SUZIE SWEET TOOTH

Cakes, Treats, and Everything Sweet

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    • Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

      Calling all pumpkin spice fans. How many of you have already made it into Starbucks for your pumpkin spice latte? Uh huh. That’s what I thought. Quite a few of you…Can we get enough of fall time pumpkin treats. I think not. Here’s something you can whip up on your own–no coffee house trip needed. Pumpkin Cheesecake bars. After I made these, I thought they looked a little plain so I added a recipe for a cream cheese frosting to spread on top if you like. Cheers~

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      Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

      Crumb Base:
      1 1/2 Cup crisp gingersnap cookie crumbs
      3 Tbsp sugar
      6 Tbsp. unsalted melted butter

      1. Line a 9×9 inch square pan with tinfoil. Preheat the oven to 350° F (180° C). Lightly grease the tinfoil. In a small bowl combine the ingredients well with a fork. Press into the bottom of the pan and bake at 350 for about 14-15 minutes until crust looks set around edges. (crust may look a bit wet–that’s okay). Let crust layer cool completely. Make the cheesecake layer while crust is cooling.

      Cheesecake Layer:

      12 oz. cream cheese, softened
      1/2 Cup confectioners sugar
      1/2 Cup firmly packed light brown sugar
      2 eggs
      1 tsp. vanilla
      3/4 Cup pumpkin puree* (note: pumpkin puree usually comes as a 15 oz. can–which gives you exactly 1 3/4 Cups puree; you will have exactly 1 Cup leftover puree after this recipe. Freeze the remainder in a ziplock baggie for another recipe that calls for pumpkin).
      2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
      1/4 tsp. salt
      1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (note: if you can’t find pumpkin pie spice, use 3/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. ground ginger, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg)

      1. With an electric mixer cream together the cheese and confectioners sugar until combined; about 3 minutes. Hint: to avoid excess air bubbles don’t go past speed 4 (or medium) on your mixer. Stop occasionally to scrape down bottom and sides of bowl. Add the brown sugar and mix (same speed) until combined. Add eggs one at a time until smooth; scraping down sides and bottom occasionally until smooth. Add in vanilla. Add the pumpkin puree and beat (same speed) until combined. Add in the flour, salt and spices and continue to beat until combined. Pour the mixture onto the cooled crust and rap the pan on the counter several times (about 20 times) until you no longer see any air bubbles rise to the surface (This helps prevent getting those nasty air bubbles you sometimes see on top of the cheesecake). TURN THE OVEN DOWN TO 300 DEGREES F TO BAKE.

      2. Bake at 300°F for about 30-35 minutes or until just set. The middle portion of the pan should look JUST slightly jiggly when you gently shake the pan. Turn off the oven and prop open the door and let pan sit in the oven for about 15 minutes. Remove pan from oven and let cool completely over a wire rack.

      Spread with cream cheese frosting if desired. To store: cover pan with tinfoil and chill in the fridge until firm enough to cut.

      Cream Cheese Frosting (optional)

      4 oz. cream cheese, softened

      2 Tbsp. soft butter

      1/2 tsp. vanilla

      1 1/4 Cup confectioners sugar, measured then sifted

      In a small bowl combine the cream cheese and butter with a rubber spatula until smooth. Add the vanilla and stir in the sugar and combine until smooth. Spread over cooled cheesecake.

    • Big Tall Blond(ies)

      This is a post I am dedicating to all the men who read my blog. First of all, sorry for such a lapse in blogging–I have been having major trouble with my computer so I am a bit behind. Onto business… I’m getting more of you sweet males who are stopping by so I wanted to give a shout out to you with a recipe I think you will enjoy. Of course all my ladies will equally enjoy them as well. These blondies are what I call my “big blondes”. They are a taller thicker blondie with a lot of sass. A lot of chips and nuts in the mix. They are quite simple to make and you don’t need to haul out a stand mixer to make them. If you like your blondies a bit thinner then simply bake them in a 9×13 pan and bake them for about 20 minutes. Enjoy~

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      “Big Blondes” 

      2 Cups all purpose flour

      2 tsp. baking powder

      1/2 tsp. salt

      2 sticks (1 Cup) unsalted butter (reserve the wrappers for greasing the pan)

      1 Cup light brown sugar + 1 Cup dark brown sugar (OR> 2 Cups light brown sugar + 1 Tbsp. molasses)

      2 large eggs

      2 tsp. vanilla

      12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided (reserve a small handful for top)

      1 Cup rough chopped nuts (cut on the larger size)

      1. Preheat the oven to 350° F or (180° C).  Prepare a 9 inch square baking pan by greasing the pan with one of the butter wrappers. Line the pan with a tinfoil sling and then also grease the tinfoil with the wrapper you reserved from the butter.

      2. Make “brown butter” using the 2 sticks of butter. Place the butter in a skillet and over medium high heat melt the butter until fully melted. Once melted; turn the heat down to medium low and swirl and watch the butter until it turns a golden brown color and smells nutty. Immediately remove from the heat and let it sit for about a minute.

