Winter Solstice Delights

Julekake

5.5 cups all purpose flour 

1 tsp cinnamon 

1/2 tsp ginger 

1/2 tsp nutmeg 

1 cup sugar (or more or less if desired) 

1/2 tsp Fiori di Sicilia 

1 cup candied orange peel and/or dried apricots (or that dried fruit mix they sell for fruitcake) 

.5 cup coarsely chopped almonds 

1 cup melted, salted butter 

2 cups scalded milk 

1 tbsp yeast 

1 tin of almond paste 

confectioner’s sugar for dusting

(I use a standing mixer, so my technique isn’t exactly standard.) Mix dry ingredients, sugar, and yeast in large bowl while the milk is scalding and the butter is melting. When the temp drops to about 130, pour it into the dry ingredients and mix, mix, mix. Add the fruit and nuts and keep mixing. If the dough is slightly sticky, add a bit more flour and keep mixing until the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl; turn out onto a floured surface and knead about ten or fifteen times before returning the dough to an oiled bowl to rest. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise for an hour in a warm place. When the dough has doubled, punch down; repeat. When the dough has risen a second time, punch it down again, knead it a few times and divide it into however many loaves you plan to make. Divide the marchpane into the same number of pieces and roll into a cylinder or rope. Shape the dough around the marchpane, pinching the seam and tucking it under; after the dough has been shaped, let the loaves rest on buttered baking sheet (covered with a towel) while the oven heats to 350.. about 35 minutes or so. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes and remove from oven. Move to cooling rack and let the bread rest until it’s cool, then roll it in confectioner’s sugar (or just sprinkle if you feel like being a bit more conservative with the sweetness :P), shake gently to get rid of excess.

Happy Solstice, kids. =^.^=

Not From A Box!

I've been wanting to do this for a while, but there have been a number of things sidetracking me and disrupting my kitchen activity lately. Now that things have calmed down, I can proceed with kitchen activities relatively unimpeded; since the weather is gray and yucky, I have an extra excuse to putter in the kitchen and do things like bake cookies. In the meantime, though, dinner:

3 chicken breasts cut into bite-size-ish pieces
1 tbsp peanut oil (or other, if you have allergies)
3 oz Pinot Grigio or other white whine (yes, I know it's misspelled)
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp coarse dijon mustard
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp flour
1/2 tsp spice blend (see below)
salt and pepper to taste
1 8 oz bag of shredded carrots and broccoli, or other shredded vegetables

Sautee the chicken over medium-high heat until it's cooked almost completely; season with salt and pepper. Whisk the wine, lemon juice, and mustard in a small bowl and use the liquid to deglaze the pan. Add flour, butter, and spices, and continue cooking until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened. Turn off the heat and add the vegetables, tossing to coat with the sauce. Put the lid back on the pan for about five minutes to let the vegetables steam.

Spice blend: Equal parts ground ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, black pepper, chimayo pepper, garlic powder, nutmeg, and pimenton dulce. Mix the spices together and store them in a jar. This goes pretty well with just about everything from fish to soup.

All Hail the Great Pumpkin!

This is what I get for following links. The Forum Funnies had a thread about pumpkins and pumpkin-related stuff, and in one of the posts there was a link to what amounts to a fondue served in a pumpkin instead of a fondue thingie. Now, if all my far-flung friends all happened to converge on the house at the right time of year, I would have a complete meal consisting of nothing but pumpkin things.

Appetizer: The pumpkin fondue thingie with appropriate bits of things to dip.
Soup: Pumpkin soup with cream, sherry, and sausage. Annadamma bread, while not made with pumpkin, tastes vaguely pumpkin-y, so that or some sort of brioche.
Main course: Pumpkin lasagne with Italian sausage and mushrooms. And salad.. I'm not sure there would be pumpkin there, but you need salad... right?
Dessert: Pumpkin cheesecake with a molasses-spice cookie crust. And coffee. Have to have coffee.

