Baking

Pecans can be used in cheesecake too, not just pie.

/ Lisa

Maple Pecan cheesecake – it was totally nom. Just made it for family dinner on Saturday night and I figured if I don’t have a job I might as well bake and blog, blog and bake.

This is pretty basic for a chilled cheesecake, but there are several areas in which it can go really wrong. The following ingredients and instructions are what appears in The Australian Woman’s Weekly Cupcakes, Cheesecakes, Cookies book but they are not 100 per cent what I followed.

Ingredients

185g ginger nut biscuits

60g butter, melted

Filling

3 teaspoons gelatine

1/4 cup (60ml) water

500g cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup (55g) firmly packed brown sugar

300ml cream

1/2 cup (125ml) maple syrup

Topping

1 1/4 cups (175g) peacans, chopped coarsely

2 tablespoons maple syrup

Instructions

1. Grease deep 19cm square cake pan;line base and sides with two sheets baking paper, extending paper 5cm above edges of pan.

2. Process biscuits until fin. Add butter; process until combined. Press mixture over base of pan; refrigerate 30 minutes.

3. Make filling by sprinkling gelatine over the water in small heatproof jug; stand just in small saucepan of simmering water. Stir until gelatine dissolves. Cool 5 minutes

4. Beat cheese and sugar in medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth; beat in cream and maple syrup. Stir in gelatine mixture.

5. Pour filling mixture into pan; refrigerate overnight.

6. Make topping.

7. Serve cheesecake sprinkled with topping.

Topping

Preheat oven to 240C/220C fan-forced. Combine nuts and maple syrup in small bowl; spread mixture onto greased oven tray. Roast 10 minutes or until browned lightly; cool.

Serves 12.

Tips

With the type of tin used – I usually just use a round spring-form 25cm tin. It is much easier to get the cheesecake out of the tin and if you place the bottom into the ring upside down, you can easily slide the entire cheesecake off onto a plate. In switching the type of tin used, I increased the amount of biscuit used for the base to 250g and butter to 80g.

The base – I usually don’t use the base recipe which is provided, but I decided to give this one a go, because it was different with using the ginger nuts. But I think I have found the perfect one – 250g wine biscuits blended with 2 tablespoons of apple sauce and 2 tablespoons of margarine or butter. This base combines really well and doesn’t crumble when it is cut.

Gelatine – if done wrong there can be large chunks throughout the cake which are chewy and gross and ultimately ruins the cheesecake. If you have a small jug or bowl which you are able to sit in the top of your jug then an easy way to heat the gelatine is to place the gelatine and water in the small bowl then place in the top of the jug and boil. Once the jug is boiled give the gelatine a stir and allow to cool. By preparing the gelatine this way it combines completely. When adding it to the cheesecake mixture, it needs to be mixed in quickly and thoroughly. Thus leaving the cheesecake with no unwanted chewy lumps of gelatine.

Maple syrup – I used Queen maple flavoured sugar free syrup, which can be bought from New World supermarkets. Some may say this is the cheats version of maple syrup, but it allows the sugar content to be reduced in the cheesecake and probably the richness too.

Pecans – already hard to cut with a knife, but put them on top of a soft cheesecake and try to cut them and you will surely end up with mush. Which is why I cut the cheesecake into the desired pieces first. I cut the cheesecake  into 8 pieces, but they were quite large so it could manage 10. Then I sprinkled the roasted pecans over the cheesecake.

The time for Brownie is upon us.

/ Lisa
UPON US: Apple brownie with cinnamon, sprinkled with icing sugar – a great easy dessert
Brownies are easy and tasty. This recipe I came across at Brownie Recipes is very simple. I was wanting to use up some of the granny smith apples my Mum had given me so to Google I went. I played around with it a bit a second time, because I didn’t like it much the first time, but unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of the second lot.

Brownies can be eaten as an afternoon snack or with coffee after dinner. But as the picture shows they can also be a quick easy dessert when you don’t have much time or when you just want to whip something up without having to go out and buy ingredients.

I find that I usually have all the ingredients in my cupboard/fridge at any given time and I only ever eat granny smith apples – so you’ll be sure to find them in the fruit bowl at my house.

Ingredients:

125g margarine.

1 cup of sugar.

1 medium egg, beaten.

½ cup of chopped nuts. (optional)

2 medium apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped.

1 cup of flour.

½ teaspoon of baking powder.

½ teaspoon of baking soda.

½ teaspoon of salt.

½ teaspoon of cinnamon.

Preparation Instructions:

Cream the margarine, sugar and egg beating until smooth.

Stir in the chopped nuts and apples.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; then fold into the batter using a spoon.

