Category: Babbles

Salted Caramel Apple Cheesecake

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Because I actually cannot believe this is a (mostly) improvised, pseudo-original recipe. Honestly, it’s pretty glorious. Ok fine, if that’s a little too much undeserved self-praise, I guess I’ll just say that darn, I’m one enlightened cake-maker. A mixing of some fine ingredients, a thrusting of good pink ladies on the top, a sudden decision to say…

YES, I really do think salted caramel will go nicely with that.

Off the whim, all too sudden. Yesterday was the due date for the IB’s Extended Essay, so I feel it very fitting to celebrate with this recipe. It was a short return to my childhood of tree-climbing and grazed knees, after which I’d come home to find a well-sized slice of cheesecake my mother or grandmother bought from some gourmet store, which I enjoyed anyway because… cheesecake. I never found the rich tang displeasing as a kid; it was one of the few sorts of cakes I didn’t mind having at birthday parties. The flimsy, airy stuff never fascinated me. I lusted after half-cloying goop. I admit that this batch actually could have used twice as much salt in the caramel topping to counter the lemony, apple-y sweetness of the cheesecake, so I’ll put the better amount in for your benefit.

And with that, let’s go.

 

Ingredients

For the base:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (113g) softened, unsalted butter. Good butter, please.

For the filling and apple top:

  • 2 packages Philadelphia cream cheese, left to soften at room temperature (this would take at least a good half hour)
  • 1/2 cup white castor sugar
  • 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup sour cream (or Greek yoghurt, which was what I used since I didn’t have sour cream on hand)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 3 eggs

For apple topping:

  • 2 small pink lady apples, or any sort which you enjoy eating on its own. Grab a green one if that’s all you have; doesn’t change the final product a whole lot. It actually depends how much of a flamboyant apple character you want your cake to have– the more the merrier, though I find thin layers atop the filling work well to even out the caramelisation process during baking.
  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • one teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the divine gift of God that is salted caramel (makes a medium batch so it may be used in the future):

  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 95g salted (!!) butter
  • 3 teaspoons fine salt
  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (either single or double is fine)

 

Procedure

Before I start, I just want to say that I’ve recently become more inclined to writing method in prose, mostly due to how I had to do so for my extended essay, and I enjoy the more personal feel it establishes. But yes, cheesecake.

Start of by preheating your oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F), and grease a 9-inch round cake tin.Thinly slice your apples and toss them in a medium-sized bowl with the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside for now.

Make the base: With a wooden spoon, or if you’re 80% Neanderthal like me, your hands, mix the five ingredients together well in another medium bowl. Press into base of your cake tin and half an inch up the sides. Make sure the bottom is even. If you live in a supremely hot climate like I do, put the base in the fridge to prevent the butter from melting and causing the pressed-up sides to sink and go limp.

Make the filling: Using a whisk (not the electrical sort, just the single whisks), cream the cream cheese and sugar together till no more sugar lumps are present in mixture. Add in the eggs one by one and whisk well between each addition. Then, add in the fresh lemon juice, sour cream/greek yoghurt and vanilla. Use a wooden spoon to mix the last few ingredients in order to incorporate as little air as possible. I found this really helped with the final texture of the cheesecake.

Assemble and bake: Take tin out of fridge and pour filling on top. No pre-baking of crust, no nothing. Just pour and plop in the oven. Oh, after you scatter those moreish, cinnamon-y apples on top, of course. Please don’t forget that bit. As I said earlier, I find that thin layers arranged in rings starting from the edges serve to kick the look factor up 10 notches. Just so… Pretty. I could’ve been neater, but I was too excited embarking on this exciting baking expedition. Literally an expedition too, because I was running around grabbing ingredients and whatnot. I need to organise myself. Anyways, once the layers are done (I just did one nice layer), put the cheesecake into the preheated oven and bake it for 15 minutes. Once 15 minutes is up, turn down the temperature to 190 degrees C (375 degrees F) and bake for another 30-35 minutes. I took mine out after 33 minutes, because that’s the way I did it the first time I baked a cheesecake this method, and there were no cracks whatsoever. Works a dream.

Make the salted caramel (adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction): Heat sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally with wooden spoon. Continue to do so until all the sugar melts into a pool of dark, glossy amber liquid. Once this stage is reached, add the salted butter. It’s a pretty vigorous reaction, this one. Stir with spoon to help the melting process. Once all the butter has melted, slowly add in heavy whipping cream. This part is even more vigorous that the previous one; it will spit and rise as it starts to boil. Let the mixture boil like this for another minute before taking the pan off the heat. Let cool for another couple minutes before stirring in the salt. Store in an airtight container for future use, and reserve a half cup for later.

