De Baking Psychopath

This was a dessert created out of necessity but turned out quite delicious in its own right. The task was to come up with something that was dairy free and gluten free. A flash of memory reminded me of the faux cheesecake a high school teacher of mine came up with when she had just moved to Taiwan many years ago and could not get any American cream cheese. So instead, she used fresh tofu. It ended up being a lighter and healthier version of the classic dessert that was so enjoyed by her family and guests, that even after she gained access to cream cheese again, she would substitute half the cream cheese with tofu. So to achieve my goal, I paired an all-tofu version of the recipe with a nut crust and homemade blueberry jam for a very respectable fancy dessert! For even less calories, you can substitute the sugar with Splenda. The softer and silkier your tofu, the less prominent the taste of the tofu will be; I used firm tofu one of the two times and it ended up much firmer and ...

So I have this open bottle of limoncello that's been sitting in my fridge for awhile. It's too strong to drink straight, so of course the only other way to use it up is to bake with it. Of course. I went around looking on the Internet for recipes that used the most amount of limoncello at one time, and this recipe stood out among the rest. The creator of this lovely cheesecake is a guy named Dr. Robert Jantzen (or "Dr. Bob"), a math whiz whose side passion is cooking and creating recipes that he has very comprehensively posted on an online cookbook of sorts. The cheesecake itself was creamy and smooth and tasted distinctly of lemon. I added lemon curd on top rather than the sour cream topping originally in the recipe, but that was mostly because I didn't have sour cream. The hazelnuts in the crust added toasty crunchiness that stood out and complemented the lemon flavor very well. All in all, we really enjoyed the cheesecake, especially with a little fruit s...

There are many reasons why this pie came into existence: 1) Two gigantic cans of pumpkin puree kept whispering to me every time I opened my baking cabinet (they had been hastily stockpiled back in the Fall when I'd heard about the Great Pumpkin Shortage, not realizing that it did not affect my area...) as well as two graham cracker crusts, 2) there was not one single from-scratch cookie or muffin left in the house and it was starting to drive me insane, and 3) when given the choice between pumpkin muffins and pie, Michael chose pie. (I might make muffins anyway, shhh!) The cheesecake layer was...inspired. I was going to divide my pumpkin pie filling between the two graham cracker crusts, and I somehow intuitively knew (by my super ninja mental calculation skillz, of course) that there would be a little extra volume to spare in each crust, so I figured, why not add a mini cheesecake layer?? And because pumpkin swirl cheesecake is SO yesterday, I decided to keep the chee...

This year's Thanksgiving break symbolized freedom to me: four days that I refused to think about labwork (to the best of my ability) while I enjoyed the company of friends, family, cats, and leisure reading. A high school classmate of both Michael and myself came to visit us this Thanksgiving. We had a grand ol' time around the 'Burgh as well as venturing out to Cleveland for an inaugural visit. But before the three of us headed out, we spent Thanksgiving Day cooking while the Macy's Day parade blared in the background. First up, Michael prepared two roasting hens for our main course. We've come to prefer non-turkey options as neither of us particularly enjoys turkey, and I am not a lover of white meat in general, so a more reasonable option for small groups such as a turkey breast was not appealing. He used this recipe from Allrecipes.com and roasted our hens until an internal temperature of 180 degrees (about 4-5 hours for our 3 and 1/2 lb hens). Although the...

I gotta say, that Dorie Greenspan knows a thing or two about brownies. I recently discovered her Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies , and the Tuesdays with Dorie group lately baked en masse what can only be described as two of Michael's favorite desserts in one: espresso cheesecake and homemade brownies!! I think the decision making process to make these brownies went something like this: "Michael, Michael!! Look at these!" "Oohhh..." "Do you want me to make them?" "Okay!" Espresso Cheesecake Brownies (adapted from Baking: From my home to yours , by Dorie Greenspan) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and set the oven rack to the center position. Grease and line with parchment paper a 9 inch square pan. Ingredients for brownies: 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon baking powder pinch of salt 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes 4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, chopped 1/3 cup sugar 2 large eggs 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract Instruct...