      3. In a large bowl place the brown sugar(s) and molasses if you are using. Pour over the warm browned butter and with a whisk combine vigorously for one minute. Add the eggs one at a time and whisk after each one until batter looks combined. Whisk in vanilla. Add in the flour mixture all at once and switching to a spoon or spatula combine until smooth. Stir in the nuts and all the chips except about a small handful of the chips. Spread the batter (it will be thick) into the prepared pan and level out evenly. Sprinkle the reserved chips over the batter.

      4. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes, then cover with tinfoil and  turn down the heat to 325 and continue to bake until a tooth pick inserted comes out with moist crumbs; about another 20 minutes.

      5. Cool the pan over a wire rack. Once cool, lift out the entire slab, peel back the foil, and cut into small squares or rectangles.

    • chocolate and peanut butter collide…Chocolate Peanut Butter Lava Cakes

      Flash back to the 70’s and cue one of my favorite tv commercials for Reeses peanut butter cups. Two people walking down the street; the sun is shining, they are each lost in their own little unicorn world, and BAM!!  both oblivious they serrendipitously bump into each other coming around a corner.

      The first person is holding a rather plain chocolate candybar as the second person with an open jar of peanut butter crashes into him, his candybar falls into the open peanut butter jar. The candybar man retorts  “You got peanut butter on my chocolate!” The peanut butter jar person exclaims “You got chocolate in my peanut butter!” After a Hmmpf! is exchanged between the two of them they each taste the mistaken calamity (in perfect slow motion tv unison) and quickly pronounce with a huge corny smile what a genius they are as the point man cues the Reeses peanut butter cup…

      You almost immediately forget what idiot walks around with an open peanut butter jar on the street?

      Chocolate and peanut butter ever colliding into sweet bliss. Yes it was super cheesy. Did we like it? You betcha. Some of the corniest commercial are the ones we remember. A real life Don Draper was smiling and knocking back a neat scotch I’m sure when that little nugget was produced. Chocolate and peanut butter will always be colliding–even on purpose. If you are more of a purist and like your chocolate cake flowing with an oozy chocolate center then leave out the peanut butter and instead insert a big square piece of chocolate in the cake batter instead. I won’t mind.

      Chocolate Peanut Butter Lava Cake

      Chocolate PB Lava Cakes

      Chocolate PB Cake

      Chocolate Peanut Butter Lava Cakes

      recipe adapted from Donna Hay

      yield: 4 individual cakes

      200 gm dark chocolate, chopped (I used Ghiradelli bittersweet bars)

      100 gm unsalted butter, chopped

      2 Lg eggs

      2 egg yolks

      1/2 Cup castor sugar

      1/4 Cup all-purpose flour

      8 teaspoons smooth peanut butter

      1. Preheat oven to 400° F or 200° C. Generously butter 4 dariole molds. If you don’t have dariole molds I think a popover pan would also work fine. (Note her original recipe calls for using 1 cup capacity molds but mine were 3/4 cup and it worked perfectly).

      2. In a saucepan over low heat melt the chocolate and butter until smooth–stirring constantly to avoid burning.

      3. Place the eggs, yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk until combined. Slowly add the chocolate mixture while whisking until smooth. Using the whisk stir in the flour until combined.

      4. Spoon 2/3 mixture into each dariole mold. Spoon 2 tsp. dollops of peanut butter into each cup and gently press the dollop into the chocolate. Spoon the remaining chocolate batter evenly into each cup using up all the batter. Using the back of a spoon level off the batter in each cup. Place the cups on a tray and bake for 13-16 minutes until tops appear dry and are slightly puffed. Do not overbake. Cakes can have a slight crack on top but not too much cracking. Let cakes rest for about 2 minutes until warm enough to handle and turn out onto a plate for serving and dust generously with cocoa powder.

    • Frangipane Jam Mini Tarts

      You know those tiny little jars of jam or preserves you see when traveling? Well, I have a confession… I like to pocket swipe them. I can’t help myself. We were on vacation eating breakfast and there they were on the table just taunting me. A cute little display caddy full of jam. Okay- for the record I only pocketed 3 of them. Not too bad, right?

      “When you are paying for an expensive hotel and the breakfast is included in your price, you are allowed-you paid for it”.

      [That’s what The Husband said]

      Just so you can get the full mental visual effect of what was going through my mind as I threw those puppies into my tote bag]. You know I’m a jam hoarder-I’ve talked about this before.  It’s the perfect “crime” for me since living in Taipei the refrigerators here are very small and don’t allow me my full jam hoarding tendencies. There is no room in the fridge for such jam collecting.

      For this recipe, pick your favorite preserve and use up the little bits of jam you have hanging out in the chill box. You know you have at least 2 of them in there right now with sad tiny bits in the bottom. Try to steer away from anything too sweet as the frangipane tastes best with something a little on the tart side. Sour cherry jam, red or black currant, apricot, or raspberry all work well. You can freeze any leftover frangipane filling. Frangipane tastes pretty darn good just right off the spoon too. I’m just sayin’…

      Frangipane Jam Tarts

      Frangipane and Jam Tarts

      little jam jars

      Frangipane Jam Mini Tarts

      Frangipane-Jam Mini Tarts

      Frangipane Filling

      (makes about 2 cups of filling)

      90 gm unsalted butter, softened

      100 gm castor sugar

      100 gm finely ground almonds (almond meal)

      1 Lg. egg

      1/2 tsp. almond extract

      1/2 tsp. vanilla or vanilla bean paste

      1 tsp. orange zest

      (sliced almonds for garnish)

      Jam/Preserves of your choice (I used apricot and black currant)

      1. Make the pastry ahead of time as per below. Prepare a mini muffin tin by placing a round of pastry into each well; crimp or mark the edges of pastry as desired.

