Jade and Suede Cheesecake

The colors and texture of this cake conjured up the name above. A layer of brown suede topped with a layer of bright jade.  I had in my mind the idea of a chocolate mint cheesecake.  However, I did not want to do the swirl thing and I did not want one blend of chocolate and mint together.  So I decided to make a two layer. cheesecake.

Upon thinking further, I decided it would be the perfect way to use some of my mint chips I got a few months ago.  However, I did have to contemplate on how to get these two layers of distinction in a baked cheesecake.  So if you are curious as to how I did it and if you enjoy the blissful combo of mint and chocolate, read on!

Before you get there, however, I would like to give a heartfelt word of thanks to the Choc Chip Uru for giving me the award below.  She is the host of an amazing blog called Go Bake Yourself  and hails from Australia.  Even though she is a teenager, she has bounded onto the blogging scene with some very delicious and creative posts.  If you do not know her, I encourage you to stop in and introduce yourself, for this blogger is coming up the ranks very fast!

Jade and Suede Cheesecake
by flourtrader

Ingredients/Crust
15 chocolate mint filled sandwich cookies, crushed (I used Oreo brand)
1/4 cup melted butter

Grease a  9 inch springform pan.  In a small bowl mix crushed cookies and butter until no dry crumbs remain.  Press mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan and about 1 to 1 1/2 inches up the sides.  Set aside.

Ingredients/ Filling
1/3 cup mint chips
1/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
24 oz cream cheese, room temperature
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp mint extract
4 drops green food coloring
1 cup sour cream

In a large bowl, beat the sugar and the cream cheese together until smooth.  Then add the eggs and beat again.  Once all is blended, measure out two cups of the mixture into one bowl.  This leaves about two cups remaining in the mixing bowl. Cover and place one bowl in the fridge. 

Place a small heatproof bowl over a pot of water and fill with the chocolate chips.  Put over medium heat and let water simmer.  Stir chocolate until completely melted.  Remove from heat.

Add 1/2 cup sour cream and the vanilla extract to the cream cheese mixture.  Then pour in chocolate and stir until all is well blended.  Put mixture into the prepared crust and smooth the top until even.  Cover and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

During the last 5 minutes of the chilling time, preheat the oven to 275 degrees.  Then start preparing the mint layer.  Melt the 1/3 cup of mint chocolate chips in the same manner as you did the chocolate.  Remove from heat.  Take the bowl of cream cheese mixture from the refrigerator.  Add 1/2 cup of the sour cream, mint extract, food coloring and melted mint chips.  Stir until all is evenly distributed.

Remove the cheesecake from the freezer and slowly pour the mint layer over the top. Then smooth it out, making sure it is even. Place pan in oven and bake for about one hour and 25 minutes.  When done, the top of the cheesecake should no longer be shiny. Turn the oven off and leave the cake to cool inside the oven.

Once cooled, place cake in refrigerator for about 6 hours.

Ingredients/Topping
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 1/2 tsp sugar
2 drops of mint extract
24-30 semi sweet chips

Place whipping cream, sugar and extract in a small bowl and beat until stiff peaks form.  Cut off a small corner of a plastic zip lock bag and put a piping tip in the bag, sticking out the corner.  Fill the bag with the whipped cream mixture.  Remove the cheesecake from the fridge and pipe a border of whipped cream around the edge of the cake.  Then place chocolate chips on top of each swirl of the piping.  Place the cheesecake back in the fridge to chill for another few hours.  Then you can slice and enjoy.

              **LAST YEAR:Tropical Cream Cheese Cookies**

Emerald River Parfaits

One of my favorite flavor combinations is chocolate and mint.  Actually, it was also one of my grandmothers favorites. My grandmother on my mother's side of the family passed away prior to me being born so I never knew her.  It is funny what kind of traits you carry from generations past, even if you never met them.

Anyhow, the bottom layer of the parfait is a chocolate cream made with semi sweet chocolate and the top is made with white chocolate and mint.  The mint is derived from crushed Altoid mints.  This is a wonderful way to get a strong mint flavor infused into desserts.  I got the idea from David Lebovitzs' mint brownies.

This creamy dessert is a great way to end the meal.  It is definitely a recipe that I will make again. This recipe makes 4 dessert parfaits

Emerald River Parfaits
by flourtrader

Ingredients/Chocolate Layer
1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 tbs and 1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp unflavored powdered gelatin

Get out 4 wine glasses or any decorative glasses that hold 12 oz.  You will not be filling to the top, as shown in the picture above.

Place 1/4 cup and 2 tbs heavy cream in small bowl.  Sprinkle gelatin over top and push down with spoon to make sure it sinks.  Let stand for 7 minutes to soften.

Put remaining heavy cream ( 1 cup plus 2 tbs) and sugar in a saucepan over medium high heat.  Cook until mixture comes to a simmer.  Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips. Continue to stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth.

Place pan back on heat and whisk in the gelatin/cream mixture.  Keep the heat low, for you do not want it to get to a simmer. Continue to stir until gelatin is dissolved.  Place a mesh strainer over a bowl with a pour spout.  Pour the chocolate mixture into the strainer.

