Oreo Yoghurt Cheesecake

My nephew asked me to bake an Oreo Cheesecake like the one sold in 'Secret Recipe' for his GF's birthday this coming Monday. From my newly acquired book, I saw a recipe for an Oreo Cheesecake but I was not sure if it will be like what he wanted so I tested it out first. The verdict, hmmm even though the picture looks like it, the finished product doesnt look or taste like it.

But I would still like to share this recipe with you readers. From the book 'Cheesecake Mania' by Kevin Chai, this is "Oreo Yoghurt Cheesecake".

Base: 160g Oreo cookies, crushed
          60g Butter, Melted

1) Stir all ingredients until combined. Press mixture onto base of an 8" pan.
2) chill in fridge.

Filling: 450g Cream Cheese
           100g Castor Sugar
           3 Eggs
           120g plain yoghurt
           1 tbsp lime juice ( I used lemon juice)
           1 tbsp Cornflour
           80g Oreo cookies (roughly chopped)

1) Beat cream cheese & sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
2) Beat in yogurt, lime/lemon juice & cornstarch until blended.
3) Stir in the chopped cookies, mix well.
4) Pour mixture onto prepared tin and bake in preheated oven at 170 degree C for 30 - 40 mins.
5) remove from oven and let it chill in fridge 4 hours or overnight.
6) Decorate as desired.

White Chocolate Macadamia

Remember me mentioning I bought few cookbooks recently? Well, again from the book 'Baking Code' by Alex Goh, I found a recipe which I've been searching for. I tried to google and also search in food blogs but couldn't find this recipe.."White Chocolate Macadamia" cake. This cake is me & my youngest son's favourite and it's sold in Secret Recipe.

The verdict after baking this cake?? My son said "hmm taste better than Secret Recipes but mom, you gotta work on the white Chocolate" (which is the ganache). I found that  next day, the cake will be much easier to cut due the the setting of the white chocolate ganache.
If you love this cake, do give it a try!

Vanilla Sponge Cake

120g Sponge cakemix
2 tbsp water
2 Eggs
2 tbsp Melted Butter

1) Whisk all ingredients except melted butter until fluffy.
2) Fold in the melted butter. Mix well
3) Pour into a greased & lined 8' round pan and bake in preheated oven of 180 degree C for 15 mins.

Filling:
250g Whipped Topping
50g toasted Macadamia nuts, chopped

1) Mix 150g whipped topping and macadamia nuts together.
2) Keep the rest of the whipped topping for frosting.

Ganache:
100g whipping Cream
200g White Chocolate, melted
10g Butter

1) Cook the whipping cream until it boils.
2) Add it to the melted white chocolate. Stir until it has melted completely.
3) Add in butter, mix until well combined.

To Assemble:

1) Slice the sponge cake into 2/3 layers.
2) Sandwich the cake with the whipped topping + macadamia.
3) Cover the cake with whipped cream and refrigerate for 30 mins.
4) Remove the cake from fridge, coat it with white chocolate glaze.

Marble Baked Cheese Tart

I'm 'hooked' when it comes to cooking/baking books. I just have to buy them if the recipes inside the book catch my interest. I recently acquire few books through mail order and some are written in Bahasa Malaysia which is alright to me as I can read and understand Bahasa but not chinese...:-)) I also bought few books from Popular bookstore and one of them is 'Baking Code' by Alex Goh. This is one of his 'old' book and I am starting to collect his books as his recipe is simple and the methods looked easy.

I picked the Marble Cheese Tart as I still have some empty tart shells from my Apple Ice Cream Tart baking. I shot this pix using my sony digital camera. Hmmm I think I have to upgrade to a better one so that the pix alone will tempt you readers..:-))

Ingredients for the Filling

A: 250g Cream Cheese
     60g Castor Sugar

B: 1 Egg

C: 50g Whipping Cream

D: 1 tbsp Milk
    15g Melted Chocolate


Prepare a ready-made sweet pastry from your favourite recipe or from my previous posting http://xandrascookingbakingjournal.blogspot.com/2011/07/durian-egg-tart.html

1) Press the sweet pastry onto the tart mould. Prick some holes on the pastry shell and bake at             190 degree C  for 15 mins or until light golden brown. Leave to cool.
2) Cream ingredients (A) until light & smooth. Add in ingredients (B). Cream until well blended.
3) Add in ingredients (C), mix until well blended.
4) Take out 60g of the cheese mixture, mix with Ingredients (D) until well blended.
5) Deposit the cheese fillings onto the baked pastry shells. Place some chocolate cheese fillings on it and make swirls with it.
6) Bake at 200 degree C for 10 - 12 mins.

