Blueberry Cheesecake

July and August are the months of blueberries! How can I miss making something out of it?!! hahahahh! Used it as a topping over cheesecake, something which I really like to eat myself, and wish to perfect. The problem with testing out cheesecake recipes (or even whole cake recipes for that matter) is, you have the bake a whole cake and even if it tastes heavenly, it's impossible for my family to finish everything. The calories kill as well. So got the chance to do it at the monthly zadankais where I'll have guests over at my place.

Was lazy and decided to go for the easy way for cheesecakes - to just bake it without a water bath. The cheesecake recipe is from Jamie Oliver's Bloomin' Easy Vanilla Cheesecake. Honestly, I'm not crazy over this cheesecake. It's dense, rich and may I say, slightly dry as well. Personally prefer moist and creamy cheesecakes. Am really pleased with the blueberry topping though. Will add some lemon juice or a dash of gin the next time for a second level flavor.

Mom brought some of the cheesecake to her workplace as well and one of her colleagues - who's not a fan of cheesecake - love it to bits. and had multiple servings of it She said it tastes refreshing and it does not have the usual creamy sick dairy taste which most commercially prepared cheesecakes have. While I'm into creamy cheesecakes, here's one who doesn't heehee! Guess another man's poison is another's meat.

The best cheesecake I've ever tasted came from The Cheesecake Factory when I stayed in US then, but damn I can't find a good copycat recipe so far. Mom said I shouldn't be lazy anymore when it comes to baking cheesecake. Will only stick to water bath recipes in the future, I guess.

Blueberry Cheesecake

Ingredients:
Biscuit Base -
175g digestive biscuits
85g unsalted butter

Cheesecake filling -
450g cream cheese
60g caster sugar
1.5 tbsp corn flour
1 large egg
60ml whipping cream
1 vanilla pod

Method:
Blueberry Topping (to prepare in advance) -
250g blueberries
70g sugar
6 tsp water

1. Cook blueberries, sugar and water in a pot on medium heat
2. Stir occasionally so that it is evenly cooked, be careful not to caramelize the sugar
3. Cook till blueberries are softened & set aside to cool
4. Pour blueberries into a container & store in fridge until ready for use

Cheesecake -
1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Combine digestive biscuit crumbs and butter in a bowl and press the crumbs on a 9"springform tin
3. Cook biscuit base for 7 mins & remove from oven. Put aside to cool while you prepare the cheese filling
4. Turn oven to 200°C
5. Combine sugar & cornflour in a bowl & add mixture into cream cheese. Beat mixture with an electric mixer until creamy
6. Add in egg and beat well
7. Gradually add in cream and beat until smooth
8. Scrap the pods off the vanilla and add into mixture, beat till smooth
9. Pour mixture onto biscuit base, gently shake to level out the filling
10. Put cheesecake in oven for 35 mins until top is golden brown or filling has set
11. Let cheesecake cool in oven for a while before removing it from oven to cool at room temperature
12. Spread blueberry topping over cheesecake & chill overnight or till ready to be served

Matcha Azuki Muffins

Part 2 of baking weekend - Matcha muffins! Bought a can of azuki beans waiting to be nom-ed more than a month ago. Finally open ceremony it today. Modified my chocolate muffins recipe to matcha one with some adjustments. Love the results. The green tea taste is significant as I got generous with the matcha powder. Everyone who tried it smelt the matcha. Mom said the green looks pretty though I think it looks mutant-ish heehee.

Packed them in a box with encouragement on top as it's meant for a zadankai anyway. She said everyone was excited (probably due to the box) and love the muffins. Yayness for me!

Matcha Azuki Muffins

Ingredients:
280g all purpose flour, sifted
100g caster sugar
120g unsalted butter, melted
300ml milk
2 eggs
6 tsp matcha powder
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
200g azuki beans

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Add flour, matcha powder, sugar, baking powder & salt into a bowl and mix well
3. Lightly heat up milk and egg in a saucepan
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture
5. Pour in milk mixture and melted butter into the well
6. Fold batter quickly until just combined
7. Fill up half of each muffin cup with the muffin batter
8. Add a spoonful of azuki beans on top of the half filled cups
9. Cover the muffin cups with the remaining batter
10. Bake for 20 mins
11. Leave muffins in baking tray to sit for 5 mins before cooling them on a wire rack

Banana Walnut Cake

Gonna make lotsa noms for my sister's zadankais in the weekend. First up is banana cake! Tried one of David Lebovitz's recipe from my newly bought cookbook, Ready for Dessert. Original recipe is here. I lowered the fat and sugar content as there will be old folks at the zadankai. Last thing I want is one of them to get a heart attack after eating my cake =S

Cake is moist and soft. I guess it must be the magic of sour cream. Cinnamon and banana go really well together as well. The kitchen smelt lovely with the blend of banana and cinnamon while the cake was baking. Had trouble chasing my dog away as she smelt it from the bedroom and think it's her food. I skipped the coffee powder simply because I don't have coffee powder at home hahahahh!! But I think it'll taste great if you followed the recipe to add a tablespoon of it.

