A happy birthday and a recipe for a most decadent cheese cake

The best cheesecake we know

A couple of weeks ago I turned 39. I must confess I wasn't too thrilled about it. Though I never hide my age the passage of time is starting to be cruel. I cannot ignore anymore the signs time is marking on my face and skin. This year I allowed myself a bit of dark, moody brooding before the big day. It didn't last long tough, because we all took a day off and went to celebrate my birthday weekend in the north part of Israel with all my family, parents and brothers included. It was a perfect day. Unpredictable great weather with beautiful deep blue sky dotted with white clouds (we call it The Simpsons sky), empty roads with no traffic jams and an almost completely empty national park. We hiked the short but challenging Arbel cliff that hangs over The Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), combining adventurous rock climbing on ladders with history and archaeology. The Arbel is a fort built into the rock like something out of Game of Thrones, which makes it a great place for pretend knight dual or hide and seek. 

   

The Arbel

Hiking the Arbel mount

thorns of summer

We ended the day in a lovely family gathering at the hotel lobby where we all stayed. We had a cake of course, with only one candle; I think the heat from 40 candles would've caused a fire.  

All together now

Since we've recently celebrated the Jewish holiday of Shavuot every Israeli and Jewish food blog had recipes for cheesecake. Although I was reluctant at first my friend and food blogger Foodbridge convinced me to publish my version for cheesecake.  It is my daughter's favorite because it combines perfectly sweet, savory and sour flavors.

Cheesecake recipe modified from Doram Gaunt's cookbook "A tall man cooks".

A 22cm tin lined with baking paper.

Cake base:

150gr savory gluten-free pretzels (Osem has a special edition for Passover from potato flour) or any savory crunchy gluten-free crackers.

125ml (half a cup) Nutella spread.

75gr butter

The filling:

4 eggs

250ml (1 cup) sugar

500gr 5% white cheese – Quark cheese (gvina levana)

200gr soft ricotta cheese

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 table poon corn starch

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Ganache topping (Not necessary)

100gr dark chocolate at least 60% cocoa solids

100ml whole cream

Preparation:

1.       Making the cake base:  In a food processor grind all the ingredients to crumbs. With moist hands take the base and flatten it on the bottom of the cake tin and chill for one hour in the refrigerator.

2.       Heat the oven to 150 centigrade

3.       Prepare the filling: bit together the eggs and sugar (at least 5 minutes in an electric mixer), add the cheeses, and lemon zest and mix. Dissolve the corn starch in the lemon juice and add to the mixture.

4.       Assembling the cakes: pour the mixture on the base and bake for 50 minutes until the cake is stable. Cool the cake for at least 5 hours in the fridge before serving.

5.       If you want to top the cake with ganache, boil the cream, take it off the heat and immediately add the chocolate, mix and cool. Spread carefully on the cake and let it cool for another hour.

Have a bite

Let's start with something sweet

Brownies

Jewish holidays are over. Yesterday we finally got back to the blessed routine: school, kindergarten, work and job hunt. We had a lot of free time on our hands these past couple of weeks but we ended up not doing much with it. I'll summarize my holiday adventures (and recipes) in the coming post, which naturally is taking me ages to write.

For now I just want to share with you this great gluten-free brownies recipe that will ease up any crisis or post-holiday melancholy because it uses a lot of chocolate. My loyal readers already know that I come from a household of chocoholics and I keep looking for new opportunities to incorporate chocolate in our nutrition. I firmly believe that one day, scientists will declare that chocolate is good for you.  I have adapted the current recipe from Chef Michael Smith's book: "Chef At Home", which I highly recommend for its simple yet delicious everyday cooking.

Ingredients:

250 gr dark chocolate

200 gr butter

1 cup flour divided to 1/3 soy flour, 1/3 tapioca flour and 1/3 corn starch.

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1.5 tea spoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

4 eggs

2 cups brown sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180c (350F)

Preparation:

Melt in microwave the chocolate and butter then mix till smooth. While the chocolate mix cools whisk together the flours, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs, sugar and vanilla to the chocolate and mix thoroughly. Stir in the flour mixture until incorporated. Pour batter into a lightly oiled and floured 9x13 inch tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

The brownies come out moist and fudgy, and taste great. 

