Sourdough Surprises #8 - Scones

After last month's sourdough-starter-scare, I've been nervous about using my starter. I've been watching it and feeding it, trying to make sure it stays nice and healthy... but I've still been a little worried.

But then the latest Sourdough Surprises challenge was announced, and it was scones. Umm... yum! Fear be gone, let's get to sourdough-ing!

I started by making one of the two recipes that was linked on the challenge announcement (this one, from Sourdough Diva).

This is a really good basic scone recipe, but it's just that. Basic. It was tasty with jam. Or with butter. Or with honey. Successful recipe, but best as a base for something.

Which left me wanting to try again... to find a sourdough scone that could stand alone.  And I absolutely found it in this delicious looking recipe for vanilla almond scones.  Except since little man is allergic to nuts, I substituted dried cranberries for the nuts.

The dough comes together super easily - combine the dry ingredients, cut in the butter, then use the sourdough starter as the liquid to bring the dough together. I needed a few tablespoons of (coconut) milk to help me out, since the dough was pretty dry. But as soon as it came together, I stopped kneading (don't want to over-mix!), pressed out my dough and cut it into shape.

These baked up really well. And with the vanilla in the dough, as well as the milk/vanilla mixture brushed on top, the scent of vanilla was really mouth-watering!

And the best part was the taste. Everyone loved these - little man gobbled his up, little miss asked for seconds, and daddy and I agreed that these are a definite make-again!

So what kind of scones did you make? Link up your post and show us the deliciousness!


Cranberry Vanilla Sourdough Scones
(only slightly adapted from four dog fig farm)


1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cold butter cut into small cubes
1/2 cup sourdough starter
1 tablespoon vanilla + 1 teaspoon for topping
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 - 2 tablespoon of milk or egg for tops
coarse sugar for tops

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Whisk together all of the dry ingredients.  Add in the cubes of butter and cut in with a pastry blender or a knife (or your fingertips) until the mixture starts to hold together when pressed.
Add 1 tablespoon vanilla to the sourdough starter, then add the starter to the dry ingredients and mix lightly so that it forms a soft dough. Gently fold in the dried cranberries.  The key to scones is not to mix too much.  The ingredients should remain as separate as possible while still holding together.  If the mixture seems too dry, add a teaspoon of milk or water.  Repeat as necessary.  (I needed about three teaspoons of milk to make my batter come together well.)
On a lightly floured board, pat dough into a rectangle about a half-inch thick.  Cut into eight squares and place on a parchment paper covered baking sheet.  Brush on milk or egg (mixed with the remaining tsp of vanilla) and sprinkle with sugar.  Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until the tops turn golden.
Enjoy!

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Banana Oat Bread (another SRC bonus!)

I am such a softie. If I hear that there's an orphaned blog for a Secret Recipe Club reveal, I just can't let it sit.  And when it was announced that an awesome blogger (no name given at the time - literally posted as "an awesome blogger!") had no post for the day, I just had to volunteer.

And when the host sent me over to Cook with Sara, I quickly knew that it was no exaggeration. Since this was for a fast turnaround, I was looking for a recipe that I could make, well, quickly, but I will definitely be returning to choose more recipes to try when I have more time to plan (and when dinner isn't already in the crock pot for the day!).

I first thought I'd go with her banana bread, since we love banana bread in our house, but then I saw a different variation - Banana Oat Bread. The deliciousness of banana bread with the wholesome goodness of oatmeal baked right in. Score!

As a quick-bread, this came together super easily.

Combine the dry ingredients...

...have any available six year old come and mash some bananas...

...combine the wet ingredients...

...and pour into a loaf pan! In my case, I also chose to sprinkle the top with demerara sugar. Just because.

And then the whole thing bakes, making the house smell delicious.  When it's all golden and tests done, all you have to do is let it cool without sneaking a taste. Or having the kids sneak tastes. That's probably the hardest part...

But it was worth the wait! Delicious, and with a really great texture and heartiness, due to the oatmeal, this was a really yummy version of banana bread.

Oh yes, this will probably be breakfast tomorrow. Did I say probably? Yeah... definitely!



