mini ricotta + parmesan cheesecakes

but molly, don't you hate cheesecake?

hated. i hated cheesecake. i used to love it, and then i overdosed on it by way of those little individually wrapped cheesecake bites that were big in the 90s, and then i didn't eat it again until 2010 when jeff forced a bite of ricotta cheesecake on me. it was fluffy and not at all tangy like the cream cheese cheesecakes of my youth. it blew my mind, ohmygod it was so good.

and then what happened?

i went back to hating it because baking cheesecake at the town bakery was a real bitch. it required a lot of steps, a lot of bowls, a lot of patience that i didn't yet have, and it wasn't as fun to decorate as the other cakes. (no offense to the cheesecake at the town bakery, people go gaga over it.)

but this cheesecake requires some patience, no?

it does, kind of. but i understand it now. i understand that in order to avoid cracks in a cheesecake, you need to cool it down gradually. you can't just take it out of the oven and wham-bam flip it onto a cooling rack. you have to caress it out of the oven, gently do this, gently do that, sing it a song, and then let it chill. but (!!) because these cheesecakes are miniature, all of that cooling down business is sped up, and if you want to eat one before the whole process has completed, you can and no one will notice because it's not like you have to take a slice out of one big cake. also (!!!!!!!) only one bowl is required. one!

why now? 

shavuot is coming! and on shavuot, we eat dairy.

why is this cheesecake different from all the other cheesecakes?

i follow this stranger on social media who recently made a mention of a *parmesan* cheesecake that he had in barcelona and it was so umami-y and good. that inspired me to add parmesan to my long-time-coming foray into ricotta cheesecake. i don't remember the stranger's name or his handle. (if you're reading this, barcelona cheesecake man, thank you!!) additionally, correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't think that authentic italian ricotta cheesecakes normally have a crust. but crust! it's my favorite part. so i added one, and it takes up almost a third of the entire cake, a ratio that i am ok with. 

describe this cheesecake in 19 words.

fluffy, creamy, light, slightly sweet, cute, a good beginner's cheesecake, lemony, polite, and with a subtle aftertaste of parmesan. 

thank you.

thank you!

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mini ricotta + parmesan cheesecakes

makes 22 cheesecakes

ingredients

crust:

18 large rectangles (that is, 36 squares, or 2 full  pouches, or just under 10 oz) of graham crackers

a good pinch of kosher salt

10 tb unsalted butter, melted

filling:

1/4 c flour

1 c sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 c shredded parmesan

30 oz whole milk ricotta

zest of one lemon

juice of 1/2 lemon (or of a whole lemon, if you like it extra lemony)

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

4 large eggs

assembly:

1 c jam

clues

preheat oven to 375 f. line 22 cupcake tins with paper liners, grease them, and set them aside.

crust:

in a food processor, process the living daylights out of your graham crackers. add the salt and process a little more. we want a nice fine crumb. with the processor running, drizzle in the melted butter and process for a few seconds until the mixture clumps together. spoon the mixture into your cupcake tins (roughly two tablespoons of the mixture per tin) and then use a glass or spoon to press it down firmly and evenly. if the mixture is sticking to your glass or spoon, spray it with a little cooking spray. 

set the cupcake tins in the fridge while you make the filling.

filling:

to make the filling, you're gonna use your food processor again. don't worry about cleaning it out, it just has butter and graham cracker residue in it and that is ok.

add the flour, sugar, salt, and parmesan, and pulse it a few times to combine everything and break up the parmesan. add the ricotta, lemon zest, lemon juice, and extracts, and process it until smooth. two minutes-ish.

with the processor running, add the eggs one at a time, processing a bit after each one.

spoon the mixture into your cupcake tins. it can come up pretty high, up to about 1/4-inch from the top of the tin. bake for 20 minutes, until the outer edges are set but the centers are still a little jiggly. turn the oven off, open it about halfway, and let them be for about 45 minutes. remove them from the oven and let them cool completely at room temperature. chill them for an hour or two, or overnight. 

spoon on your jam.

enjoy!

these will keep in the fridge for up to a week.