Banana Walnut Cake (modified from David Lebovitz's Banana Cake with Mocha Frosting and Candied Peanuts)

Ingredients:

350 g all purpose flour

1.5 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

200g unsalted butter

200g sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

6 tbsp lite sour cream

450g bananas, mashed

120g walnuts, coarsely chopped & toasted

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175°C & prepare a 9"x9" square baking tin
2. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda & salt in a bowl
3. Cream butter & sugar in a separate bowl with a mixer on medium speed until light & fluffy
4. Add in vanilla, then eggs one at a time into butter & sugar mixture
5. Stir in half of flour mixture into creamed mixture
6. Add in bananas and sour cream and stir
7. Pour in the remaining flour mixture and mix till just combined
8. Bake for 50mins or until the centre is set

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Gonna celebrate 2 of my friends' birthdays tomorrow. Decided to make cookies for them as birthday presents! Reused my Anna Olson's recipe, modified a little to reduce the fat and sugar content with minimal effect on the result. This time I also divided the cookie dough into two and added white chocolate and macadamia nuts to one portion, and milk chocolate to the other.

Decided to use chopped chocolate bar for the milk chocolate portion because I have this bar of baking chocolate lying around since I started baking few months ago. Was dumb and bought random chocolates which labeled "for baking" without considering the percentage of cocoa hahahha It actually gave a pretty good result because the chocolates are chopped coarsely so it gave a generous dosage per bite which melted nicely on the tongue. The chocolate shavings which came off from the bar during the slicing also gave the cookie a rustic look.

For the white chocolate portion, am pretty pleased that I didn't burn them this time. My previous 2 attempts baking them at the typical cookie baking temperature burnt the white chocolate chips and the appearance wasn't too....appealing.

Looks like I need a bigger cooling rack :/

Birthday Cookies! (adapted from Anna Olson's Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe)

Ingredients
140g all purpose flour
75g butter, room temperature
20g white sugar
85g brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp corn flour
50g white chocolate chips
40g macadamia nuts

Method
1. Preheat oven to 175°C
2. Cream sugar and butter
3. Add in beaten egg and mix well, then add in vanilla extract
4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt, mix well
5. Add flour mixture to wet mixture and fold in till well combined
6. Stir in chocolate chips & nuts
7. Drop tablespoons full of cookie dough onto aluminium prepared trays
8. Bake for 10 mins and transfer to wire rack to cool...and profittttt!!! xD

Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Muffins

Have leftover cream cheese from making cheesecake brownies the other time, so I had to clear them quick. My past experiences storing opened cream cheese in the fridge didn't register too pleasant memories as they ended up curdling. I also love the awesome combination of chocolate with warm cheese heh heh

They were meant for a kite flying cum picnic session but it has been raining hard during morning so the plans are trashed. Gaahhh... Anyway they landed up at my boyfriend's place for his family, so it's all good :]

Shoved one to my boyfriend in the midst of a movie. He said the amount of sweetness is just right and he liked the little surprise cream cheese in the middle. He also had no qualms whether it's being eaten warm or not. Yayness for me! Will try this concept on other combination.
Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Muffins

Ingredients
Muffin:
160g all purpose flour, sifted
25g cocoa powder, sifted
120g caster sugar
80g chocolate chips
70g unsalted butter, melted
165ml milk
1 egg
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
icing sugar (for dusting)

Cream Cheese Filling:
120g cream cheese
1.5 tbsp white sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Add flour, cocoa powder, sugar, chocolate chips, baking powder and salt into a bowl and mix well
3. Lightly heat up milk, egg and vanilla in a saucepan
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture
5. Pour in milk mixture and melted butter into the well
6. Fold batter quickly until just combined
7. In a separate bowl, use a electric mixer to beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth
8. Fill up half of each muffin cup with the chocolate batter
9. Add a spoonful of cream cheese on top of the half filled cups
10. Cover the muffin cups with the remaining batter
11. Bake for 20 mins (centre doesn't come clean for this one due to the cream cheese :Þ)
12. Leave muffins in baking tray to sit for 5 mins before cooling them on a wire rack
13. Dust some icing sugar on the muffins...and profffiitttt!

The Sweetest Thing Ever

Boyfriend told me he's gonna deliver something to my place out of the blue. So I was like sure, what's it? Turns out to be my breakfast for tomorrow. Apple ham topped with cheddar cheese, accompanied by nutritious multi-grain bread. He's worried about my bad eating habits, skipping breakfasts and dinners, munching on sugary junk food. Have to compliment him for making the sandwich to look like a cake too, so it'll look even more so irresistible to me teeheehee

Thank you :]

Cranberry Shortbread

Cranberry Shortbread is Christmas food!! But doesn't stop me from making them early in the year. Started off as a practice recipe in anticipation for Christmas gift giving for my colleagues in December. Ended up being my mom's favorite snack. Don't think she's too crazy about the shortbread, more of the fact that she can chew on the cranberries. "More cranberries!", she demanded. She finished my first batch all by herself. This is the second time I'm making them, think most of them will end up in her tummy as well, heh.

I like this recipe because it has no egg, so I need not make a big batch of them to meet the ratio. The tanginess of cranberry is pretty distinct, accompanied by buttery shortbread with a hint of vanilla. You can add orange zest if you like as well, to add onto that tangy flavor. Shortbread generally looks paler than cookies. If you like them to be browner, you can bake them slightly longer, but do bear in mind your shortbread may turn out drier and harder.

Cranberry Shortbread

Ingredients
115g all purpose flour
75g unsalted butter
35g white sugar
50g dried cranberries, chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Cream butter and sugar
3. Add vanilla extract and mix well
4. Mix flour and salt in another bowl
5. Blend flour mixture into butter and sugar mixture to form a dough
6. Add the cranberries in and mix thoroughly
7. Wrap the dough and refrigerate for 1h (I skipped this, resulting in really soft dough that is hard to handle)
8. Roll out dough to desired thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut out the dough
9. Bake for 8 - 10 mins and and transfer to wire rack to cool. Proffiiitttt!!!