Results of Karen's Latest Affair with the Oven...

Saintly Carrot Walnut Cake... made Sinful with Cream Cheese Frosting Perfumed with Pure Vanilla...
Chocolate Moist Cake... Slathered with Rich Chocolate Ganache... Death by Chocolate...

Oreo Cheesecake

I made a cheesecake at the request of Sunny for our post-CNY BBQ dinner - instead of those plain or lemon cheesecakes I used to make, I made an Oreo one for a change this time.

Recipe :

3 packs of 150gms of Oreo chocolate and cookies (1 1/2 packs finely crushed in food processor; which is about 20 cookies)
1/4 cup melted butter
2/3 can of sweetened condensed milk (of 505 gms can) - already very much reduced sweetness
500 gms Philadelphia cream cheese
3 eggs (as those I had were not so large)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp lemon juice

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 325 deg C

2. Mix crushed cookies with melted butter. Press evenly onto a a 9" springform pan.

3. Cream the cheese till fluffy; add in condensed milk and beat well.

4. Beat in eggs and vanilla extract and lemon juice till well incorporated.

5. Break remaining cookies into quarters or chopped coarsely and mix in.

6. You can place some mini Oreos on top of cake if like (I didn't have mini ones, so, used the large ones instead which made cutting the cake after a bit difficult).

7. Pour mixture onto the springform pan and bake for 50 to 60 mins at 325 deg C. Centre still wobbly but springs back when touched. Run knife or cake tester along the side to loosen cake - toreduce risk of cake cracking in the middle.

8. Let cool before placing in fridge for at least 4 hours to chill. Best is to chill overnight.

Cornbread

Yesterday, the great party guru, Elsa and her roomie Beth (who is also my swimming instructress) along with Tim and Sai hosted chilli night.

Tim made a huge cauldron of meaty beef chilli while Elsa made a refined vegetarian version with bulgur wheat.

Both version were great - the long hours of simmering brought out the natural sweetness of beans and vegs. Barry had four servings while I had two! We had the chilli with lots of bread and also cornbread which I had freshly made.

Initially, Barry wanted to make 7-layer dip but the tortilla chips were out of stock. So, we made artichoke and spinach cheesey dip served in a rye bread instead. Since it isn't exactly a chilli-themed dish, I added a little "fire" with dashes of Tabasco and sprinkling of hot chilli powder.

Original cornbread recipe from : Bakingbites. I modified as follows :

Buttermilk Cornbread

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
2 tbsp sugar
1½ cups milk + 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice and let stand for 15-20 minutes till curdled
1 egg
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 200 deg C and lightly grease muffin pan (makes 12 exactly). I used veg. oil to make the cornbread come out easier from the pan.

2. Whisk together cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and sugar in a medium bowl.

3. In a large bowl, beat milk+lemon juice mixture, egg, honey and vegetable oil until well blended.

4. Stir in dry ingredients, mixing until no streaks remain.

5. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

6. Bake at 200 deg C for 23-28 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.

7. Serves 12.

I actually like the cornbread warm with lashings of good salted butter. Sinful!

Herbed Cheese Straws

I made these for the guys' poker night last week - I always put myself in the guests' shoes in the sense that I would love to have a wide selection of drinks and also little nibbles. Yeah, eat, drink and merry!

I have already made chocolate chip cookies and wanted something savoury and cheese-y that would go well with beer. I came across this recipe from BellaOnline.

My modified version below :

Ingredients :

200 to 225gms sharp cheddar cheese, grated
100 to 125gms Mozzarella cheese, finely grated
1 1/2 cups plain flour
60gms unsalted butter
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon ground hot chilli
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 tsp dried mixed herbs (I used Italian herbs mixture)
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce

Directions:
1. Cream butter and the 2 cheeses.
2. Combine flour, salt, chilli, paprika, herbs and worcestershire. Mix into the butter-cheese mixture.
3. Using a 1/2cm pastry tip, draw out into individual 2-inch little strips. Make sure some space for dough to spread.
4. Bake at 190 deg C until slightly browned, approximately 15 minutes. Once completely cooled, store.

