Mini Mocha Cheesecakes

Prep Time: 13 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Cool Time: 2+ hours
 
Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Everyday Food (January 2011)

This recipe (link above) uses cottage cheese instead of cream cheese. It called for non-fat, but I like to eat 2% which only has 10 more calories and a few grams of fat per serving, so I went with that instead. Otherwise the only fat comes from the egg. (Although I also use Penzey's cocoa, which has a little too.)

The batter was more runny than the pictures showed in the magazine. I made a half recipe and filled 5 cups (original full recipe should make 9 cups). I stilled had some of the batter left over.

These were really good. It didn't taste exactly the same as a cream cheese cheesecake, but the tangy taste was there and I liked it.

I don't like coffee, so I cut the amount of espresso powder in half (but didn't eliminate) to make the chocolate taste better without the mocha taste. That always works well for me.

The neatest part of the recipe is that you make these in muffin tins with muffin papers. You don't have to grease any pans and they are easy to get out. The other great part of this recipe is that you use Chocolate Wafers for the crust. You fill the cup with the batter then place a cookie on top. The Famous Chocolate wafers fit perfectly if you your cups are filled to 1/4 of the top.  There is the issue of only using a few of these wafers for this recipe and they are fairly expensive and not found at all my local grocery stores. However, I froze the extra cookies, and hopefully I can find another use for them.

All in all, I think this is a very clever recipe and it is pretty light. Part of that comes from the petite sizing which is easy since they are single serving cakes. I also like that these have a decent amount of protein which fills me up more than sugar, certainly. I will definitely make these again.

Baked Ziti

Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 60 minutes
Cool Time: 20 minutes

Grade:B-

Make Again: No

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (March 2009)
Recipe: America's Test Kitchen TV Show (Season 10)

This was  nothing special in my opinion.  I do have to admit, however, that I used an inferior cheese which definitely affected the taste.  I chose the store brand (Safeway) cheese because it was cheaper, and then, even worse, accidentally purchased the low-fat version.  It was too salty and not creamy at all.  Now I have 8 oz left of this crappy cheese, which I won't use, just to save $1.  Oh well.

However, even without that issue, I still don't think this recipe would have been all that better than the very simple baked pasta dishes I've used before.  It uses cottage cheese, which I like, but I usually don't include ricotta in my baked ziti anyways, so it didn't solve any problems for me.  It just seems like more effort than I want for a simple pasta dish, so I probably won't make again.

Alsatian Onion and Bacon Tart

Dough Prep: 10 minutes
Rest Time: overnight
Prep Time: 50 minutes
Bake Time: 5-6 minutes at 500 degress (longer with colder oven!) per half recipe

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Restaurant Favorites at Home

This recipe is really delicious if you like the flavor of bacon. It isn't super quick, but you can actually make all the pieces before hand, and put it together later. It would make a great appetizer for a dinner party, you would just have to roll out, add toppings and bake. Rolling is easy because you do it on top of parchment paper which goes right onto the baking stone.

I'm having trouble getting my oven to 500 degress, so my baking time took longer, and I probably didn't get as much browning as I should have.

I used the thick bacon, and before cooking onions, I drained off all except about 1 T. of the fat. Done this way, you still get lots of great bacon flavor (from bacon and onions) but this recipe is actually a lot lighter than you would think. I think it comes to around 400 calories per tart (the recipe makes 4) and can make a nice lunch or dinner.