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-yeh!

chocolate chili splatter paint cake

a list of things that inspired this cake, which features chocolate and cayenne in a house made of tequila frosting and a splatter painted roof:

1. a few months ago, i found myself sleeping under a very large, very spectacular splatter painted portrait of beethoven when it became clear that a splatter painted cake would be extremely fun to make. i'm trying to expand my cake decorating repertoire past farting whales and sprinkles and i'm really happy with my progress. 

2. last week at the honky tonk*, my new friend ashley bought me a tequila shot with the one requirement that instead of putting salt on my hand, i use tabasco sauce. brilliant! have you ever done that?? it's so good. it makes me want to do more tequila shots. everyone around me should be afraid right now. (there's no one around me.)

*a sentence i never thought i'd say, but i'm really happy i did.

3. jeni's queen city cayenne ice cream. ooh, girl, it's addictive, in a little bit of a masochistic way because it is very hot. the coldest hot you'll ever get, unless you've rigged up a frozen bloody mary. and you can't stop eating it though because chocolate and ice cream and that very unusual sensation of a very cold hot.

4. it's cinco de mayo! i never done celebrated cinco de mayo before.

5. it's also my friend jean's birthday! and jean comes from a family of great margarita makers. their margaritas are famous in north dakota and canada and montana. happy birthday, jean!!!!! 

so, ok, are we on the same page about how this cake tastes? it is basically a nice soft chocolate cake that gives you a nice little kick at the end of your bite. the cayenne here adds more of a feeling than a flavor. an extra special something. a special something for a special day. 

and then there's tequila, which i put as optional because i know how people can get with tequila. but if you're going to be buying tequila for cinco de mayo anyway, you might find it in you to spare a few splashes for this frosting. 

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chocolate chili splatter paint cake

makes one 2-layer 8-inch cake

ingredients

cake:

1 3/4 c sugar

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour

3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 large eggs

1/2 c flavorless oil, like canola

1 c whole milk

4 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 c boiling water

frosting:

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

4 c powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

a good pinch of salt

2 tb tequila or milk or heavy cream

splatter paint:

gel or liquid food coloring

for each color: 1 tb liquid (water, booze, milk) + 1/2 c powdered sugar

clues

cake: 

preheat oven to 350.

grease two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.

in a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. in a medium bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients except for the boiling water. whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and then stir in the boiling water. pour into cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. begin checking for doneness at 28 minutes.

let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, and then turn the cakes onto a lightly greased cooling rack.

frosting:

use an electric mixer to beat together all of the ingredients.

splatter paint:

for each color, mix together a few drops of food coloring with 1 tb liquid and 1/2 c powdered sugar in a small bowl. 

assembly:

once your cakes are fully cooled, level them. place one layer on a cake board, spread a thick layer of frosting on top, and then place the other layer on top of that. use an offset spatula to frost the cake smoothly all over. freeze the cake for about 10 minutes, to firm up the frosting. use a spoon or fork to drizzle your splatter paint all over the cake.

enjoy!

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-yeh!

chocolate olive oil cake with candied bacon

three and a half operas down, two to go! the half opera was supposed to be a whole opera but then a tornado came down and all of our power blew away so we drank bourbon instead. have i mentioned that practically every other day there is a tornado warning?? sometimes it's scary, usually it's just rumbly and deliciously cloudy, once there was a meager little watch during dinner time and we went out in the name of rattlesnake sausage. we were fine until we learned that it was the wrong day for rattlesnake at the sausage place. obviously i was actually very relieved because obviously i didn't really want to eat rattlesnake, i just wanted to be able to tell you that i did. whatever, i'm over it. 

in three days, i'll go home and once again be able to snuggle with my oven and kitchen-aid and eggboy, and i am so excited. but i will also miss my opera family dearly until we reconvene in california in june. i'll miss this music and our hotel lobby dinner parties and our post-show taco outings that end with one delicious square of condensed milk red velvet cake, passed around a table of 12. i'll miss all of that and the vibraphone. 

