raspberry & chocolate = the perfect combination

Raspberries are one of my favorite fruits... they're so delicious - I love them plain, mixed in with yogurt, ice cream or in desserts! See my blog entry on chocolate raspberry cheesecake for a super delicious chocolate/raspberry combination. In fact, I ate a piece of that tonight BEFORE dinner... my mom made it on Sunday and I'm still snacking on leftovers! Yumm...

Anyway, back to my raspberry & chocolate cupcakes. I decided to concoct a raspberry icing recipe and try it on a basic chocolate cupcake. I used seedless raspberry jam for the flavoring, as well as a touch of raspberry syrup. I'm not completely satisfied with the result - the icing looks pretty, and I like the color (no food coloring added), but the icing tastes too much like jam. I wanted more of a natural, raspberry flavor, so next time I'm going to use the real thing. I was in the mood to experiment tonight, and I didn't have any fresh raspberries on hand, so I had to improvise! Hey, you live and learn... right? Here are a few pictures:

happy mother's day

In honor of Mother's Day my dad grilled steaks and shrimp for my mom. We had a wonderful dinner and I contributed by making a delicious chocolate raspberry cheesecake. I also made a salad, but it paled in comparison to the cheesecake, and the rest of the dinner! The cheesecake recipe is from my Aunt Bonnie, who is an amazing cook and baker. I've used many of her recipes before, but this is one of the few that turned out like Aunt Bonnie's version - so I was extremely excited. She gave me the cheesecake recipe, and many other recipes, as a wedding gift. Actually, her recipes are a chapter in Kitchen Klutter, a book of recipes my mom's best friend put together for me. I think there are 100+ recipes in that book, and I've barely broken the surface. So, shout out to Ann for compiling all the wonderful recipes, and to Aunt Bonnie for the fantastic cheesecake recipe! Here it is:

Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
Chocolate wafers, finely crushed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 cups light cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese (processed in a food processor until smooth, this is an important step to get a creamy cheesecake)
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup raspberry syrup or raspberry liquor
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
Fresh raspberries

Sprinkle chocolate wafers in the bottom of an 8" spring form pan. In a food processor mix the cream cheese and next seven ingredients until smooth. Add egg and process until just blended. Slowly pour over crumbs in spring form pan. Bake at 300 for 45-50 minutes until set. Turn off oven and prop oven door open with a wooden spoon. Let cool in oven (this will keep your cheesecake from cracking - I let it cool for about 45 min). Cover and chill for at least eight hours. Remove the sides of the pan and garnish with fresh raspberries.

I paired the cheesecake with a raspberry sauce, which was excellent and brought out the raspberry flavor.

Raspberry Sauce
One package fresh raspberries
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water

Press raspberries lightly in sieve over bowl to extract juice. Transfer juice to small pot; add sugar and cook over medium-high heat until hot, about three minutes. Meanwhile, mix cornstarch with water until combined. When raspberry mixture is hot, slowly whisk in cornstarch mixture. Bring to boil and cook two minutes, or until slightly thickened. Chill well.

Here's my Kitchen Klutter cookbook... such a great gift and cookbook! Thank you Ann!!