Basically, I have used Mozzarella instead of Parmesan-Reggiano and added some Italian herbs to add a hint of fragrance. They were so delicious! I had to slap myself on the hand to stop gobbling them up! Personally, I thought it was almost impossible to get the worchestershire sauce to spread evenly throughout the dough.

I am pretty sure I wasn't the only fan - I came back after seafood dinner and drinks with the girls to find both cookie and cheese straw jars empty.

Some ideas from BellaOnline for these :

Serve on a dish beside a bowl of tomato soup and half a cheddar grilled cheese sandwich.

Serve as an edible dipping tool for guacamole dip; french onion dip or warm artichoke/spinach dips!

Tie several cheese straws together with a green onion leaf and present inside a beautiful tin along with a packet of your own BBQ rub as a welcome gift for new neighbors or work colleagues. (I love this idea!)

The cheese straws are a great background flavor for testing hot, sweet and savory spices!

Serve a dish of your cheese straws with slices of tomato, apple and cheeses with chilled wine for a spicy twist on a simple appetizer.

Cheese straws add wonderful crunch when crumbled over a salad or crumbled inside a wrap or sandwich! Enjoy this spicy, versatile little cheese powerhouses!!

Almond Shortbread Cookies

I love shortbread cookies - especially those with nuts (as I have said before, I am nuts about nuts!). So, this morning I made a batch of almond shortbread cookies adapted from this recipe from Joy of Baking.

Ingredients:
125 grams salted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup (90 grams) + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (30 grams) + 1 tbsp almond flour (meal)
2 tablespoons (15 grams) rice flour

Method:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) with the rack in the middle of the oven. Line baking pan with parchment paper (I use Glad Bake).

In the bowl of your electric mixer cream the butter and sugar until smooth (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl whisk together the flours (all purpose, almond, and rice). Add this mixture to the butter and sugar mixture and beat just until incorporated.

Press the shortbread dough evenly into the baking pan to form an even circle of about 8mm thick. Prick the surface of the shortbread with a fork to prevent the shortbread from puffing up. Using a sharp knife, score (make shallow lines) the top of the shortbread into 8 even pieces.

Place in preheated oven and bake until it is nicely browned (biscuit color), about one hour 15 minutes. Transfer shortbread to rack and cool for five minutes before cutting into 8 wedges (along the lines scored) on a cutting board. Cool completely on a wire rack.

The cookies were light with the almond flour adding a subtle nutty aroma to it.

The recipe allows a choice between rice flour or cornflour - the next time I would try with cornflour for a more delicate texture.

I would think drizzling some melted dark chocolate on the surface after cookies are cooled would be decadent.

Delicious with a pot of coffee or tea as tea-time treat. Or hot chocolate.....

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Brownies

This one has a long name..... and rightfully so since it is both a brownie and a cheesecake.

I browsed online to find a dessert recipe which requires 4 oz (about 125gms) of cream cheese which I have left from making frosting for the Christmas carrot cake. I found this interesting Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Brownies recipe. Best yet, I have nearly all the ingredients required.
I have to admit that I was a bit apprehensive initially about this recipe as some of the reviews were negative. Like top of cake was burnt and the bottom was gooey.... Anyway, all fears were brushed aside as I told myself that I am quite the pro at baking very liquid-y cake batters and they turned out just fine, so far. Yup, some self-praising here....

This recipe is a bit more complicated than the usual brownies recipes. It is, after all, a 2-in-1 cake. As I have only 1/4 of the cream cheese required, I had to scale down the brownies portion by 1/2 and the cream cheese part by 1/4. Might as well since too much cheese is not exactly healthy.

Other modifications :
1. Used butter instead of shortening
2. Added 2 tsp of cocoa powder (I like a bit of colour to keep to the brownie name - otherwise it would be a blondie). It turned out to be a good decision as the contrasting colours add interest to the cake.
3. Used milk chocolate chips and reduced the amount of white sugar
4. Used toasted chopped walnuts instead of pecans
5. Prepared the chesecake portion first before the brownies. Whenever I bake, I have this mental image of the baking soda reacting fast with the liquids and such... and if I do not put it soon enough into the oven, the cake will not rise. A novice baker's phobia, I guess....

