Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake

The other day, I found this beautiful book by Emily Mainquist called Sweet Vegan. This is a great dessert book which has wonderful vegan recipes as well as some gluten-free and raw recipes. The pictures are so beautiful that we were literally drooling over the pages. You want to wow your guests? Just make them one of Emily’s desserts!

Katie flagged all the recipes she wanted to make which were pretty much most of them and she wanted to make them right away. We decided to make the Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake because frankly, who could resist the allure of chocolate chip cookies and cheesecake together. Besides, Katie has never had cheesecake before.

This recipe is a bit more complicated that we are used to so we decided to make the cookie dough forms the day before. We made our dough into the two disk shapes from the springform pan, covered them and then placed then in the refrigerator until the next day.  We also did not have Cane Juice so we substituted the Cane Sugar instead and it worked just as well.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough for Crust

1 C    margarine (vegan brand)

¾  C  sugar

¾ C  brown sugar

3 tsp Egg replacer (2 eggs) whisked with 4T warm water

1 tsp  vanilla

2½ C   flour plus 1/8 tsp flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp     baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 C vegan chocolate chips (Divvies)

Cream the margarine and both sugars in the mixer. Add the Egg Replacer and vanilla until mixed thoroughly.  In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Slowly add flour mixture to the creamed margarine mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.

Cheesecake Filling

24 oz tofu cream cheese, at room temperature (we used Tofutti)

¼ C evaporated cane juice or cane sugar

4 ½ tsp Egg replacer whisked with 6 T warm water

1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Pour into a bowl and chill.

 Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake How-To

Preheat oven to 325°F for dark springform pan and 350°F for a silver pan.

CRUST: Make the crust by dividing the dough into two pieces. Place a large piece of plastic wrap on the springform bottom. Press half the cookie dough into the shape of the pan.  Fold plastic wrap over and remove from pan. This forms the shape of the crust. Do the same thing with the second piece of cookie dough. Place both discs in the freezer for 15 minutes or place in refrigerator overnight.

CHEESECAKE FILLING: Now, make the cheesecake filling. Using a mixer, beat the cream cheese mixture on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the cane juice and vanilla and mix until combined. Add the egg replacer and whip for another 30 seconds on medium-high speed.

Unwrap one chilled cookie disc and place on the bottom of the pan. Spoon the cheesecake mixture on top.  Unwrap and place the second cookie disc on top of cheesecake mixture. Now it is time to bake our cheesecake.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an additional 5 to 10 minutes until the center is slightly firm. Cool the cheesecake in the refrigerator for 4 to 6 hours or overnight.

Remove the chilled cheesecake from the refrigerator. Transfer to a serving dish. Slice the cheesecake and dip the end in tempered chocolate (see below) and drizzle on cheesecake before serving.

Chocolate for Dipping

4 C  vegan chocolate chips

Add 1 cup of water to a saucepan and simmer on medium heat. Place 3 cups of chocolate chips into a stainless steel bowl and place on top of the simmering pot. Stir continuously until mostly melted. Remove from heat and keep stirring until the chocolate is completely melted.

Add the remaining cup of chocolate chips and stir until melted. The more you stir the better. Once all the chocolate is melted, test it with your finger. If the chocolate is cool to the touch, put a small amount on a piece of aluminum foil. If it hardens and is shiny within 2 to 3 minutes, it is ready. If it does not harden, continue to stir and add another ounce of chocolate, stirring until melted. Repeat until it is ready.

YUMMY!

Wanted: Someone With Allergy Experience

That’s me!

When people find out that Katie has so many allergies, they often say “I don’t know how you do it”. My answer is that I do it because I want to make sure my daughter is safe and that it really isn’t that hard, it just takes a little extra work.  People are always amazed by my answer. “Not hard?!” they say. I guess for me it is more of a routine because I have been around food allergies all my life.

The Early Years

Katie is not the first person to have anaphylactic allergies in my family. My Mother and older sister are both severally allergic to Peanuts and various other nut combinations. When I was growing up I knew not to eat peanuts, peanut butter or any kind of nuts around my Mother and sister. I was one of the only kids at the lunch table who had jelly sandwiches instead of the usual peanut butter and jelly variety. This may be why I can’t stand to be around peanut butter! I did, however, eat Snicker bars and Peanut M and M’s all the time. I just had to remember to brush my teeth or chew gum if I was going to be near them.