Now it is time to fill the wine glasses.  Taking the bowl, pour some of the chocolate batter into a 1/3 measuring cup.  Then slowly pour it into the center glass, making sure that nothing drips on the outer edges.  Continue with this process, measuring out each addition for the next three glasses.  I kept measuring out even down to tablespoons to make sure the layer would be even for all 4 glasses.

Refrigerate for about 4 hours or until set.

Ingredients/Mint Layer
Same as chocolate layer except:
white chocolate chips replace semi sweet
include 2 tbs powdered Altoid mints (I used a blender to convert to powder)

Follow the instructions for the first layer above and add the powdered mints to the cream/sugar mixture prior to adding the white chocolate.

Pour the mint layer in the center of the glass, over the set chocolate layer.  Refrigerate another 4 hours or until set.

Optional: Prior to serving, garnish with sweetened whipped cream and an Andes Candie in the center of the cream.
                                     **LAST YEAR: Old Fashioned Cookies**

Dynamic Duo Cupcakes

Do not let the above picture fool you.  You might say that this cupcake has a split personality. The left half is chocolate with ground chocolate chips and the right half is mint.  If that was not enough, I have topped this with dark chocolate ganache and mint butter cream icing.

I have wanted a way to have 2 distinct cakes in one cupcake for awhile, but the idea of cutting an layering was out of the question.  I wanted the cake parts to bake together, but still be as one solid cupcake.  To my surprise they have cupcake and cake dividers.  You just put them in middle of the cavity and pour your batter into each side.  Then remove the divider prior to baking.

Sounds pretty simple, but what I did not realize is all the other factors.  With two different batters, there may be different textures, each side may rise to a different height and they may bake at two different temperatures and times.  It was not going to be as easy as I thought. A boxed cake mix would have been perfect to use, but I did not give in.

I made two batters of similar ingredients.  However, the textures and thickness did turn out different.  One was like a brownie batter and the other batter was thin enough to be poured.  I still went on and surprisingly the cupcakes did turn out well.

 These cupcakes were for donation, so the recipe makes about 4 dozen.

Dynamic Duo Cupcakes
by flourtrader

Ingredients/ Chocolate Cake
3 eggs
1 3/4 cup milk
1 cup or 2 sticks of butter (room temperature)
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2  tsp vegetable oil
1 cup ground semi sweet chocolate (I used food processor and chocolate chips)
1/4 cup cocoa
2 cups plus 2 tbs of flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs baking powder

Ingredients/Mint Cake
3 eggs
1 3/4 cup milk
1 cup or two sticks of butter
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp mint extract
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tbs baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Ganache Topping
see filling recipe here 
or use a mix of 8 oz semi sweet chocolate melted in a double boiler with 1 tsp shortening.

Ingredients/Mint Buttercream Frosting
courtesy of Cupcake Bake Shop
1 1/2 cups or 3 sticks of butter
6-7 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tbs milk
1/8 tsp mint extract or more to taste
green food coloring

If you are making the ganache topping, this will need to be done first.  Click over to the link and prepare as stated.  Once it is in the fridge chilling, then you can start on making the cupcakes. 

For the chocolate batter, cream together the butter and sugar.  Then beat one egg into the batter for about 30 seconds.  Continue this process with the remaining eggs, one by one.  Then add the extract and vegetable oil and stir until blended.  Set aside.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder.  Then fold 1/3 of the flour mixture into the butter/sugar batter.  Stir in 1 cup of the milk until all is evenly blended.  Mix in 1/3 of the flour and continue to mix, adding the rest of the milk.  Fold in the last part of the flour and stir until no dry streaks remain.  Lastly, fold in the ground chocolate.  Cover and place in fridge.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease top edge of cavities in muffin pan.  Then line with cupcake papers and place the plastic dividers in the center of the cavities.

To make the mint cake, follow the same process as stated for the chocolate, except for the ingredient changes.  Leave out the vegetable oil, cocoa and ground chocolate.  You will replace the vanilla extract with mint.  Also note that this cake does call for a little bit more flour than the chocolate.

Take out the chocolate batter and fill one side of each muffin cavity to the top.  Continue until each cavity has chocolate batter on one side of the divider.  Then fill the other side of each divider in the cavity to the top with the mint batter.  Carefully pull out the batter dividers.

Bake cupcakes for 23-30 minutes or when tester comes out clean.  If you chose to do a chocolate drizzle on top of the cupcakes, now is the time to melt the ingredients in a double boiler. Once melted, remove pan from heat and pour into a heat proof bowl to cool.  Let cool at least 20 minutes prior to putting on cupcakes.

Once cakes are done baking, let cool in pan for 2 minutes then transfer to rack to cool.

After cooling, you can drizzle the melted chocolate or spread a thin layer of cold ganache on top.  Let topping set for about 1 hour.

To prepare the frosting, cream the butter until smooth.  Then add the rest of the ingredients and beat until all is evenly distributed. Taste to see if you want to add more mint extract.  After making the extract adjustment, add 3 drops of food coloring and beat again.  Continue to add the food coloring and beat until you reach the color you want. Frost cupcakes as desired.

                                           **LAST YEAR: Walnut Pillow Cookies**