It’s 2013

Thanks for the patience blog patrons! Being an undergrad is rough, especially when looking for grad schools. Im doing pretty well right now, considering I’ve made it through another season of crazy holiday times. I hope that this semester can ring in a new era for ATJ, and Im hoping to do something new every 2 weeks.

Additionally, My new year resolution is to eat healthy as usual and to try and take of some more inches, so expect some healthy posts soon!

Best wishes! <3 Jeremy

Carmel Apple Cheesecake Bars

Adapted from - Paula Deen
I decided to go something a bit more unique this week, and you don’t often see apples and cheesecake together in the same recipe (at least I haven’t). It’s been so hot recently that I also wanted to stick with things that are served cold.

This is very rich and delicious, but is counteracted by the apples and caramel.

Read before you start!

1. If your don’t have a pastry cutter, you can also use two forks, or your hands.
2. You are supposed to chill this before serving, but its also pretty good warm, as some like their cheesecake warm.
3. If I did this again, I would swap out a graham cracker crust for the crust that I tried.

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Ingredients – Crust

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup softened butter

Ingredients - Cheesecake Layer

• 2 8oz. packages softened cream cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Ingredients - Apple Layer

• 3 Granny Smith apples, chopped finely
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Ingredients -Streusel Topping

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup quick oats
• 1/2 cup butter

Topped with Caramel Sauce from this recipe

Directions – Crust

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a 9×13 cake pan with aluminum foil.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flower and sugar, then cut in butter.
3. Press crust into bottom of pan and bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Directions – Cheesecake Layer

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese  and sugar until well blended.
2. Beat in eggs slowly, one at a time.
3. Beat in vanilla.
4. Pour over baked crust

Directions – Apples and Streusel

1. After finely chopping apples, evenly coat with brown sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon, then sprinkle over cheesecake layer
2. In a medium mixing bowl sift flour and sugar together, then mix in oats.
3. Cut in and evenly blend butter. Sprinkle mixture over apple layer.
4. Bake for approximately 40-45 minutes, or until cheesecake is set.
5. Make caramel sauce from this recipe

Mint Ice Cream Cake with Mint Fudge Sauce

It’s still very hot, and the only thing that makes it worse is the humidity. Recently my inspiration for food is coming from pinterest , which made me stumble upon homemade ice cream cake.

From there my train of thought went… I remember the best Ice Cream and Cake combination that I ever had as a child was chocolate cake with mint ice cream… I really wanted hot fudge… I continually stumbled over this “Black Magic Cake” on pinterest, which claimed it was the best Chocolate Cake recipe ever (so of course I would investigate this cause)… BAM! Inspiration!

Read before you start!

1. Its best to mix a chocolate cake by hand because beating the lumps out of a batter is not good for it!
2. This cake is very moist (hahaha!), so handle it with care because it will fall apart on you.
3. I opted not to frost this cake because it’s just been too warm for that. It really wasn’t the prettiest thing while unfrosted. If you did however want to ice it or frost it and discard the “Hot Fudge” portion, I’d recommend a chocolate ganache.
4. Don’t put Ice Cream between hot cakes!
5. For this recipe you will also need Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, or whatever flavor you’d like to substitute

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Ingredients – Cake (ALLRECIPES ) 

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking sode
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup strong brewed coffee, chilled
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup veggie oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients – Mint Hot Fudge Sauce

• 4 oz semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon mint or vanilla extract

Directions – Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and grease two 9-inch round pans.
2. Combine flour, sugar,  cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl.
3. In a separate bowl whisk coffee, buttermilk, eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract together.
4. Make a well in dry ingredient mixture, and pour in wet ingredient mixture, mix together until well incorporated.
5. Pour into two separate prepared pans and bake for approximately 25 minutes.
6. Once cakes are finished, CAREFULLY turn cakes out of pane, saran wrap, and place in freezer for at least 3 hours.
7. Take Ice Cream out and let soften.
8. Line either a 9-inch round or springform pan (RECOMMENDED) with saran wrap, then place/scoop ice cream inside.
9. With an addition piece of saran wrap, press ice cream down into desired round shape, making sure that outsides are a bit higher than the inside (concave shape).
10. Layer cake.

Directions – Mint Hot Fudge Sauce

1. Using a double broiler, melt chocolate and butter together.
2. Once melted, empty into medium saucepan and over medium heat, stir in heavy cream, sugar, and mint extract.
3. Let heat for 1 minute, then let stand for another minute or so (will thicken as it cools).

Lemon Strawberry Surprise Cupcake

I went splurge shopping today! I finally decided to upgrade my little selection of cookware with some whisks, lemon ballers, and most importantly an AWESOME new set of mixing bowls.

BE JEALOUS!

Anyways, today was a lot of trial and error, so as always you can Read before you start! to find out the stuff I did wrong and wouldn’t recommend doing again.

1. Trying to bake a whole strawberry into a cupcake is just a hot mess, so only use halves.
2. Try not to let the strawberries touch the bottom of the cupcake liners while baking, then get all sticky and teary-aparty.
3. I am about to go on a frosting hiatus! It’s too warm and the frosting just melts and it looks terrible in the pictures!
4. I topped these bad boys with Strawberry Frosting! Best decision Ive made all day.

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Ingredients – Cupcakes

• 1 cup butter
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• dash of salt
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup milk
• 12 Strawberries, halved

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F and place 24 liners in muffin pan.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl.
3. In a separate bowl cream butter, vanilla, and lemon zest until fluffy. Then beat in eggs one at a time.
4. Add in half of the flour mixture, then the milk and lemon juice, then the other half of the flour mixture.
5. Hull and half 12 strawberries.
6. For each cupcake, place small amount of batter into bottom, place strawberry on batter, then fill the rest until 2/3 of cupcake liner is full.
7. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until toothpick test passes.