The whole pumpkin thing is really making me want to make these, which means I would need to either roast my own pumpkin seeds or find a good source for fresh pumpkin seeds.

Baby Bundties

I've been intrigued by the idea of baked donuts since I saw a donut pan in the Baker's Catalogue. Donut pans, as it turns out, aren't to be found locally for love or money, but baby bundt pans there are in abundance. Yesterday, I broke down and got a baby bundt pan while I was out with mom, and since then I've made two batches of pumpkin donuts; neither was what I'd call completely successful, but they weren't inedible, either.
The first recipe I tried was this one. The texture was a little lighter, but I made a couple of mistakes; I forgot the baking soda and used too much milk. Somehow, though, they turned out pretty well. The second I tried was this one, and somehow, the texture came out very dense and cakey, and I don't like it at all. Turns out I forgot to add baking soda again, which could have something to do with the problem. They're okay, I guess--everything goes better with a bourbon-nutmeg glaze, doesn't it?
I'd like to try one of the King Arthur donut mixes at some point, but I don't really want to pay UPS shipping for one package of donut mix, no matter how good it might be!

Bourbon glaze:
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup powdered sugar
about 2 tbsp bourbon

The Un-Joy of Cooking

I respect The Joy of Cooking. I really do. I'm sure updated versions published after 1975 are an absolute delight, but alas, the version lying in the kitchen is from the days before digital thermometers. You'd think that TJOC is like Julia Child: much about technique and practically infallible. It's not. Even Julia Child burnt things on The French Chef (see the potato episode from the first season if you don't believe me).
I've made several recipes from our copy of the book and every single one of them had to be tweaked one way or another to account for either modern equipment or modern ingredients--like 1975 is somehow medieval and cooking is really alchemy. Such examples include the muffins. Muffins? I like my muffins a little to the cakey side, not as bread dough cleverly shaped to resemble a slightly pyramidal muffin. Waffles? I like my waffle batter to be a little stiffer than runny yogurt, which is exactly the consistency I got when I followed the recipe to the letter. Shortbread? The jury's still out because the dough is stashed in the fridge to chill, but the recipe did require quite a lot of tweaking to get a consistency more like the results I got last time I made shortbread.
The untweaked recipe calls for a cup of butter, a cup of sugar, two eggs, two and a half cups of flour, sour cream, and a teaspoon of baking powder. I took one look at the glop in the mixing bowl and shook my head. And this is somehow supposed to be rollable-outable? I don't think anything short of a stint in the freezer would have made such a thing possible, and even then it would probably have been like the Blob oozing around on the marble slab.

The tweaked recipe is below:

Almond Coconut Shortbread
1 c unsalted butter
1 c granulated sugar
2 eggs
3 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
shredded coconut (enough to make things interesting but not enough to end up with macaroons)
4 oz slivered almonds (toasted, if you want a more intense almond flavor)
1 tsp vanilla


Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla, salt, and eggs until smooth, and add flour gradually. Add almonds and shredded coconut and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Divid dough in half and roll into a cylinder using waxed paper; chill for a couple of hours or until firm. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Unwrap dough and cut into 1/4 inch slices; put on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes or until just beginning to brown. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet before moving them too a cutting board or cooling rack.

Crumb bum...

Today was one of those crappy days where nothing seemed to go right. About the only thing that turned out was the new batch of cheese. First, I pulled out the kitchen thermometer to check the temp on the milk, and discovered that it was broken, which meant that I'd either get glass in the milk--and the cheese, obviously. I would also have needed it for the gooseberry curd if that had turned out, but it didn't.
A few days ago, I went out into the garden and picked the gooseberries which are, thus far, the about the only thing the stupid deer have left alone this year. Since mom's trying to grow things without using pesticide or other chemicals, that means the deer, the beetles, the worms, and other creepy-crawly things are having a nice time at the salad bar. The gooseberries have big, sharp thorns, however, making them less likely to be eaten by deer... but those thorns don't do much to deter bugs. I washed the berries, cooked them until they were mushy, and then started hunting for the food mill. Which I couldn't find. That left the food processor, which ended up creating a mix of seedy gooseberry pulp and shredded berry skins. I realized after I put the pulp through the strainer that--gak...--there were these horrible little white worms in the pot with the sugar, pulp, and butter. Thank goodness I had yet to add the eggs, otherwise I probably would have screamed. It was disgusting... O.o I abhor waste, but the worms gave me a reason to throw out the beginnings of what I'd hoped would be a lovely gooseberry jammy thing to have on scones or fresh bread. Ick.
So, after throwing out the gooseberry/worm mess, I decided to try making lemon curd. Well, about half the bottle of juice went into the gooseberry glop and, subsequently, into the trash, which left me with about 2/3 of a cup of lemon juice. Mom handed me three limes in the hope that I'd be able to make up the rest of the juice that way. Nope.
I get crabby when I'm tired. I get crabby and I drop things, which meant that after spending the whole day working on--and ruining--gooseberry curd, cheese, cleaning, and trying to figure out how stitches that slipped off the needles and the bloody lifeline were going to get back to where they were supposed to be, I dropped the bowl with the lime juice in it. And lost about half of said juice all over the marble slab. This caused me to deliver several loud expletives before I went looking for more citrus something. The citrus something ended up being frozen pineapple juice. I was not pleased, even though it wasn't wormy--I'm still upset about those stupid little worms...
By the time the lemon-lime-pineapple curd was ready to go into jars, I was further annoyed by the appearance of little tiny globules of egg white at the bottom of the saucepan. And this is after I was really careful and tempered the eggs!
And, on top of all of this, while I was putting away towels in the upstairs bathroom, a bottle of shampoo fell on my head and made me howl like a banshee. I swear.. I'm trying to keep my sense of humor. Really.

Lemon-Lime-Pineapple Curd:
2/3 c lemon juice
1/4 c lime juice
1/2 c pineapple juice (or a total of about 1 1/2 cups of straight citrus juice)
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1/2 c sugar
1 thermometer
1 saucepan
a clean jar big enough to hold the curd

Mix juice, butter, and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat; remove from heat and let cool to about body temperature. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and yolk; gradually add about half the citrus juice and whisk to temper the eggs. Add egg/citrus mix back to original pot and keep whisking while you warm the mixture back to 170 degrees to kill any potential bacteria. Cook over low-medium heat until thickened, then pour through a seive to make sure there aren't any lumps or other intrusive detritis. Pour into jar and let stand until it's cool enough to refrigerate.

Have I said how much I hate tempering eggs? Bleh.

Menage a Fromage

After all that waiting and fiddling around, the cheese is ready. It rested in the fridge overnight and I had some with my toast and coffee this morning... it tastes like a slightly tangy cream cheese with a faintly herby flavor imparted by (surprise) the thyme and marjoram. Next batch is going to have half as much salt. According to the suggestion on the New England Cheesemaking Supplies website, we calculated that 12 grams of kosher salt would be 2% of the cheese's weight. Toooo salty. Not unpleasantly salty, but I'm definitely using less next time. I'm also trying to figure out how to get a slightly drier texture, which might be difficult since we don't have a cheese cave and there's no place in the house where the cats and dog don't go. I'd be pretty upset if I left a cheese to cure and one of the animals either made off with it or left bits of hair on it!
Still in the process of tracking down a local source for unpasteurized goat's milk, which is tricky since West Virginia prohibits the sale of raw milk. The grocery stores around here tend to sell ultra-pasteurized or canned goat's milk if they sell it at all, and neither of those are suitable for what I want to do. The rennet should show up in the mail either today or tomorrow, but since we don't have any goat's milk to make cheese with--in fact, we're completely out of milk of any kind O.O--it's going to have to wait in the freezer until we do find some. Preferably from goats who are TB- and brucellosis-free.
Mom, I blame you for this! Like I need another hobby. Knitting, spinning, and making soap are all bad enough.
Anyway... here's a picture.

Project Fromage

I think I got it right this time.

