Summer Recipe: Cool Fake Watermelon Cheesecake

Photo: Family Features 

From Denny:  This is such a fun colorful cheesecake to make that is sure to impress for any special holiday or occasion!  While it looks like watermelon it's really a strawberry flavored cheesecake supported by a delicious coconut and pistachio crumble crust that imitates the watermelon rind.  How clever is that?  And you know it sure tastes better than the rind. :) To imitate the look of the watermelon seeds you garnish the cheesecake with mini chocolate chips.  

The beauty of this cheesecake is that you don't have to bake it.  Everything is done on the stove top and then chilled.  Well, I'm sold; ready to start cooking?  

With some extra effort - on a slow lazy weekend when you have some time - this might be fun to make in small mini cheesecakes.  It could be one of those special treats you can pull out at the last minute when unexpected company shows up for a visit and you don't have the time to stop and shop. 

You could probably freeze this cheesecake (the large or the mini versions) before garnishing with the mini chocolate chips, especially if you are only cooking for two and just can't eat an entire cheesecake.  I wouldn't freeze it with the chocolate chips as chocolate tends to get an unattractive bloom on it when frozen and then thawed.  It's your call.  I often freeze cheesecakes I make as we like smaller portions at our house  to control the calories and because we find cheesecake so rich a dessert.  Sometimes I freeze cheesecake in well wrapped slices or take the time to make the smaller tart size.

Kid Friendly Recipe:  This recipe would be fun to do with older children to help teach them more about cooking.  They could easily help make the crust and help mix the cream cheese mixture.  You would have to supervise the stove top cooking of the frozen strawberries and dealing with the red food coloring as that could get quite messy. :)  But kids could help sprinkle the gelatin over the pan of cooked strawberries and help you stir until dissolved.  You might want to be the one to add the red food coloring and let them stir it into the mixture.  Kids are definitely up to helping decorate with the mini chocolate chips - though you may find quite a few missing before they land on the cheesecake!

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Recipe: Chocolate and Pistachio Surprise Cake

From Denny: If you haven't heard of the fabulous blog Chocolate and Zucchini, written both in English and French, then, "Honey, you ain't living!" :) Seriously though, this wonderful site has been around a few years on the web (since 2003) and is written in a friendly manner, stuffed full to the rafters with awesome recipes! The writer is a Parisian woman by the name of Clotilde Dusoulier who started this blog to share her passion for all things food-related. Over time her passion for food writing made it possible to quit her day job and write full time!

While I'm putting up her recipe here, you really do need to go read what all she wrote before giving you the recipe. She's a wonderful and chatty writer, brimming over with information and good times. Take a little extra time and check out the rest of her site. She gives her recipes in both metric and American measurements.

Here is a small excerpt of her humorous writing: "To me, cakes pretty much fall under two categories, chocolate and non-chocolate, so I asked the birthday-girl-to-be (her sister) which kind she wanted. Her reply was that she simply wanted a surprise cake, so I followed my deeper instincts and went, well, the chocolate route."

Now does this sound like a woman after our own chocolate hearts or what?!! :) She also suggests you bake this cake a day ahead as she believes that dark chocolate cakes taste better on the second day, talk about making our life easier!

Chocolate and Pistachio Surprise Cake

Ingredients:

- 270 g (2 C) flour

- 2 tsp baking powder (1 envelope)

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 150 g (2/3 C) butter, at room temperature

- 300 g (1 1/4 C) white sugar

- 4 eggs

- 1 1/2 C (3 x 125 ml) plain yogurt or sour cream

- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

- 60 g (1/3 C) chocolate chips

- 2 Tbsp pistachio paste

- 60 g (1/3 C) shelled pistachios, chopped


Ganache:

- 120 g (3 oz) baking dark chocolate

- 125 ml (1/2 C) whipping cream


Directions:

Preheat your oven to 180°C (360°F). (350 degrees will do if your oven is not this exact.) Grease a 25-cm (10-inch) cake pan, preferably nonstick with a removable bottom.

Prepare the chocolate batter. In a food processor, mix together half of the sugar and half of the butter until fluffy. Add in two of the eggs, one at a time, mixing between each. Add in half of the yogurts and all the vanilla extract, mix again. In a medium bowl, combine half of the flour with half of the baking powder, half of the baking soda and all of the cocoa mixture. Add the flour mixture into the food processor and mix again until just combined. Pour the batter into the cake pan, and reserve in the refrigerator.

Rinse the bowl of the food processor, and prepare the pistachio batter: mix together the rest of the sugar, the rest of the butter and the pistachio paste. Add in the two last eggs, one at a time, mixing between each. Add in the rest of the yogurts and mix again. In a medium bowl, combine the rest of the flour with the rest of the baking powder and baking soda, and all of the chopped pistachios. Add into the food processor and mix again until just combined.

Take the cake pan out of the fridge, and sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the surface of the chocolate batter. Gently pour the pistachio batter on top, and smooth out the surface with a spatula. Put into the oven to bake for about an hour or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let rest for five minutes on the counter, then turn out on a rack to cool completely.

Prepare the ganache. Melt the dark chocolate with the whipping cream in a double boiler (or in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water), stirring with a spoon regularly until completely melted and velvety. Let the ganache rest until it has thickened a bit, about 30 minutes, and frost the cake using a small spoon.

You can either wait until the ganache has cooled and set before serving, or frost the cake just before you serve it, but the cake itself needs to have cooled down completely, it tastes better that way.

Recipe: Ricotta Pudding with Chocolate

From Denny: Let's see, this is the best of both worlds! It has protein AND chocolate! Found this over at NBC. They just recently updated some chocolate recipes - finally! Too bad they didn't put a photo of this recipe. Guess I'll have to just salivate in my mind...

"Ricotta pudding with chocolate, orange zest and pistachios
Don’t have much time to cook a fancy meal? Try these easy, tasty options."

From: Fresco by Scotto Restaurant

Makes 4 to 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 cup ricotta cheese

1/4 cup whole pistachios, chopped

1/4 cup chocolate, grated

Zest from 1 orange

2 teaspoons pure vanilla

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Whip the heavy cream with the powdered sugar till firm and fluffy; do not overwhip.

2. Then, whip the ricotta separately for a few minutes.

3. Fold the heavy cream into the whipped ricotta and fold in the vanilla extract, chocolate, orange zest, and cinnamon.

4. Place in parfait or wine glasses and refrigerate.