Once cheesecake is done in the oven, carefully take out. It should still be a little wobbly and tender in the middle. Leave to cool in the same pan on a cooling rack for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, microwave half of the reserved caramel (it would have gone a little thicker and less liquidy) for a few seconds and liberally drizzle all over top of the cheesecake. Place the cake inside the fridge and leave for at least 4 hours or overnight. It’s good to make this kind of thing the day before. No sweat.

After at least 4 hours (or overnight), take cake out of fridge. Microwave the remainder of the reserved caramel and drizzle it over the top, however you like, however much you want. You’ll probably have some caramel left.

Bam. Double salted caramel whammy.

I’m thinking grape and crisp rice cheesecake next time, just because.

 

Posted on by alexcrumb 1

Cinnamon Roll Blondies

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Post school, I experienced a humble but waking urge. The uzhe, I guess you could say, but I only  wanted to bake something simple; something well-loved and relatively straightforward. This recipe in particular is dedicated to my lovely Em, who I wish was here at the moment just to share some with me. I have a large family already, but having her around would definitely be the coolest.

I used my favourite chewy blondie recipe as a base, and a simple maple vanilla icing to round it off to add some disastrous sweetness. The final yield: thin, dense, firm little slabs of sticky chewiness, made all the more decadent by a sudden hit of maple and vanilla at the top of your palate. Not all too sinful, not all too modest either. I experimented a little with the icing and modified it from my previous icing recipe, in which I use a little more milk. To obtain a firmer yet moist and pliable consistency, I stuck to two tablespoons of rich, whole milk. As for those blondies, the outrageous chewiness (as how I quoted on my instagram), is achieved by the use of soft, sticky brown sugar, with a little of the normal white stuff as a less serious accompaniment.

Note: I use cup measurements here only because the base recipe I derived this from does the same, and the ratios work out perfectly. For accuracy’s sake, always use the the scoop-and-sweep method when measuring flour– scoop the flour (gently) into your cup measurement, then use the back of a knife to scrape off the excess on top. I also noted that you can do this with all white sugar, and you will get blondies just as extravagantly chewy, but there will be less depth of flavour and less cinnamon hints.

Ingredients

For blondies:

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp fine salt
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (or fresh, if you have that wonderful sort of thing on hand. I didn’t, though of course fresh is always best)
  • 72g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1/2 cup white caster sugar
  • 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract

For maple vanilla icing:

  • 3/4 cup icing sugar (being the sloth I am, I didn’t even sift mine, but a hard whisk is all you need to get those lumps out of the way. Really. Lazy? It’s ok. The world isn’t going to end.)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp maple syrup
  • 1-2 tbsp of milk, depending on your surrounding temperature or preference with regard to runniness of the icing. Yes, I just made up that word. You might even need more than 2! Once again, the world will not end. We are all human. Follow your heart.

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Line and grease an 8-inch square pan. Alternatively you can do this in an 9×5-inch loaf pan, it just means you have to bake the blondies for longer, at least 25 minutes. Always check with a dry wooden skewer– if the batter is wet bake for 4-5 more minutes, if there are moist crumbs you’re good to go.
  2. In a medium bowl, briefly whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
  3. In a separate, larger bowl, whisk together both sugars and melted butter, then whisk in the egg and vanilla extract.
  4. Using a spatula, fold dry into wet ingredients, and you should get a relatively thick, grudgingly mousse-like batter. It will be a little hard to drop off the spatula.
  5. Pour into the square pan and bake in oven for 20-22 minutes (or as previously mentioned, 25 minutes if baking in a loaf pan). The golden-brown top should form a sugary crust and the edges should have started pulling away from the sides.
  6. Let cool completely in the tin. Whilst you tolerate the wait, make the icing. Whisk all the icing ingredients together in a small bowl, with a fork/whisk and generous dollop of bicep power. Add the milk drop by drop, not spoon after spoon. Careful now.
  7. Once the blondies have completely cooled, drizzle the icing in whatever patterns you desire all over the blondies.
  8. Cut into square pieces and enjoy a bit of chewy, crusty, cinnamon heaven.

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Basically.

Posted on by alexcrumb 4

Brown Butter Baked Maple Bacon Doughnuts

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Guys. This is so easy.

