Chocolate Loaf

From: Apples for Jam, 2007 by Tessa Kiros/Andrews McMeel Publishing

The name may mislead you into thinking this is actually a cake — but don't be fooled. From Tessa Kiros's Apples for Jam: A Colorful Cookbook (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2007), this cocoa-infused recipe is most definitely a bread. Serve it toasted or fresh, topped with jam.

Ingredients:

1 (1/2-ounce) cake fresh yeast

2 tablespoons superfine sugar

1 1/4 cups milk

3 1/3 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:

1. Crumble the yeast into a large bowl and add the sugar. Gently heat the milk in a small pan until it feels just a bit hotter than your finger, then add it to the yeast. Stir through and leave for 10 minutes or so, until the surface starts to turn spongy. Add the flour, cocoa powder, butter, and a pinch of salt and mix in well. Knead with your hands for about 6 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic with no lumps. If your dough is very soft, leave it in the bowl and just punch it around and squeeze it with one hand, holding the bowl with the other. Cover the bowl with a heavy dish towel and leave it in a warm, draft-free place for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until it has puffed right up. Butter and flour a 12-by-4-inch loaf pan.

2. Knock the dough down to flatten it and shape it to the size of the pan. Drop it in, cover the pan with the dish towel and leave it again in a warm place for anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour, until the dough has puffed up over the rim of the pan. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

3. Remove the dish towel and bake the loaf for about 25 minutes, or until the top is firm and the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Tip out onto a rack to cool. Once it has cooled down completely, this loaf can be frozen (even just a chunk of it) in a plastic bag and saved for another moment in time.

Makes 1 loaf

How to Make White Chocolate Cheesecake (OK, so I am tired and want dessert.)‏

How to Make White Chocolate Cheesecake
This is a great cheesecake recipe. The white chocolate makes this cake particularly rich.  It is always a favorite.

Ingredients

For the crust:
1 2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

For the filling:
4 8-ounce packages of cream cheese
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups white chocolate wafers or 8 ounces of white chocolate baking bars
Notes about the ingredients.
Use good quality white chocolate wafers with a high cocoa butter content.  Wafers have a finer grind and are richer and smoother than chips.   Some white chocolate chips do not melt properly. Purchasing graham cracker crumbs will save you time and cleanup and usually cost less than crackers.  If you use crackers, the easiest way to process them into crumbs is with a food processor.

Directions
Preheat the oven 325 degrees.
In a springform pan (see notes), mix the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and sugar together. Press the mixture across the bottom of the pan and up the sides to form the crust. Put the crust in refrigerator while you mix the filling. With the paddle attachment of your stand-type mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar together. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth. Melt the chocolate. Drizzle in the melted chocolate while it is still warm and while the beaters are running. Pour into the crust.

Bake for 50 minutes or until the cake is done. Let cool on a wire rack. After ten minutes, loosen the sides with a spatula and remove the ring. Refrigerate the cheesecake to cool completely.

Notes about springform pans.

For a particularly noteworthy cheesecake, make this in a square cheesecake pan.  A silicone cheesecake pan cleans up nicely and easily releases the dessert. We most often use glass based springform pans.  You can slip the cake on the glass bottom onto a serving palter for easy cutting and serving.  A glass base avoids the metallic taste that sometimes comes from metal bottoms.

Serving suggestions: Serve this cheesecake plain or with the raspberry sauce.
How to Make Raspberry Sauce
Raspberries alone are not tart and flavored enough for a dessert sauce even when thickened with a starch.  There are two possible solutions:  Cooking the fruit down to concentrate the flavors or adding a jelly for thickness and flavor.  We chose the latter.
12 ounces, about 3 cups frozen, unsweetened raspberries
2/3 cup red currant jelly
about 1/4 cup sugar
Thaw and puree the raspberries.  Strain them twice through a sieve or until nearly all of the seeds are removed.  Place the puree in a small saucepan.  Add the jelly.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until the jelly is completely melted and blended with the fruit.  Sweeten to taste with the sugar while it is still hot.  Stir to make sure that the sugar is dissolved.  Let cool. Yield: About 1 1/3 cups of raspberry sauce.