Tag: recipe

The Way To A Man’s Heart …

Marissa

I may have discovered compelling Biblical evidence to support the old saying, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

While reading Song of Solomon this morning, I noticed that my study Bible had a note that “Thou hast ravished my heart” (Song 4:9) could also be translated “Thou hast taken away my heart.” I thought oh, that’s so cute, and looked up the Hebrew word. According to the lexical aids in my Bible, lâvav (H3823) can also mean “to be wise, be intelligent (Job 11:12); to make cakes (2Sam. 13:6, 8).”

So, what I’m getting from this is that it is wise to bake cakes and thereby capture a man’s heart.

I have tried this approach in the past, to no avail. I comfort myself by thinking this is due to the lack of single men in the local church areas rather than a flaw in my cooking, and still have high hopes for my cheesecakes.

I’m particularly proud of this turtle cheesecake. You won’t find this particular recipe anywhere else, because it’s one of my own. A friend of mine talked me into trying Fazoli’s turtle cheesecake, and I promptly went online to try and find a similar recipe. After browsing recipe sites unsuccessfully for an hour, I decided I’d just come up with my own.

 Turtle Cheesecake

Turtle Cheesecake
Turtle Cheesecake

 Crust

  • 1 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs
  • ¼ cup melted butter
  • 3 tablespoons caramel ice cream topping

Mix cracker crumbs and butter. Press into a greased 9-inch spring-form pan. Drizzle caramel over crust.

Filling

  • 3 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
  • 3 eggs

Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over caramel layer in crust.

Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Run knife around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim.

Topping

  • 3 tablespoons hot fudge
  • 3 tablespoons caramel syrup
  • ¼ cup chopped pecans
  • ¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Melt hot fudge and drizzle with caramel syrup over cooled cheese cake. Sprinkle with pecans and chocolate morsels. Refrigerate 4 hours.

Unleavened Banana Bread

Unleavened Banana Bread

Marissa
snow covered yard
View out the back door this morning

Following a meaningful Passover service last night, I’m devoting the daylight (and snow covered!) portion of this day to writing, and baking for Night to Be Much Remembered. My family will be getting together with friends to share a meal and remember the deliverance God accomplished in Exodus 12:40-42.

One part of Passover and the accompanying seven-week festival of unleavened bread that I look forward to each year is baking. For tonight, I’m making a New York cheesecake with unleavened crust, and my unleavened banana bread. This banana bread has become my family’s favorite recipe for this time of year. Some even prefer it to the light and fluffy version.

We received this recipe in an e-mail several years ago and I bake many loaves over the course of the seven days of unleavened bread. Since my brother has gotten older, we’ve discovered a ratio of 1 loaf to 1 teenage boy every 1-2 days must be maintained throughout the entire week.

 

Unleavened Banana Bread

Ingredients

  • ingredients for unleavened banana bread1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup oil
  • 2 eggs, well beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 large bananas, mashed
  • 2 cups white whole wheat flour (or 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup chopped nuts

Instructions

Cream sugar and oil. Add vanilla, bananas, and eggs. Beat with electric mixer until smooth.

Sift flour(s) and salt together. Add to creamed mixture, with nuts. Stir.

Pour into a well greased loaf pan.* Bake for 45-60 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the top is slightly rounded and a nice golden brown.Unleavened Banana Bread by marissabaker.wordpress.com

*The original recipe calls for using a single loaf pan, and that does work pretty well. It can be a challenge, though, to get the bread to cook all the way through without burning the edges. I now cook it in 3 mini loaf pans for 30-40 minutes, which eliminates the soggy middle while keeping the edges from burning.