Caramel Cheesecake

Salty Caramel over a baked cheesecake - perfection

Ingredients

1 cup crushed digestive biscuits
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
4 Tbsp salted butter, melted
400 gms cream cheese, softened - Britannia has a new cheese
3/4 cup castor sugar
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup heavy cream

Salted Caramel Sauce - click for recipe

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. 

In a mixing bowl, mix together crushed graham crackers with granulated sugar. 

Pour in melted butter and stir mixture until evenly coated. 

Put the mixture in a cheesecake tin.  Press mixture into an even layer. 

Bake in preheated oven 5 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool while preparing filling.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together castor sugar with flour until well blended. 

Add softened cream cheese to a separate mixing bowl and mix sugar mixture over top. 

Blend mixture on low speed until smooth. 

Mix in eggs one at a time and blend on low speed, while scrapping sides and bottom of bowl and mixing just until combined after each addition. 

Add vanilla, sour cream and heavy cream and mix just until combined. 

Put mixture on top of baked crust. 

Bake in preheated oven 20 - 23 minutes, centers should still jiggle slightly, don't overbake (if they begin to crack they are starting to become overbaked). 

Remove from oven and allow to cool 1 hour. 

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and transfer to refrigerator and chill 2 hours. 

Once chilled top with Salted Caramel Sauce

Marmalade Orange Chiffon Cake

The flavour of Oranges with the lightness of air - made with oil which keeps cake soft even when in the refrigerator

3 eggs 

115 gms flour

125 gms castor sugar  + 25 gms castor sugar

1/2 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

60 ml sunflower oil

60 ml freshly squeezed orange juice

1 tbsp grated orange rind 

Separate egg yolks and white.  Do this with cold eggs and leave to come to room temp.

Beat egg whites till soft peaks.  Slowly add in, a tablespoon at a time, of the 25 gms sugar.  Beat until stiff peaks.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Add in the egg yolks, oil, orange juice and rind.

Mix well till incorporated.  I use a hand mixer for this.

Slowly fold in the egg whites, using a whisk, ensuring you don't overbeat and deflate them.

Pour into a lined 12 cm tin and bake at 170 C for 55 mins

Leave to cool in pan for 5 mins then upturn and cook on a wire tray.

Glaze the top with melted marmalade.

Lychee Panna Cotta with Lychee Ginger Sauce

Weekend busy with cooking and eating.  In my house the husband and kids never ask "Whats for dinner ?".  Their only question is "Whats the meetha today?"  So all my energies are used up on thinking and making desserts.  The difficult thing is that everyone is a small eater and don't want to repeat their dessert or Meetha.  Which is why I have to go in for small portions of everything.  This is where my shot glasses come in use :)  And I have a really large amount of them.

Since there were lots of Lychees at home I figured it was time to put them to good use.  And ginger with lychee went absolutely beautifully.  The red colouring came from using gingerale squash by Mapro 

LYCHEE PANNA COTTA WITH LYCHEE GINGER SAUCE

Serves 8

Cooking Time – 15 mins                            Setting time – 3-4 hours

INGREDIENTS

300 ml [1.5 cups] milk

250 ml [1.25 cups] fresh cream

1/3 cup sugar

4 tsp gelatin sprinkled over ½ cup milk

250 gms Lychee pulp

1. Sprinkle the gelatin over ½ cup milk and leave for 10 – 12 min to bloom.
2. Combine milk and cream alongwith sugar and heat till sugar dissolves.
3. Heat the milk with gelatin on low till it is well dissolved.  Add into the milk / cream combination stirring to ensure no lumps are seen
4. Bring to room temp and add in the lychee pulp.
5. Transfer into shot glasses and keep in fridge to set.
6. Once set then it can be topped by the sauce.  Alternatively it can be unmolded and sauce poured on top.  In case you want to unmold the panna cottas rinse the glasses, but do not wipe, before pouring in the mix.

FOR TOPPING

½ cup lychee squash

½ cup gingerale

2 tbsp cornflour dissolved in 1/2 cup water

1. Heat the lychee squash and gingerale and once it is boiling add in the cornflour.  
2. Cook for a couple of minutes till thick and the whiteness of the cornflour disappears.