Durian Swiss Roll

Remember I bought a container of Durian Puree from the local Consolidated food? Yeah... I still have lots of it and I'm trying to finish them up by searching for recipes that uses durian puree. Over the weekend I went over to Johore Bahru for my brother's marriage registration ceremony and he bought durians for me to eat. Wow! I never knew there were so many types of durian. We ate 2 types of durian - the 'Musang' & 'Apple'. In Sabah, the durian season is not out yet so I will probably have to wait until August/ September to use durian flesh for baking and add some of the store bought durian (if I still have them.)

Since its still the month of July, I'm making this durian swiss roll for the Aspiring Bakers. Actually the swiss roll cracked but it cannot be seen as it was underneath..(^o^). Because I used durian puree for the filling, it was not thick and flow out when cut. Taste wise, its still good...

Ingredients

5 Egg yolk
60g Castor Sugar
60ml Milk
80g Durian Pureee
90ml Corn Oil
60g Cake Flour
60g Plain Flour
20g Corn Flour
1/2 tsp Durian Essence (Optional)

5 Egg White
70g Castor Sugar
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

Method

1) Grease & line a tray size 10 X 14 with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 170 degree C.
2) In a large bowl, mix egg yolk & sugar followed by durian puree, corn Oil, Milk, Durian Eessence and lastly the flours.
3) In another bowl, beat egg whites till foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to whip. Gradually add in the sugar & beat at high speed till stiff peak.
4) Fold in the egg yolk mixture to the egg white.
5) Pour over the tray and bake for 15 - 20 minutes.
6) Cool the cake before spreading the filling.

Filling

120ml non-dairy whipping cream, whipped
80g Durian Puree
150g Durian Flesh ( I didnt add any)

- Mix the puree & flesh into the whipped cream and spread onto the cake.
- Roll it gently and chill in fridge at least 1 hour before slicing.

I am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers #9 - Swiss Rolling Good Times (July 2011) hosted by Obsessedly Involved with Food

Durian Egg Tart

This is my 1st time making egg tarts and I picked the Durian Egg Tart from 'In The Mood for Pastries & Tarts' by Alan Ooi. Few days ago I saw a container of Durian Puree for sell in the local consolidated foodstore so I bought 1 thinking I will try and find recipes that uses durian puree.

All I can say is that the smell of the Durian is there but you cant taste the durian as there's no 'flesh' in it. Just pure pureed durian form. Hmmm I would like to try making this again when I get a real durian.

Sweet Tart Pastry

250g Butter
110g Icing Sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
450g Plain flour

1) Beat butter & Icing sugar until fluffy.
2) Add in egg & vanilla essence.
3) Lastly add in the flour and combine into a dough.

Durian Egg Tart

1 portion Sweet Tart Pastry
A
170ml Water
65g Castor Sugar
B
80ml Evaporated Milk
40g Durian Puree
few drops of yellow colour
C
5 Eggs

1) Press pastry into tart mould and bake in preheated oven at 175 degree C for 15 mins.
2) Bring (A) to a boil. Add (B) and leave to cool. Add (C) and mix well.
3) Pour the fillings into the baked tart shells. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degree C for 20 - 25 mins.

Apple Ice Cream Tart

This is my 2nd post on ice cream using the recipe I got from the baking class last week under Chef Daniel Choong from Kuala Lumpur. I do say that the making of ice cream using whipped cream is easy but if you prefer the creamier version like gelato, this is not it. Hmmm I will try and google for more ice cream recipe that will yield a ceamy texture.

Ingredients:

Tart: 150g Butter
        70g Margarine
        145g Icing Sugar
        1 Egg White
        465g Flour

Ice Cream: 3 Egg yolk
                  100g Creamer (Coffee mate)
                  1 tsp Vanilla Essence
                  100g Evaporated Milk
                  285g Whipping Cream, whipped
                  3 Green Apples, blended
                  1 Green Apple, chopped

Method:

Tart: 1) beat buter, margarine & icing sugar till creamy. Add in the egg white.
        2) Add in the flour and knead gently to form a dough.
        3) Press into tart mould.
        4) Bake in preheated oven at 175 degree C for 15 - 20 mins.

Ice Cream: 1)Double boil all ingredients except whipped cream & apples. Let it cool.
                  2) Mix with fresh cream and stir till smooth.
                  3) Add in blended & chopped apples.
                  4) Pour into tart mould and freeze overnight.
                  5) Decorate with fresh cream topping.

