That right there is the first thing I’ve baked in a little over a week.

“But Anna!” you might be saying. “Don’t you bake things all the time at work? At least every other day, right???”

Not anymore. See, when restaurant owners, especially fairly inexperienced ones, make mistakes like opening behemoth restaurants over the summer or just plain don’t realize that there’s nothing to worry about because EVERYONE experiences a drop in business towards the end of the summer…they panic and look for ways to cut costs. And they tend to attack the department they deem “unnecessary” or “excessive.” Which is, without exception, the pastry department. Meaning, me.

So, yup, unemployment….I’m not a big fan. I’ve been sleeping a lot, hugging kitties, watching tv…went on one trail at a restaurant I always thought I’d kill to work at. Walked out a few hours early after realizing I just don’t care about fine dining. So now I’m considering other things…catering, most likely. Of course if anyone were to offer me a bakery space I wouldn’t say no. ;)

After about a week I inevitably got the baking itch. So I made a plum crisp. No measuring, no recipe. I rarely use them when baking at home now anyway. About 8 red and purple plums, tossed with a little vanilla sugar and 5 spice. Sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt (both kosher and a bit of applewood smoked, which I love in desserts*) and a stick of butter. Worked by hand into a dough and dolloped on top of the plums, then baked at 375 for almost an hour, until browned and bubbly and jammy. Rewarmed to serve and topped with vanilla ice cream.

*A few months ago I developed an amazing apple pie filling. I’ve yet to recreate it with measurements but it involves buttery caramel seized with bourbon, sliced granny smiths, cinnamon, black pepper and applewood smoked salt. I’ll be making it again really soon. Just wait.

Anyway.

Before that last part went down, I’d already decided to share the recipe with you guys. It’s a little fuzzy because we were baking individual mini cheesecakes and that’s just not feasible for home cooks. And you ARE gonna need a scale. Get over it.

First, make Alton Brown’s Graham Crackers. Yes really. They’re easy, all-molasses with a nice bitterness. I figured molasses was a nice vaguely tropical ingredient. Also you can sub whole wheat flour for the graham, that’s what we ended up doing.

To make the crust and bake the cheesecake, follow the directions from Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking…From My Home to Yours” (which I keep at work for trusty basic formulas like this one).

1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsp undated butter, melted
(I omitted the salt)

Mix crumbs with sugar by hand, then pour in melted butter and work in with fingers until evenly mixed. Press into the bottom & sides of a foil-wrapped springform pan and chill, then blind bake for 10 minutes at 350F, turning halfway through. Cool before filling.

For the filling, cream together:
12 oz cream cheese
12 oz soft goat cheese
200 g (1 cup) sugar

Scrape that shit down, no lumps allowed! Then beat in:
3 eggs

One at a time, silly. Scrape some more. Don’t turn the mixer up too high, air bubbly cheesecake is no bueno. With the mixer on a nice low setting, slowly pour in:
1 cup of cream

Followed by:
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 Tbsp lime juice

Scrape again before pouring into the crust. In fact, transfer the whole batter into another container to make sure it’s smooth as can be. If it’s not, strain it. But if you’ve been scraping sufficiently all along you won’t have a problem.

Here’s where you make a choice: You can use the cheesecake batter right away OR you can keep it refrigerated overnight for better results. If you use it right away it’ll be fluffier and harder to swirl in the guava purée (that’s right). If you refrigerate you’ll get guava all through the cake, not just on top, but the batter will separate slightly in the fridge so you’ll have to transfer it AGAIN and make sure to stir gently until homogenous. It’s your call, either way let the batter come up to about room temperature before using or your cheesecake will take an ungodly amount of time to bake.

Anyway.

You’ll need that guava purée I mentioned. If you have any Latin groceries near you, check in their freezer case. Goya makes totally fine tropical fruit purées. It’ll go by the Spanish name “guayaba.” You can also drop a ton of money on way too much purée from a company like Boiron, or go find yourself some guavas to purée. Either way you need it thawed and homogenous. Once the batter is in the pan, dribble a bunch of purée on top of the batter and swirl it in. Add more if you like. If you add a ton the extra water in it will add a lot of cooking time but you’ll end up with swirls of what is essentially guava paste at the end.

Oven at 325F, water bath at the ready. I think you’re gonna have to cover this sucker with foil lest his top burn before his middle is cooked, we baked the individual ones uncovered but they only took about 20 minutes as opposed to the hour or something that a big cake takes.

I’m assuming you know how cheesecakes work. So, bake, cool, chill, unmold, slice, eat. This goes particularly well with more acidic fruit sorbets, I served it with passion fruit but lime would also be wonderful.

Edit: Here’s a photo of a large scale version of the cheesecake as made by a former assistant of mine. Thanks Tiago!!!

The dessert that was deemed as “disgusting sounding” by an owner. Later sucker.

And things are going great! Better than expected, even. We were both ready to storm out when Chef left but…this is a chance to make a great place even better, and do what makes us happy. With a loyal kitchen staff behind him and an enthusiastic back and front of house behind me, we’re kicking ass.

My somewhat conceptual rhubarb dessert.

In fact I have literally been told on several occasions recently, “do whatever you want.”

Roasted strawberry tart. No daily fuss with fresh berries!

We’re tweaking and transforming the menus. Gone is the weird burger with sprouts, the crab dip, the brunch pastry basket.

Completely insane pineapple Jammy Tart.

We have a loyal enough following of regulars that I can fearlessly challenge them and myself at the same time.

Japanese cotton soft cheesecake…made like a sponge cake, baked in a water bath.

I’m also currently still setting up my gorgeous new apartment with my fiancé (we have a private backyard and counter/cabinet space for miles!) and hugging Slappy, the cutest kitty in the world, daily. And I’m hoping to start sharing short but sweet recipes again soon!

Slappy says “hi, I’ll slap you!”

Champagne Cupcakes

Stuffed!

Cross- Section

Anyway…those changes. Well, I moved, still in Brooklyn, but a different part. It’s got lots of parts. It’s big. My reason for moving is related to my love life and how there is someone new in it. I like him. Lots. The third change is related to my job. Very soon I won’t be all alone, so lonely, tweaking out about making all the desserts myself. We’re opening a second, much much much bigger restaurant a block down the street and guess who’s in charge of all things sweet o’er there. Yeah. So, it was decided that production for both places would be in the nice big shiny new kitchen, and that I could hire helpers.

Helpers! My very own army of minions! Three of them! Yup. Three makes an army, right? Okay. I’m basically trying to assemble a team of totally awesome Pastry Superfriends. With unique abilities and special powers. The applications are in, I hate my inbox and the interviews have begun. My little calendar app has never seen so much action. And I’ll be continuing this saga shortly so totally come back and stuff.