Pecan Pumpkin Roll in Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp pumpkin spice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• powdered sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup chopped pecan

Cream Cheese Filling

• 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 8 oz. softened cream cheese
• 6 Tbsp softened butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Instructions:

1. PREHEAT oven to 375 F.
2.  Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan and  line with wax paper.
3.  Sprinkle towel with powdered sugar.
4. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin spice, cinnamon, and salt in small bowl. 

5. Beat eggs and sugar in large mixer bowl until thickened.  Slowly mix in pumpkin puree. Stir in flour mixture and spread evenly into the lined jelly-roll pan. Sprinkle with top with pecans.

6. Bake for 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately turn cake onto prepared powdered towel. Carefully peel off wax paper and slowly roll up cake and towel together. Cool on wire rack and set aside.

7. Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract until smooth. Set aside.

8. Unroll pumpkin cake and remove towel. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake and re-roll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Slice and serve.

Brazo de Mercedes

A favorite holiday dessert at home! Trial run for the upcoming Christmas festivities...

Ingredients:

- 12 eggs - white and yolks separated

- 1 cup of sugar

- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

- 2 Tbsp vanilla extract

- 1/2 tsp almond extract

- 1 small can condensed milk

- powdered sugar

Instructions-

Meringue:

• Preheat oven at 370 F
• Line a jelly-roll pan or large cookie sheet with parchment paper and spray with grease
• Beat egg whites with cream of tartar, while gradually adding sugar.  Mix until soft stiff peaks are attained.
• Spread egg whites on pan evenly.  Use toothed edge to comb surface of egg whites.

Filling:

• In low heat, pour condensed milk, egg yolks, and vanilla extract.  Mix briskly until it thickens.  Do not let mixture settle in heat, or it will curdle.
• Once thickened, set aside to cool

Remove meringue from oven and set aside to cool.  Once cooled, dust surface with powdered sugar.  Place a new sheet of wax paper on top of meringue surface.  Turn upside down so bottom surface of meringue is on top.  

Spread filling on the surface.  Take one end of the wax paper to roll one egde of the meringue in, until all the meringue is completely rolled in.  Leave roll in the wax paper and refrigerate for 1 hour.  Once chilled, slice and serve.

Maja Blanca Cheesecake with Mascarpone in Polenta

Fusion.  One of the things I find intriguing is fusion cuisine...especially with Filipino Cuisine.  So I have taken one of my favorite Filipino desserts, Maja Blanca, and fused it into one of my favorite things to make...cheesecake!  For those who aren't familiar with Maja Blanca, it is a pudding-jelly based dessert, flavored with coconut milk and corn.  I know, it sounds a little strange and unappealing, but it is really good!  And being not the biggest fan of anything coconut flavored, trust me--it is really good!

Besides fusing these two desserts together, I threw in a smidge of Italian in there just to make it more interesting by using Mascarpone and a polenta crust.  So, without further ado....



Crust Ingredients:

1/2 cup of polenta (dry)
1 1/2 cup of flour
1/3 teaspoon of salt
1/3 cup of sugar
14 tbps of chilled, unsweetened butter
1/3 cup ice water



Filling Ingredients:

6 oz softened cream cheese
4 oz mascarpone cheese
(You can use either of both cheese alone.  I chose to mix both since the cream cheese's acidity compensates for the silkiness and lightness in taste of the mascarpone.)
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup of creamed corn
1 cup of sugar
5 eggs
1 1/2 tbps of vanilla extract
3 tbsp of flour



Crust Prep:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1.) Cut the cold butter into flour, salt, sugar and polenta.  This should produce a dry, clumpy and crumbly mixute
2.) Add iced water to the crumbly mixture and continue to cut until fully incorporated.  The mixture should be more moist and pasty.
3.) Spread mixture onto a 9 inch springform pan.  Spread polenta dough evenly.  Put pan and dough in the preheated oven, and slightly bake for 10 minutes.
4.) Remove pan from oven and let cool for 5 minutes.  The crust should be a little drier but workable to mold further along the springform pan.  Return the pan into the oven, and bake for another 15 minutes.  Remove the baked polenta dough crust, let cool and set aside.



Filling Prep:

1.) In a mixer, in low-speed, mix cream cheese, mascarpone, vanilla extract and sugar.  Continue to mix until smooth.
2.) Add eggs, coconut milk, and creamed corn.
3.) Mix until smooth.

• Take cooled polenta crust and fill with cheese/coconut/corn mixture.  Before baking, line bottom and sides of the springform pan with aluminum foil to prevent water from seeping in during baking.  
• As rule of thumb when making cheesecake, the springform pan must sit in a bath while baking to prevent cracks on the cheesecake surface.  The water bath will help keep the surface moist during baking.  Water bath baking requires a shallow pan with water, on which the cheesecake must sit.
• Bake cheesecake for 15-20 minutes, or until the sides of filling is firm, while the middle stays wet and jiggly.  
• Remove from oven and remove from water bath.  Let stand in room temperature for 10-15 minutes, and place in refrigerator for 1 hour until chilled and firm.