No-bake Lemon Cheesecake (Recipe)

I have been hoarding so many cookbooks lately and it really kept me busy. I love going through the colourful pages and getting inspired. This time I went for an easy classic- lemon cheesecake. I have come across many no-bake cheesecake recipes and tried one myself before with gelatine. However, I also stumbled across a few with condensed milk. I never really gave it a though until I saw the recipe in June Holm's book 'The Classics'. This book is rich in classic recipes from roast to pasta and desserts. The cover looked quite antique and special, just like a book passed down from generations. 

I decided to try the cheesecake and I am glad I did since it was delightful. It requires a few ingredients, no oven and also sets without any gelatine. This cake is definitely a winner. It is deliciously creamy and not overly sweet. I also like the lemony and orangy twist. 

Recipe (adapted from  'The Classics' by June Holm):

Ingredients:

200g sweet biscuits (I used digestive biscuits)

125g butter, melted

225g cream cheese, softened

75ml (1/3 cup) lemon juice (I alternated with some freshly squeezed orange juice)

400g condensed milk

Lemon/ Orange zest to garnish

Whipped cream, to serve (optional)

Method:

1. Process biscuits in a food processor and then add melted butter.

2. Place in a 24 spring-form pan and press to make the base. Put in fridge to set.

3. Mash cream cheese. Add lemon and condensed milk.

4. Beat until smooth and pour on base.

5. Let to set in fridge for minimum of 4 hours.

6. When ready to serve, pipe whipped cream and garnish with lemon/orange zest.

Lemon curd mini tart (Recipe)

After trying the lemon meringue pie from the Dessert Garden at the Twilight Hawkers Market, I was so keen to try making my own. I did a lemon curd version without the meringue, but I shall one day try with both. I used a shortcrust pastry for my tart cases. To stay true to my cookbook challenge, I carefully chose the lemon curd recipe from 'My Little Mini Cakes & Treats Book' which contains all the desserts that anyone would loved to eat. It is a tiny book with so many gorgeous photos and recipes. Don't we all like recipes that come with photos. I think it is what draws people to try a recipe in the first place- at least it works for me. The lemon curd tart is made up of simple ingredients- butter, lemon, sugar, flour, egg yolks- but is so delectable. It goes to showcase the use of these few ingredients at their best.

Recipe for lemon curd mini tart 

Makes: 10 mini tart approx.

Ingredients for the tart base:
130g AP flour
65g butter
A few drops of cold water

Method:
1. Prepare the tart base by mixing butter and flour, until resemble crumbs. 
2. Add water little by little until it forms a dough.
3. Cover with cling film and put in the fridge to rest for at least 1/2 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 180C.
5. Roll out dough from the fridge into your tart mould (I used a mini muffin pan) and prick with a fork. 
6. Bake for about 15 minutes at 180C 

Ingredients for lemon curd (Adapted from My Little Mini Cakes & Treats Book)
2 lg egg yolks
55g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
1/2 tbs lemon zest, grated
2 1/2 tbs lemon juice
100g unsalted butter. cubed

Method:
1. Beat egg yolk and sugar in a heatproof bowl.
2. Add zest, juice and place bowl over a bain marie (saucepan with simmering water)
3. Stir in butter and let the sauce thicken for about 10 minutes (it will be thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon).
4. Place in a bowl and cover surface with cling film.
5. Let cool completely.

To assemble:
1. Place lemon curd in a piping bag.
2. Pipe into the tart cases.
3. Decorate with some berries or tiny macaron.

4. Serve and enjoy.

Tasting platter from the Dessert Garden (from top left clockwise):

Raspberry tart, Nutty tart, Lemon meringue tart and Fudgy tart. 

They were all yummy, but my favourite was by far the lemon meringue tart, with the crisp meringue.

Carrot Almond cake

After the success of the spiced apple almond cake, I decided to add my own twist to the recipe and turn it into a carrot cake. I did and the cake was as divine. I hardly ever like eating more than one slice of a cake, but I would dive into this one. This is definitely my kind of cake. I essentially swapped the apples for a large carrot and kept everything else together.

Recipe: Adapted from Luckynuts:

Ingredients
1 large carrot
100g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing cake pan
90g caster sugar
2 eggs
1½ tablespoons rice flour
1½ tablespoons maize cornflour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
100g (1 cup) LUCKY ALMOND MEAL WITH CHIA
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Flaked almonds
1 tablespoon apricot jam, mixed with some warm water

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease and line base of a 20cm round tin.
2. Cut apples into quarters and remove core. Peel and cut one quarter into thin slices and reserve. Coarsely grate enough of the remaining apple to measure 11/4 cups.
3. Using an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Sift flours, baking powder and spices together over a bowl. Stir in the Almond Meal with Chia to combine well. Fold the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Stir in the vanilla and grated apple to combine well. Spread cake batter into prepared cake pan. Arrange the reserved apple slices over the surface.
5. Bake in oven for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the center.

                                                                                     

New Cookbook Challenge

This is a completely random post about the first cooking challenge I shall put myself into. 

It is no secret that I love going through cooking books, as much as I love watching cooking shows (demos, competitions, the lot). I always skim through cook books and recipe books since I have so many to look at. The problem is that despite reading, I never seem to replicate any of the dishes. I either just look at the recipe and write it down, and it stays in my recipe diary untouched or glance at the photo and take a mental photographic snap. 

My goal and challenge for the rest of the year is that for each cook book that I borrow and own, I have to try and make at least one recipe- whatever it takes. I truly believe it is a great way to start since then, I will not only improve my culinary skills, but do justice to the authors of those cookbooks (I know it requires a lot of trial and errors before getting a recipe right). It will also be an opportunity to immerse myself into cooking straight from recipe books and recognise these talented chefs.

