TWD. Chocolate Mascarpone Cheesecake

I adore cheesecakes, but am not such a huge fan of chocolate cheesecakes - maybe because I am not a big chocolate-lover in general. I always doubt that chocolate makes the sublime, wonderful taste of a cheesecake better. No need for improvement , in my view!

But I was willing to give this a try. What I do like is that is fast in the making, compared to other cheesecakes. There is no crust, so no pre-baking. Just cookie-crumbling, that's it.
Chilling is a bit longer and I doubt that leaving the cake in the fridge for more than one day (what I had to do) is good for the cookie bottom. It gets soggy.

The Chocolate Mascarpone Cheesecake is what it sounds like - a very rich, chocolatey cheesecake.
Next time, I would prefer to do the basic receipe without the chocolate part, but I am sure this is my personal trouble with chocolate ;-)

For everybody else I can just recommend to give it a try - it is fast, it is delicious, and the creamcheese/mascarpone-combo is heavenly!

For the recipe, have a look at Dorie Greenspans book on pp. 256-258 and to find out how other bakers liked the recipe, and what wonderful creations they made of it, see the "Leave your link" section on our TWD-group blog.

Update: ALL my colleagues LOVED this one. All. No exception. So, forget everything I sad about it and just do it, try it, enjoy it and ignore me chocolate-grinch :-)

TWD: Rustic Potato Loaves

Pfew, long time no blog...

During Lenten Season I eat no sweets and unfortunately I am not able to bake and NOT taste it, so I had to stay away from following the club for some weeks... but I missed almost nothing as I catched up with the cookies (see below).

As I am a bit out of routine, it is alreday Wednesday where I live (in Vienna, Austria) - but in some parts of the US it is still Tuesday (at least in Hawaii ;o]), so it counts, I say. :o]

The Rustic Potato Loaves are great. For a yeasted bread, they are very quick in the making (only to relatively short rising periods) and really easy. I made them with sweet potatos (I know, that's not the original meaning of "rustic" but I had them at home) and half the batch with dried tomatos and some italian spices. I was wondering if the sweet potatos and the italian version match, but it turned out fine.

I like both versions really a lot and will for sure make this recipe again, with some other variations!

For the recipe, head over to the blog of Dawn: Simply Sweet, who is our host for this week. Or have a look in the book by Dorie Greenspan on p. pg 138.

PS.: Can you see the hidden animal in the left picture? Is it a snale? Or a hen? Or am I the only one who sees it??


PPS.: I catched up with the Mocha Cjocolate Chip Cookies. They turned out great with a mix of bittersweet, bitter and white chocolate and were a great hit at the office. Chocolate cookies are always hard to picture, in my view, so I let you with the image in your head of wonderful, overly rich chocolate cookies :o]

TWD rewind: Sweet Potato Biscuits

Week 2 of the Lenten project completed, three more to go. (I skipped the first week after Mardi Gras because I was on holiday, and renouncing sweets, alcohol and meat in my holdidays is just not on the menu). Two more weeks without the actual TWD-recipe rotation...

The Sweet Potato Biscuits were originally due on October 20 and chosen by Erin of Prudence Pennywise. The recipe (and a wonderful picture-guidance) may be found on her page, or in the book.

I had an enormous sweet potato in my "bio-basket" that is delivered directly to the doorsill of  my appartment every week. So, what would have been more obvious than trying out this recipe, that has been on the schedule just a few days before I started with TWD? Therefore, I used freshly made purree instead of the canned sweet potatos. The introduction-paragraph for the recipe advises to use 3/4 to 1 cup of fresh purree, and I used the higher limit, which is, I think, just perfect. I left out the sugar, and I don't think it would have been necessary.
For the rest, I followed the recipe as it was written (including the nutmeg- but not the cinnamon-option, and, as always, using spelt flour).

They turned out really, really good. This is the second week I bake before I have breakfast, so I can already enjoy a test-piece with my Sunday-breakfast/brunch. Well, or two test-pieces. Or...
I could get used to this procedure :o]
Additonally, these come together so quick, that even me, I don't spend too much time on it.

I have no biscuit cutter (actually, I do not even know what a biscuit cutter is. Possibly it is not much different to a cookie cutter?), so I used silicone molds, 6 for making brioches (but I use them also for muffins) and 6 round ones that are shaped like flowers on the edge and on the bottom. While they were baking (I often need a bit less baking-time then stated in the recipe; here, my baking-time was more like 10-12 mins.), I had just enough time to prepare the rest of my Sunday-breakfast.

Just wonder-ful, really! I don't think that you should use any spread for them, they are just perfect for themselves. They get a pretty slightly orange colour, and they are very airy. It happened that I didn't mash the potatos completely, so a few very small pieces made it into the biscuits, but I found that to be a very marvellous touch.

Liked to make it, liked to eat it - liked it!

(in the right picture you can see the "flower-print" of half of the biscuits, and also a little sweet-potato-piece peeking on the outside)