* You can also use your favourite short crust recipe.

       

Classic red Velvet Cupcake

Did you know that a Red Velvet cake / cupcake is actually a chocolate cake with buttermilk as one of the ingredients and of course top with a cream cheese frosting. I was wondering why the Red Velvet is so popular and decided to try but using a recipe that calls for sour cream/yogurt instead of buttermilk. And the texture is fluffy and moist. I do find dumping the whole bottle of red food colour is too much though so I just added a few drops to give it some 'colour'. You can actually make this into a cake instead of cupcake.

Ingredients:

21/2 cups Flour
1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
226g Butter, softened
2 cups Castor Sugar
4 Eggs
1 cup Sour Cream / Yogurt
1/2 cup Milk
1 bottle (1 oz) Red food colour ( I used few drops)
2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda & salt together. Set aside.
2. Beat butter & sugar in a large bowl at medium speed for 5 mins till light & fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time.
3. Mix in sour cream/yogurt, milk, food colouring & vanilla extract.
4. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed till just blended. Do not overbeat.
5. Spoon into paper cups and bake about 20 mins.
6. Cool before frosting.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

250g Cream Cheese
58g Butter, softened
2 tbsp sour cream / yogurt
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
500g Icing sugar, sifted

1. Beat all ingredients except sugar till light & fluffy.
2. Gradually beat in sugar till smooth.
3. Frost on top of cooled cupcakes.

Lemon Cheese Swiss Roll

This is the second time I am participating in the Aspiring Bakers and the theme for this month is ' Swiss Rolling Good Times'. I actually only attempted baking swiss roll twice and this month's theme gave me a good excuse to try again.

The recipe I chosed is from the "Y3K recipes' magazine issue # 56 by Coco Kong. I find the texture of this cake very soft and the lemony taste in the Lemon Cheese filling not too overwhelming.

Ingredients
(A) 5 Egg Yolks
      45g Castor Sugar
      1/2 tsp Salt
      40g Corn Oil
(B) 115g Hong Kong / Superfine Flour
      1 tsp Baking Powder
      50ml Ice Water
      Grated rind of 1 Lemon
(C) 6 Egg Whites
      85g Castor Sugar
      1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
(D) 1 tsp Lemon Essence / Paste
       200g Cream Cheese
      Juice of 1/2 Lemon
      50g Icing Sugar
      60g Natural Flavoured Yogurt

Method:
1. Beat ingredients (D) until smooth. Keep mixture chilled for 30 - 60 mins.
2. Combine ingredients (A) together. Beat well. Fold in ingredients (B). Set aside
3. Beat ingredients (C) until soft peaks form and mixture becomes fluffy. Fold in no (2) till even.
4. Pour no (3) onto a tray lined with parchment paper. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for 12 - 15 mins. Remove cake from oven.
5. Loosen cake from pan and trim off hard edges. Cover with a dry tea towel to prevent cake from drying out. Cool well.
6. Place cake on a clingfilm and spread some filling (1) on surface. Roll up tightly and keep chilled.
7. Do not unwrap during the first half hour. Slice & serve.

I am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers #9 - Swiss Rolling Good Times (July 2011) hosted by Obsessedly Involved with Food

Raisins & Hazelnut Ice Cream

Over the weekend, I joined a baking class organised by a local bakery and the chef was from Kuala Lumpur. There were a few classes but the one I attended was on Ice Cream & Desserts. After bringing home the samples (which was not enough to distribute to my children) I picked the easiest one to make as I have all the ingredients at home. I have to say that making ice cream uses up lots of egg yolk and I might be using the egg whites to attempt macaron making for the 6th or 7th time...

Previously when making Ice cream, I would put them into a container to freeze and just scoop it out to a cone or cup but this time from the lesson, an interesting way was putting it onto a tart so it became Ice Cream Tart and of course onto a dessert cup.

Ingredients

A: 6 Egg Yolks
    25g Icing Sugar
    15g Milk Powder
    40g Creamer (Coffee Mate)
    225g Evaporated Milk
    2 tsp Coffee Emulco/Paste

350g Non Daily Topping, whipped

200g Hazelnut, Roasted & Chopped
90g Raisins / Sultanas

1) Double boil all ingredients A. Let it cool.
2) Mix (A) into whipped topping and stir till smooth.
3) Stir in the Chopped Hazelnuts & Raisisns.
4) Scoop into a dessert cup / tart cases or just into a container.
5) Freeze overnight.
6) Decorate with whipped cream and top with chocolate or fruits before serving.