University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: December 4, 2003

Bakers from across the campus shared their talents with the UB community during "Kneading the Dough," a campus-wide bake sale and baking contest that was held on Oct. 24 to benefit this year's SEFA campaign.

The event, which was sponsored by the UB SEFA Publicity Committee, raised $283, an impressive total considering that all treats sold for only 50 cents or $1, according to Michele R. Bewley, assistant to the dean for special projects in the College of Arts and Sciences and chair of the SEFA Publicity Committee. The "Kneading the Dough" theme was the brainchild of the publicity committee, which wanted to sponsor a fundraiser that was linked somehow to this year's SEFA "helping hands" logo and theme, Bewley noted. "Many people wanted to have a cookie sale again (the College of Arts and Sciences sponsored a cookie contest and sale last year to benefit SEFA), so a general bake sale seemed to fit the bill perfectly," she added.

Prizes were awarded in five categories: cookies and brownies; sweet treats; cakes; breads, muffins and pastries, and pies. Serving as judges were Arthur Page, assistant vice president for news services and periodicals in the Office of News Services, who is a restaurant critic for Artvoice; Lois Baker, senior health sciences editor in the Office of News Services and food columnist for The Buffalo News' "First Sunday" magazine, and Dennis Black, vice president for student affairs.

Taking the "Best in Show" award was Kathleen Murphy, CIT, with her "Maple Pecan Pumpkin Cheesecake." Murphy's entry won first place in the "cakes" category. Mari Felschow, Human Resource Services, took second place in the cakes category with "Betty's Jello Cake."

The other first- and second-place winners and their entries were:

• Pies: First Place—Patricia Carey, College of Arts and Sciences, "Pecan/Macademia Nut Flan;" Second Place—Katharine Darling, Graduate School, "Katie's Sublime Blueberry Pie"

• Sweet Treats: First Place—Sally Sams, School of Nursing, "Lemon Bars;" Second Place—Sharon Chimera, Research Foundation Human Resource Services, "No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars"

• Breads, Muffins & Pastries: First Place—Georgian Davis, University Development, "Ham Breakfast Muffins;" Second Place—Betty Brown, Department of Electrical Engineering, "Betty Brown's Coffee Cake"

• Cookies and Brownies: First Place—Sue Geib, Student Academic Processing Services, "Brownies;" Second Place—Monica Vacanti, CAS Dean's Office, Italian Fig Cookies"

The Reporter managed to finagle some of the winning recipes to share with the university community. Enjoy!

Maple Pecan Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust

1 3/4 cups ground gingersnap cookies
1 cup ground pecans
3 tablespoons brown sugar
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups canned solid pack pumpkin
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
4 eggs

Topping

1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup maple syrup

Praline

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
3/4 cup pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9-inch springform pan.

Ground cookies and pecans in a food processor. Using a fork, combine gingersnaps, pecans, brown sugar and melted butter. Press mixture onto the bottom and two inches up the sides of the pan to form the crust. Put the crust in the freezer while preparing the filling.

With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the pumpkin. Mix in the cream, maple syrup, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing until smooth.

Pour batter into prepared crust. Bake in a water bath in the preheated oven for 80 to 90 minutes, or until center of cheesecake is set. Allow to cool in pan for 30 minutes, then refrigerate overnight.

The next day, in a saucepan combine the maple syrup and heavy cream. Boil rapidly, 15 to 20 minutes, or until thickened; stir occasionally. When thickened, pour over the top of the cheesecake.

To make the praline, spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and spread out the pecans on the sheet. In a saucepan combine the water and the sugar over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil, then simmer without stirring until the caramel is a golden or a light amber color. Quickly pour over the pecans, the set aside to cool and harden before breaking into pieces. Decorate the top of the cheesecake with shards of the pecan praline.

Macadamia Nut/Pecan Flan

7-ounce jar macadamia nuts
2 3-ounce cans pecan halves
3 large eggs
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
4 tablespoons melted butter (1/2 stick)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Reserve 48 large pieces of macadamia nuts and 56 pecan halves. Chop remaining nuts. In large bowl, with wire whisk or fork, beat eggs, brown sugar, corn syrup, melted margarine or butter, and vanilla extract until smooth; stir in chopped nuts. Spoon chopped-nut filling into pastry-lined flan pan. Arrange macadamia nuts and pecan halves in alternating circles, moving toward the center until you have filled the flan with the nuts.

Bake 20 minutes or until filling puffed and browned. Check at 17 minutes with a toothpick. If it comes out clean and the flan has a nice brown color, take it out. If it still seems loose, let it go the full 20 minutes. Serve with ice cream.

Lemon Bars

Crust

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup flour

Filling

1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons flour
2 beaten eggs
Grated rind of 1 lemon (optional)
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Glaze

2 teaspoons. butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar
lemon juice (optional) or use part water and part lemon juice

To prepare crust, mix all ingredients and pat into an 8-inch or 9-inch square pan, making edges higher than middle. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Blend all dry ingredients for the filling. Add eggs, lemon juice and rind, and pour on top of baked crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until golden or almost golden brown. Cool slightly.

For the glaze, which is optional, mix all ingredients until they reach a glaze consistency. Pour on top the slightly cooled filling. Cut into bars.

Ham Breakfast Muffins

1 box cornbread muffin mix
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon oil
1/4 cup of chopped green onions
1 cup cooked chopped ham or 1 can Hormel cooked ham
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard

Mix cornbread mix and dry mustard. Set aside. Mix egg, oil and milk together; add to dry mixture and stir just until moistened.

Pour into muffin tin and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Makes nine muffins.