Banana Oat Bread
(from Cook with Sara)

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup buttermilk (I used coconut milk)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla

1 cup mashed banana (2-3 bananas)

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.

Combine all of the dry ingredients (flour through oats) in a large mixing bowl. Combine wet ingredients (milk through eggs) in a measuring cup or bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir gently just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Add bananas and stir until just combined.

Spoon batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (A 9" loaf pan will bake faster than a 8" loaf pan.) Cool on a wire rack in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and cool thoroughly.

Enjoy!

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Apple Buns for #TwelveLoaves

With all of the crazy busy-ness going on last month, I didn't have a chance to participate in the October #TwelveLoaves challenge. Total bummer.  And I knew I couldn't let it happen twice, no matter how crazy November got.

And then the theme for November was announced. Apples or pears.

Yum.

No way was I going to miss this one.

And I had so many ideas - apple cinnamon buns, apple braids, apple monkey bread, apple quickbreads or muffins, apple coffee cake... the possibilities were deliciously endless. 

And then inspiration hit me. For the longest time, I've wanted to try a dessert version of the pork buns (bao) that I made for last years Daring Cooks' Challenge (that I recreated as cheesesteak buns once, too).

What better time than now??

The dough came together as previously (quickly and easily!), and I made a simple caramelized apple filling.

Some butter and brown sugar is all it takes...

And then, of course, some apples. And I added a sprinkling of cinnamon for good measure, too.

I wanted my buns to be nice and apple-y, but not bursting, so I used a generous tablespoon of filling for each bun.

I still need work on sealing these little beauties, but I soon had a full tray, all ready to go into the oven.

The best part about these is how quickly they cook up. A quick 15 minutes, and you we had golden delicious apple-y goodness.

And, yes, I really do need practice sealing these...

Bursting with flavor, packed with apples, these were absolutely delicious.

I ate three that afternoon. And I just might have let little miss have one for breakfast the next morning... And little man enjoyed them, too.

I can't wait to see what December brings!


Apple Buns


for the dough:
1 cup milk, scalded
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon oil (I used canola, but the recipe didn't specify)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons dried yeast (I used active dry)
3 cups plain flour (I used all purpose)

Scald the milk, then stir in the sugar, oil and salt. Leave this mixture to cool until it is lukewarm. Once the temperature is right (around 105-110 degrees), add the yeast, then let it sit until the yeast is activated and the mixture becomes frothy, about 10-15 minutes.
Sift the flour into a large bowl.
Add the milk/yeast mixture to the flour. Bring the flour mixture together with your hands, then knead on a lightly floured surface for approximately ten minutes. (I sifted the flour into the bowl of my KitchenAid mixer, then used the dough hook and incorporated the milk/yeast and did the kneading all in the machine, which worked out great.)
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl (I kept it in the KitchenAid's bowl, just gave it a little spray of oil on top) and cover with a damp cloth. Leave it to rise until it doubles in size, 1 - 2 hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.


for the filling:
2 apples (any variety you'd like), diced pretty fine
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
a sprinkle of ground cinnamon (to taste)

Heat a skillet over medium/medium-high heat. Add butter to pan. As it starts to melt, add the brown sugar to the pan and mix gently to combine. The idea is to combine the sugar and butter and melt the whole mixture until it becomes a simple caramel. You don't want to stir too much, but you do want to make sure that the edges (or any part, really!) don't burn. Once the mixture is golden and caramel-y, add the apples and stir to coat them. Sprinkle with cinnamon and continue to cook until the apples have softened and the caramel sauce has thickend a bit.
Remove from heat and cool completely.
The sauce will thicken more as it cools.


to prepare the buns:
Once the dough has doubled in size, gently deflate it and divide it into 16 portions. Roll each portion into a round ball.
Use a rolling pin to roll each ball into a circle approximately two inches in diameter. Using your hands, gently pull the edges out to enlarge the circle to about three inches in diameter (mine were a little bigger) (this makes the edges thinner than the center, keeping the center of the bun stronger for the filling, and keeping it from cracking).
Place a good sized tablespoon of cooled filling into the middle of the circle of dough.
Gather the edges of the dough and seal the bun.
Place the bun on a parchment covered baking sheet, seam side down.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
Brush the top of each bun with egg wash (if desired).
Bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown.
Cool buns on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

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Pineapple Chicken Stir Fry

Every once in a while, when making our weekly meal plan, daddy will list something that is more of an idea than something that we really know how to make.