I shall post updates on this journey. I will hopefully try one recipe per week.

Pineapple tarts (Recipe)

Happy Chinese New Year. We are going into the year of Monkey. It is officially tomorrow, but celebrations have already begun. Normally, we have family dinner and get-together the day before the new year and fast on the day itself. We try to keep to the tradition as close as possible, but it is harder nowadays with everyone's busy schedule. 

This year I decided to make pineapple tarts (open ones) for the occasion. I have been busy looking for recipes and ingredients since last month. Fortunately I had Thursday off, so I decided to go for it. It took me about 3 hours to bake the whole batch (I got 75 cookies in total). After the tarts came out of the oven, the pastry base was crunchy and the pineapple filling was melt-in-the-mouth. I really enjoyed the sourness from the pineapple, and the sweetness was just to my liking. It is a very nice cookie, very well-balanced. I was very happy with my first batch. It is not difficult to make, but you do need some patience.

Recipe for Pineapple tarts

Makes about 75 cookies 

Ingredients:

Pastry dough:

250g plain flour

125g cold butter

25g icing sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

Pinch salt

1-2 tbs iced water

Pineapple jam filling

2 cans (880g) of crushed pineapple in juice, drained

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar (to taste)

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp cinnamon powder

Egg wash:

1 egg, slightly beaten

Method:

For the pastry:

1. In a food processor, blend flour, butter and sugar and pinch of salt

2. Once ressembles crumbs, add in egg and vanilla essence

3. If too crumbly, add 1 tbs of water at a time, until dough is formed.

4. Place in cling wrap and rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Make pineapple filling in the meantime

For the pineapple filling:

1. In a blender. crush the pineapples to fine consistency

2. Place a saucepan on the stove on medium high heat and place processed pineapple, both sugars, lemon juice and cinnamon powder.

3. Stir occasionally and heat until the filling become sticky and there is no juices left. It should change to a brownish colour. It took me just under an hour.

4. Let to cool. Roll pastry in the meantime.

For the tarts:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees, fan-forced.

2. Roll pastry about 1/4 inch thick and then stamp your flower mold.

3. Place on baking tray.

4. Once pineapple filling is cooled, roll balls of 5g each.

5. Place each ball in the middle of each cut.

6. Brush with egg wash.

7. Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. If browning too fast, reduce temperature to 150 degrees. 

Note:

The tart is best eaten on the day, if you want so crunchiness. The pastry becomes a little soft the day after, but still very tasty. 

Mixed berry crumble slice (bar)

I loved making these slices. They are easy to make and so delicious. They are perfect for a snack- not overly sweet and slightly crunchy. The mixed berries give a tangy side to the slice, but you can try with sweet blueberries. Do give these a try, you won't regret it.

For a maple dates version, please see this post.

Recipe

8 inch square pan

For the filling:

200 g of frozen mixed berries, approximately

For the crumble pastry:

1/2 softened butter

1 cup AP flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup white sugar

Method:

1. To make the pastry, cream butter and sugar. Then mix in the flour and oats until well-combined.
3. Lay 1/2 of the dough at the bottom of your pan. Spread the frozen berries evenly on top and then sprinkle with the remaining pastry.
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees C for about 20-30 minutes until golden.
5. Let cool completely before cutting.
6. Serve with some ice-cream, cream or on its own.

Enjoy!

Raspberry macaron with raspberry white choc ganache (Recipe)

After first time success with the Italian meringue method, I have been very keen on trying again with a different flavour. Camping presented a great opportunity to making them again. This time I made the shells pink and filled them with a white chocolate raspberry ganache. The shells were not as shiny as the previous time, which I think is mostly due to me letting them dry for too long before baking them (or the colouring might have contributed too). The taste and texture were there, so I was still very happy of the result.

Recipe for the ganache 

Ingredients:
100 ml thickened cream
50 g raspberries (I used frozen ones)
100 g white chocolate

Method:
1. Squeeze out all the juices from the raspberries using a sieve.
2. Over a saucepan, heat cream. Stir half of the chocolate.
3. Remove from heat and mix in the rest of the chocolate and stir until all combined and chocolate is melted.
4. Add the raspberry juice.
5. Mix well and let cool in the fridge to firm up.

Note:
If ganache is a bit loose, whip some cream until soft peak and add the above mixture.

Choux puff (custard puff)

I am finally able to continue on my camping food posts. First up is choux I made filled with creme patissiere. I left it plain on the top, but I think they were still very yummy.

Recipe can be find from an earlier post here.

Maple date crumble slice (Date jam) Recipe

These slices are quite simple to bake and the result is always fantastic with a rich gooey sweet jam filling in the middle. Then we have a crumbly top and crunchy base. These are seriously delicious and does not take long to make. I have also tried using the pastry to bake a blueberry slice, which was also very nice. So basically the dough can be used with any other jam filling if you are not too keen on dates. Time to whip up your own slice version.

Recipe (8 inch square pan)

Ingredients:
For the date jam filling
1 3/4 cup chopped dates
3/4 water
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tbs lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

For the pastry:
1/2 softened butter
1 cup AP flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup white sugar

Method:
1. To prepare jam filling, place all the filling ingredients, except for the baking soda and zest in a small pan and bring to boil. Once all the water has gone, mix in the zest and baking soda, Stir and let cool. It will thicken once completely cooled.
2. To make the pastry, cream butter and sugar. Then fold in the flour and oats until combined.
3. Lay 1/2 of the dough at the bottom of your pan. Spread the date jam evenly on top and then sprinkle with the remaining pastry.
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees C for about 20-30 minutes until golden.
5. Let cool completely before cutting.
6. Serve with some ice-cream, cream or on its own.

First batch:

Second batch: