Black-and-White Cheesecake Squares

Lately, with the weather behaving in a typically Midwestern, bipolar fashion, I have found myself getting grumpier and grumpier as I alternate from one day to the next from my winter coat to wearing sandles and skirts to school. While I will stipulate to the fact that the day is somehow brighter when I'm not waddling into school wearing all the clothes I can possibly get onto my body, I also hate the task of "testing" the weather every morning. Because I don't know about you, but I don't trust my friendly local weather forecaster. CBS has Kent Earhart, and boasts that "You can count on Kent." Like hell I can. Last night I was told the weather today would be in the mid-60s. Accordingly, I wore a springy skirt, but paired it with a slightly heavier cardigan just to be safe. Cut to me, halfway through the day, sweating bullets and feeling slightly pissy about meteorologists. And what a dumb name for the weather guy: meteorologist. That name would be appropriate if he perdicted when those meteors the size of Texas will hit the earth and cause massive global extinctions, dinosaur-style. But until then, let's get real: you're the weather guy. So stop with your fancy-schmancy charts and pseudo-scientific babble and just give me the darned 5-day forecast already so that I can go to sleep.



Hmmm...that was a little more hostile-sounding than I had first intended. However, after a moment of indecision, I've decided that I enjoy being hostile about the biploar Midwestern weather. It's just not normal to go from nearly 80 degress on Tuesday to a predicted 40 degrees on Wednesday. I mean, what the heck?? It's like we all did something so wrong that we're being punished on a cosmic scale. Bah Humbug!



So to cheer myself up, and as a treat for my loving husband, who has listened to my weather rants, I decided to try making a new dessert recipe (which I generally favor). Desserts are always *real* recipes, whereas I feel bad calling something I threw together for a dinner a "recipe."



Maybe I've never mentioned this before, but I'm a *huge* Martha Stewart fan. I mean, I realize that she's unethical and probably scary as hell in person, but darned if she can't do pretty much ANYTHING in terms of cooking, interior design, crafts, etc. In fact, perhaps the only thing she's ever really failed at is insider-trading. =] Anyway, since I'm married and no longer have access to my mother's subscription to Martha Stewart Living, I have had to procure my own (Note: procuring my own consisted of begging my Mom to get it for me every year as my birthday present.). Anyway, each month when I get my Martha, I sit down and read it from cover to cover. This month though, I have had the head cold to end all head colds. As a result, I found reading bothersome (that's a real problem when you're a self-proclaimed bookworm *and* and English teacher who teaches from novels every day and thus must read every day). Basically, every time I bent my head to read, my nose started running. Not pretty. You know, you can always tell if someone really loves you if they love you even when you're sick. I mean, not pretty sick, like you just have the sniffles and still look reasonably human, but really, disgustingly sick, and unable to speak properly, much less stay awake long enough to have a meaningful conversation. So once again, major props must go to my awesome hubby.



But I digress...anyway, what with the head cold, I didn't get around to finishing my Martha until a couple of days ago. One of my favorite parts in the whole magazine is the very last page. Every month, Martha publishes one recipe from her Cookies! cookbook. For those of you unfamiliar with this tome (that's English teacher for "book") it weighs about 5 pounds and costs around $40-45 at Borders...and as much as I love cookbooks, I can't see myself buying a book that expensive for myself. Especially since the only recipes in it are for cookies (I mean, I love cookies, who doesn't; but they're a treat, not something you eat constantly if you want to be able to fit through the doors). So anyway, these recipes published in the back of the magazine rock. I know they're just there to tease us into buying a gazillion dollar cookbook, but I can withstand the pressure...I think. =]



In the back of the April issue, Martha highlighted her black-and-white cheesecake squares. The pictures in the magazine looked divine. I couldn't wait to try them. So after school today I hustled home and prepared my ingredients. While the recipe was easy to prepare, it involved several separate steps, and multiple bakings. Frankly, this was waaaay too labor intensive for an after-school project. I would have been better off baking these on a Satruday afternoon when I have plenty of time to work. As it was, I felt I was rushing the steps. That being said, however, the recipe was very elementary, if messy, to make. In the recipe below, I make special note of the particularly messy parts.



Ingredients:

Vegetable cooking spray (I use Pam.)

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder* (See note below.)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

10 ounces (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar



Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Coat a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together into a large bowl. Cream butter and granulated sugar in a stand mixer until smooth. Add 2 eggs and 2 teaspoons of vanilla, and beat until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl at least once. Reduce the speed of the mixer to low and gradually add the flour mixture. Increase speed to medium (I only increased the speed one click on my Kitchenaid Artisan, but it's a little psycho, speed-wise) until incorporated.

3. Reserve 1 cup of the dough, cover, and refrigerate. *Messy Alert!* Press the remaining dough into the bottom of the prepared dish (I used the cooking spray on my hands and even had to reapply to finish patting down the dough -- this stuff re-defines sticky!). Refrigerate for 30 minutes (not sure what this accomplished, but I did it) and then bake for 25 minutes, or until the edges of the brownie layer are puffed and the base is set. Let cool before proceeding (which means go watch TV, take a nap, get a mani/pedi, because this part doesn't go by quickly).

4. Mix cream cheese, confectioner's sugar, the remaining egg, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla in a medium bowl. *Messy Alert!* Since I had already used my stand mixer, and I'm not one of those people who buys an extra bowl for the stand mixer (where do you store it??), this part meant I had a choice of washing the mixer bowl by hand (not fun at all!) or busting out the hand mixer. So despite the additional dirty dishes (let's hope my dishwasher doesn't go on strike!), I ended up using both the stand and hand mixer (hey, that rhymes!). Anyway, spread the cheese mixture over the cooled base and crumble the remaining cup of brownie dough over the top of everything (also extremely messy -- if you've done it right, you'll look like you've been making mudpies...for 12 straight hours).

5. Bake again until the filling is set, 25-30 more minutes at 325. Let cool (again). Cut into squares and serve. Leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for about 3 days.

*Dutch-process cocoa powder is cocoa powder with alkalines added as a stabilizer, unlike natural unsweetened cocoa powders like those distributed by Hershee's, Ghiradelli's, etc. Dutch-process cocoa should be used in every recipe that also calls for baking soda as a leavening (rising) agent. Popular brands of Dutch-process cocoa powder include Lindt and Pernigotti, among others. I LOVE Pernigotti cocoa,but couldn't find any, so I took a chance and used Sacco, which combines Dutch-process cocoa with natural cocoa powder. Honestly, I couldn't tell a difference. Also, I went through my recipe file and found a bazillion recipes that call for natural unsweetened cocoa powder and also use baking soda. Hmmm...could this be a plot to force us to buy fancy-pants cocoa powders?? =]

**This recipe claims to make 24 bars. I'm not sure what Martha considers an appropriate size for these, but 24?? Considering my husband's considerable sweet tooth, I'll be lucky to get 12 out of the pan!

***Also, I thought the cheesecake layer in the magazine was much thicker than the cheesecake layer in reality. Next time I plan to double the cheesecake part of the recipe.

These are totally yummy -- fudgy and gooey, well worth the mess factor!