I’ve thought about making doughnuts before. I have. But I have always been too lazy to  physically drag myself to buy a candy thermometer and pour inches of oil into a deep saucepan. That, my friends, is the painful extent to which I live my life. I really shouldn’t even be labelled a human. That’s too ambiguous a title, anyway. I came across this recipe on Shutterbean a while back, and just thought it absolutely genius. I love Shutterbean, and this recipe is particularly special because of the first two words in the title– yes, brown butter. That nutty joy sizzling away, that border between fine, white, original fat and trembling mess of hormonal goo. Browned butter is so divine, and god, the smell. That smell will lift you off your toes.

Back to the point.

They’re just great. And I mentioned easy, right.

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Forgive the slightly paltry amount of bacon on that doughnut. I was eager to just catch the light here. Don’t worry, I piled a little more on later on. Remember that the texture is different to a normal fried doughnut, but this was sufficiently aerated, so you get the nice, slightly chewy and moist effect once you bite into its body. Mini little splendours, these. This is why I got a doughnut pan that Sunday morning. This is why I was in such a good mood after recovering from that horrible, ghastly bout of food poisoning, when I couldn’t even look at a piece of chicken. I’m just happy doughnut pans exist, for they make my own existence much more meaningful. I should hope so, anyways. Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player…

 

Brown Butter Baked Maple Bacon Doughnuts

Ingredients (makes 6 mini doughnuts)

For the doughnuts:

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda (make sure this stuff is properly crumbled, or your mouth’ll taste of detergent later)
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar (give or take two tablespoons. If you like less sweet doughnuts, take away two. If you have an uncontrollable sweet tooth like me, then just leave it.)
  • 29g unsalted butter, for the lovely browning process
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk (you can make this by taking a half cup measurement, putting a half tablespoon of white vinegar inside, then filling up the rest of the half cup with good, whole milk. Please, no soy or almond milk!)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the glaze and crumble:

  • 1 sifted cup confectioner’s sugar
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons whole milk (I used up to a half tablespoon more, so add milk drop by drop and keep whisking. Don’t. Stop. Whisking. It should have the consistency of angsty, thick glucose ribbons when you lift the whisk.)
  • 4 strips bacon, cooked for around 8 minutes on medium heat on the pan, drained & crumbled to desired size

Steps

1. Place a rack in the middle of your oven and preheat oven to 177 degrees C (350 degrees F).  Lightly grease a doughnut pan with cooking spray and put aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and sugar. Set this aside for now too.

3. Brown the butter: In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter.  It will start to pop and crackle a bit. Wait for the water to evaporate; you will know when this happens once you get a distinctly nutty aroma, and the butter goes an almost-bronze tone. Don’t walk away from the stove because this part happens way too quickly. I failed the first time. I know. I’m human. Remove from heat immediately and put it aside for a while.

4. In a small bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk (or whole milk and vinegar), vanilla extract and glorious browned butter (make sure the butter isn’t scalding hot, though).

5. Stir the wet into the dry mix. Do this until no weird bits of flour remain, but please, please do not overmix the batter!!

6. Transfer batter into a ziploc bag. Snip the tip with a pair of scissors (around 2cm across) and pipe batter into each cute little mold.

7. Place in the oven and bake for 8-9 minutes.  Mine took exactly 8, and anything longer would have dried them out. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

8. Cook the bacon, as instructed above.

Now you can make the glaze. My favourite bit, if you ask me.

9. In a medium bowl, whisk (just a small whisk is fine) the confectioner’s sugar with maple syrup and vanilla extract. Add the milk in a thin stream, or drop by drop, to thin out the glaze. Add more or less according to how thick you want it, but ideally it should be thick and more on the opaque-side, especially if you live in cursed heat like me.

10. Dip one side of the doughnut into the glaze, and twist to make sure the entire top is evenly coated. When lifting, give it another twist and let the glaze pool and then drip off one side.

11. While glaze is still wet, add the bacon crumbles on top of each doughnut. Store in an air-tight container for the first day and refrigerate any left over.

I hope you make your own day, now.

Posted on by alexcrumb 2

Tuna mash and poached egg on toast

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I threw some random things together that day. I was extremely skeptical about the flavour combination, but this worked perfectly and served to annihilate some grogginess, pre-coffee works, of course. I needed an egg, a sharp crunch of bread to be the bed of a multitude of flavours, something a little thick- a more savoury spread of sorts. This is so simple.