Creme Caramel

I know, I know everyone does Caramel Custard.  As a kid I hated it - my mom cooks absolutely beautifully but cannot make this.  Everyone I know would make this in the cooker  ?????? and it would taste eggy.  

I had the most amazing creme caramel on a trip to the UK and decided I had to overcome my fear of making this.  I absolutely hate using the cooker for any dessert.  My recipe is a baked one and uses half milk half cream.  In fact higher the proportion of cream to the milk the tastier it is.

Start of by making a nice caramel.  All this needs is sugar and a little bit of water.  You need to remember only to stir the sugar till it melts.  Once its melted please do not put a spoon into it.  Else it will crystalise.  Also you need to be careful not to let the sugar burn.  The time from a good caramel to a burnt caramel is probably just seconds.

Next you will need to make a custard - lots of eggs required.  This again requires care as to not let the eggs curdle so the temp of the milk / cream needs to be below boiling.  

Then all is simple.  Pour into the mould and stick it into the oven.  Recipe given below.

Recipe to follow

Serves - 08 people

Time - 15 min prep              45 min baking time                4-5 hours chilling time.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 tbsp sugar + 30 ml water
• 6 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 300 ml milk
• 300 ml cream
• a few drops of vanilla essence 

METHOD

• Start be preparing the dish for baking.  You will need a mould with a larger pan as this is going to be baked in a bain marie - well actually steamed.
• Fill the larger dish with water upto halfway mark.
• Preheat oven to 150C

• Make the caramel by melting 4 tbsp sugar alongwith 30 ml water.  Stir till sugar melts.  Once melted do not touch the pan with a spoon but swirl gently.
• Once it comes to a boil, turn down the heat and let is bubble till a golden colour is achieved.  
• Remove from heat immediately and pour into the mould that is being used.  Swirl the mould to cover the base and sides.  
• Place the mould in the larger pan.

• Beat the eggs and sugar till thick and creamy
• Mix the milk and cream till almost boiling.  DO NOT BOIL
• Pour into the egg mix, beating constantly.
• Add in the vanilla
• Strain the custard, if you see any lumps, directly onto the caramel.
• Place in the centre of the oven and bake for 40-45 min.  If the water reduces, top it up.

• Once done, cover with a cling film and bring to room temp
• Chill in the fridge for 4-5 hours and unmould before serving.

PARIS BREST

During a trip to Bangalore we went for dinner to a place called Sunny's.  It was a trip after to Bangalore after some 15 years and how has the city changed.  

Everything we ate was excellent.  The highlight of the evening was the Paris Brest.  It was just wonderful and I had to make this once we came back.  

The Paris Brest is a celebration cake made for a 1200 kilometer bicycle race that goes from Paris to Brest and back to Paris.  It is a choux pastry filled with a praline caramel creme and topped with nuts made in the shape of a wheel to honour the race.

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CHOUX PASTRY1/2 cup oil or butter
1 cup boiling water
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs

FOR GLAZE

1 egg beaten

1/2 cup Flaked Almonds

FOR THE CARAMEL

50 g sugar

3 tbsp. water 
50 g salted butter

2 cups Whipped Cream

METHOD

1. In a saucepan melt butter / oil in boiling water.  
2. Add flour and salt all at once,  Stir vigorously till the mix forms a ball that does'nt separate
3. Remove from heat.  Cool slightly. 
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, till smooth.
5. Draw an 8 inch circle on a piece of parchment. 
6. Transfer the dough to a large piping bag fitted with a large plain tip. Pipe a 1 inch (2.54 cm) thick ring of dough just inside the circle that is drawn on the parchment paper. 
7. Pipe another 1 inch (2.54 cm) thick ring inside the first ring, making sure the rings of dough are touching. 
8. Pipe a final ring of dough on top, along the center seam between the first two rings of dough.
9. With moistened fingertips, gently smooth the rings of dough. 
10. With a pastry brush, gently brush the glaze on the top and sides of the dough. 
11. Sprinkle with the shaved almonds. 
12. Bake for 20 minutes at 400F [200 C].
13. Reduce to 170 C and bake another 10 min.

Meanwhile prepare the caramel with salted butter cream

1. Melt the sugar with water in a heavy bottom saucepan till it changes colour.  Do not stir once the sugar has melted.  
2. Remove from heat and add in salted butter and whisk well to mix. 