I personally did not have food allergies until I was older. Although I did suffer from severe eczema and I was allergic to most shampoos and soaps. I probably had food allergies even then but they really did not test for allergies back then like they do now.

  

One day, while I was in high school, my sister had a severe allergic reaction to bananas. It was pretty bad and she spent several days in the hospital and a couple more at home. Oh well, no more bananas at home! The rest of my teen and college years were pretty uneventful allergy wise and I enjoyed this respite even though it was short lived.

The Baby Years

It wasn’t until our son was born that allergies decided to rear their ugly head again. Our son had a terrible time with ear infections, asthma and eczema when he was a baby so we thought there might be some kind of link to allergies but we did not pursue it. It wasn’t until we started him on solid food that we started to see a change in his behavior. After he would eat, he would bang his head on the floor repeatedly. The pediatrician thought it was a behavior problem but I noticed that it happened after he had eaten carrots. So it was off to the Allergist to get him tested. The results came back with allergies to carrots, wheat, corn and soy. We removed them from his diet and thankfully he grew out of them by the time he was 9 years old. Poor guy, recently we found out he has an intolerance to avocados.

At the same time, I had also developed intolerance to wheat, dairy and bananas. Go figure! I guess you could say that we are an allergic family. My husband says it’s from my side of the family which is probably right since he is the only one without food allergies.

Well as you know this blog is about my daughter and her severe allergies so we had to get to her allergies at some point. About four years after my son was born I was pregnant with my daughter.  I was determined that she would not have the same food problems that we had so I decided to breast feed her for an entire year before introducing any kind of food to her diet. Once I started slowly introducing solid food I noticed that she was throwing up at least one time a day. This went on for a month so I decided to have her tested for allergies. She was diagnosed with anaphylactic reactions to dairy, eggs, peanuts and all other nuts. There was not a single nut that she did not have a high reaction on. We added sesame to the list a couple years ago.

Will she ever grow out of these allergies? Maybe someday, but it is unlikely that she will outgrow all of them.  So our family will continue to do what we do best and that is to carry on as usual and to do what we can to help Katie make healthy and safe decisions for many years to come.

I Aim to Get You

For My Valentine! Honest Injun, I do! For some reason I cannot get enough of old Valentine cards. 

For me it was never just the candy....

...it was the cute pictures

....and the funny sayings

...or maybe they remind me of the Valentine cards that I used to give out when I was little. 

I put these up all over the house every Valentine's Day and since I usually buy them at an antique shop or fair, I love looking at the signatures on the back wondering who their special "someone" might have been.

Wishing you lots of love this Valentine's Day!

XO XO

Jeanne and Katie

The Coming of the Snowbeast

Our Thursday started with rain, rain and more rain then it finally started to snow in the afternoon....

This is what I found in our backyard. What is this beast in our yard?

Polar bear?

Nope, its our dog! Poor Abbey, all the snow clumped on her face and she was having trouble seeing. She kept rubbing her face in the snow to try to get it off but she just made it worse. It was quite fun to watch. We finally brought her inside to have her melt. It took about an hour and many towels to defrost her. Puddles and more towels followed in her wake.

Make a Good Impression for Your Loved One

Your loved ones are sure to be impressed with these Letterpress Cookie Cutters manufactured by Fred at www.fredandfriends.com. These cookie cutters look like the type from old letterpresses. You can purchase them from Greener Grass Design at http://www.greenergrassdesign.com/fred-lpress.html. The set includes 26 letters for all the letters in the alphabet plus and ampersand and exclamation point. Each letter stamp is double-sided. One side cuts out the shape and the other side stamps the letter on your cookie.

This recipe is so easy to make and I love the way the cookies are crunchy on the outside but nice and chewy on the inside. Delish!

Delicious Sugar Cookies

1 Cup Dairy-free margarine, softened (Fleishman’s Unsalted)

1 Cup Granulated sugar

1 Egg Replacer egg (1/2 Tsp + 2 T warm water)

1 Tsp. Vanilla extract

2 Tsp. Baking powder

3 Cups Flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, cream the margarine and sugar. Cream together until well blended. Beat in Egg Replacer egg and vanilla extract. In separate bowl, mix together the baking powder and flour. Add to creamed mixture one cup full at a time until the dough is stiff.

