the water into the cheesecake pan. I baked the cheesecake for 1 hour @ 350. When the hour was up, I turned off the oven, but didn't open the door, I set my timer for 30 mins. more to let the temperature come down slowly. (This method & the water bath are supposed to help keep the top from cracking) After 30 minutes, I took the cheesecake pan out of the water bath, and out of the foil wrap, to let it cool an additional 30 min. on a wire rack in my kitchen. After that 30 minutes was up, I moved my cheesecake to the refrigerator to set up for at least 3 hours. (Re-cap, total cooling time 4 hours=30 min. in oven, 30 min. on wire rack, 3 hours in refrigerator) Just 30 mins before I was going to combine my cheesecake onto the blonde brownie crust, I put my cheesecake into the freezer to set further so I could work with it, bc I didn't know quite what to expect. You could probably leave it in the freezer for up to an hour, and still serve it that night.
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| cooling my perfectly uncracked cheesecake after removing the foil :) |
Now onto the pastry cream that we will turn into a caramel mousse eventually. This one I got started while my cheesecake was cooling, I measured out my 4 cups of whole milk into a pan on the stove, with 1 TBSP vanilla and brought it to a boil. Then I took it off the heat and let it sit for 1 hour to let the flavor steep into the milk. After about 45-50 minutes, in a separate bowl, I put my 5 whole eggs, and 2 egg yolks, and beat with a wire whisk. This was a serious arm workout. I measured out 10 oz. of sugar with my kitchen scale, it looked around 2 cups or so, then I measured out my 3 oz. of cornstarch with the same kitchen scale method, that seemed somewhere around a cup. I slowly added my sugar while still whisking (I wanted to earn my cheesecake, you could probably use an electric mixer for this) and then my cornstarch and I mixed thoroughly until there were no lumps. Then I set my pan of milk & vanilla mixture back on the heat until bubbling, whisking frequently. I added in about 1/3 C of my hot milk mixture into my egg mixture to temper the eggs, I did this about 3-4 times to make sure to slowly temper the eggs so I wouldn't get scrambled eggs in my pastry cream. After the 4th time of adding the hot milk & mixing, I slowly added the entire egg mixture back into the pan of milk, whisking all the while. I turned the heat to medium-low so I didn't scorch the pastry cream, and whisked until I noticed sluggish bubbles boiling up. At that point I set my timer for 1 minute to continue whisking as the mixture got really thick, and then after 1 full minute I took the pan off of the heat. At this point you have two choices: 1) put this pastry cream into your kitchenaid mixer using the spatula accessory & mix until it's completely cooled. Or 2) place the pastry cream into a bowl inside of an ice bath to bring the temperature down. Once completely cooled place it in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it.
At this point I did a quick workout & got dinner started until I was ready to compile my cheesecake. When I was ready to put it altogether, like I mentioned before, I had put my cheesecake into the freezer for 30 mins. So I took my blondie crust & cheesecake, I slowly removed the sides of my springform pan. Then I took about 1/4 cup of my homemade caramel sauce and drizzled it over the top of my blondie crust as a 'glue' to adhere to the cheesecake. Next using cling wrap to cover my hand I flipped the cheesecake upside down to remove the bottom part of my springform pan & to peel away the parchment paper. (You might be thinking...why didn't you just flip it upside down onto the crust-the answer is simple, I'm crazy and like to do things the hard way, and the top of my cheesecake was perfect, so I had to at least TRY!) It worked perfectly, and with my son's help, I managed to place the blonde brownie upside down onto the cheesecake & the bottom of the pan quickly, to flip it all right side up!
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| cheesecake set on top of the caramel blondie...I could just eat it like this :D |
At this point I took my pastry cream out of the refrigerator and using the spatula attachment, mixed it to get all of the lumps out and make it fluffy. Then I added 1/2 cup of caramel sauce to it, and mixed it thoroughly. In a separate mixing bowl that I had stuck in the freezer ahead of time for about 5 minutes, I poured my 2 cups of heavy cream, and 2 TBSP of confectioner's sugar & with the wire whisk attachment I quickly whipped up some homemade whipped cream. In a separate bowl I put about half of the pastry cream, and slowly folded in the whipped cream about a cup at a time, until it reached a smooth mousse consistency.
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| Pastry cream after mixing in the caramel and smoothing out any lumps in the mixer |
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| Folding in the whipped cream one cup at a time |
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| This is the caramel mousse after the whipped cream is incorporated |
I filled a piping bag with the caramel mousse to pipe out onto the top of the cheesecake, and then with my cake decorating spatula, I smoothed it out over the top, and then along the sides of the entire cheesecake until you could no longer see the separate layers. Then I sprinkled a healthy dose of Heath bar toffee bits on top, and covered the top with the rest of my homemade caramel. I used a few more turns of my himalayan sea salt on top, or you could use the fleur de sel if you can find it!
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| piping bag in a glass for easy filling |
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| This is sloppy piping but it was a quick & easy way to get it all on top of the cake this way |
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| I had this close to the edge to smooth out my caramel mousse because my pan didn't want to turn |
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| The Heath bar bits and caramel running over the sides, it's definitely tempting right? |
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| Look at those layers of deliciousness!!! |
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