Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

Wanted to do a New York Cheesecake and so have
adapted this recipe and did some modifications from http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/vanilla-bean-cheesecake-recipe/  which turns out to be a hot favourite among my friends.

Ingredients:

Crust
180 g crushed Digestive biscuits
113.4g butter, melted
24 g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste(I used redman brand)

Cheesecake

672g(about 24 oz) of cream cheese @ room temperature
210 g sugar
3 large eggs
242g (8 oz) heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste 

How to do:

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg Celsius. Prepare boiling water for the water bath(Am using the lowest tray for the water bath tray and the baking tray).Line the baking tray with parchment paper.

2. Mix the melted butter with sugar and vanilla bean paste and ensure the sugar is melted into the mixture.After that mix well with the crushed digestive biscuits.

3.Lay the crust mixture onto the baking tray and put into the freezer to chill for around 10 mins.

4.Cream the cream cheese and sugar using a hand mixer(or stand mixer) until smooth. Add in the eggs one by one.Ensure each egg is mixed well before adding the next egg, Add the heavy cream and bean paste into the mixture and blend well till smooth.

5.Take out the crust mixture from the freezer and poke holes into the crust using a fork(this is to ensure the cheesecake will stick better to the crust later on).Pour the batter from Step4 onto the crust mixture. Tap the final batter onto the table top from a height of 30cm to remove air bubbles.

6. Put the final batter on top of the water bath tray Do take note to ensure water will not be able to seep into the baking tray. Bake in the oven for 180 deg celsius for 50-60 mins. Bake till when the cake is almost cooked with a little jiggle in the middle of the cake when the baking tray is shaked.

7.Turn off the oven and let the cake sit inside the oven for another 1 hour to ensure the cheesecake is thoroughly cooked.

8.Remove the baking tray from waterbath and chill it in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

9. The cake is ready to be served after it is chilled, You may top it with raspberry juice or lemon zest on top of the cake for additional flavours.

Enjoy!!

Banana Cake

I always have wanted to try to bake a banana cake so as to satisfy my sister liking for a good banana cake. I adapted this cake from the website(https://travelling-foodies.com/2014/10/25/simple-banana-cake-whole-egg-direct-method/)  with some modifications to suit my Aerogaz oven and I used melted butter instead of vegetable oil.  The cake turned out very well and it definitely a recipe to keep.



Tin used: 10 inch square tin

Ingredients:

5 Eggs (large size, 70g with shell)
221g castor sugar
375g mashed banana(Weight of mashed overripe bananas and not the weight of the overripe bananas before being mashed)
300g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
150g melted butter

1 banana, peeled and sliced thinly

How-to-do:

1) Sift the cake flour, baking powder and baking soda together and set aside.
2) Melt the butter over a low fire till all butter have melted. Weight of melted butter to be kept at 150g.
3.Line the square tin with baking paper for easy removal of cake later on.
4. Whisk the eggs,mashed bananas and sugar at the low speed of the hand mixer till ribbon stage(where the mixture could flow continuously without dripping). It takes around 10-12 minutes for the hand mixer that I used.

5. Divide the sifted flour mixture in three portions. Using hands, fold in each portion into the mixture of eggs,mashed bananas and sugar. Ensure all flour have been well folded into the mixture.

6.Add in the melted butter and mix well till batter is shiny.
7.Pour the batter  into the square baking tin from a height of 20cm and tap the baking tin hard to eliminate air bubbles.
8. Lay out the thin banana slices on the surface of the batter.
9.Bake the batter in a preheated oven at 160 degrees Celsius for 60 mins.Bake till the surface is nicely browned and the inserted toothpick comes out clean. (I used the fan mode and lowest rack for the first 45 minutes. After which i changed to the top and bottom mode for the last 15 mins of baking so as to allow the top layer to be browned faster while not overbaking the cake).
10. Remove the cake from baking tin and leave to cool on a rack to room temperature. Ready to serve.

(Pardon the cutting skills that discredit the cake but nevertheless the cake is yummy!)

Let me know if you tried this recipe as well! Happy baking!

Traditional White Lotus Paste Mooncake with Melon Seeds

After many months of hesitation and delay, I finally get down my hands onto making mooncake since the season is coming.

I have adapted the recipe from the link (http://www.noobcook.com/traditional-baked-mooncakes/ ) and have done some changes/modifications to the recipe to cater to my volume of mooncakes that I wanted.