but my heavens, it's been three entire weeks since i baked something and i can't hardly believe it. presumably the oven has been untouched since i left, and i can't wait to fill it with all of the cake and pizza and bread to make up for lost time.

i suppose before i start thinking about the first thing that i'm going to bake when i get home, i'll tell you about the last thing that i baked before i left. it is a loaf cake, because loaf cakes are so lovably cute and one day i want to have a loaf cake spread like the rose bakery loaf cake spread. this cake is also to celebrate the birthday of the wonderful melinda strauss over at kitchen tested!! it's super earthy and dark and moist and paired with candied bacon because bacon was the first word out of melinda's mouth when i asked her what type of cake she would like. never mind that she's kosher, the cake never made it within a thousand miles of her, but it's the thought (and the instagrams??) that count! happiest of birthdays to you, sweet melinda!!!  

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chocolate olive oil cake with candied bacon

makes one 2-layer loaf cake

ingredients

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour

3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 3/4 c sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/3 c olive oil

1 1/4 c whole milk

3 large eggs

1 tsp almond extract

1/2 c orange juice

the candied bacon and frosting recipes are over on melinda's blog!

clues

preheat oven to 350.

grease two loaf pans (i use 8-inch by 4-inch pans) and line the bottoms with parchment. 

in a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. in a medium bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to combine. pour the batter into the loaf pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. begin checking for doneness at about 40 minutes. 

let cool for 10 minutes in the pans and then turn onto a cooling rack. turn the oven up to 400 for the bacon. go on over to melinda's blog for the candied bacon and frosting recipes and then assemble as follows:

level one of the cake layers and pipe or spread on a thick layer of frosting. if desired, add a handful of bacon. top it with the other cake layer and top with additional frosting and bacon. 

slice and enjoy! 

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-yeh!

creamed spinach!

i don't actually really know that much about creamed spinach. i saw it once in the middle school cafeteria and then again in 2010 and it's not that it repulsed me or anything, i just had zero interest in it. i didn't understand a big pile of wet spinach and it didn't understand me. ok, popeye, yes, i know that, but is he exclusively creamed spinach? or just any spinach? idk. the point is, i turned a corner this winter when i finally listened to what the universe was telling me every time i entered our sad winterfell produce section: buy frozen vegetables. i just couldn't deal with all of the about-to-spoil sad looking vegetables that have to be shipped from faraway lands during the cold months.

so i became a frozen spinach hoarder. our freezer became one part spinach, one part cake, and i learned how easy it is to throw an entire frozen spinach block into a pot of risotto or something and magically have vegetables. and then one day for lunch when i was in need of a salad but lacking a pile of fresh greens, i cooked up one of my little spinach blocks, and added cream, cheese, a bunch of allium things, and a bit of flour when it was looking rather thin. i wondered if it was creamed spinach. it looked like the two creamed spinaches that i had seen, it had cream in it, and it made me feel like womanpopeye at volleyball that night. without any research to confirm that what i was making was in fact creamed spinach, i decided that creamed spinach is delightful and i made it every single day for the following weeks. 

then last month i was out to lunch with my book agent, jonah, and i told him that we must order the creamed spinach, for i am going through a creamed spinach phase and it is my new favorite food. he might have snuck a disapproving nose wiggle into his response but i didn't notice because i was too excited for spinach and oysters. 

when the spinach came, ohmygod, it was so bad. sticky, tacky, pre-barfed, not creamy. it tasted like the only two ingredients in it were spinach and stickiness. ew. it was not anywhere near my vacuum-life definition of creamed spinach. we became the most grossed out versions of ourselves, pushed the plate aside, and that's when jonah came out with the truth about creamed spinach: it's bad. all creamed spinach is bad. that's kind of its identity, and everybody knows it. you didn't know that?

i was vaguely mortified but also intrigued in the way that real housewives is bad but people still watch it.

what have i been making all this time???? i thought.  

is it real?

is it allowed?

is this actually just spinach artichoke dip without the artichokes?

what do other creamed spinach recipes look like??

