Peppermint Cheesecake Cups

I've been wanting to try out Martha Stewarts oreo cheesecake cups for quite awhile.  It's kind of funny to call it "Martha Stewart's recipe" when people have been adding oreos to various cheesecake recipes for ages, but this particular recipe is in her cookbook Cupcakes.  

One box of Trader Joe's holiday peppermint Joe Joe's and and a package of Ande's mints peppermint crunch baking chips is all it takes to turn regular 'ole cheesecake into holiday peppermint cheesecake.

I topped these with a sprinkling of these Andes peppermint crunch chips I'd found.  I'm not sure why they are called  crunch since they are similar in texture to any other chocolate or white chocolate chip.   They are pretty high on the peppermint flavor scale--just a little sprinkle on top along with the peppermint in the Joe Joe's and there is absolutely no need to add any peppermint extract to the cheesecake itself.  Of course, if you can't find the Andes chips you can always omit and just add a few drops of peppermint oil directly to the batter.

It's chocolate, peppermint and cheesecake.  What else is there to say? 

Peppermint Cheesecake Cups

from Martha Stewart Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 22 peppermint Joe Joe's or peppermint Oreos-- 16 left whole, and 6 coarsely chopped
• 2 8-oz packages cream cheese, at room temperature 
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• Pinch of salt
• Andes Peppermint crunch or Andes peppermint mints chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 275 F.
2. Line 16 standard muffin tins with paper liners.
3. Place 1 whole Joe Joe in the bottom of each lined cup.
4. Beat the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium. Gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla.
5. Pour in the beaten eggs, a little at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
6. Beat in the sour cream and salt.
7. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared tins, filling each almost to the top.
9. Fill empty muffin tins cups halfway with water
10. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, 22-25 minutes.
11. Cool in the pans for about 15 minutes, on a wire rack, then transfer to a plate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Let The Christmas Baking Commence

Baking Christmas cookies is one of the best aspects of the season. And luckily for me, I have a very bizarre nature that rejects most foods I have in abundance in the house. It's probably that 5 year old mentality that wants what you don't have, but since it allows me to bake cookies galore without actually wanting to eat many of any of them, I'll take it.

Martha Stewart Living, December 2008 Cookie of the Month--Chocolate Peppermint Cookie. I ripped it straight out of my mom's issue (thanks Mom!), brought it home and went to work.

Chocolate and peppermint are a natural match and this cookie is proof: think girl scout cookie and peppermint bark collision. What I especially liked was the suggestion to sift the broken peppermint candies and cover half of the cookies with peppermint "dust" and half with bigger peppermint candies. These cookies might just become a Christmas standard.
Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Martha Stewart Living Dec. 2008

1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 ounces (5 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
3/4 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
8 large candy canes or 30 peppermint candies, crushed
2 pounds white chocolate, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed for 1 minute. Reduce speed to medium-low, and add egg, then yolk, beating well after each addition. Beat in peppermint extract. Slowly add flour mixture, and beat until just incorporated. Shape dough into 2 disks, wrap each in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour (or up to 2 days).
Roll out 1 disk of dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes. Using a 2-inch round cutter, cut out circles, and place 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Roll and cut scraps once. Freeze cookies until firm, about 15 minutes. Repeat with remaining disk.
Bake until cookies are dry to the touch, about 12 minutes. Transfer parchment, with cookies, to wire racks, and let cool. (Undecorated cookies will keep, covered, for up to 3 days.)
Sift crushed candy, and separate larger pieces from dust, reserving both. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of gently simmering water. Remove from heat. Dunk cookies into melted chocolate. Using a fork, turn to coat, let excess drip off, and gently scrape bottom against edge of bowl. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets, and sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon of either candy pieces or dust on top. Repeat, sprinkling half the cookies with pieces and the rest with dust. Refrigerate until set, up to 3 hours. Decorated cookies are best served the same day.

Cookbook #60 Martha Stewart Living Christmas

Martha, Martha, Martha.  Conspicuous consumption.  Over the top, completely unachievable perfectionism.  A compulsion to correct every guest on her show.  And still, I can't turn the channel or pass on the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living.  She's just so clever when it comes to the domestic arts.

