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33 try, but only one claims chocolate crown
Journal Photo by Bruce Chapman
Angie Cranor of Colfax shows off her entry of Double-Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake, which won first place in the Ghirardelli Chocolate Championship at the fair.
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Published: October 8, 2008
The aroma of chocolate drifted through Yesterday Village on Sunday night, drawing hungry visitors to the pavilion where the Ghirardelli Chocolate Championship was being held.
Thirty-three cooks entered their favorite chocolate creations in the contest at the Dixie Classic Fair.
The contest rules allowed any type of dish using any kind of Ghirardelli chocolate product.
That latitude produced a wide variety of sweets, including cakes, pies, candies, trifles and more. Contestants paired chocolate with such nuts as pecans, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts and macadamias. They used strawberries, cherries, raspberries, bananas, cranberries and lime. Some desserts contained espresso or whiskey.
Even with the variety, two of the winners were cheesecakes.
Angie Cranor of Colfax, a professor of early-childhood development at UNC Greensboro, took first place with her double-chocolate caramel cheesecake. Her dense and intense dessert featured a crust that combined graham-cracker and chocolate-cookie crumbs, a caramel layer and both white and regular chocolate fillings.
"My husband loves cheesecake, so this was a chance for me to do something he liked," she said of her decision to enter a cheesecake in the contest.
She almost entered something else. "I actually did a taste test with family and made a few different things. They didn't pick the cheesecake, but I decided to enter it anyway."
Rebecca Shores won second place with chocolate almond toffee. This has whole almonds in the center, a deep chocolate flavor, and is doubly nutty with a sprinkling of chopped pecans on top. "This is an old family recipe," Shores said. "I entered it because whenever anyone has a taste of it, they say they've got to have more of it."
Denise Hunt won third place with a different type of cheesecake, a light and fluffy unbaked white chocolate cheesecake with a twist of lime.
"I do a lot of baking, and this is my cheesecake of choice," said Hunt, a receptionist in a doctors' office. "This is the one my co-workers want me to bring in to work all the time."
Double-Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake
First place by Angie Cranor of Colfax.
1 cup graham-cracker crumbs
1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs
⅓ cup plus ¾ cup granulated sugar, divided use
½ cup butter, melted
30 individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped
3 tablespoons milk
3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
⅔ cup semisweet chocolate chips
⅓ cup white chocolate chips
Garnish (optional)
¼ cup semisweet chips, melted
10 white-chocolate chips, melted
2 caramels melted
1. In a medium bowl, combine graham-cracker crumbs, cookie crumbs, ⅓ cup of the sugar and the melted butter. Mix well. Press into the bottom and up 1 inch of the sides of a 9-inch springform pan.
2. For the caramel filling, combine caramels and milk in a small saucepan. Cook, stirring over low heat until smooth. Pour hot caramel mixture over the crumb crust. (Make sure the caramel mixture is very hot when you pour it. Do not try to spread it or else it may tear up the crust.) Place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
3. Heat oven to 325 degrees.
4. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until slightly smooth. Add remaining ¾ cup sugar and the vanilla. Beat until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Set aside one third of the mixture in a bowl.
5. Melt the white-chocolate chips and the chocolate chips in separate bowls by microwaving each on medium heat for 30 to 40 seconds. Stir the melted white chocolate into the reserved third of the cream-cheese mixture. Stir the melted regular chocolate chips into the remaining two-thirds of the cream-cheese mixture.
6. Pour the white-chocolate mixture over the chilled caramel filling. Pour the chocolate mixture over the white-chocolate mixture.
7. Place a pan of water on the lower rack of the oven to help prevent cheesecake from cracking. Put springform pan on the center rack and bake about 50 minutes, until the center is almost set. Turn off the oven, crack the door open, and leave the cheesecake in the oven as it cools, for several hours. Once cooled to room temperature, refrigerate it at least 5 hours before serving.
8. To garnish, if desired, first pour the melted semisweet-chocolate chips over the entire top of the cheesecake. Then put the melted white-chocolate chips in a pastry bag and draw three thin, evenly spaced concentric circles on top of the chocolate layer. Then put the melted caramels in a separate pastry bag and draw two thin circles in between the white circles. Finally, take a toothpick and carefully pull through the white-chocolate and caramel lines, working from the edge of the cake to the center. Do this about 8 times at evenly spaced intervals to create a decorative pattern. Let topping cool and set before serving.
Chocolate Almond Toffee
Second place by Rebecca Shores. This recipe is made a little differently from other toffees, it but produces a wonderfully smooth texture. If the butter begins to separate, quickly remove the mixture from the heat, beat it thoroughly, and reduce the heat a bit before continuing.
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 pound salted butter
2 cups whole almonds
12 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 cups pecans, chopped
1. Grease the surface of a large slab of marble (or a baking sheet) and chill.
2. Dissolve sugar in water over medium-high heat in a saucepan. Cook until it spins a thread (220 to 233 degrees on a candy thermometer).
3. Add butter to sugar mixture, one stick at a time, waiting till each stick dissolves before adding the next. As soon as the butter is melted, add almonds and reduce heat to medium. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 25 to 30 minutes, or until you hear a nut or two make a quiet pop or thump. Immediately remove from heat and spoon onto the chilled greased marble or baking sheet to cool.
4. Meanwhile, melt chocolate in a double boiler (or mixing bowl set over a pan of simmering water).
5. When the almond mixture is cool, spoon half of the melted chocolate over the top and cool again.
6. Flip over the entire batch of candy and spoon remaining melted chocolate over the other side. Sprinkle with chopped pecans and let cool.
7. Chop toffee into about 30 pieces. Store in an airtight container.
White Chocolate Cheesecake With a Twist of Lime
Third place by Denise Hunt.
Crust:
2 cups graham-cracker crumbs
⅓ cup sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted
Filling:
5 tablespoons lime juice
1 1.25-ounce package unflavored gelatin
2½ cups heavy cream, divided use
10 ounces white chocolate
3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon grated lime zest
Garnish (optional)
Shavings of white chocolate.
1. For the crust, combine the graham-cracker crumbs, ⅓ cup sugar and melted butter in a bowl. Press into the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan.
2. Combine lime juice and gelatin, stirring well; set aside. Over medium heat, bring ½ cup of the cream to a simmer in a saucepan. Reduce heat to low and add the white chocolate, stirring continuously until the chocolate has melted. Stir in gelatin mixture and allow to cool.
3. Using an electric mixer, blend softened cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and lime zest until smooth. Gradually add cooled white-chocolate mixture to cream-cheese mixture until well combined.
4. In a chilled bowl of an electric mixer, whip remaining 2 cups cream until stiff peaks form. Fold whipped cream into cream-cheese mixture. Pour over crust in springform pan, cover with plastic wrap and freeze overnight. Keep refrigerated until a few minutes before ready to serve. If desired, grate or shave bits of white chocolate on top of the cheesecake just before serving.
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