Fromagerie

I'm usually the one who gets siezed by the impulse to pick up new hobbies, but this time it's Mom. Mom and cheese. Yesterday morning she gave a lengthy discourse on how easy it might be to make cheese using milk and vinegar, so in the evening we trotted out to the grocery store to get dog food and pick up some milk. No one said anything about needing a gallon of milk, so I just grabbed a quart from the cooler and threw it in the cart. Oops.
Turns out it wasn't that hard make half what the recipe which, according to the website she read earlier in the day, was for a gallon of milk and 1/4 cup of white vinegar. No salt, no herbs, no rennet, nothing. When the milk finally deigned to form miniscule curds, I sent Rachael a text message and she, in turn, directed me to the website for the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company.
Mom got a little discouraged when it looked like the curds weren't really doing what they were supposed to do, so it was a big shock when she unwrapped the blob of cheese this morning. Last night before I went to bed, I poured the curds into the collander and let the whey drain through a clean dish towel, and after they'd drained enough to form a cohesive mass, I hung the towel up to drain some more; the result was something similar to queso blanco. Since she wasn't really sure at which point to add the salt, she rolled it in kosher salt and hoped some of the flavor would seep into the cheese. I wonder if brining it somehow might be a good idea next time. Mom's got pictures up on her blog.
So, thanks to Rachael's suggestion, we ordered some packets of starter to make chevre if we can find some goat's milk that isn't ultra-pasteurized.

Noms

Ice cream. Chocolate ice cream.

When the theory is more fun than the practice

I want homemade ice cream, but it's just not working.
1. Last night we dug out the ice cream maker and its accompanying instruction booklets. We have two: a Green Mountain hand-cranked one that takes advantage of brawny blacksmiths and an electric one that doesn't. Since we haven't got any brawny blacksmiths alongside the pasta in the pantry, we opted to use the electric one.
2. Examined the contents of the fridge and discovered that we. had. no. dairy. products. Can't make ice cream without dairy products of some kind, right? *sigh* Definitely hard to make ice cream without dairy products.
3. Went out to the store to acquire said dairy products and ask about rock salt. Was irritated to discover they only sell it in 25 lb bags. It's summer, which obviously means I don't need 25 lbs of rock salt to defrost the driveway. Went home without the 25 lb bag of rock salt.
4. Got home with assorted dairy substances and promptly left again to buy 25 lbs of rock salt. *sigh*
5. Spent two hours bringing 3 cups of milk, 1.5 cups of sugar, and 1 tbsp of cornstarch to a simmer, and fumed.
6. Spent the following half hour tempering the eggs and trying like hell to get them to be tempered and not scrambled. Mmph.. Successfully, at least.
7. Put the machine together and discovered the ice trays were half empty. Flat out refused to go out for a third time in pursuit of ice cream-related articles.
8. In spite of not having enough ice to go with my 25 lbs of rock salt, I got the machine going. Surprise, surprise.. the machine wasn't cold enough, so the ice cream didn't get hard. It's now in the freezer going through what the manual calls the "Home Freezer Method". I do not anticipate victory.
9. I now have an inkling as to why people buy ice cream more often than they try to make it from scratch. I also now suspect I'm not likely to attempt to make pots de creme since the process is somewhat similar.
10. I want ice cream....... meh.

Binge Baking

Something is wrong. I don't know what, where, or who, but there's one of those annoying feelings that something is wrong, and it's caused me such discomfort that at 1:30 this morning I went down to the kitchen and baked oatmeal cookies. I'm not sure if it's an act of appeasement, since I'm not an appeasing sort of person, but I did feel a bit better after baking cookies, which is no easy task when the house has excellent accoustics and the people sleeping upstairs can hear (and smell) Davros, the microwave, water running for the clean-up, and the banging of baking sheets going in and out of the oven. Oatmeal cookies with maple syrup and cinnamon would probably appease at least a minor boggart... maybe...
This afternoon, I was talked into doing more baking, so I produced a batch of pecan scones. And I also proved that tinfoil isn't an impermeable substance, though how butter gets through the tinfoil and onto the baking sheet is beyond me.