Below is my revised recipe:

Baked 23-24 of 50g mooncakes

Mooncake Filling:

840 grams of ready made white lotus paste
50 grams of melon seeds
20ml of peanut oil

Mooncake Dough:
140 grams of golden syrup
1 tsp alkaline water
50ml of peanut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
200 grams of sifted plain flour

Egg wash:
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp water

Tools/Extra Ingredients:
50g mini mooncake mould
Plain flour for dusting rolling pin, hands, dough and the dusting work surface.


Mooncake crust

1.Combine the golden syrup,alkaline water ,peanut oil and vanilla extract in a large bowl and mix well.

2.Add the sifted flour into the mixture to form a soft dough. Avoid over kneading of the dough.

3.Wrap the dough with cling wrap and put it aside for 2.5 hours.

4.After waiting for 2.5hours, dust the dough with some flour and do some kneading to make it smooth . Divide the dough into portions , each weighing 15 g and  rolled into a ball. Put aside.

Filling Paste

5. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius. Toast the melon seeds in the oven for around 8 minutes. Occasionally, shake the tray to ensure even heating. Allow to cool.

6. Mix the melon seeds into the lotus paste using your hands. Mix well.

7. Add the peanut oil into the mixture.Divide the paste into portions of 35grams each and rolled into a ball . The number of filling paste balls to follow the number of mooncake dough balls made earlier on.

Making the mooncakes:

1. Dust the dough, mooncake mould and hand with some flour. Flatten the dough(you can use a rolling pin if you like but I used my palm to flatten it) and try to ensure the skin is of equal thickness as much as possible . Wrap the mooncake dough around the ball of filling paste.

2. Lightly dust the wrapped mooncake dough with some flour and place it in the mooncake mould and press firmly. Invert the mould and push out to obtain the 'to be baked' mooncake . Put the 'to be baked' mooncake onto the tray (the tray to be lined with baking paper and with some oil spread across the baking paper). Repeat till all the dough are used up.

3. Baked the moon cakes into the preheated oven of 180 degrees celsius for 10 mins. Remove from oven and put aside to cool for 20 mins.

4.After 20 mins, brush the mooncakes with egg wash. Put the mooncakes into the oven again and bake for another 10 mins/ until the mooncakes have turned golden  brown.

5. Let the mooncakes cool and store the mooncakes in an airtight container for 2-3 days . Serve after the mooncakes have been left aside for 2-3 days for the oil to surface and soften the mooncake crust.

Tri-Coloured Kueh Lapis 

                                               

This recipe is adapted from Mimi's bakery page (http://mimibakeryhouse.blogspot.sg/)and decided to try out the tri coloured kueh lapis .Below is the recipe which have did some adjustments to my liking.

Ingredients

15 yolks
160g sugar
1.5 tbsp rum

98g Hongkong Flour
375g unsalted Saputo butter(Room Temperature)
3tbsp condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla essence

2/3 tsp baking powder
2/3 tsp Tempah Kueh(Lapis cake spice(Mixed Spice)

6 egg whites
3/4 tsp cream of tar tar
50g sugar

1.5 tsp chocolate paste
2 tsp pandan paste

How to bake:

1. Preheat oven to 180C with top and bottom heat. Lined a 8-inch square pan with baking paper and set aside.

  

2. Beat the butter, sugar  and condensed milk using a mixer until pale & creamy which took me about 6 minutes.  Ensure the butter is soft before beating it with the other ingredients.

                                                       

3. Separate the yolks from the white.

                            

4. Add in the yolks(2 yolks at a time) gradually to the No2. mixture .Add in the rum & vanilla essence.Mix well. 

                        

5. Fold in the flour, baking powder and Rempah Kueh with a spatula and mix until well blended. Put aside.

                        

6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with cream of tar tar until frothy.

                      

7.After which, add in the sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed.

8. Take 1/3 of the egg white meringue and mix into the egg yolk mixture, mix well.

      

9. Pour the egg yolk mixture into the remaining egg white meringue and mix until well combined.

10.  Divide the batter into 3 equal portions: (My total batter weighs about 1260g so each portion I about 420g)

• 1 portion = original batter

• 1 portion = original batter + 2 tsp pandan paste

• 1 portion = original batter + 1.5 tsp chocolate emulco (chocolate paste)

11.To get an even layer, weigh each of the batter for each layer. Each layer is about 70g of batter. Pour the first layer of pandan batter and bake it at 180C for about five minutes.  using top heat mode. Repeat the process until all the pandan batter been used finished, followed by chocolate batter  lastly the original batter. Note: I have greased every third layer with a little butter to ensure the kueh lapis stay moist.