That is what happened this week. Yesterday I looked at the meal plan list to see that dinner was slated to be pineapple chicken.

Pineapples were on sale this week, and we love pineapple chicken when we go out for Chinese food. I just don't have a recipe for pineapple chicken. So I wasn't sure where to begin.

Okay, that's not true. I started with google.

And I found a lot of recipes, but none of them spoke to me. Until I saw this video.  It looked and sounded delicious. There was just one catch - it didn't give an actual recipe.  So I made one up.

I started by cutting up some boneless, skinless chicken thighs and seasoning them with some garlic salt and five spice powder. I didn't measure - I just eyeballed.

I then poured in some soy sauce. Again, I didn't measure - I just poured slowly and stirred, stopping when there was just enough to coat all of the chicken pieces without actually drowning them.

The chicken was then covered and set into the refrigerator for the entire afternoon.

When it was time to prepare the stir fry, I just chose a combination of vegetables that sounded colorful and delicious. I went with sweet onion, yellow pepper (red would have been better, color-wise, but the yellow one just spoke to me...) and sugar snap peas. I stir fried them all, adding each in turn, and ended with the pineapple.

Once they were all heated through, the vegetables were set aside, and the chicken was cooked right in the same pan.  Meanwhile, I mixed up a simple sauce of pineapple juice, soy sauce, rice vineager, brown sugar and garlic, with a bit of cornstarch to thicken it and give it some body.

Once the chicken was cooked through, I added the veggies back in, topped it with the sauce, and cooked the whole thing until the sauce was shiny and had thickened just a bit.

And then it was time for dinner!

We served this over rice, but I bet it would be good over different kinds of noodles. And the best part was that everyone loved it. Everyone asked for seconds. Some asked for thirds. Little miss asked me to pack leftovers for her to bring to school for lunch.

So I now have a recipe for pineapple chicken, and I can't wait to make it again!



Pineapple Chicken Stir Fry

to marinate the chicken:
8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
garlic salt (to taste)
five-spice powder (to taste)
soy sauce (enough to toss all of the chicken to coat, but not to cover)

Cut the chicken thighs into approximately one-inch pieces and place into a metal or glass bowl. Season lightly with the garlic salt and five spice powder, then add just enough soy sauce to coat the chicken pieces. Toss lightly to ensure that all of the pieces are coated. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4-6 hours.

for the sauce:
1/3 cup pineapple juice
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 cloves garlic, minced

whisk together pineapple juice, soy sauce and rice vinegar. Add cornstarch and whisk until completely combined, making sure that there are no clumps. Stir in minced garlic. Set aside.

for the stir fry:
1 sweet onion, roughly chopped
1 yellow pepper, roughly chopped
1 12-ounce bag frozen sugar snap peas (fresh, if you have them!)
1 pineapple, cut into chunks (you could use a can of diced pineapple, using the juice for the sauce above)
the marinated chicken
the prepared sauce

Heat a large sautee pan over medium high heat. Spray the pan with canola oil spray then add the onion and peppers. Stir fry until they soften, but don't let them burn. Add snap peas to the pan, again stir frying until heated through. Add pineapple. Stir to heat.
Remove the vegetables from the pan and set aside.
Spray the pan once more with canola oil spray, then add the chicken (try not to get too much of the marinade in with it - don't want to poach the meat) and stir fry until cooked through, about 5-7 minutes.
Add the cooked vegetables back to the pan with the chicken, toss to combine, then add the sauce. Continue to cook, stirring constantly to make sure that everything is well coated, until the sauce is shiny and has thickened a little bit.

Serve over rice.

Enjoy!

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November Daring Cooks' Challenge - Brining and Roasting

Audax of Audax Artifax was our November 2012 Daring Cooks’ host. Audax has brought us into the world of brining and roasting, where we brined meat and vegetables and roasted them afterwards for a delicious meal!

When this month's challenge was announced, I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do. I have never brined anything before, but I roast things all the time - meats, vegetables... even fruits. 