My modified recipe as follows :

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 and 1/2 eggs (works out fine as 1/2 is used for the cheesecake portion)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

1/2 (of 8 ounce) packages cream cheese
2 tbsp white sugar
1/2 eggs
1/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 7x10 inch pan (I used a glass dish of this size from Ikea).

2. In a separate bowl, mix together the cream cheese and 2 tbsp white sugar. Mix in 1/2 of an egg and set aside. Make sure it is smooth and creamy.

3. In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and the 1/4 cup white sugar. Beat in the 1 and 1/2 eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine and sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; blend into the sugar mixture. Mixture is creamy and smooth. Stir in chocolate chips.

4. Spread 1/2 of chocolate chip dough in bottom of the prepared pan. Pour cream cheese batter on top of dough. Sprinkle with walnuts. Drop pieces of the remaining chocolate chip batter over filling. Don't worry if there are gaps; the batter will spread. (It does spread, contrary to some of the negative comments).

5. Bake for 45 minutes in preheated oven, or until lightly browned on the top. Let the brownies cool in the pan before cutting into bars.

As my pan is a bit bigger than and the cheesecake portion is only half of what it should be, the final cake height is 1.5 inch which is alright by me. And I forgot about the walnuts until after I have poured the top layer of brownie onto the cheesecake mixture. That's why the walnuts are so obvious on the cake. Turned out to be a good accident though....
This is a very delicious brownie (best eaten the next day - moist!) and looks handsome sliced...... To add to its decadence, enjoy with a giant scoop of vanilla ice-cream drizzled with rich, warm chocolate sauce, some tangy gooseberries or luscious strawberries.

As one reviewer aptly put : Death by Chocolate and Cheesecake!

Rugelach

Christmas came and went... more posting on pre-Christmas and Christmas later.

I just have to post this.... Oh my! These Rugelach are delicious! I was inspired by Cream Puffs in Venice and Bakingsheet, SOLD! I JUST had to make these on my day off.

I browsed a bit for more recipes just to have a better idea of what it really is and what I did was to take the pastry recipe from Allrecipes (no egg washing though; just pressed in some brown sugar before baking) and the filling recipe from Cream Puffs in Venice (omitted the water as I mixed everything together and spread on pastry instead of spreading the jam first - yup, I am not very patient).

The reason for modifying from 2 recipes is because I made roast potatoes for Christmas and have sour cream left in the fridge - perfect to use it up and I skipped the raisin filling simply because I don't like raisins.

So, the recipe I have used is as follows :

Pastry :

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup salted butter
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup white sugar

Filling (mix all till well blended) :

1 cup walnuts, finely ground (I chopped them very finely with knife as not too keen to clean the electric mill just for this - and then I toasted them a bit as I was worried about "raw" walnuts taste)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup soft brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup apricot jam (I used Dalfour)

Method :

1. Cut cold butter and cream cheese into cubes.
2. In food processor pulse flour, salt, butter or margarine, cream cheese and sour cream until crumbly.
3. Shape crumbly mixture into four equal disks...wrap each disk and chill 2 hours or up to 2 days.
4. Roll each disk into a 10 inch round keeping other disks chilled until ready to roll them. I rolled the dough on top of lightly floured 10 inch round cutting board for control of shape.
5. Sprinkle round with sugar/nut filling mixture but I have decided to leave a 1 inch diameter from the centre point to avoid "overfilling". With chefs knife or pizza cutter, cut each round into 12 wedges. Roll wedges from wide to narrow, you will end up with point on outside of cookie.
6. Place on ungreased baking sheets, point down. (I ran out of Glad bake sheets from baking tons of chocolate chip cookies over Christmas and used lightly floured aluminium foil)
7. Press soft brown sugar on every rugelach and chill rugelach 20 minutes before baking.
8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
9. After rugelach are chilled, bake them in the center rack of your oven 25 minutes until lightly golden. Cool on wire racks.

