Coconut Cream Pie Easter Baskets

Since it's the season, I thought it would be fun to make some holiday themed treats. This week is Easter, and next week I'll be making something for Passover!

I'm Jewish, but my sister and I always got Easter baskets while growing up. I think it's just one of those cultural things now that some people do, regardless of their religious leanings. Plus, I think Jim Gaffigan summed it up best when trying to figure out what some of the Easter symbols really had to do with the holiday

Don't worry, there's a bunny!

For this treat, I used 7 half-pint wide-mouth mason jars, and since I don't have my own, I used Ken Haedrich's recipe for coconut cream pie from his wonderful book, "Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie." Also, I used my own pie dough, but you could easily substitute store-bought, and come out with delicious results. I definitely need some practice getting the dough into the jar though, let me tell you it was not pretty, stupid non-sloping sides!

Anyway, start out with clean/dry jars and your pie dough of choice. Roll out your dough and fit it into each of the jars, coming up the sides, but not all the way to the top (I tried to stop once I reached where the threading matches up for the lid to screw on). Then freeze the jars for at least 15 minutes so that the dough is frozen solid.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and take the jars out of the freezer. Because this is a cooked/custard pie, you will need to fully pre-bake the crust, since the actual filling will be cooked on the stove and then refrigerated to set. Press strips of aluminum foil into the dough lined jars and try to mold them to the sides as best as possible (this is why we freeze the dough, so that you don't mess it up when you're lining it with the foil). Then fill them to the top of the crust with pie weights or dry beans. Once your jars are all set, put them in the oven for 15 minutes. I recommend putting them in within casserole dishes, this way if they slide around when you're taking them out of the oven, they're infinitely less likely to slide off and crash to the floor. After the initial 15 minutes, remove them from the oven,  lower the oven temp to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and take out the foil/beans/pie weights - this has initially set the crust so that they're much less likely to shrink once you finish baking them. Using a fork, poke small holes around the inside and bottom of the crusts and stick the pans back into the oven for 15-17 minutes, or until they're golden brown. Be sure to check on them occasionally and if you see the crusts starting to puff up, just press them down with the back of a small spoon.

Once you're crusts are finished baking, set them aside to cool and prepare your filling according the the recipe you choose. Once finished, pour immediately into the finished crusts and press plastic wrap down on top of them while they cool so that they won't develop a skin. After they've cooled, pop them in the fridge for a least 3 hours and you're almost done!

Because I wanted to make these up as Easter baskets, I decided to top them with coconut that I'd dyed green. I found some very easy to follow instructions from the blog, "Musings of a Glamourpuss." Once topped with the edible Easter "grass," I placed a marshmallow bunny, some brightly colored jellybeans and candy eggs on top and voila! A pretty and edible Easter basket in a jar. I tied some ribbon around the outside to give it a little extra cuteness and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Let me know what you think!

Baby Food Jar Cheesecakes

This is the first thing that popped into my head when I decided to start this blog. I was rinsing out my son's baby food jars when I decided that they would be the perfect receptacle for tiny cheesecakes. Plus, it only makes sense to try and reuse them since he goes through so many!

The first thing that you'll need to do is clean and sanitize your jars, because heaven knows, nobody wants a cheesecake with pureed green beans in it (or do you??). Clean your jars thoroughly, and then put them in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. Once they've dried, you'll be good to go (This recipe uses 9 4oz jars).

For your crust, mix together 1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs and 1 Tbsp of melted butter (margarine is for jerks). Scoop 1 Tbsp of the graham cracker mix into each jar and use the back of the spoon to press it into the bottom to form the crust. Once you've done this for each jar, place them in the freezer to set while you mix the filling (side note: if you ever make too much graham cracker mix, like I did, and you plan on using it in a couple of weeks, you can store it in your fridge in an airtight container. You don't even need to use it as a crust - sprinkle it on a hot fudge sundae - yum!)


Ingredients:
13.5 oz softened cream cheese
4.5 oz sugar
0.25 oz cornstarch
zest of 1 small lemon
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
2 oz heavy cream
0.15 oz lemon juice

Equipment Needed:
9 4oz baby food jars
casserole dish
cookie scoop
Stand or handheld mixer with paddle attachment

Mix together at medium speed, the cream cheese, sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, vanilla and salt until combined. Scrape down the bowl as often as needed to make sure that there aren't any rogue lumps of cream cheese.

While the mixer is running, add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Mix until just combined.

With the mixer on low, slowly add the heavy cream and lemon juice. Scrape down the bowl and you're ready to fill your jars!

Use the cookie scoop to fill your jars - do not fill them all the way to the top! I left about 1/4" between the top of the filling and the bottom ridge of the threading, where you'd screw the cap on. This way you won't risk them overflowing, and they'll be easier to cap and freeze, if you know, you don't eat them all the day they're made. Also, if you leave the extra room, you can make a compote with a little fruit and sugar, spoon it into the top of the jar before you serve it and it'll make your cheesecake that much tastier.

Once your jars are filled, place them inside a 9x13 casserole dish and set them in the center of a 350 degree oven. Pull the oven rack out slightly, and very carefully pour water into your casserole dish so that it surrounds the jars, and rises about halfway up the sides. It's safer to pour the water in once the dish is already in the oven, because that way you're less likely spill water everywhere. Just be careful not to get any of the water into the jars or it will mess up your filling. Also, just because it can hold in cake batter or soft ice cream, do not suddenly decide that your rectangle springform pan is the best thing to use for your water bath. The water will leak out, and then you will be left mopping your kitchen floor and cursing your previously beloved springform pan (What? That never happened....).

Bake the jars in the water bath until they set, about 25 minutes. Basically, if you want to see if they are done, jiggle the pan a little. If the tops of the cheesecakes move, they're not done. If they stand firm, they're ready to come out of the oven. Once you take your pan out of the oven (Carefully! Remember, it's now filled with hot water), set it on a cooling rack, and let the cheesecakes cool while still in the pan.

And there you have it! Like I said, the extra room that you leave at the top of the jars will provide the perfect amount of space for a fruit topping, here are two examples of ones that I made:

Caramelized Apples

Fresh Strawberries

Once they're finished, you can keep them in the fridge for a couple of days, otherwise freeze them, and when you feel a craving for cheesecake coming on, let it defrost in the fridge and you'll have a nice little serving without needing to have a whole cake on hand (which is never really a problem).

Welcome to My New Blog!

Hello everyone! I've been looking for a new project, and I'm very excited to introduce you to my new blog - The Ballin' Buffalo Baker. It's a little nod to the Ball brand of mason jars (which were first manufactured in Buffalo, NY - where I live!)

My main plan is to make this a space where I can share my pastry projects, which will all be baked/assembled in a variety of jars. I know that I'm not the first person to have the idea to bake something in a jar, but I'd like to take the idea and run with it. Embrace the fun and whimsy of it, and just take this opportunity to be as creative as possible with the restraint of eventually presenting it in a jar.

I'm starting small (literally!) by making tiny cheesecakes in leftover baby food jars and jumping forward from there. I hope that you'll enjoy reading my posts, and if you have an idea for something that you think I should try and make, please let me know!

Lots of Love,

Brooke