.0001 Second Hello Dolly/7 Layer Bars

The motivation behind the Hello Dolly was, well...the same motivation for most of my recipes...something was about to go bad and I had to do something FAST!

I had these delectable, crispy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that I surprisingly couldn't eat fast enough. For fear of losing these sweet nuggets of pleasure, I employed my Cuisinart and made the ultimate eezey-peezey dessert bar.

I threw the cookies, about 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs (enough crumbs to cover the bottom of a small glass dish or spring-form pan), and two tablespoons of melted butter into the Cuisinart and pulsed until incorporated. (If you don't have a Cuisinart, don't freak out, either smash the cookies in a Ziploc by hand or simply don't use them at all and just gently mix graham crackers and butter until well mixed instead).

Pack mixture down in the pan. Sprinkle the surface with chopped walnuts (or hazelnuts, or almonds), then chocolate chips (and butterscotch or white chocolate chips), then shredded coconut. Finally, take a can of sweetened condensed milk and drizzle over the top of all the layers. DO NOT MIX.

Place in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. The edges will be golden brown and the sweetened milk will seal all of the delicious layers of the bar. It's not really 7 layers, but it is 7th heaven....

Look Mom, No Hands! Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

So I've been on this dessert baking rampage recently with deplorable results. I made a chalky, crumbly chocolate ganache cake and a goopey peach cobbler. Defeated, war-torn I was. But I stood up, wiped the flour from my cheeks and licked the ganache from my whisk and, well...called my mother. Ray's favorite dessert/the only sweet thing he will eat is Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. So I employed Mom to recite to me her ultimate Carrot Cake recipe. My hand cramped up while writing the seemingly extensive ingredient list but it was all worth it. I followed the recipe as religiously as I could (I have this physical inability to follow a recipe) and let's just say my tummy was happy and my ego restored.

I had two critiques of my cake: (1) there was not enough cinnamon and I perhaps could have added nutmeg to make it more fragrant and extra divine. (2) I foolishly forgot to WAIT to put my second cake on after frosting the first. Since it's a two layered cake make sure they are completely cooled. I would also refrigerate the bottom layer after it's frosted before adding the second. I, like usual, was too over zealous and stacked my cakes prematurely and the frosting ended up squishing out the sides making the differentiation between the layers unnoticeable. Overall though it was a hit. Check out the recipe:

Cake:

3 cups flour

3 cups granulated sugar

1tsp salt

1T baking soda

1 T cinnamon

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

4 eggs, beaten lightly

1T vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups walnuts chopped

1 1/2 cups shredded coconut

¾ drained crushed pineapple

1 1/3 cup pureed carrot

Preheat over to 350

sift dry ingredients together,

add oil, eggs, vanilla,

fold in walnuts, coconut and crushed pineapple

Pour into two greased 9 inch cake rounds

Place in the middle rack and bake for 30-45 minutes

The cake will be golden brown and the corners will pull from the sides

Cool completely before frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 8 oz packages of cream cheese at room temp

1 stick butter, room temperature

3 cups confectioner’s sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup shredded coconut (optional)

Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth

add vanilla

slowly add in sugar

What NOT to Do NY-style Cheesecake

This is entitled What NOT to do because my experience was sort of a comedy of errors minus me being amused by my inadequacies. I'm not unfamiliar with the ways of cheesecake making but it IS a pretty complicated dessert. Some tips before you even get started:

1) it takes a WICKED long time as in 30 minutes to prep, 1.5 hours to cook, 1 to cool and 6 to refrigerate...so make it when you have time. I obviously make it 2 hours before I need it and then turbo freeze the damn thing, but try to allow enough time for it to set properly.

2)experiment with what you put in it as in: biscotti instead of graham crackers (aHMAZing), ricotta instead of only cream cheese, goat cheese instead of ricotta, add honey, liquors, anything everything can go instead cheesecake EXCEPT some Italian-style have you spice it up with toasted almonds. I actually don't recommend this as decadent as it might sound. It gives a weirdly chewey texture to the crust and can make it too nutty to the point where people might ask if there's peanut butter in it. ew. Using biscotti is the best compromise because there are almonds in it and usually almond flavor/paste.

3) USE A HAND MIXER!!! you might ask "well..what else would I use?" I tried to get fancy and use my new Cuisinart (thanks mom!) but the cream cheese gets caught and doesn't mix evenly...hence where my comedy of errors started. A hand mixer you can tackle the cream cheese knots more effectively.

OK the recipe I used today:

Crust:

preheat oven to 350

1 tablespoon melted butter

3 T. sugar

1 2/3 graham cracker crumbs or 2 packages of biscotti cookies crushed

-Blend cookies/crumbs and sugar until mixed, add butter

-add mixture to a spring form pan that is DOUBLE wrapped in foil...stay tuned to find out why

-pack crumbs down into the pan and bake until golden brown at 350, should be roughly 12-15 minutes. Reduce baking temperature to 325 for the filling

While that's baking/cooling...

2 8oz things of cream cheese

1 15 oz container of ricotta..if you are standing confused at the dairy section hint: it's the small one..I always forget this then I feel obligated to make lasagna with the extras.

1 tsp vanilla extract..do NOT pour extract when you are hungry or caffeinated..(my hand shook and I dropped a new bottle in..shh!)

1 1/4 C sugar

4 large eggs room temperature

-Beat the two cheeses together, add sugar and extract and liqueur if you are a drunk. Then one at a time beat in eggs.

-Transfer to the cooled crust. Make sure the foil it tight before adding the filling.

-Put the spring form pan in a roasting pan and fill the roasting pan 3/4 the way up with warm/hot water. The steam and boiling water will cook the cake.

-Bake at 325 for roughly and 1 hour and 15 minutes. The filling will still be jiggly, but should have darkened in color slightly. Cool for one hour before placing in the frig for 6 hours.

Simple Strawberry Sauce:

-package of frozen strawberries

-splash of water or liqueur

-2 T sugar or 1 T strawberry jam

let everything simmer until liquid dissolves. Let sit several minutes before serving to thicken