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Come Party With Me: Inauguration - Dessert

partysugar — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:15:58 -0800

Although the Inauguration isn't until next Tuesday, I'm inviting friends over to kick off the ceremony on Sunday. Since Barack Obama was senator in Chicago, the menu has a Chicago theme. After finishing the deep-dish pizzas, wait an hour before serving this decadent dessert. Eli's is the Windy City's famous bakery known for its chocolate chip cheesecake. While you could order a cheesecake from Eli's and have it delivered, I recommend whipping up a homemade variation. This recipe features sour cream (like most Chicago-style cheesecakes) and results in a cake that is firm on the outside, but deliciously creamy on the inside.

To look at the recipe, read more.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
From Ghirardelli

Ingredients

1 cup(s) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 tablespoon(s) Unsweetened Cocoa
2 ounce(s) White Chocolate Baking Bar
2/3 cup(s) crushed graham crackers
1/4 cup(s) granulate white sugar
1/3 cup(s) (2/3 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 1/4 cup(s) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon(s) pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup(s) granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup(s) sour cream

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease 9-inch springform cake pan.
To make the crust, in a small bowl, mix together the crushed graham crackers, cocoa, and sugar. Stir in the butter. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan.
Press firmly to distribute the crust mixture onto the bottom and halfway up the sides of the pan. Chill the crust while making the filling.
To make the filling, in a medium-size bowl, beat the cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar with an electric mixer at low speed until smooth.
Gradually beat in the eggs, increasing the speed slightly as the mixture softens.
Beat in the sour cream. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips with a large spoon.
Pour the filling into the chilled crust and set the pan on a baking tray. Bake for 75 minutes, or until firm. The cheesecake may deflate and crack as it cools, so turn off the oven and let cool slowly in the oven for about 1 hour with the oven door open.
Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
Cover and chill in the refrigerator overnight before removing from the pan.
Sprinkle the top with grated white chocolate. This cheesecake is best if eaten within 3 days of baking.

Serves 8-10.

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Noteworthy Nibbles - Sept. 8-15, 2009

YumSugar — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:30:11 -0700

Haven't recovered from holiday mode yet? Thankfully, this week is full of events promising to be liquid vacations. From Chicago, IL, to Rhinebeck, NY, it's the unofficial week of wine festivals.

Although sadly I don't have a flight out to Louisiana for the annual Natchitoches Meat Pie Festival, there'll be plenty of opportunities to indulge at Ghirardelli Square's Chocolate Festival this weekend in San Francisco.

Where will your appetite lead you this week? Let us know in the comments below!

Chicago, IL: Windy City Wine Festival - Sept. 11-12
Natchitoches, LA: Natchitoches Meat Pie Festival - Sept. 11-12
Long Beach, CA: Long Beach Lobster Festival - Sept. 11-13
Fort Worth, TX: ZestFest 2009 - Sept. 11-13
Annapolis, MD: Maryland Seafood Festival - Sept. 11-13
Columbia, SC: Viva La Vista - Sept. 12
San Francisco, CA: Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival - Sept. 12-13
Rhinebeck, NY: Hudson Valley Wine & Food Fest - Sept. 12-13
Gettysburg, PA: Gettysburg Wine & Music Festival - Sept. 12-13
San Diego, CA: San Diego Restaurant Week - Sept. 13-18

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Noteworthy Nibbles - Sept. 3-8, 2008

YumSugar — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:20:43 -0700

This week's so packed to the brim with festivals nationwide, you couldn't avoid one if you tried. There are food and wine classics all across the East Coast, and here in the West, we're planning on dropping by the chocolate festival in our neck of the woods. If we've left anything out, please chime in below.

Brigham City, UT: Peach Days - Sept. 3-6
Saratoga Springs, NY: Saratoga Wine & Food Festival - Sept. 4-6
Marion, OH: Marion Popcorn Festival - Sept. 4-6
Columbus, OH: Columbus Food & Wine Affair - Sept. 5
Chicago, IL: Windy City Wine Festival - Sept. 5-6
St. Louis, MO: Norton Wine Festival - Sept. 5-6

To see the rest, read more.