Brining, in case you are not familiar, involves submerging meat (usually) in a salt-solution that imparts both flavor and moisture to the food (usually poultry, sometimes red meat or even nuts).

Now, my kitchen is not huge, and my refrigerator is usually pretty full, as you might imagine, so I wasn't sure how I was going to accomplish the brining aspect of this challenge. I knew I couldn't brine a whole chicken, since I don't have a container big enough to completely submerge one, nor do I have the fridge space to rest a container that size (if I were to have one...). So I knew I would be working with chicken pieces. 

The next challenge was that I am not a big fan of salty foods, and brines are generally pretty salt-heavy. But Audax told us that we could play around with our brining solutions, so I searched online until I found a recipe that I knew was the one for me - sweet tea brined chicken.

To make the brine, I started by boiling some water and adding in some tea bags - decaf chai tea, to be exact.

While the tea brined, little man helped me prepare the other ingredients.

Seriously, he was really trying to cut that onion with that plastic toy knife. He's shaping up to be quiet the sous chef!

The onion, along with crushed garlic cloves, a healthy helping of brown sugar, salt (of course) and some herbes de provance, went right into the steeped tea.

Once the sugar and salt were completely dissolved, the brining solution was cooled completely by adding ice cubes, and then it was ready to go.  To brine the chicken pieces (leg quarters were my choice), I placed the pieces in gallon-sized zip-top bags (two leg quarters per bag worked well), then divided the brine between the bags. Then I simply zipped the bags, put them in a 9" x 13" pan to hold them steady, and placed the whole thing in the fridge.

While the chicken brined in the fridge, I decide that I'd go all out with our dinner and roast every component. So while the chicken did its thing, I prepared our vegetable (broccoli, with some coarsely chopped onion for good measure) and starch (sweet potatoes, to pair with the sweet tea brine) for roasting.

And then everything went into the oven. Well, at staggered times - meat first, then potatoes, then broccoli (I've roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli before, so I had an idea of the timing...).

And the results?

Delicious. I was so amazed with the color on the chicken - the tea really helped it, I think. And the meat was so tender and moist - the brining really did make a difference. It didn't add as much flavor as I'd hoped, but I still thought that it was worth the extra planning and time. And the sweet potatoes and broccoli completed the meal deliciously.

Audax, thanks for giving me the opportunity to try a new technique and for presenting such a detailed and well thought out challenge!

To see the other dishes prepared in the Daring Kitchen this month, check them out here.

Sweet Tea Brined Chicken

(slightly adapted from baked bree)

2 family sized tea bags

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup kosher salt

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 lemon, thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves

1 Tablespoon Herbes de Provence

2 cups ice cubes

3-4 pounds chicken pieces (I used leg quarters)

Boil 4 cups of water, add tea bags, and steep for 10 minutes.

Stir in sugar and salt until completely dissolved. Add onion, garlic, and spices. Add ice and cool completely. Put the chicken into plastic bags and let sit in the brine for 24 hours.

Take the chicken out of the brine, and throw the brine away. Dry the chicken off with paper towels.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Roast the chicken at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 and continue roasting for 30-40 minutes more, until the chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.

Allow the chicken to rest for 10 minutes prior to serving.

Enjoy!

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Mexican Fried Rice

For this month's Secret Recipe Club, I was assigned the blog Jen's Journey. Jen is pretty much a super mom. She has two fantastic teenage kids, she homeschools, she reads, she crafts... oh, and she cooks really, really well! She is also really honest about her life and the paths that it has taken, and uses her blog to share her journey with the world. Talk about a strong woman!

I had some trouble choosing what to make, and let me tell you - there were some terrific options. My first thought was to try her homemade ketchup, since I have been wanting to try my hand at that for some time. Then I saw this amazing looking chocolate cream pie. Yum. I may just try that one for Thanksgiving! Then I saw this delicious looking honey mustard BBQ chicken. Oh my gosh. But I was worried about allergy boy having it with the mayonnaise. But I am definitely going to try an allergy-free version of it.

Then daddy asked me if we could have tacos for dinner one night and my decision was made. In perusing the blog, I'd seen her posting for Mexican Fried Rice, and as soon as I heard "tacos," I knew what we'd be having as our side!