Ingredients

  • one thick slice of good sourdough or raisin bread (this was plain rye sourdough)
  • 1 fresh egg
  • 2 teaspoons white vinegar
  • For the side salad: simple salad mix of whatever you may, washed and tossed in reduced balsamic lemon vinaigrette made with balsamic, lemon juice and olive oil. Amount of salad mix you wish to use is completely up to you. I used about a half cup.
  • For tuna mash: 1 can tuna packed in water, quarter cup canned corn, 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon greek yoghurt, half tablespoon Dijon mustard and lashings of pepper.
  • small handful cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
  • 2 baby radishes
  • pinch of chilli flakes

Directions

  1. Toast bread of choice.  A little burnt is okay. Medium burnt will pass. Me? I practically go for carcinogenic. Kill me whenever.
  2. Poach your egg: Crack fresh egg into a small bowl. Fill a deep saucepan 3/4 full of water and let come to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, add vinegar and make small whirlpool. Slowly add your egg and continue swirling with slotted spoon. I just used a normal spoon because the slotted spoon I had on hand didn’t look clean enough to use and I was merely too lazy to go ALL the way to the sink and do more washing. Actual problems of a lazy teenage breakfast aficionado. It’s quite tragic. Anyways, wait for around 3 minutes before taking out your beautiful poached baby.
  3. In the meantime, toss tuna and corn mash ingredients together in a small bowl. Take two tablespoons of mixture and liberally coat toast, or however much you want, really. Reserve the rest in the fridge for future use. Lick the spoons each time.
  4. Remove egg from water- test it first by poking its belly with your finger. There should be a slight wobble, neither too floppy or firm.
  5. Thinly slice baby radishes and add to the salad. Place poached egg on toast and whip out your pepper cracker and chilli flakes. Do what you’re meant to do.
  6. Marvel at how pretty it looks.
  7. Slice, eat, pore over the papers and pour some coffee.
  8. Enjoy that sort of morning while it lasts.

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Posted on by alexcrumb 3

Ricotta Pancakes

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This, dear foodies, takes 10 minutes to make, and just a little longer to cook. Dead. Easy.

A few people have requested this recipe, so I’ll quickly post it to prevent any unwanted snags at my feet a little later. The thing is, I never make pancakes a whole lot, which probably sounds like sacrilege to most. I then came across the quaintest, most moreish-looking recipe for lemon ricotta hot cakes on the website whiteonricecouple.com, in other words the most beautfiful food photography blog ever? And ok, I actually came across it two months ago. So yes, it’s been a whole two months before I decided to whisk some butter and sugar together for the sake of following it. God, it’s a beaut. I followed the original recipe once, but the second time I made a few adjustments.

These hotcakes, or mini silver dollar pancakes if you will, are oddly tender due to the quick-whisked egg whites in the batter (don’t fret! This part takes 30 seconds at most! I swear my life on it) and whole-milk ricotta and milk. Yes, you need good, whole milk for this. None of the almond or soy stuff, no matter how nourishing that feels later on. It’s a Sunday.

Ricotta Pancakes (serves 2-3)

Ingredients:

  • 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2.5 tablespoons sugar
  • 0.5 teaspoon salt
  • 0.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 0.5 teaspoon nutmeg/cinnamon
  • 0.5 tablespoons baking powder (I like decimal places, if you cannot already tell)
  • 1.25 cup whole milk ricotta
  • 0.5 cup milk
  • 2 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
  • butter for cooking

Procedure:

  1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg/cinnamon (I didn’t have fresh nutmeg so I just used cinnamon) and baking powder for at least 30 seconds.
  2. Separate the eggs and put whites aside.
  3. In a medium bowl containing the egg yolks you just extracted from those beautiful fresh eggs you just cracked, whisk in the ricotta, milk and vanilla extract. Lots of vanilla. Yum yum.
  4. Immediately fold the dry ingredients in and do NOT overmix. Mix until just combined and set aside.
  5. Whisk the egg whites by hand until foamy. I urge you to do it by hand because this step takes no time at all and why would I want you to whip out those dreaded electronic whisks for extra cleaning later on? Come on now.
  6. Pour the translucent whites into the batter you set aside and mix until just combined once more. Don’t be thorough with this batter, it does its job when you’re more laid back.
  7. Cook on a medium hot pan with a thin film of unsalted butter. It takes around 2 minutes a side. Flip when you see mini bubbles forming on the surface.
  8. Serve with butter and maple syrup (smashed berries and jam if you want) because that’s all you really need for this darn brilliant recipe.
  9. Take a fork, cut a nice triangle in the stack, or of two if you’re polite, and enjoy with a cup of good coffee.
  10. Make a mental note to make these again in the near future.
Posted on by alexcrumb 0