Kitchen Experimentation at its finest

I've been doing some experimenting in the kitchen lately. A friend asked if I could do a cheesecake for her boyfriend's birthday and I told her that although cheesecake is not my forte, I would take a stab at it.

I ended up combining about 4 different recipes and creating something that, in the final stages, resembled none of my original recipes. It was a fluffy lemony-cheesecake with a graham-cracker-oreo crust and a thick raspberry sauce, and it was delicious. I'm hoping to try it out again because, although it was a successful creation, I wasn't able to eliminate the deadly cracks that cheesecakes often get. I tried decreasing the oven temp and leaving the cake in the oven after it was finished for an hour with the door open. Next time, I'm going to try the water-bath method. We shall see!



New creation number two- Peanut Butter Cheesecake Truffles- big hit! These round little bites of chocolate, cheese and peanut buttery goodness are a great compliment to the oreo ones already on my menu. I've also been experimenting with truffle decorating and they're starting to look really pretty. I'm going to begin experimenting with other flavors and rather than cream cheese, perhaps marscapone. I'm pretty sure they're going to be delish :) I had made a batch of the regular oreo one's for the party and they were a big hit!



Yesterday, as my boyfriend sawed wood on my couch, I decided to re-vist my vegan cookie recipe. One of our summer staffers at the festival I work for can't eat anything with sugar in it and boy, did I feel bad when I brought in cookies and he couldn't eat a single one. So I told him I'd bake him a batch of my vegan cookies which don't take any sugar. In the past, I've used applesauce in them, but I tried vegetable oil and used tiny chunks of apple instead. I like the texture the chunks give to the cookies juxtaposed with the mushy bananas and sticky dates and raisins. All in all, I think they came out fairly well.

I'm certainly looking forward to having more time to experiment. Once the Festival's over in August, I plan to dedicate a lot more time to my kitchen "lab." I'm also planning on having a tasting party with friends and others to get feedback on my menu. Get ready and come hungry!