A Mexican Dessert - Pay de Queso

So... my mom, Aurora, is an English teacher in Mexico and she told her students about my "cooking blog", they brought some recipes for her so she would send them to me and I am supposed to choose one or two recipes to share here... I feel bad picking just one or two, I am just excited they wanted to participate and they liked the idea about me blogging their recipes... I don't like the idea of leaving anybody out so I am going to try to mention all the "participants" by name... and the recipes I got were:

• Capirotada (Mexican dessert, it's kind of a "bread pudding" type of thing) by Maria Fernanda.
• Very Berry-licious smoothies by Ana Graciela Villarreal
• then I got a recipe by Cesar Ofreb Guzman but it didn't really have measurements so... yeah... I am skipping that one, thank you anyway Cesar! 
• Tilapia topped with anchovies (I think that's what it is and the recipe sounds really good) by Andrea Peña
• Garlic Spaghetti by Juan Manuel Bautista
• Cheesecake by Josue Medina
• Potato pellets (I guess it's like a potato cake, something like that, sounds really good!) by Felipe
• Another "cake recipe" by Gerardo Daniel Rodriguez, but I think he used Cesar's recipe without measurements and just added "some chocolate" to it... mmm doesn't sound like a cake would really come out of it... thanks anyway Gerardo.
• Strawberry cream (yummy) by Lizbeth Mendez
• Chocolate bread pudding by Cesar Armando Orozco
• Spanish style Chicken paella - It didn't have the name of the person who submitted the recipe... sorry!
• Chocolate cookies by Daniela Montejano
• Cornbread by Yohanna
• Cream Cheese Dip with Jalapeno and Ham by Alexa Rodriguez
• Chocolate biscuit by Elisa Cadena
• Chocolate Chip Cookies by Marlen Benavides
• Chocoflan (I love this dessert!!) by Melissa Arizoca
• Mango Pie (yum) by Liliana Figueroa
• Hot Cakes by Pamela Mejia
• Flautas (Mexican Chicken taquitos)  (no name of the person who submitted)
• Enmoladas by Leopoldo Guerra

 My mom was really pushing the "capirotada recipe" I am not a big fan of bread puddings, so this is not my choice... but I think I'll just share the cheesecake recipe today (it's a Mexican version of the American cheesecake)


PAY DE QUESO

Ingredients: 
For the crust:
1 Graham cracker crust (for Mexican version use "Galletas Marias" - Marias crackers which you can find in the "Hispanic Foods Aisle") just mix two cups of cracker crumbs with 1/3 cup of melted butter until well combined. Press mixture firmly onto bottom and sides of a 9" pie pan. Refrigerate until ready to use.
For the "cheesecake"

1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
1 12 oz. can of evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
6 oz. of cream cheese 

Elaboration:
 - Preheat the oven at 350 F. Blend the milks, eggs, cream cheese and vanilla for about 1 minute, pour over prepared crust. Bake for about 45 minutes or until center is almost set. Enjoy!

Thank you Josue for sharing this delicious recipe! I will probably be trying some of the other recipes soon and hopefully sharing them in the future.

© Paloma King

Announcements and The Cake Slice

Hello fellow bloggers and friends! Sorry for such a long time that I haven't posted here! I've been focused on re-gaining my health (through exercise and strict diet) so I've had to slow down with my cooking and baking (particularly baking) I am still on the fight of losing weight/getting stronger and I still have a long way to go! But to make things better I have a friend who has joined The Coffee Shop! So we are now a team! His name is Brand and he'll be posting some of his recipes and tips here, sometimes even random stuff! Why not? he has a witty/funny personality and I know he'll be a great addition to this blog!

Now... let me quickly share with you about "The Cake Slice" as you know, I am a baker there! I've been a horrible member of the group because we are supposed to bake 1 cake a month, we all agree on baking a certain cake in advance and then we publish it on the 20th of each month. I've been an active fellow-blogger and they know the very reasons why I am not baking as much but I don't want to "abuse" their understanding so... here I am ... baking "the cake of the month"

This time it was the turn for "Individual Warm Chocolate Cakes" and they were absolutely bliss! We are baking our way through The Cake Book by Tish Boyle and I just absolutely loved these! I've had my own experience baking "molten cakes" so I knew what I was looking for... I did some "changes of my own" with semisweet chocolate instead of bitter chocolate and also used a cupcake pan instead of ramekins (for smaller portions), let me give you a tip... if you want your molten cakes to really FLOW you need to get them out of the oven as soon as you start seeing tiny cracks to form on top... otherwise they'll just overcook and miss the whole "molten" part of it. Here is the pictures of the individual warm cakes I made:

 And you can see how successful they were... here:

I will not be sharing the recipe this time just because I am in a little bit of a hurry but I'll be posting it on my FB page tomorrow: The Coffee Shop on FB

© Paloma King

Creamy Pumpkin Cheesecake with Ginger Pecan Crust

Hello everybody! I said I would be mostly absent from my blogs due to Holidays, Family Commitments, etc... But I am here today to post about my baking adventures with my friends from The Cake Slice.

This year we are baking from"The Cake Book" by Tish Boyle . If you LOVE baking that book is a "MUST HAVE"! I really think so!!! I've gotten great recipes from that book and my husband feels like it was money well spent! How wouldn't he? When he gets to enjoy all the wonderful things I bake.

So, this month we voted to bake a delicious Creamy Pumpkin Cheesecake with Ginger-Pecan Crust. It is really, REALLY easy to make! Even if you have never made a cheesecake in your life. This cheesecake is also very forgiving! I had MANY MISHAPS (including having to postpone baking the batter for about 3 hours because I didn't have a roasting pan -which I was sure I did- for the water bath) while baking it and still turned out perfect! Beautiful! and with no cracks!!

The secrets for this cake to avoid cracking are the use of cornstarch in the batter which helps with the structure of the cake, baking it slowly in a waterbath and running a paring knife around it as soon as it gets out of the oven.

I am not going to share the recipe publicly this time! But if you are interested in making this delicious pumpkin cheesecake to impress anybody at Thanksgiving please send me an e-mail to: love.for.coffee@gmail.com and I will send it to you... Here in the blog I am choosing to invite you TO GET THIS WONDERFUL BOOK! Let's support authors and people who make our life sweeter! Don't you think?

So... I will share some pictures of my cake below. I also want to mention that registered it for a contest (There was a Thanksgiving dinner in the apartment clubhouse where I live and all registered desserts would participate in a contest) I didn't win but I didn't feel bad at all... MY dessert was the only one that was completely gone! And ... I lost to a "BANANA PUDDING FROM A BOX" Which was really SHOCKING! This cheesecake definitely should have won the prize! And it's not the fact that I made it why I say so! All the credit goes to the creator of this recipe ... Tish Boyle! ... It truly had no rivals that could compete with it in that contest!!! It was creamy, the flavors were balanced and still deep! The crust was just delicious and like no other crust for a cheesecake I've ever had! it tasted fresh and warm at the same time and to make it even better it was topped with homemade whipped cream and roasted sugared pumpkin seeds with a hint of cinnamon that just took it to a higher level. Just perfect to have with a cup of strong coffee I think.

I wish I could share a slice with you:

© Paloma King