      2. Make filling:  In a medium bowl combine the soft butter, sugar and ground almond meal. Add the egg, extract, vanilla and orange zest and beat with a spoon well to combine.

      3. Fill your unbaked tart shells almost to the top and then top off with about 1/2 tsp. of jam or preserves. Sprinkle with a few sliced almonds. Bake at 350° F or 180° C for about 14 minutes until golden brown. Cool completely. Sprinkle with Icing sugar if desired.

      Shortcrust Pastry Dough

      4 oz. all-purpose flour

      pinch of salt

      2 oz. unsalted butter cubed small, kept cold

      2-3 Tbsp. ice water (amt. as needed)

      1. In a medium bowl combine the flour, salt and butter with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add in just enough water one tablespoon at a time by stirring with a rubber spatula until mixture comes together. Gather mixture together into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap for at least 15 minutes to chill before rolling out. Roll out pastry thinly and cut into rounds.

    • Passionfruit Yo Yo’s (passion fruit sandwich cookies)

      One of the things I discovered when I was in pastry school was passion fruit. Yes I had heard of it, but living in the West I could never get my hands on an actual fresh passion fruit. The best I could do was buy frozen passion fruit puree (at a premium price) through a high-price store when we lived in San Francisco. When we finally made the concrete decision to move here to Taiwan–I was giddy just in the fact knowing I could get my hands on fresh passion fruit. Moving to Taiwan and being able to get passion fruit alone is worth the daily struggles I face each day in a foreign land. Passion fruit is in season now and one block from where we live I can buy these little gems. Iced tea stalls are abundant in Taiwan and they sell wonderful sweet fruit tea. Down the street from where I live there is a woman who combines different fresh fruit with ice tea.  I knew she made passion fruit iced tea from the picture of the passion fruit on the front of her stall, and even though I did not know how to say passion fruit in Chinese I bit the bullet, tossed all shame aside and ordered the tea by pointing. Luckily the sweet lady understood enough English and with some creative pantomime gestures between the two of us, we sealed the deal. When I got home, I jumped on the internet and I vowed to learn how to say passion fruit in Chinese as perfect as I could so I could order that wonderful tea all over Taipei.

      Passion Fruit Yo Yo's

       

      Passion Fruit Sandwich Creams

       

      passion fruit cookies on tray

       

      passion fruit

      Passion Fruit Yo Yo’s: Passion Fruit Cookies with Passion Fruit Buttercream

       

      recipe adapted from Gourmet Traveler

      Cookies:

      180 gm unsalted butter

      90 gm Icing sugar

      80 ml passion fruit juice (1/3 cup)*

      *(to make passion fruit juice place passion fruit pulp in a strainer over a bowl and push the pulp back and forth with a flexible rubber spatula to release the juice from the black seeds which are enclosed in a thin membrane- to make juice).

      2 teaspoons lemon zest

      225 gm all-purpose flour (1 1/2 cups)

      100 gm cornstarch

      pinch of salt

      1. Beat butter and sugar in mixer until light and fluffy. Add passion fruit juice, lemon zest and combine. Add flour, cornstarch and salt and combine until dough comes together. Shape dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap and chill.

      2. Preheat oven to 160º C or 325° F. Roll dough into 1/4 inch thick or 8mm thick. Cut out rounds with a 1  1/4 inch round cutter or 3 cm round cutter. Bake for 7-8 minutes until just starting to turn light golden around the edges. Let cookies sit on the sheet pan to cool completely. Place cookie sheet on a wire rack to cool. Once cookies are completely cool sandwich with buttercream.

      Passion Fruit Buttercream

      90 gm. unsalted butter, softened

      1 1/4 Cups confectioners sugar

      1 Tbsp. passion fruit juice (the pulp of one passion fruit pressed through a fine mesh strainer= 1 Tbsp. juice)

      1. Whip the butter and sugar until fluffy, add in the passion fruit juice. If filling is too loose add a bit more confectioners sugar until thick.

    • Travels in Asia

      Hello cupcakes, sorry for being a bit absent of late. We have been traveling around Hong Kong and Macau while The Husband does some business. I thought I would share some of my photos with you until I get back to Taipei. All of these are taken with my trusty iPod, so excuse any lopsided shots.

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      St. Dominic’s church-Macau

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      Aberdeen Fishing Port-Aberdeen Hong Kong

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      Ruins of St. Paul-Macau

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      Seth admiring a beautiful slice…

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      I love the patterned paved streets of Macau

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      High tea at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong (I loved the rose petal jam)

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      High tea at the Mandarin Oriental hotel-Hong Kong

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