How Corny...

Required for this exercise:
1 waffle iron
1.75 c all-purpose flour
1.25 c soy milk (yes, you can use cow's milk if you want)
.25 c sour cream
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
about 2 cups frozen corn nibbly-things, toasted in a frying pan (toasting is optional, really)
2 tbsp olive oil
vegetable cooking spray
1 oven
1 cookie sheet lined with foil
about 4 oz shredded pepperjack cheese

Sift the dry ingredients together into a medium mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, milk, and sour cream. Combine with dry ingredients and mix until relatively smooth (a few lumps are okay, I promise).
If you'd rather use fresh corn, you can roast it on the cob, either in a frying pan or over a gas burner if you have a gas stove. I'm calling the toasting step optional, but it sort of intensifies the corn flavor; add the corn to the waffle batter and use the waffle iron according to whatever method you prefer. Heat the oven to about 200 degrees and keep the cooked waffles warm until you're ready to eat them, and then eat them with the cheese and whatever condiments you choose.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all of you. May it be sweet and full of good things, yarny, inky, and otherwise.

Note: Recipe for the cake is the same as for the ATK Dark Chocolate Cupcakes, but done in a cake pan at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Four Wise Mice

Happy Solstice!

I know it's not just me, but for some reason this year hasn't felt particularly Christmasy; several people have remarked on this, including mom. My own reasons are sort of indefinable, though the weather may have something to do with it. We've had rain for about three days straight, and today the sun finally came out; I feel like changing the words of "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" to "I'm Dreaming of a Wet Christmas", but it ends up sounding... erm... risque. Besides the weather, PBS has insisted on airing the same pablum for its now almost incessant pledge drive, which has gone on for the past four weeks (at least!). You'd think, given the time of year, they'd find a way to air something slightly holiday-related and still use it as a vehicle for fundraising. But... no. So no "The Nutcracker" this year, and definitely no Vicar of Dibley holiday specials.

Instead, I've been busy knitting and making cookies. The gingerbread mice pictured above came about because I couldn't find the little gingerbread man cookie cutter, but this worked just as well; there are also some little gingerbread holly leaves and pine trees, but I thought the mice were a bit more picturesque. :P

New Cooking Addictions

For years and years PBS aired "Baking With Julia", which is how I learned how to make bagels, biscotti, and French baguettes. Now--shame on you for giving me another cooking show to watch, PBS!-- Julia has been succeeded by a Martha Steward production akin to "Everyday Cooking". In this case, it's "Everyday Baking". Gah... like I need more stuff to bake.
Today's show was all about baking with chocolate, and among the recipes featured was one for mint chocolate brownies. Brownies can be great on their own, but when there's a layer of little peppermint patties between layers of brownie batter, it's got to be heaven. There was also a recipe for chocolate ganache tart in an almond shortbread crust; this one seems pretty simple, especially considering how few ingredients are involved: sugar, almonds, flour, and butter for the crust, and chocolate and heavy cream for the filling.
I wonder if this will be our Thanksgiving dessert instead of the usual pumpkin pie... hmm...

Pumpkin King

Last year, after slaughtering the Great Pumpkin, there were all manner goodies produced with the puree, including soup and lasagna. The first batch of pumpkin lasagna was okay, but I suspected it would benefit from some different spices and something with plenty of heat; tonight, I got to work on a second version containing exactly that. It ended up having four different types of pepper, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and lots, and lots, and lots of cheese. No pictures, alas, but here's the new, greatly improved recipe.

Pumpkin Lasagna:
1 package lasagna noodles cooked according to instructions on package
1 1/2 containers of part skim ricotta
about two cups grated part skim mozzarella
1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb ground turkey
1 lb mild Italian sausage (not the kind in sausage casings!)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp guajillo pepper
1/4 tsp chimayo pepper
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper
salt to taste
1/4 cup red wine
2 cans pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling!)