Birthday celebration gluten-free

Well, we're now in the midst of winter, not a very harsh one I'll admit but still finally we have a  great weather. The end of the year and the beginning of the new one is a time for many birthdays of both family and friends. These events echo the birthdays we celebrate at the end of summer of other family members. Since we're partying I was reminded of the great gluten-free cake I made for my eldest birthday. Hope you'll enjoy it.

Summer is when dozens of farewell parties at school and other places are celebrated. And since parties mean food, as a celiac family we need to be prepared.  In our household, summertime is among many other things, birthday time because both my daughters were born in the height of summer.  Each year there is a whole festival: A party with the class and with the family, very specific present requests and of course for each event a candle lit birthday cake.

So when my gluten-free daughter is invited to any of the mentioned festivities we usually prepare her own dessert (a piece of gluten-free cake I make or buy) and because she’s very mature and responsible she sticks to munching potato chips and pop-corn, staying away from the pizza and hotdog in a roll. I must admit that once in a long while a conscientious parent from the class will call me in order to prepare a real meal without gluten. There was a mum that cooked especially for my girl a corn based pasta Bolognaise.

When we entertain at our house it is much easier. The cakes are gluten-free and my girl gets to gobble a lot of pizza without wheat. Her latest birthday party with the class included watching Shrek 4 in 3D. With the mounds of pop-corn from the cinema, I supplied the cake that was my own version of a recipe that my daughter saw in a cookbook and liked very much.

For a festive and yummy cake you’ll need:

Ingredients:

For the sponge cake

4 medium eggs

225gr soft butter

Cup of sugar

1 cup soy flour

2/3 cup corn starch (Gilam gluten-free flour)

2 tea spoons baking powder

For the chocolate cream

200gr chocolate 60% cocoa solids

100ml cream 38%

20gr butter

A 22cm round baking cake tin

1. Pre-heat an oven to 180C and oil the tin and place a piece of oiled baking parchment.
2. Break the eggs to small bowl and stir them well with a fork.
3. Mix the butter and sugar until you get a foamy mixture, and then add the eggs while mixing.
4. Sift the flour and baking powder and add them while mixing.
5. Pour the mixture to the tin and bake for 30 minutes.
6. While the cake cools, melt the chocolate with the butter and cream either in the microwave or in a double bath on the gas. Mix the chocolate and cream to unified crème.
7. Slice the cake in the middle so you'll get 2 parts. Smear some of the chocolate on the bottom cake and then place the second half to create a "sandwich". 

The cake cut in half

Putting the cake together

1. Coat the cake with the rest of the chocolate.

Coating with chocolate

Happy Birthday!

For more information about gluten-free dining you can leave your comments and questions and I'll be happy to answer.

Fishing in Vienna (part I)

Well, it has been a while since I posted anything and my 2 whole followers are probably anxious to read about my new adventures. I went to Vienna for a lab workshop on fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques in microbial ecology. The workshop was held in the University of Vienna and began early Monday morning, which meant that  i had to fly in the day before. i tried to minimize my stay because I didn't want to leave my kids for too long. So very early morning, on the last Sunday in February, i got on a plane to take me to Austria and my new adventures. The flight turned out to be quite interesting, I sat next to a real life model. She asked me to hold her hand during take-off because she's afraid of flights. she was really beautiful and skinny and wore no make-up which made it quite apparent that the perfect polished look we see in magazines is the result of heavy use of technology. Anyway, since i got to Vienna early Sunday morning  the hotel room wasn't ready yet, and i went to explore the city.

I actually got lost a bit although i had a map. i was a bit sleepy, as the flight was early morning. but i discovered the imperial part of Vienna with all the old palaces and museums.

Here is the Museum of Natural History. i will come back to it later.

And here is the entrance to the Hofburg Palace complex with the main square with all the statues.

The day i landed in Vienna the sun came out after a week of snow and all was covered with white, it was very pretty. The image of a winter in Europe i had in my mind. Coming from a hot and sweaty place like Israel the change in the weather was a blessed one. So i wondered around the city admiring the scenery and couldn't quite decide what i want to do. First i just wanted to have a look around and walk a while in the great sunny but frosty weather. Since it was Sunday, shops were closed but the cafes and restaurants were open. I'm embarrassed to admit that i went to eat a toast and coffee in Starbucks but i was a bit flight shocked and wanted to be on familiar grounds with access to free Internet.

This is the the part of the palace close to Starbucks.