I started by gathering the ingredients and chopping my onions and garlic.

The rice, onion and garlic were then sauteed in a little bit of olive oil...

...and then the tomato paste and chicken broth (along with any spices you are using - I used cumin and a dash or paprika) are added to the pot and the whole thing is stirred up.

Once the mixture comes to a boil, you cover it, lower the heat, and let it simmer (covered) for half an hour. Now, it is not uncommon for me to have bad luck with one-pot rice dishes, so, when timing out my dinner, I timed it to give the rice 45 minutes, rather than 30. Just to have a buffer.

And it's a good thing I did that, because when I removed the lid at 30 minutes, this is what I saw...

Soupy rice that was still pretty crunchy. NOT the idea.

I let it cook for another 15-20 minutes while we served up our tacos and corn, then gave it another try.

The flavor was fantastic. But my rice still had... umm... a bit more bite than I wanted. I have no idea what I did wrong, whether it was the style of rice or some sort of weird one-pot-rice-dish curse I seem to have... BUT I will definitely try this again, because, as I said, the flavor was delicious, so, even though it didn't work out perfectly, I would not call it a fail.

And I look forward to making many more dishes from Jen's blog!

To see the other dishes cooked up for this week's Secret Recipe Club revel, click on the links below:




Mexican Fried Rice
(only slightly adapted from Jen's Journey)


1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup long grain white rice (I used brown basmati rice)
½ cup finely chopped white onion (I used a whole onion, decent sized)
1 clove garlic, minced (I used four cloves... I like garlic!)
2¼ cups chicken broth
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1¼ teaspoon kosher salt

In a large heavy saucepan, heat the olive oil on medium-high heat. Add the rice, onions and garlic.
Saute until the rice has an opaque color and is fragrant, about 2 minutes.
Add the chicken broth, tomato paste and salt. Mix well to incorporate evenly.
Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until rice is ready, about 30 minutes.
Fluff with a fork and serve immediately.

I needed to simmer my rice for much longer, but I am not sure if that is due to the type of rice that I used or not. Jen had luck with this recipe, so I'd like to keep trying!

Enjoy!

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S'mores Cheesecake

This is it - the final Willow Bird Baking Challenge! I have been having so much fun innovating along with Julie and the Willow Bird Baking crew, and am super proud to have participated in each of the five weekly challenges.

That being said, I almost sat this one out. Not because I didn't want to participate, but because things have just been crazy busy around here, with school (little miss), work (daddy), broken legs (little man and daddy), hurricanes and random assorted other goings on, not to mention the fact that a typical cheesecake is not exactly allergy-friendly for little man. I considered trying a vegan alternative, but then decided I'd just jump in - use Julie's basic cheesecake recipe and create something the rest of us could enjoy, and provide other yummy goodness for little man.

Julie is something of a cheesecake master, and has made some absolutely amazing versions over the years. While she did not require that we use one of her recipes, I thought it would be appropriate to base my cheesecake on her tried and true base recipe.

The requirement for this challenge was to innovate a cheesecake that represents our own culinary journey.  I am not sure my selection really represents a true culinary journey, but it does represent one of my favorite flavor combinations, not to mention a flavor combination I have been thinking of incorporating into each and every one of the Willow Bird Baking challenges: s'mores.

I started with the crust - graham crackers.

I then prepared a ganache, using half milk chocolate and half semi-sweet. I used chocolate chips, but, if you are a purist, I'd recommend finding really good quality chocolate and chopping it into pieces.

The chocolate was mixed with hot heavy cream until smooth, then a couple of cups of that delicious, creamy ganache was poured right into the crust. As you can see, my crust was a little... crumby... so it fell apart a little bit as I tried to spread the ganache out, but I didn't mind too much.

While the ganache-covered crust went into the fridge to set, little miss helped me prepare the cheesecake filling. Well, she helped me get the cream cheese into the mixer.

Then she went into the other room and played. But that's an okay option for a six year old baker, too.

The filling was so light and creamy that, were it not for the eggs, I would have eaten it right out of the bowl. But I resisted, and poured it into the prepared and cooled crust.

