Mini Baked Chocolate Cheesecakes

Well, Happy New Year! I hope you’ve all had yourself a nice indulgent, and refreshing break. I admit I had intended to blog about this a little sooner but, you know…holidays happened. Hasn’t that sun been great?! Well, recently anyway

I found this recipe, by Donna Hay, in the New Zealand Herald last year.  Despite regularly browsing the lifestyle (namely food) pages of our online newspapers, I was instantly drawn to the rest of her equally indulgent and mouth-watering recipes. You can check them out here

The dessert itself is not heavy at all, and melted in my mouth with a slight moussy texture. I found the sliced fruit (berries, mainly) helped complete the richness and also made it perfect for someone who doesn’t have quite a sweet tooth.

I enjoyed the smaller individual-sized portions which are great if you are making them for a small group of people. There wasn’t any leftovers laying around in the fridge to taunt me in the days following!

So, welcome back to After Taste for 2013 – you can expect all sorts of exciting and tasty recipes to surface in the coming months and in the year ahead.

See you all again soon!

Mini Baked Chocolate Cheesecakes
Serves 4

• 100 grams chocolate biscuits
• 30 grams butter, melted
• 2 tbsp ground almonds
• 400 grams cream cheese
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 150 grams milk chocolate, melted
• Small amount of extra chocolate, for flaking on top
• Berries, to serve

Preheat oven to 150 degrees. Place the biscuits, butter and ground almonds in the bowl of a small food processor and process until roughly chopped. Spoon the mixture into the base of 4 x 1 cup-capacity ovenproof dishes and press down using the back of a spoon.

Place the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until smooth and thick. Fold through the chocolate and spoon over the biscuit bases.

Place the dishes on a baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm to touch. Allow to cool completely at room temperature before placing in the fridge for 2 hours.

Dust with roughly chopped chocolate flakes and top with berries of your choice. Enjoy.

This recipe is my entry in Sweet New Zealand for February 2013! Check out all the great recipes at Greedybread at the end of the month!

 

Raspberry and White Chocolate Fudge

My favourite brand of chocolate would have to be Whittaker’s, especially the delightful and fairly newly created White Raspberry chocolate block.

This delicious new flavour was an initiative of Samuel Marsden Collegiate School here in Wellington. As part of the Young Enterprise Scheme, a group girls put their thinking caps together and came up with this pink block in support of Breast Cancer.

Their pitch was so successful, the chocolate-maker adopted their idea and included a raspberry white chocolate in their line.

For each block of the chocolate sold, 20 cents will go to the Breast Cancer
Foundation. What a great reason to go out and get some and make this fudge in time for Christmas! I really think the raspberries beautifully complement the scrummy white chocolate. Enjoy!

Raspberry and White Chocolate Fudge
Makes 40 pieces

• 2 x 400g cans sweetened condensed milk
• 2 cups firmly packed soft brown sugar
• 250 g butter
• 100 ml liquid glucose syrup (try your local pharmacy)
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 2 x 250 grams Whittaker’s White Raspberry chocolate, chopped
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Spray and line a slice tin or container with non stick baking paper.

Place all ingredients, except the white chocolate and vanilla, in a large heavy based saucepan and stir over medium heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.

Bring to the boil and boil gently until it becomes very thick and changes colour to a dark caramel brown paper shade – about 6 minutes, to the soft ball stage, 116 degrees on a sugar thermometer.

Stir often to prevent catching on the bottom. Remove from heat and stand until the bubbles subside. Stir in the white chocolate and vanilla until melted and smooth.

Pour into the prepared tin and smooth the surface. Cool to room temperature (about 3 hours ) then refrigerate until firm.Sprinkle over some leftover white chocolate once cooled. Cut into squares. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 6 weeks – if it really does last that long.

Lemon Cornflake Slice

Rules to live by #1: You can never ever have too many lemons. Add to that, raspberries, passionfruit and cream chesse. Okay, the rest are entirely optional…

If you’re a reader of my blog, you will know I’m rather passionate about recipes that use lemon juice, rind, or zest.

So, for all you lemon lovers out there, here is yet another recipe for lemon slice I found in the weekend. This one is slightly chewy, fruity and particularly moreish. It slices up really well and is very deserving of a big slab of thick lemony icing! No holding back here

Happy Friday!

Lemon Cornflake Slice
Makes 32 pieces

Base:

• 100 g butter
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup coconut
• 1 cup cornflakes
• 1 cup rolled oats
• ¾ cup white plain flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder

Lemon icing:

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 3 tbsp lemon zest
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 180°C. In a large saucepan melt butter, golden syrup and sugar together. Add remaining ingredients, and blend well.

Press the mixture into a greased 20cm x 30cm slice pan and bake for 15-20 minutes. Once the slice has cooled to room temperature, ice.

For the icing, beat together butter and icing sugar until smooth. Blend in the lemon juice and lemon zest. Spread over the base.

Slice up when the icing has set and store in an air-tight container.

This is my entry for Sweet New Zealand this month. Head along to The Kitchen Maid and check out all the super tasty entries on offer! Click here to enter!

Yo-Yo’s with Lemon Filling

I made these the other night…and they’re delicious. I don’t think I know anyone that doesn’t love a yo-yo! Or do you call them a melting moment? Maybe even a custard cream…

I can never tell the difference or rather, never really *thought* about the difference between the two. It wasn’t until someone said to me:

“Ah, you made melting moments!”