TO ASSEMBLE

1. Split the pastry shell in half horizontally and remove any wet pieces of dough. 
2. Keep a couple of tablespoons of caramel aside and spread the balance over the shell
3. Spoon (or pipe) the whipped cream into the hollow center of the shell. 
4. Place the top half of the pastry shell on the whipped cream and dust with powdered (confectioners or icing) sugar.
5. Drizzle the balance caramel on top of the shell
   

Oreo Cookie Mini Cheese Cake

I seem to have spent quite some time on the internet chatting with new found friends at CAL.  The inspiration to go into the kitchen again comes from all that talk of food and the inspiration for making mini cheesecakes came from the wonderful Norpro Mini Cheesecake Pan I saw and have to buy

Very soon Monish is going to throw me out of office as I dont seem to work - Hate to confess I am waiting for him to do that :)

My kids love Oreo and cheesecakes - so it had be a combination of both.

This can be made in a regular 9" springform pan also.

Ingredients

CRUST
10 oreo cookies
5 tablespoon butter(melted)

CHEESECAKE
2 cups heavy cream - I use Rich's
200 gms cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice

5 Oreo Cookies, crushed

Directions:

BASE
Separate the cookies, remove the vanilla filling, and crush to a rough powder

Add melted butter and blend until combined.  Press into pan. Set aside.

FILLING  
Beat heavy cream until medium peaks form. Set aside.

Add Oreo cookie vanilla filling, cream cheese, sugar, salt, &, lemon juice to a bowl and beat with a hand mixer until smooth (approximately 3-5 mins). 

Add cream cheese mixture to heavy cream and mix until incorporated.

Gently fold in crushed Oreo cookies.

Pour over the base and refrigerate for at least 6 hours to set or overnight for best results.

Remove from refrigerator and smooth top to level with edges. Serve garnished with halved Oreos.

Chocolate Tart

Kids were away to Maasi's house in Mumbai and their Dad was going through withdrawl symptoms. How does it matter if they are 20 & 16 yrs respectively........ he was miserable.  So I decided to cheer him up with :)

Chocolate - What could be better ?

This is a rich decadent tart - designed to cheer up the lousiest mood.  

And  yes it worked 

INGREDIENTS

For the base

• 150g - approx 10 - 12 - Digestive biscuits
• 30g unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tbsp white caster sugar

For the chocolate ganache

• 175g thick cream
• pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp Baileys Irish Cream
• 50g fresh custard
• 110g dark chocolate 
• 50g milk chocolate

Cocoa Powder to dust

Method

1. Place the biscuits in a food processor and add the melted butter and sugar. Blitz until the mixture resembles fine sand in texture.
2. Place the biscuit mixture inside a 15cm loose bottom cake tin . Flatten using the back of a spoon then put in the freezer to set
3. Mix the cream, salt and Baileys and allow to stand for 5 minutes
4. Stir in the fresh custard.
5. Put the dark and milk chocolate in a bowl. Place over a bain marie ( a double boiler ) and allow to melt completely. Remove from the heat.
6. Add the infused cream to the bowl of melted chocolate, making sure to incorporate the cream thoroughly. 
7. Allow the ganache to cool to room temperature.
8. After 5 minutes, pour the ganache on the base and place the tart in the freezer to set for 2 - 4 hours. 
9. Dust with cocoa powder before serving.

Molten Chocolate Pots

Chocolate ..... hmmmm,  you can never get enough of it, can you.  Though I must admit I personally am not a great chocolate fan.  Prefer anything citrus anyday.  But what to do - it is the ultimate in food fantasy :)


So it was all about chocolate these past few days - brownies, cakes, cheesecakes and of course the Decadent Molten Chocolate Pot.  Fairly simple to make and always a big hit.   Only once your spoon cuts through the crust do you find the molten center.