During my haphazard walking i stumbled upon the site that impressed me the most: the archaeological remains of ancient Vienna, from as early as the  Roman period. This is a hole in the middle of the city, that shows what lies beneath modern day Vienna. How many layers the city has. Even though i come from Jerusalem, a city that has a history of 3000 years and an archaeological site in every corner, this hole in the ground that is a window to ancient times, was very impressive.

After my gourmet lunch i continued in the direction of the Albertina. on the way i encountered a bizarre site: camels in the centre of the city!

It turned out there was a filming crew in the place. There were cameras and lights and policemen that stopped traffic, quite cool actually, too bad it wasn't a film with any actor i know....

This is the palm house or green house of the Hofburg gardens, they now serve beer. I finally decided that i wanted to see the imperial quarters and the Sissi Museum. I've always liked lovely princesses stories and nice palaces. I took some pictures of the huge china collection the Royal family had. God, no wonder they built such grand palaces, they needed somewhere to store all this china...

After the royal tour, i went to see if my hotel room was ready. i went by foot and discovered very nice sites on the way back, like the city hall "Ratthouse" just a 5 minutes walk from the hotel.

The hotel room wasn't very big, but its was clean and warm and i had plenty of hot water in the shower.

I ended my first day in Vienna in a restaurant recommended by the hotel receptionist: "Selena". it was a 2 minutes walk from the hotel, which suited me very well because i was tired and all alone in a foreign city. it was quite an expensive restaurant but the food was great and i didn't feel mortified sitting and dining there by myself.

The chocolate cake i had for desert with a real edible gold leaf on top.

The rest of my adventures in my next post: Fishing in Vienna - the sequel.

On cloud nine

First of all, I want to warn you all that I am no photographer. Ask my friend Sarah. When I took her picture in a vacation in Rhodes, she was so tiny you could only spot her with a magnifying glass. So when I took the pictures of the cake I'm going to write about here only one of them came out semi-normal. So yeah, it's a lousy photo but since this is not a food blog and I have no intentions in the area it will have to do.

So this is a chocolate cloud cake a recipe extremely popular at our house because
a) It is a cake with lots of chocolate and we are a household of heavy chocoholics.
b) It's very easy to make and very impressive - great when you have no time and energy to fuss with dessert but you still want to get the compliments from your dinner guests.
c) It's Gluten free.
My eldest daughter has Celiac disease and although the rest of the family didn't change their diet, we try to find great food that all of us can eat, especially cakes and cookies but without wheat. Since she was diagnosed 5 years ago we are always in search of better and varied Gluten free food for her since bread and its derivatives are essential and we wanted replacements that she'll like and wouldn’t depress her because she's not like other kids who can eat whatever they want. In the search of a good chocolate cake for birthdays and other occasions I stumbled upon Nigella Lawson's recipe for Chocolate Cloud Cake. It’s a flour free cake, a bit like a soufflé. The "cloud" in the name comes from the heap of whipped cream you put in the middle of the cake that tends to crush down once the cake cools.
So for all the Gluten sensitive, Chocoholics, working mums with no spare time and applause seekers out there, here is the recipe. It’s a piece of cake….

You will need:
250g dark chocolate 60% cocoa solids.
125g unsalted butter, softened
6 eggs: 2 whole, 4 separated
175g caster sugar
2 tablespoons Cointreau liqueur
22cm spring form cake tin.
For the cream topping:
250ml liquid cream 30% fat
1 tea spoon vanilla extract
1 table spoon Cointreau
- Preheat the oven to 1800C
- Line the bottom of the cake tin with baking parchment and oil the walls with butter
- Melt the chocolate with the butter in the microwave or in a double boiler until you get a smooth paste.
- Beat the 2 whole eggs and 4 egg yolks with 75gr of the caster sugar then gently add the chocolate mixture and Cointreau .
- In another bowl whisk the egg whites and gradually add the rest of the caster sugar while beating the whites till they hold their shape but not too stiff.
- Fold the whites into the chocolate mixture.
- Pour into the tin and bake for 35-40 minutes without the turbo if you have a turbo oven.
- Bake until the cake is risen and cracked and the centre is no longer wobbly.
- Cool the cake, while it cools the middle will sink in.
- Open the spring form tin and place the cake on a serving plate, whip the cream until its firm and fill the crater in the centre of the cake with cream easing it out towards the edges.
Try to get a piece before everyone else will finish it….