Turn the batter into a greased 20cm by 20cm baking pan.

Bake at 175°C for 40 minutes.

Allow to cool, then cut into squares.

Tips:

The second time around I omitted the cinnamon and instead added 3/4 cup of cocoa. I liked the cocoa brownies better than the cinnamon – but that is probably because I’m a sucker for anything chocolate.

Because the apples are very moist once they are cut up it would be worthwhile letting them sit on paper towels for a bit or to try and squeeze some of the water out of them before you add them to the mixture. This is because the brownie comes out quite moist and turns very sticky after a day or so.

Instead of greasing the pan, lining the pan with baking paper means the brownie can just be lifted out of the tin with absolutely no sticking and easy clean up!

One of the most important things to do when baking is to have fun – if baking is not fun and turns into a chore, you’re doing it wrong. So when making these brownies I decided to have a little fun with peeling the apples – it’s much easier to show you:

SKILLS: I has them. One continuous peel from an apple. Impressive, if I do say so myself.

Where are all the cupcakes? Here they all are!

/ Lisa / 1 Comment

I do love making cupcakes, especially when I experiment with the frosting. These ones were made for my news production peeps and my friend Sam commissioned me to make them for her boyfriend.

Baking is my way of spreading the love. These ones were made with luff and cuddles.

Cupcakes are so easy to make, but the tricky-ness can come when making the icing for the cupcakes. I hope to experiment more with different toppings when I have more time (i.e. when uni is finished in 3 weeks – EEK!)

But the easiest type of frosting to make for cupcakes is butter cream – all you need to do is whip the shit out of the butter then add some icing sugar and then keep whipping. Then once you’ve whipped it a lot, you add whatever flavouring you like. These ones I just added cocoa, to add a rich chocolate flavour. I may attempt a ganaché at some point, where you use melted chocolate instead of cocoa.

Basic Vanilla Buttercake

Ingredients

90g butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar

2 eggs

1 cup (150g) self-raising flour

2 tablespoons of milk

Method

1. Prehead oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Line a 12-hole standard muffin pan with paper cases.

2. Beat butter, extract, sugar, eggs, four, and milk in a small bowl with electric mixer on low speed until ingredients are just combined. Increase speed to medium, beat until mixture is changed to a paler colour.

3. Divide mixture among cases; smooth surface.

4. Bake for about 20 minutes. Turn cakes onto a wire rack to cool.

Butter cream frosting

125g butter, softened

1 1/2 cups (240g) icing sugar

2 tablespoons milk

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

Beat butter in a small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy; beat in sifted icing sugar and milk, in two batches. Add cocoa powder and stir in.

Using a  knife spread butter cream frosting onto cupcakes.

Tips

When baking the cupcakes keep an eye on them and test them by poking them with your finger. When they spring back, they are cooked.

Make sure when you are making the butter cream frosting that you whip it for a long time, you should notice the butter becoming a paler colour. By whipping it a lot it makes it a lot creamier and the icing sugar starts to blend more with the butter. You shouldn’t be able to tell that there is sugar in the frosting, if it has been beaten enough.

Other frosting ideas

Food colourings

Chopped chocolate – a block of Black Forest is good, but you can try anything – Rocky Road, macadamia nut or just plain chocolate.

Leaving the butter cream frosting plain and sprinkling with shaved chocolate or almonds or other types of nuts or you could decorate with silver balls sprinkled on top or 100s and 1000s etc.

Using M&Ms to decorate the top of the cupcakes, once frosting is on or mix the M&Ms in the frosting then decorate cupcakes.

Oreos chopped up in the icing, or the cupcakes or just added on top – gives a cookies and cream flavouring.

If you can’t be bothered making your own frosting, you can buy icing in a can – IT IS THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD. You can buy it from Milly’s cake shop in Auckland.

Crude cupcakes. Basic butter creme frosting with some pink food colouring and silver baubles spelling out crude words for teh lols.
An entire block of black forest chocolate chopped up into a basic butter creme frosting.
Black icing in a can with M&Ms and Oreos for decoration.

Re-inventing the pin-wheel

/ Lisa

I love pin-wheels. I cannot describe why I love them so much, but I think it is a humour aspect. They sound funny and they look funny and you can pretty much put whatever you like in them.

These apple and honey ones were an experiment. I can make a basic scone recipe and it is easy to put whatever ingredient you want on the dough once it is rolled out. But the fun part is finding new exciting ingredients to make more tasty pin-wheels.