It rose beautifully - lovely cracked top - which you cannot see as I dusted it with icing sugar, and a soft molten center.  Do be careful when eating this because you will burn your tongue


What you need


Baking Chocolate - 115 gms
Butter - 115 gms
Eggs - 2 largs
Sugar - 75 gms
Flour - 40 gms


And now to make it

• Grease 4 ramekins with butter and keep aside.
• Melt the chocolate with the butter over a double boiler.  Please do not do this in the microwave nunless you are an expert in chocolate.  Its so easy to burn.
• Beat the eggs and sugar till light and fluffy.  I do find it easier to use a hand mixer rather than by hand.  This needs to be done for at least 5 min as this is what causes the cake to rise.  There is no baking powder or any other raising agent.
• Mix the melted, slightly cooled chocolate into the egg mixture till well incorporated.  
• Fold in the flour.  Fold and not mix - do not over mix.
• Pour into the ramekins, place on a tray and bake for 10-12 min at 180 C.
• Dust some icing sugar on top and serve with cream or strawberries

Note - to make options you could add coffee dissolved in water or cointreau to the chocolate.

Rum and Raisin Cheesecake

What you need

1 1/2 cups chocolate biscuit crumbs

100g butter, melted

1 cup raisins

1/4 cup dark rum

500 gm Cream Cheese, softened

1/4 cup rum

3/4 cup caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

300g sour cream

1/4 cup caster sugar

4 tbsp gelatin + 1/4 cup water

100 gms melted chocolate

To make it

COMBINE biscuit crumbs and butter then press into a greased 8" springform pan; chill.

Soak the raisins in the dark rum and keep aside.

BEAT the cream cheese and sugar using an electric mixer until smooth. Add rum and vanilla beat until smooth. Mix in sour cream until well combined. 

Soak the gelatin in water and heat on low to melt. Mix into the cheese cream mixture.

Drain raisins and fold into mixture.

Separate the mix into 2 parts. Mix in the melted chocolate in one part, keeping the other white.

Pour the white mix over the biscuit base and keep to set for 10 min. Once slightly firm pour the choc mix over the white base.

Keep to set for at least 6 hours before serving.

Decorate as desired

Ice Cream Bombe

Hectic weekend with dinner and lunches out with friends.  Which automatically leads to the question from the kids - whats for us ?  So this was all about pacifying Aakash.  Poor Shreya had to take a backseat but its not such a problem cause she never eats the desserts anyways :)

So, courtsey my son, I did a icecream cake - my first attempt so its not finished the way I would have liked it to be.

Start with a good basic cake.  Not a sponge please.  I put some marmalade in mine to give it an orange twist.

Line a round basin with clingfilm and line this with the cake, sliced in the centre and cut into triangles.  Fill all the gaps with leftover cake and put in the freezer to set.  

Soften icecream - any flavour - I used vanilla and mango - and layer the inside of the frozen cake with this, following the shape of the cake.  First layer was vanilla and then mango.  I went adventurous and filled the centre with some Raspberry sorbet.  Cover with cling film and put back in the freezer to set.  

Made this in the morning so it got about 8 hours to set.  When ready to serve, upturn on a plate.  

  

Could have been a better looking presentation.  Next time this is going to get covered with Chocolate or cream. But I must admit it was really tasty

MERINGUES

One of the toughest things to find in Gurgaon or Delhi – meringues or meringue shells.  Fortunately one of the easier things to make if you have the time and inclination.  Made well, they are light and airy and only need a couple of ingredients to make them - something that can be found in most homes.  

The following recipe quantity is a reduced down version and is fairly simple. 

Serves – 8

Time – 30 mins + baking time

Ingredients

• 2 egg whites
• 55 gms castor sugar
• 55 gms icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat a conventional oven to 110c.  Line a baking tray with butter paper
2. Separate the eggs when cold and bring the egg whites to room temp.  This is very necessary for beating the eggs to the required volume.  Using an electric beat, beat the eggs till they are fluffy and resemble a cloudy mass and should hold a stiff peak when the beater is lifted.
3. Gradually add in castor sugar, a tablespoon at a time, beating well for 3-4 minutes between each addition.  When all the castor sugar is incorporated the mixture should be nice, thick and glossy.
4. Sift one third of the icing sugar over the mixture and fold in with a spoon.  Continue to sift in the balance till all is incorporated.  DO NOT OVERMIX.
5. Using a wet spoon, scoop up a tablespoon of the mixture and drop it on the baking sheet in rough rounds.  Or, place meringue mixture in pastry bag fitted with star tip. Pipe meringue onto parchment paper to form eight 3-in. cups
6. Bake for 1 1/4 hours or until the meringues are crisp.
7. Leave to cool on a cooling rack
8. Serve sandwiched with sweetened whipped cream or crumbled over ice cream