i was finally convinced to read up on it a little, and i don't think my made-up spinach was too far off the mark. spinach, cream, more cream, onions, ideally some cheese. i conducted an informal poll which revealed that there are indeed a fair amount of people that really don't like it. jonah was right. there is hope though, as there is hope in probably everything that includes cream and cheese and a correct amount of salt... right? right.

so for that, i present to you the creamed spinach that got me through the winter, the dish that made my vitamin a levels through the roof, and most importantly the creamed spinach that made me love creamed spinach. (and hopefully the one that will make you love it too!)

it's super simple and the ingredients are easy to keep on hand. i usually use frozen spinach but if you have a ton of fresh spinach that you need to use up, you can use that too. i like eating this with a thick slice of bread or with a sausage plopped on top, eggboy likes eating it straight with a spoon. it is really important to salt this from beginning to end, and please, add as much cheese as you'd like. any negatives from eating too much cheese will be far outweighed by the positives of eating all of this spinach. 

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creamed spinach

makes 4 servings

ingredients

1 10-oz package frozen chopped spinach*

2 tb butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

kosher salt

black pepper

2** cloves of garlic, minced

2 tb flour

3 tb heavy cream

at least 1/4 c grated cheese (i usually use cheddar since that's what i have on hand, but feel free to whatever cheese you'd like.)

a squeeze of lemon juice

a few shakes of hot sauce

*or a shit ton of fresh chopped spinach

**or more, like way more

update: mum says it must have a pinch of nutmeg. ok, add a pinch of nutmeg!

clues

place the frozen spinach on a plate at room temperature so that it thaws a bit while you do the next few steps.

in a medium pot over medium heat, melt the butter and add the onion. season with salt and pepper. cook until the onion softens, 5-7 minutes, longer if you've got the patience. add the garlic and cook for about a minute longer. stir in the flour until combined, and then stir in the heavy cream to get a thick-ish saucy thing. 

ok this is where things get kind of janky. (usually it's at this point when i realize that i forgot to take the frozen spinach out to thaw, and instead of dirtying up a whole separate dish to microwave it, i just put the whole block in the pot and poke at it as it slowly (very slowly) starts to soften. eventually i remove the slightly softened block and chop it into cubes and then put it back in the pot.) if the spinach is soft enough from being out at room temp, you can chop it into cubes and add it. if it isn't, you can soften it in the pot or the microwave and then chop it and add it. 

salt ferociously.

stir it around until it softens.

add cheese, lemon juice, hot sauce, and more pepper. taste and add more cheese/salt/anything if desired. 

enjoy!!

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last but certainly not least, this post is part of erin's surprise baby shower!!!! lovely lady erin (or, naturally ella) is about to pop so we're showering her with easy vegetarian tasties, which is extra appropriate since not only is she giving birth to a baby this spring, but she's also giving birth to an easy vegetarian book! because she is superwoman. a totally wonderful bassoon playing superwoman who is gonna have one well-fed baby. happy baby shower, erin!!!! 

go check out the other vegetarian recipes that are part of her shower:

The Fauxmartha | A Pasta Dish for Busy Hands
A Couple Cooks | Breakfast Parfait with Roasted Strawberries
Edible Perspective | Avocado Pesto Chickpea Salad Sandwiches
Eat This Poem | Penne with Cherry Tomatoes and Arugula
Cookie and Kate | Brussels Sprouts Pizza
FoodieCrush | Beet, Avocado and Fried Goat Cheese Salad
The Bojon Gourmet | Tempeh BLTs with Avocado + Chipotle Mayonnaise
Girl Versus Dough | Spiced Lentils with Poached Eggs
Dolly and Oatmeal | Chickpea Bean Bowl with Toasted Bread Crumbs and Dill Tahini
Food Loves Writing | Erin’s Veggie Burgers
With Food + Love | Creamy Polenta with Crispy Beets
London Bakes | Ricotta Gnocchi with Wild Garlic and Pistachio Pesto
Flourishing Foodie | Glazed Tofu with Ramen
This Homemade Life | Chickpea Greek Salad
Brooklyn Supper | One-Pot Pasta Primavera

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-yeh!!!