This then went into the oven for about 40 minutes, until it was beautiful, golden and set.

But there was one problem. All of Julie's awesome cheesecakes (and the idea behind this challenge, really) have layers. This plain cheesecake layer was supposed to comprise half of the full cake. But it came up to the top of the pan. Oops.

I had originally planned my s'mores cheesecake to have a chocolate mousse layer with marshmallows folded into it on top of the cheesecake layer.  But now there was no way to give that mousse layer any structure.

So I had to resort to plan B.

I covered the prepared cheesecake with more ganache, cooled it, then topped it with lots and lots of marshmallow.

I then popped this under the broiler.  While it toasted, little man helped me crush up some more graham crackers.

And a minute and a half later, the marshmallows were nice and toasty.

We alternated layers of graham cracker crumbs and drizzled ganache to finish off the cheesecake.

Then the whole thing went back into the fridge until it was time for dessert.

The marshmallow layer was a little bit messy to cut through (next time I may try marshmallow cream or a marshmallow frosting instead...), but the whole thing was decadently sweet and amazingly delicious.

Julie, thank you so much for these amazing, fun challenges. And for the inspiration to innovate. I can't wait to try more braids, stuffed cookies, cinnamon rolls, cupcakes and cheesecakes, and will think of you and these awesome challenges each time that I do. I can't wait until you challenge us again!


S'mores Cheesecake
(inspired by Willow Bird Baking)

Graham Cracker Crust Ingredients:
2 heaping cups graham cracker crumbs
6 tablespoons butter

Ganache Ingredients:
20 ounces chocolate, chopped (I used half semi-sweet and half milk, you can use any type you like)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Cheesecake Ingredients:
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs

Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a springform cheesecake pan. Combine the cookie crumbs and melted butter in a small bowl. Toss with a fork to moisten all of the crumbs. Using a flat-sided glass, press into an even layer covering the bottom and sides of your cheesecake pan (you want it to be tall — try to get to about 2.5-3 inches high — and a little thicker than for your usual cheesecake; maybe 1/4 inch thick so it won’t crumble). Bake the crust for about 6 minutes and let it cool as you make your cheesecake filling.

Prepare your ganache: Place chopped chocolate into a medium sized, heat proof bowl.  Then, in a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream until it begins to simmer. Carefully pour the hot cream over the chocolate and allow it to sit for a minute or two. Then, slowly and carefully mix the cream and chocolate (I start with a spatula and end with a whisk) until it is smooth.

Pour about 1 1/2 - 2 cups of the ganache into the prepared crust, spreading carefully to coat the crust (even up the sides, if you can). Freeze the crust for about half an hour to set the ganache while you prepare the cheesecake filling/

For the cheesecake filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium-high speed until well blended. Beat in the flour. Add in the vanilla and beat until well incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between each addition. Pour the filling into your prepared, ganache-coated crust.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

When you pull the cheesecake out, you can use a sharp knife to score a circle around the top of the cheesecake about an inch inside the crust so that as it cools and chills/sinks, it won’t pull the crust in too much. Don’t worry if the circle you cut isn’t pretty, because you won’t be able to see it in the finished product! Let cheesecake cool completely on a wire rack. Add another layer of ganache to the top of the cheesecake before chilling it in the fridge for at least 3 hours (I let mine chill overnight).

For the S'mores topping:
mini marshmallows (I used about half a batch of my homemade marshmallows, cut into small pieces)
prepared ganache, re-warmed to drizzling consistency
graham cracker crumbs (just a little bit, about one graham cracker sheet worth - for decoration)

Remove the chilled cheesecake from the refrigerator and turn your oven to the broiler setting. Top the cheesecake with your mini marshmallows/marshmallow pieces and place under the broiler for about 1 1/2 minutes, watching very carefully. You just want the marshmallows to melt and look a bit toasty. Too long and they will burn. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and turn off the broiler. Sprinkle the marshmallow coating with a few of the graham cracker crumbs, then drizzle with some of the ganache. Repeat graham cracker crumb and ganache layers one more time, or to your preferred design/taste. Chill the cheesecake for at least one hour before serving.

Enjoy!

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