In a large skillet, brown the meat and sausage until thoroughly cooked; add wine and continue cooking. Add pumpkin, spices, salt, and peppers, and turn off the heat. Mix thoroughly and set aside. Cook the noodles and preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Butter (or spray a large baking dish, and start layering until you run out of stuff to layer with, then sprinkle the top layer with more grated mozarella. Cover with tinfoil and bake on middle oven rack for about half an hour, then remove foil and continue baking for another ten to fifteen minutes.

Note: If you want to intensify the spices, you could heat the oil in the pan and throw all the spices and peppers in before you start browning the meat. ;)

Crunchies

Here's the solution to all the grumble-inducing stuff that happened this week. Recipe is here. Crunchies.. yum... the best way I can think of to ease a bilious disposition. For those unfamiliar with the word "bilious", look here for more on χυμός (humors).

Autumn Whimsy Redux

Now that autumn is officially here, it's time to start thinking about apple cider, pumpkins, potted chrysanthemums, and raking leaves; with this in mind, here's a neat way to celebrate the beginning of autumn. It uses the same chocolate crust as the Triple Threat Cheesecake, but you'll note, I'm sure, that the filling is quite a different beast altogether. ;) Happy autumn!

Crust:
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter until fluffy. Whisk flour and cocoa powder in a separate bowl; add gradually to creamed sugar/butter mixture. This will resemble coarse crumbs or crumbly cookie dough. Turn mixture out into the bottom of a greased springform pan and press it into an even layer using the back of a spoon or the flat bottom of a drinking glass. Bake on the middle oven rack for about 15 minutes, then remove from oven.

Filling:
1.33 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 15 oz can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling! if you have homemade pumpkin puree, that works poifectly, too.)
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, softened (about 3 packages)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
2 oz bourbon or whiskey

Get as much water out of the pumpkin puree as you can, either by letting it sit in a strainer layered with paper towels for a few hours, or by putting it between layers of paper towels and patting some of the moisture out (this takes a couple of tries). Whisk sugar and spices in a separate bowl while the cream cheese is being beaten (assuming you have something like a KitchenAid mixer… BIG help with this recipe), and begin adding sugar mixture to the cream cheese. Add pumpkin, vanilla, eggs, and bourbon and beat at low/medium speed until smooth. Add heavy cream and continue beating until everything is incorporated. Pour the filling into the springform and gently knock it against a counter or table top to get all the bubbles out. Wrap some tinfoil around the pan to keep any leaks from spilling out, and bake on the middle rack at 350 for about an hour.

Triple Threat

Triple Threat Cheesecake:

Crust-

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 stick of unsalted butter

1/4 tsp salt

Filling-

24 oz cream cheese

1 cup granulated sugar

3 eggs

1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 oz Kahlua or other coffee liqueur

Topping-

1/4 cup heavy cream, plus 1 tablespoon

1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

1 tbsp Kahlua

For the crust: Combine dry ingredients with melted butter and mix until combined. Press into the bottom of a buttered springform pan and bake on the middle oven rack for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove from oven and move on to Step 2.

Step 2: Lower the oven temp to 325 degrees. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, warm the cream until it's steaming; add chocolate chips and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and move on to making the filling.

For the filling: Combine sugar and cream cheese and mix until creamy. Add the melted chocolate and keep mixing; add the eggs and mix some more until everything is combined and smooth. Next, add the cocoa and Kahlua; mix at a slightly higher speed to get the lumps out. Pour filling into the springform pan and bake on the middle oven rack at 325 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. Poke it with a skewer or toothpick to see if it comes out mostly clean. Remove from the oven and let it rest during Step 3.

Step 3: In the same small saucepan, over medium-low heat, combine 1/4 cup heavy cream and the Kahlua and heat until warm. Add the chocolate chips and stir until melted. Add remaining tbsp of cream and continue stirring until smooth. Let cool until it's body temp, then pour over the cheesecake and spread it out. Let the cake cool until it's room temp, then refrigerate overnight. :)