12.Do take note that as the layer gets higher up, the time taken for the layer to be baked will decrease slightly to 4 mins as the layer becomes  nearer to the heating element in the oven. When baking the final layer  of batter, lower the temperature to 150C  and bake for 3-5 minutes, using top & bottom heat.

13. Remove the cake pan from the oven and let the Kueh lapis rest in the pan for 5 minutes. Invert the kueh lapis onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.(Press slightly on the kueh lapis against the wire rack to get the lines onto the kueh.)

        

As each oven is different, do monitor the heat temperature and duration for the initial layers to check which duration/oven temperature works for you. Have fun baking!

Strawberry Jellyheart Cheesecake

This cheesecake is the one of my top favourite and so decided to start my blog with this post.

First chanced upon this recipe when my oven happen to be spoilt and was looking for a non bake recipe and it turn out to be pretty easy to make.

This recipe is first  adapted from the below website:

http://www.foodista.com/recipe/DCQLWDBL/strawberry-jelly-hearts

 I have modified certain portions of the recipe and below contains the revised recipe:

Use a 10 inch by 10 inch square pan(yield about 20-25 jellyhearts )

 Ingredients

For the crust

-300 grams digestive biscuits

150 grams melted butter

For the cheesecake layer

-500 grams cream cheese (placed in room temperature for 2 to 3 hours to soften)

-1.5 tablespoon  gelatin powder

-1.25 cup  boiling water

-2/3 cup sugar

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-12 strawberries

For the jelly layer

-180 grams strawberry flavoured jelly(I used tortally brand-2 boxes exactly)

-1 cup &1/4 boiling water

-1 cup  cold water

Preparation:

Making Cheese Layer

1.Place 150g of butter in a oven proof bowl and boil over small fire to melt the butter.

2. Dip a brush into the melted butter and butter a large rectangular pan generously. I used a 13 X 10 X 2 inch glass pan.Note: You should line the  base of pan with a large piece baking paper for easier removal of cheesecake later on. If you line the pan with baking paper, butter the baking paper all over as well.

3.Place 300g of digestive biscuits in a food processor. Process till they become fine crumbs.

4.Place the crumbs in a large bowl and add the melted butter. Stir well to combine.

5.Place the biscuits-butter mixture in the pan. Using a fondant smoother, pack the mixture tightly into the pan.

6.Once the crust is made, place the pan in the fridge and chill until ready to use.

7.Add 1 & 1/2 tablespoons of gelatin powder in a bowl. Add 1 & 1/4 cups of boiling water to the gelatin powder. Stir well till all the gelatin has dissolved. Set aside to cool.

8.Place 500g of cream cheese in a large mixing bowl. Add 2/3 cups of sugar.

9.Using an electric whisk, combine the cheese and sugar. The cream cheese must be soft otherwise it will be very hard to mix here. Whisk till the mixture is light and fluffy.

10.Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the cream cheese mixture.

11.Add the cooled gelatin mixture a little at a time. Whisk well to combine.

12.The finished mixture should be a runny smooth liquid. Like a milkshake. If there are lumps, run the mixture through a sieve.

13.Remove the pan from the fridge. Using a fork, prick holes all over the biscuit base.(This step is required to allow the cheesecake to be able to stick with the biscuit base)

14.Pour the cream cheese mixture on to the biscuit base.

15.Let the mixture rest in room temperature for about 10 minutes.

16.In the meantime, cut the strawberries. Cut them first in half. Look for the thicker side and cut lengthwise across it so that each strawberry heart is thick. Then at the top of the strawberries, slice off the white tops with the leaves and cut a deep V in the centre.

17.Press each strawberry half into the cream cheese mixture. Let the strawberry sink in gently. Space the strawberries 1 inch to 1.5 inches apart. Cover the pan with cling film wrap.

18.Place the pan in the fridge. Chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Making Jelly Layer

19.Use strawberry jelly powder to make the top layer. Place 160g strawberry jelly powder in a bowl. Add 1 .25 cups of boiling water. Whisk well till jelly powder has dissolved. Add 1  cups of cold water. Mix well.

20. Ensure that the jelly-water mixture has cooled. Pour the mixture over the cream cheese layer.

21.Cover with cling film wrap again. Chill for at least 4 hours.

22.Use a sharp knife with a thin blade to cut the jelly hearts. Prepare a large jar of boiling water. Dip the knife into the water. Wipe it off and cut. Repeat that with every cut to get a nice clean cut with no crumbs sticking at the sides.

23.Store uneaten cheesecake covered in the fridge.

Side note: I have tried the same cheesecake with other flavoured jelly and fruit as well and the combination of lychee with raspberry flavoured jelly is good too!