Groves, TX: Grillin' In Groves - Sept. 5-6
Bowers, PA: Chile Pepper Food Festival - Sept. 5-6
Forth Worth, TX: ZestFest 2008 - Sept. 5-7
McHenry, MD: Deep Creek Lake Art & Wine Festival - Sept. 5-7
Paw Paw, MI: Paw Paw Wine & Harvest Festival - Sept. 5-7
Lithopolis, OH: Lithopolis Honeyfest - Sept. 6
Valparaiso, IN: Valparaiso Popcorn Festival - Sept. 6
Fulton, CA: Kendall-Jackson Heirloom Tomato Festival - Sept. 6
Kennett Square, PA: Mushroom Festival - Sept. 6-7
Temecula, CA: Temecula Food & Wine Classic - Sept. 6
San Francisco, CA: Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival - Sept. 6-7
Rhinebeck, NY: Hudson Valley Wine & Food Fest - Sept. 6-7
Gettysburg, PA: Gettysburg Wine & Music Festival - Sept. 6-7
Humble, TX: Chocolate Festival of Texas - Sept. 8-9

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Chocolate Challenge Recap

partysugar — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 13:36:11 -0800

On Monday I told you about my adventures in the food blogging challenge Sugar High Friday (edition 27). David Lebovitz, a food blogger, cookbook author, and chocoholic stationed out of Paris, invited food bloggers to submit a recipe and picture incorporating chocolate for this week's Chocolate By Brand test. I used Ghirardelli chocolate to make dunk-able, delectable espresso double chocolate chunk cookies. There were over 100 recipes submitted to David and here are a few of my favorites.

Trinigourmet used chocolate from her native Trinidad to whip up a absolutely heavenly looking upside down chocolate pudding with crispy top.

Hallo at Cook (almost) Anything made a fashionable, frothy white chocolate mousse with poached cherries (using Lindt chocolate) that I'm dying to try in my kitchen because I love white chocolate.

For a scrumptiously sweet breakfast treat, Suzy Not a Homemaker made chocolate hazelnut scones using a bar of chocolate she bought at Starbucks. These are definitely a must make for my next brunch.

Check out the rest of the competition and read the comments at David's (mostly) chocolate website.

Chocolate By Brand Challenge

partysugar — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 14:48:11 -0800

So on Friday I decided to enter a recipe in a food blogger's challenge entitled Sugar High Friday #27: Chocolate By Brand. Today was the deadline for submissions and the rules of the competition state that I can make any chocolate recipe as long as I list which brand of chocolate I use. Now I'm from San Francisco, so I had to represent my hometown by choosing Ghirardelli chocolate. To share my adventure with everyone in the office, and get lots of opinions, I made a cookie recipe. A very chocolatey cookie flavored with espresso and filled with chocolate chunks (a glass of milk is a must with these cookies!). For the recipe and a look at the process that I took to make the cookies, read more

These cookies came out awesome. I added 8 oz of chocolate instead of 7 (because the bars come in 4 oz each and you can never have too much chocolate!) and made the cookies smaller than 2 oz. I prefer small cookies to large ones because I can never eat all of a monster cookie and everything is better in bite size pieces. I baked the cookies for 18 minutes instead of 20 and the end result was a cookie with a crispy outside and a delicious chewy inside. The espresso was subtle-hardly noticeable-and the chocolate smell intense and fragrant. The girls at work enjoyed them as did my parents at home. I recommend this recipe and will add it to my repertoire of cookie recipes.

Espresso Double-Chocolate Chunk Cookies
From Martha Stewart

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk
7 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 325°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda; set aside.

In a small bowl, stir together espresso powder, vanilla, and a tablespoon of water; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Add egg and yolk; mix until incorporated. Add espresso mixture; mix well, scraping down the sides of a bowl with a spatula.

At low speed, add flour mixture in small batches, mixing until just combined.

Remove bowl from mixer, and stir in chocolate chunks.

Using a 2-ounce ice-cream scoop, scoop heaping balls of dough and place 3 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.

Bake until cookies are set, about 20 minutes.
Remove from oven; let cool completely before removing cookies.

Makes eighteen 3-inch cookies.

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