“Err, well, no, they’re yo-yo’s”…

I’ve heard many things since.

The truth is there is very little difference between the two, except apparently for a yo-yo to be a true yo-yo, it needs to have custard powder in the biscuit mixture. Others say that melting moments are just much softer in texture.

I also think it might be another case of what household you grew up in, or what side of the world you dwell on, like plenty of other things in life!

What I do know for sure is that they are both nearly shortbread-like biscuits with lemony icing sandwiched between.

Whether you call them a yo-yo or a melting moment, this recipe is sure to please! Enjoy.

Thanks to The New Zealand Herald for the recipe.

Yo-Yo’s with Lemon Filling
Makes 18

• 170g butter, softened
• 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1/4 cup custard powder

Lemon filling

• 50g butter, softened
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 2 Tbs custard powder
• 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease or line an oven tray with baking paper.

Cream the butter, icing sugar and vanilla together until pale.

Sift the flour and custard powder together then gently fold into the creamed mixture. Roll teaspoonfuls of the mixture into balls, flatten slightly then place on the tray. Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until lightly golden. Let cool.

To make the filling; beat all the ingredients together until smooth then use to sandwich the biscuits together. If you like, you can dust with icing sugar before serving. Enjoy!

Very Berry Muffins

This recipe for berry muffins is a great way to use up leftover yoghurt and berries. They are fantastic straight out of the oven but keep extremely well in a sealed container for a couple of days. Alternatively, pop them in the freezer and take them out as needed. Tasty.

Very Berry Muffins
Makes 40+ mini muffins

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup yoghurt (this can be anything – I used a pottle of Meadow Fresh Live Lite Berry Crème)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup oil (canola is good here)
• 1 1/2 cup berries (I used frozen raspberries, but a mix of blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries would be great)
• 3 tbsp honey

Preheat the oven to about 190 degrees. I decided I felt like mini muffins on this particular afternoon but you can easily use whatever you desire – line a standard muffin tray with paper cases or just spray a mini muffin tray.

Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl, stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre of the mixture.

Lightly beat the egg with the yoghurt, milk and oil. Pour into the well and stir together. Lastly fold i the berries. Spoon the mixture evenly into the prepared muffin tray.

Bake in the preheated over for 20-25 minutes until the muffins are well risen and golden brown. Remove from the oven and while still warm, brush with honey.

Lemon Cupcakes with Raspberry Cream Cheese Buttercream

So, something good came out of needing to make a *little* room in the fridge freezer last week. Correction, something great. I had a jar of lemon curd that quite frankly hadn’t been in the freezer that long, but was taking up valuable room!

When I came across this recipe for lemon cupcakes, I knew that’s exactly where my lemon curd was headin’. Topped with some cream cheese frosting? This was some kind of heaven.

Lemon Cupcakes with Raspberry Cream Cheese Buttercream
Makes 24

For the cupcakes:

• 250 grams butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 6 eggs
• 2 tsp lemon rind
• 250 grams sour cream
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup lemon curd

For the buttercream:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 115 grams cream cheese, softened
• 4 – 4 1/2 cups icing sugar
  
• 1 1/2 cups raspberries
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, add eggs, lemon rind and sour cream. Blend well, gently fold in the flour and the baking powder.

Fill the lined cupcake pans 1/2 full of batter. Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pans for 5-10 minutes then remove. Will a teaspoon measure scoop a small amount of the cupcake away. Fill with 1 tsp of lemon curd. Cool the cupcakes with the lemon curd completely on wire racks before icing with the buttercream.

For the buttercream, cream butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Slowly add 1 cup icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add half of the raspberries and mix until combined. Add remaining icing sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating until well incorporated.

Add vanilla essence and the rest of your raspberries. Beat well, until frosting is creamy. Depending on your preferred consistency, add additional icing sugar if necessary. Chill for 30 minutes before piping onto your cupcakes. Enjoy!

This recipe is also my entry for Sweet New Zealand this month, which is being hosted by Sue from Couscous & Consciousness. Head along to her blog and check out all the entries at the end of the month!

Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Filled Muffins

What can I say? These muffins are epic. This is your ideal recipe to whip up on a cold, blustery day like it is in Wellington at the moment, infact all over New Zealand I believe!

I like them best straight out of the oven when the piping hot cream cheese just oozes out from between the chocolatety goodness. Incredible.

Guess you’ll just have to try the recipe to know what I’m talkin’ ’bout

Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Filled Muffins
Makes 12

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tsp milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Filling:

• 100 grams cream cheese, softened (I used light Philadelphia cream cheese)
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp flour

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or spray well with non stick cooking spray. Set aside.

In large bowl, beat the oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, sour cream and milk until well combined and light in color, for 3 minutes or so. Fold in remaining ingredients until just combined.

In small bowl, mix cream cheese, sugar and flour together until smooth. Set aside.

Scoop 1 large spoonful of muffin batter into prepared muffin tins to be 1/3 way full. Drop small spoonfuls of cream cheese mixture into middle of muffin batter (should be about 1 1/2-2 teaspoons per muffin). Scoop another large spoonful of muffin batter and pour overtop cream cheese mixture. Muffin tins should be filled 2/3-3/4 way full.

Bake 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes before removing from tins. Once cooled, store in air tight containers, ideally in the fridge.

They also freeze particularly well Enjoy.