Salmon Something Somethings

When you're a food blogger, you tend to have friends who are also food bloggers.... and when food bloggers talk, the conversation can start off being about anything, but inevitably, you always find a way to bring it back to food.  That's what happened the other day when I was talking to my dear friend Kim from The Finer Cookie (a fabulous blog, by the way).  I had a function to attend and I needed to come up with a quick appetizer so I asked her to share some ideas.  She spurted off a number of suggestions without hesitation, but my favorite was this one,

"cucumber slices with sour cream something, chives, and something something"  

Ha!  So here's what I came up with - pumpernickel rounds topped with garlic and herb cheese, a slice of cucumber, a slice of smoked salmon, a dollop of sour cream, and I finished it all off with a generous sprinkling of shallot salt, finely ground black pepper, and fresh chopped chives.   

I started by cutting scalloped rounds of pumpernickel bread.  Rye would work have worked too, but I really like the color contrast the pumpernickel provides.  Toast them if you like, but I didn't have time.

I used the 3rd smallest cutter from this dual sided set of cutters.  Basically, you want the bread round to be a little larger than the slices of cucumber you're going to use.

Side note - pumpernickel has always been my favorite - hard to find good pumpernickel these days.  Anyway, my grumpy kid tells me he doesn't like it at all, but guess who keeps using it to make sandwiches?  Ha!

To cut thin, perfectly even slices of cucumber, I used this nifty gadget.

Perfetto!

Alrighty then, top each pumpernickel round with a generous dab of extremely flavorful spreadable garlic and herb cheese.  

I used this garlic and herb cheese by Alouette, but garlic and herb Boursin would be delicious too. 

Top each dollop of cheese with a thin slice of cucumber and press it down to glue it in place. Then add really good quality smoked salmon and a tiny dollop of sour cream.  Starting to look pretty good, huh?  You could eat them just like this, but I have a few flavor bombs up my sleeve.  

The first is shallot salt.  I could sprinkle this stuff on EVERYTHING.  It tastes like a combination of smoky onions and garlic.  So, so good.  

Okay, so sprinkle a healthy dash of shallot salt all over.

And follow with plenty of finely cracked black pepper and chopped fresh chives.   That's all there is to it.  Now take my advice and don't turn your back on these because they disappear fast.  Enjoy!

Items used to make this recipe:

(affiliate links)

• round cutter set https://amzn.to/3HdWn2Q

• grater/slicer set https://amzn.to/3KTU9I9

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Salmon Something Somethings

makes 20 appetizers

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 10 sliced pumpernickel bread

• 2 ounces Alouette Garlic and Herb Spreadable Cheese (or Boursin)

• 20 thin slices of English cucumber

• 4 ounces thinly sliced, high quality smoked salmon

• 1 ounce sour cream

• shallot salt (garlic or onion salt would work)

• finely ground black pepper

• chopped fresh chives

Directions

1. Cut twenty 2 1/4-inch rounds from the pumpernickel bread. I used this awesome set of dual-sided cutters.

2. Place 1/2 teaspoon of the garlic and herb cheese on each bread round.

3. Add one slice of cucumber on top of cheese and press down slightly.

4. Top cucumber with bite-size pieces of smoked salmon.

5. Top salmon with 1/4 teaspoon sour cream.

6. Sprinkle liberally with shallot salt, finely ground black pepper, and freshly chopped chives. Serve immediately.

Note

• If you want to transport these, use a carrier like this. They don’t travel well on a platter because plastic wrap will smoosh the sour cream.  

Mini NY Cheesecakes

We recently celebrated our oldest son's birthday and, as usual, he requested cheesecake for dessert.  I typically make some variation of our family's favorite cheesecake, but on this particular day I simply did not have the 6-8 hours needed to bake and chill a large cheesecake. So I had to come up with a Plan B - which in this case was to make mini cheesecakes that bake and cool in about 2 hours total. An added bonus - they're pretty darn cute and super easy to serve.   Here's how they're made.

Line a very good quality muffin pan (so the cheesecakes don't burn) with very good quality cupcake liners. I really like these grease-proof ones (they peel off easily).

Instead of making a crumb mixture to put in the bottom of the cupcake liners, I opted make a base with a store-bought cookie.  We like these chocolate sandwich cookies.

A whole sandwich cookie is too much, so I split them in half and scraped out the filling.  

I placed the halved cookies into the cupcake liners like this.

 Then topped each with a level #20 scoop of cheesecake batter.  A #20 scoop is the perfect size!

The mini cheesecakes bake for 20 minutes.  When they come out of the oven, they'll be puffed up a little over the top of the pan, but they'll sink down like this while you make the topping.  

To make the topping, whisk together sour cream, sugar, and vanilla bean paste.  I love vanilla bean paste!  If you don't have any vanilla bean paste, feel free to use pure vanilla extract - you won't see any specks of vanilla beans, but the flavor will still be awesome.

Do not skip the topping - it totally makes these cheesecakes!

Pour the topping over the mini cheesecakes, being sure not to overfill the cupcake liners.  

Spread the cheesecake topping evenly and pop the pan back into the oven for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature before chilling for at least 1 hour.

Oh my - wish you could taste how amazing these are.  

Here's the recipe so you can make them yourself.  Enjoy!

Items used to make this recipe:

(affiliate links)

• professional muffin pan https://amzn.to/3T09U3d

• greaseproof cupcake liners https://amzn.to/3ga2ppy

• #20 portion scoop https://amzn.to/35CQiiD

• pure vanilla extract https://amzn.to/3WsxOYc

• pure vanilla bean paste https://amzn.to/3sV0IT2

• oreo cookies https://amzn.to/3Hambgi

• beaterblade https://amzn.to/3zAvaWb

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Mini New York Cheesecakes

makes 24 mini cheesecakes

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

Crust:

• 12 chocolate sandwich cookies, split apart and cream filling removed

Filling:

• 24 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 3 eggs, room temperature

• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Topping:

• 16 ounces sour cream

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or pure vanilla extract)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Line two high quality muffin pans with greaseproof cupcake liners.

3. Place 1 cookie half in the bottom of each cupcake liner.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a BeaterBlade attachment, beat the cream cheese and sugar together on med-low until smooth, scraping the beater and bowl as needed; add the eggs and vanilla and beat until fully incorporated.

5. Use a #20 scoop to portion the batter evenly into each cupcake liner; bake for 20 minutes (for best results, bake one pan at a time).

6. While the cheesecakes are baking, whisk the topping ingredients together until smooth.

7. Remove cheesecakes from oven and allow them to cool for 10 minutes (they will deflate and sink in the middle - this is a good thing).

8. Divide topping evenly over cheesecakes (or fill until the mixture reaches the rim of the cupcake liner); return to oven for 8 minutes.

9. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature.

10. Chill for 1 hour before serving.

Note

• To make this dessert gluten-free, simply use gluten-free sandwich cookies in place of standard cookies.