I usually make chilli and cheese pin-wheels. They are tasty and simple – you just spread some sweet chilli sauce and grate some cheese and you’re good to go. However, having just gotten back from Hawke’s Bay laden down with wonderous amounts of food courtesy of my mother, I now have about 15kgs worth of granny smith apples sitting in my kitchen/dinning room. Needless to say, something needed to be done with them – bring on ideas of baking with apples.

Ingredients

3 cups standard flour

6 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

75g butter

1-1/2 cups of milk

2 apples

1/4 cup of liquid honey

Directions

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Rub butter into dry ingredients with fingers until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add milk, small amounts at a time. Mix together by cutting the ingredients with a knife.

Knead dough on a flat, floured surface until smooth. Roll out until dough is about 5mm thick and you have a large rectangle.

Peel and grate both apples and combine with the honey. Spread filling evenly over the dough. Roll the dough to form a log. Cut the log into prefered size of pin-wheels.

Place pin-wheels on baking tray and place in the oven for about 10 minutes at 220°. Pin-wheels will puff up to about twice the size. Once they are golden brown remove them from the oven.

Best served warm, but still tasty cold.

Tips

This basic recipe for the dough is fool proof, you can use it for any type of scone or pin-wheel. Where I went wrong was in the filling.

By grating the apples I made them too moist and created difficulties when it came to rolling the dough into a log. By draining the moisture that came out of the apples it would have made better pin-wheels. You could also just make them into cubes or slices. By mixing the apple with the honey, it made the liquid come out of the apples also contributing to the wet mess I had to deal with.

You have to be careful with scone dough that you do not add too much milk. One problem I had while making these was I added too much milk. If you add it slowly and not necessarily the whole amount then the dough will be fine.

Other ideas for filling

Sweet chilli sauce and cheese

Marmite and cheese

Spaghetti

Baked beans

Cheese

Bacon

Chicken and cranberries with camembert

Other fruits e.g. dates, crasins.

Really you can add whatever your imagination can think of. The possibilities are endless.

This is cheesecake territory.

/ Lisa
When I am in Hawke’s Bay, I tend to test my skills with new types of cheesecake. Usually so I can test them on my father and my soon-to-be brother-in-law who both like delectable things.

This one I have been wanting to make for a while, but it always came in as second choice against others. So finally I decided it was time to make the Butterscotch Pecan Cheesecake.

Cheesecakes have a rep for being rather difficult, but if you know what you’re doing they can actually be quite easy. They probably get the stigma because of how difficult they look – anything that looks that good, must be hard.

But once you know what you’re doing and have done it a few times, cheesecakes become a breeze to whip up.

Ingredients

150g plain chocolate biscuits

50g butter, melted

Filling

500g cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar (normal sugar is just as good, if you don’t have caster sugar)

2 eggs

1 tablespoon plain flour

1/2 cup (60g) roasted pecans, chopped finely

Butterscotch topping

1/3 (75g) firmly packed brown sugar

40g butter

1 tablespoon cream

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C/140°C fan-forced.

2. Process biscuits until fine. Add butter, process until combined. Press mixture over base of 20cm springform tin. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

3. Make filling by beating cheese, extract and sugar in medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth; beat in eggs. Stir in flour and nuts.

4. Pour filling into tin; bake about 45 minutes. Cool cheesecake in oven with door ajar.

5. Make butterscotch topping by heating ingredients in small saucepan until smooth.

6. Spread topping over cheesecake. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight.

Serves 8.

Tips

Instead of using chocolate biscuits I just used a packet of wine biscuits, which is what I normally use for a cheesecake base. By using an entire packet you will need to also up the amount of butter used. I used 100g of melted butter. I tend to add more butter than the recipe usually says anyway because I like a base that does not crumble and actually sticks together. I usually use a base which is 1 packet of wine biscuits, 40g of low fat spread, and 2 tablespoons of apple puree. This makes an amazing base, but alas, I did not have apple puree on hand, so had to do it the old fashioned way.

Also, with the spring form tin, if you place the base upside down in the tin it allows for easier removal of the cheesecake.

With adding the pecans I just used a 70g packet, which is the average size of a packet of nuts here in NZ. I didn’t chop them up too finely, because if you’re adding something like nuts to a cheesecake they should be chunks that you can see and eat, not ground up into the mix.

When cooking the cheesecake, I baked it at 140°C with fan-forced. In doing so you don’t have to bake it for as long as a conventional oven. I left it in there for 35 minutes and then turned the oven off and left it in there to cool. By doing this you cook it till just set and by leaving it in the oven it finishes cooking the cheesecake. It makes a more creamier cheesecake than if you were to remove it from the oven straight away.

This cheesecake is best served with a bit of whipped cream on the side. It makes it just that bit more devilish.