Separate the dough into two halves and roll each half into a ball. Roll on to a floured surface until dough is 1/8 inch thickness. Cut, stamp and then bake them on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 to 10 minutes.

NOTE: The manufacturer recommends chilling the dough for 30 minutes before cutting. This makes it easier to cut and it makes a better impression. 

We decided to decorate them with a chocolate glaze on top. While the glaze was scrumptious, it was a bit hard to work with. It might be worth it to try some icing to see if that would work better. The manufacturer recommends Royal Icing.

Decadent Chocolate Glaze

½  Cup Dairy-free margarine, softened (Fleishman’s Unsalted)

½  Cup Cocoa powder

2 Cups Confectioner’s sugar

1 Tsp. Vanilla extract

Melt margarine in a small saucepan. Slowly stir in the cocoa powder and then add the confectioner’s sugar a little at a time. Cook until it boils slightly, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add the vanilla.

Looking Up To Audrey

Last Sunday was the 20^th Anniversary of the death of one of my favorite actresses, Audrey Hepburn. I might have missed it but I saw a magazine in the checkout line that was devoted to her life as an actress and as a humanitarian.

I’m not quite sure why I have always had this fascination with Audrey Hepburn. I suppose it has a lot to do with my family and how I grew up. Our house was known as the musical house on the street. Not because any of us could actually play anything resembling a musical instrument. Our house was the house where we all watched old movies and danced and sang throughout the movie as the music played. Is it weird to admit that I would have rather stayed home to watch old movies than go out with my friends? I know, kind of geeky!

One of my favorite movies, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I have seen over 20 times! I own many of her other movies such as Roman Holiday, Sabrina, and My Fair Lady.  I guess you could say that I wanted to be like her. Maybe because, in most of her movies, she played characters who were not only beautiful and elegant but also fun and witty. Who wouldn't want to be like that?!

As I got older, what I loved about her even more was how she devoted the rest of her life to helping others in need, especially through UNICEF. She worked as a Goodwill Ambassador helping the severe poor in many disadvantaged communities of Africa, South America and Asia.

Below is a quote from Audrey that I often repeat to my daughter because I think it is important to remind our kids to always look beyond what we see, to see the good in others. This is especially important as they grow older.

“To have beautiful lips, say beautiful things;

To have beautiful eyes, look at people and see the good in them;

To stay thin, share meals with someone who is hungry;

That, above anything else, is what keeps you beautiful.”

         ~ Audrey Hepburn

Service Is Not Dead

I am here to tell you that service is not dead, at least, not completely! I have to say that I have been in plenty of establishments where I have felt like waving my arms frantically just to get someone’s attention. I even admit there have been times where I have incessantly pulled on the nearest person’s arm just to get some service.

Well, I am happy to report that I actually had great service the other night and I wanted to share it with you, especially with those families who have kids with food allergies. The other night we decided to go to one of our kid’s favorite restaurants, the Olive Garden. One of the reasons we enjoy this restaurant is that we can get a meal for everyone, even Katie.

Katie used to be able to eat their pasta but their current brand now has egg as an ingredient so that is out. So we went through our usual routine when ordering, “My daughter is allergic to dairy, eggs, all nuts and sesame, what can she eat here?” At which time, we usually get the “oh-uh” stare. I quickly glanced down and saw that they have a Filet Minon on the menu and I thought it would be a great treat for her since she can never have what she truly wants. The fillet and broccoli (minus the butter) were a “go” but she could not have the diced potato or rice options because they were pre-seasoned. I asked if we could have a baked potato without butter. Our waiter replied that they did not have baked potatoes in their restaurant but he would see what he could do.

Ordering our mean can be a lengthy process but this is what we do whenever we go out to eat. So we just waited to see what they would come up with. A few minutes later, the Manager dropped by our table to say they would be happy to get a baked potato for Katie. When we questioned the waiter later, he said they were “going to go out to get her a baked potato.” Going out where? Out to the store? Do they grow them in the back? Hmm....this was getting interesting.

Sure enough, a little while later our orders showed up with a nice big baked potato on Katie’s plate. It’s still a mystery where they got that baked potato, although I suppose they might have called over to a nearby restaurant. All I know is that we had a very enjoyable dinner and we would like to thank the lovely manager and waiter at Olive Garden, for making my daughter feel so special!!