Rugelach all ready to be baked
Rugelach being cooled on wire rack
Close-up of rugelach on wire rack

They were gone once pictures were taken. That tells you how good they are. Thanks to Cream Puffs in Venice, Bakingsheet and Allrecipes!

P/S : I made a little batch again with Nutella spread and 4 Hershey's chocolate chip in each rugelach. And they are just amazing!

They do look like chocolate filled mini croissants!

Banana Walnut Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
1 cup wholemeal wheat flour
2/3 cup white sugar
a pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
a pinch of baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas (5 to 6 inches long) - mashed and mixed with 1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Prepare 12 muffin cups.

2. Combine the sugar, flour, salt, baking powder and soda and oil.

3. With an electric mixer beat eggs into mixture one at a time.

4. Stir in the bananas and the walnuts. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.

5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20 to 25mins or test with a toothpick. Toothpick should come out clean.

Do note that the more ripe the bananas are, the sweeter they are. Watch the sugar quantity!

Dinner of Salmon with Bell Peppers and Nutella Cupcakes

We are trying to eat healthier stuffs... cut down on bad fats and carbs.

I just read in the book "Body for Life" that fruits are considered carbs. Yes, these innocent healthy fruits are loaded with sugars which are basically carbohydrates. The good side is that they are not refined sugars but still, it is a form of carbohydrate. Hence, if you take a banana, an orange or a mango for example, it's best to reduce other forms of carbs like rice, pasta or potatoes.

So, I made salmon with bell peppers and mango and avocado salad (have to use up the last mango and last avocado before they are too ripe) for dinner tonight. No rice, no pasta, no potato, no bread....



Ingredients :
2 pieces of salmon
1 small bell pepper (best is red but I only have green, so green pepper it is)
2 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
2 tsp olive oil
salt to taste

Method :
1. Heat oven to 250 deg C.
2. Rub salt and 1/3 of the chopped garlic all over salmon. Place on baking dish greased with 1 tsp of the olive oil.
3. Grill pepper until burnt. Place in a plastic bag to allow skin to loosen. Remove skin and seeds. Chop coarsely.
4. Mix chopped pepper, remaining 2/3 of garlic and 1 tsp of olive oil. Add a teeny weeny pinch of salt if desired. After all, the fish are already seasoned with salt.
5. Spread pepper/garlic/oil mixture on top of salmon evenly.
6. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Anyway, so much talk about cutting down bad fats and sugars.... and I gave in to temptation and made 12 Nutella Cupcakes - This blogger makes me want to bake and bake with her baking.

Baking the cupcakes was a last-minute decision but trust me, this has been on my mind since the weekend. I didn't have any liners at home - so, I improvised by using squares of aluminium foil. Not so beautiful but tastes great!


As usual, I like to deviate a bit (I know, using aluminium foil instead of proper liners is already a great deviation). Instead of swirling Nutella with a toothpick, I covered the Nutella with more cake mixture cos didn't want to waste the extra. Thus, the Nutella in my cupcakes are pretty much hidden and it won't do justice if I call them Nutella Frosted Cupcakes.

I had one cake after dinner shared with B. B was dying to have more but can't as he has just started his no-sweets diet. The rest will be distributed to friends as I enjoy baking but have no sweet tooth.

Chocolate Banana Cake

I have been in a cake-baking frenzy since last week. The idea to bake came about when I saw near-full bag of flour and 10 eggs leftover from making croquettes some time back.

Today's chocolate banana cake is the 4th in the span of 1 week. Previous ones were :
#1. Pound Cake
#2. Philly Cream Cheese Pound Cake
#3. Banana Cake

If I were to be a housewife, it wouldn't be a surprising thing. However, that is not so the case.

Anyway, here is the picture of cake immediately after baking. One has to be careful when baking chocolate stuffs. You can't see if they were burnt until much too late.

Am still experimenting with the camera from Barry. Hope to improve my photography skills and take more interesting shots.

The Verdict (Cake) : Reduced too much sugar (to minimize tooth decay - hehe!).... Still palatable though.