Thus Baked Zarathustra

For Savannah's late birthday and return from an amazing-looking Bahamas cruise (lucky girl), I baked her a cheesecake in a brand-new 8" Wilton springform pan. I wanted to start out with something pretty simple, as I had never baked a cheesecake before, and also, that crazy girl is the only woman in all the world who doesn't like chocolate. After baking it and letting it set, I added a strawberry compote. Strawberries were on sale at Hyde Park Produce, which was great because strawberries happen to be Savannah's favorite fruit. I then added  picture on Facebook with the plan of telling Savannah that her boyfriend ate all of it the night before she came back from her cruise, having her be really crazy disappointed, and then whipping out a full, lovely cheesecake. Max (the aforementioned boyfriend) ruined those plans by telling her we hadn't touched it. Ruined all the fun.

Regardless, she was super happy when she got back, and for good reason. The crust was buttery and crunchy (the walnuts really did the trick) and the filling was just sweet, creamy, and slightly tart.

One thing I really hate about strawberry topping on cheesecake is that it normally tastes really fake and way too sweet. Why? It's normally canned pie filling. Yeah, even at the fancy bakeries, sometimes. It was much better to make a fresh one with just two ingredients: strawberries and sugar.

Well, here's the recipe:

New York-Style Cheesecake:
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c. crushed graham crackers
• 1/4 c. finely chopped walnuts
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 c. melted butter
• 3 8-oz. packages cream cheese (Philadelphia, preferably)
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 tbsp AP flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 c. heavy cream
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest

The crack in the cheesecake was fixed at least on the surface using this tutorial. Super easy and fixes it enough to make it look alright. Regardless, it's much better-looking with the compote on top. Here's how to make that:

Starting to cook down and bubble

Strawberry compote:
Ingredients:

• 2 c. hulled and quartered strawberries
• 1/4 c. sugar

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I made sweet tea cupcakes with lemon buttercream a couple of weeks ago (forgot to take pictures, so no post, sorry!), and I had a couple of lemons left over. The weather was beautiful and springy and wonderful (you learn to appreciate sunshine a lot when you're in Chicago), and so I also wanted to make something that tasted like spring and sunshine. Therefore, I made these cute lemon thumbprint tea cookies. The dough made a simple butter cookie that flakes wonderfully when you bite into it, and the homemade filling tasted really tart and fresh. Pretty awesome. I made over 70 for a house meeting, and the people who live in my dorm ate them in about ten minutes. Those who came in late were sorely disappointed (if you want delicious cookies, you cannot be late).

This time, I'm going to post some in-progress pictures with the recipe, which came from good ol' Betty Crocker.

Ingredients:
Cookie

1. 1 c. butter or margarine, softened
2. 1/3 c. powdered sugar
3. 1 tsp. vanilla
4. 1 2/3 c. AP flour

Filling

1. 2/3 c. sugar
2. 2-3 tsp lemon peel
3. 3 tbsp. lemon juice
4. 1 tsp. corn starch
5. 1 tbsp. butter or margarine
6. 1 beaten egg
7. 1/4 tsp. salt

Instructions:

Step 4, like so.

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Using an electric mixer, combine butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla until well mixed and fluffy.
3. Gradually mix in flour until a nice thick dough forms.
4. If the dough is a little sticky, stick in in the refrigerator or freezer for a while. When it's workable, roll the dough into 1-in. balls, and you know, like thumbprint cookies, press your thumb into them.
5. Now we want to get started on the lemon filling. This is super easy. Mix all the ingredients pretty well.
6. Put them all in a pot and heat them (low heat) on a stove. Stir often. You want it to start to thicken and become all congealed.
7. Remove the pot from heat, and let the mixture thicken and solidify more.

8. Step 6, like so. Ignore the one-handled pot.

   Spoon the thickened filling into the cookie thumbprints.
9. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, until lightly golden brown.
10. Put the cookies on a cooling rack.
11. Garnish with powdered sugar once cooled.

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• 1/2 c. butter
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 c. flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 7 tbsp milk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix butter and sugar using a mixer until well combined.
3. Add in flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix well.
4. Add in wet ingredients (egg yolks, vanilla, milk) and mix.
5. Pour into muffin cups about halfway.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes (toothpick test!).

 Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. butter (room temperature)
• 3.5 c. powdered sugar
• 1 tsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 clementines

1. Peel clementines and chop/crush them up.
2. Mix butter and powdered sugar until creamy.
3. Add in milk and vanilla extract. Mix well.
4. Add in the clementines. Mix again.

Anna and Kimberly (another friend of mine) commented that the clementine really made these a hit.

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When I first arrived at the University of Chicago in the fall of 2010, I met one of my current closest friends, Anna. We shared a suite in the dorms during first year, and from the very first time we laid eyes on each other we became inseparable, and it was magic.

Well, actually, it was quite awkward at first. I guess that's what happens when you introduce yourself with the story of how a beverage cart on the plane nearly broke your arm. "Hey, you must be Connie! Nice to meet you, I'm Anna!" "Hi! I nearly died!" Yeah... that pretty much guarantees you an awkward start. Later in the week, we took a tour of the city, which was absolutely beautiful. I sat next to Anna. Throughout the entire trip, we probably spoke about two words to each other. Mostly because I'm partially socially inept and just generally bad at making small talk with people I don't know very well. That and the only thing she knew about me was that I had some recent near-death experience.

In any case, we're very close friends now. Anna takes me on random adventures across the city on occasion, and she introduced me to the greatness that is Improv Shakespeare earlier this year.

On one of our most recent adventures, we (foolishly? brilliantly? perhaps both) signed up to make study break (a time when someone makes snacks for everyone else in our part of the dorm). And because a) Anna is Jewish, b) I'm not Jewish but oddly interested in Jewish holiday traditions, as long as I don't have to fast, and c) Purim was in a few days, we decided to make hamantaschen (which my browser wishes to correct as "enchantments") for probably between 20 and 30 people. I, as a gentile, and she, as not someone who bakes often, did not know what kind of task we were signing up for.

We doubled a recipe we found on Allrecipes by Sharon in order to feed the horde of hungry and stressed college students and learned some things...

1. SO MUCH FLOUR. Hamantaschen are really, really doughy, and combining 11 cups of flour into anything is tough with a bad hand mixer and bowls that aren't quite big enough for the task.
2. Orange juice helps to make a truly flavorful cookie.
3. It's pretty difficult to keep the triangle shape looking nice. Well, at least it was for me. Anna's Jewish intuition must have made her an excellent triangle pincher.

Here is the recipe:
Easy Hamantaschen (makes 24)
(Credit: Sharon from Allrecipes)

We doubled this recipe, but it somehow made over 70 cookies... I wonder how big everyone else made their hamantaschen! These turned out amazingly, though. The cookie part was firm but crumbly when you bit into it, and it had a slightly sweet and very slightly tart flavor. We used cherry preserves (with a name like Smucker's...) because Anna asserted both that cherry hamantaschen were the best and that any flavor other than cherry and lemon would be an utter travesty. I trusted her judgment, but perhaps I'll experiment a bit next time. We also had to bake for quite a bit longer than what the recipe says. I took them out of the oven after 15 minutes, and the dough was cooked through, but Anna (who would know more than I would) insisted that they should be more brown and harder. This sometimes needed twice the baking time, but it turned out great.

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