Her Martha Stewart Living Christmas compilation cookbook?  Well, it's all good, minus the part where all the photos sit in the front of the cookbook and the recipes section has no photos at all.  I hate those layouts. That gripe aside, this cookbook sits on my shelf without about eleventy gajillion sticky flags, just waiting for the day when I have nothing to do but cook, bake and cook some more.   Mini panettones with ultra cute little ribbons?  It's in there. Uber schmance brie on croute?  Yep. Butternut squash cannellini with sage walnut cream sauce?  Oh my.  So which recipe did I choose?  Salad. 

Some would argue that preparing salad is not cooking.  I would agree.  But the ingredients in this escarole with persimmons and pomegranate salad with lemon-shallot vinaigrette were that fascinating. 

Persimmons are one of my top 70 favorite fruits. They are sweet and tangy and have the perfect crunch...if you buy the Fuyu kind that is.  Mistakenly pick up a Hachiya persimmon and you are in for rude awakening.  Luckily they look as different as night and later that night.  Fuyus are rounder and look an awful lot like an orange tomato.  My version of this salad would have to start with the word spinach rather than escarole, because apparently I feel all greens can be replaced with spinach.  And fennel?  That's a personal choice.  If you hate black licorice, you may want to shy away from raw fennel in a sald.  Pomengranates however, are universally likeable aren't they?  They should be sprinkled on everything because they are just that happy.

Spinach Salad with Persimmons, Fennel and Pomegranate

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living Christmas Cookbook

5 cups baby spinach

5 Fuyu persimmons, peeled and cut into wedges

Seeds of 1 pomegranate

1 fennel bulb, sliced thin

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/4 cup minced shallots

2 tbsp grainy mustard

2 tbsp fresh maroram finely chopped

Salt and pepper

Prepare salad with first 4 ingredients. Toss with vinaigrette

To Make Vinaigrette:

Combine lemon juice, shallots, mustard and marjoram.  Season with salt and pepper.  Whisk in oil in slow, steady stream until emulsified.

Cookbook #42 Martha Stewart Cookies

An entire cookbook dedicated to cookies...this is the perfect Christmas cookbook. In truth, I'm guessing that every recipe in this cookbook is on Martha Stewart's website, but here the editors of Martha Stewart Living have divided it up according to cookie type; light and delicate, soft and chewy, crumbly and sandy, chunky and nutty, cakey and tender, crisp and crunchy & rich and dense. I'd say that's the perfect way to classify cookie recipes.

Up next in the Christmas baking was Pistachio Tuiles. The ingredient list is minimal and the recipe is simple. It's a bit time consuming because you can only bake 6 on a sheet but otherwise it was easy peasy.

Martha's instructed method for making tuiles is to drape them over a wooden spoon.

My preferred method was to roll them around the spoon. Fun to make, and they were indeed not only light and delicate, but perfectly crunchy and delightfully nutty and yummy little suckers.

Pistachio Tuiles

from Martha Stewart Cookies

2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup ( 1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup shelled unsalted pistachios, finely chopped in a food processor

Preheat oven to 350.

Whisk sugar, egg whites, and salt in a medium bowl until sugar has dissolved. Whisk in butter, then flour. Stir in pistachios.
Line a baking sheet with a nonstick baking mat. Place a long-handled wooden spoon on a clean work surface; prop up each end on a metal spoon to raise it slightly (you will use handle of wooden spoon to form tuiles).
Drop teaspoons of batter onto baking mat, spacing about 2 inches apart; flatten into 1 1/2-inch rounds. Bake until pale golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet 30 seconds.
Working quickly with one cookie at a time, use an offset spatula to lift cookies from sheet and drape them over spoon handle. (If cookies become too crisp to work with, return to oven until pliable, about 1 minute.)

Let cookies cool slightly, 20 to 30 seconds, then remove from handle; press sides together to close. Let cool completely. Repeat with remaining batter.

Tuiles can be stored in an airtight container up to 1 week.