Weekend eats: Goat Cheese Cheesecake and Food for the Gods

As a kid she has always been involved in the kitchen. Whenever there are parties or family gatherings, She would often help her parents by preparing the ingredients...... I am talking about my loving, smart, pretty niece Margarita Isabel U. Guerrero.

She said that her passion in cooking started when she was still young, having a mom who always bakes (she makes the best brownies!) and a lola who is also a food fanatic; no wonder Mitzi (as we call her)was inspired to become a good chef as well.

But her intense love for baking and cooking started when she went to the US. During her first few months, she have gained a relationship with, none other than, the Food Network! She was fascinated of how the chefs would come up with those unique but easy dishes. She was like, “Heck, I can make these meals too!” And so her cooking adventures started. But then she realized that she have a stronger passion for baking. She used store bought cake mixes at first (just to not waste money if she ever come up with a burnt cake), then she challenged herself by baking goodies from scratch.

So, here are two of her yummy recipes..........

Goat Cheese Cheesecake

Ingredients: 

1 ½ cup graham crackers

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

1 stick (4oz) unsalted butter, melted

½ cup cream cheese (room temperature)

½ cup goat cheese (room temperature)

1 pint sour cream

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

½ tsp. vanilla extract

Procedure:

• Preheat oven to 325 Fahrenheit
• In a large pan, heat 6 cups of water just to boiling and set aside
• In a food processor, combine graham crackers, cinnamon, and melted butter until finely ground and mixture holds together slightly and is evenly moistened
• Wrap the outside of a 9 in spring form pan tightly in aluminum foil.  Press on the bottom of the pan to a ¼ in thickness.  Chill uncovered until ready to use
• Mix the cream cheese, goat cheese, sour cream, eggs, vanilla and lemon zest and juice in a food processor
• Place the pan in the center of a large roasting pan.  Pour enough hot water to a depth of ½ inch around the cheesecake
• Bake for 45 minutes until firm on the edges but still jiggles in the center

Food for the Gods

Ingredients:

1 cup dates

1 cup walnuts

1 cup butter

1 ¼ cups flour

2 cups brown sugar

1 tbsp. molasses

1tbsp. corn syrup

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

2 eggs

Procedure:

• Preheat oven to 325 Fahrenheit
• Microwave butter until melted
• Add eggs, sugar, vanilla, molasses, and corn syrup
• Mix all dry ingredients
• Pour dry ingredients onto wet mixture
• Add dates and walnuts
• Bake for 25-30 minutes

She have experimented with a lot of recipes and the internet has been a major help with her experiments. Baking is her stress reliever, her problems and worries of the day would be gone. This baking junkie will never quit and dreams of having her own bakeshop someday.

You can visit her site for more of her baking adventures: http://bakescapade.tumblr.com/

Happy Eating Everyone!