Honey, Lime and Ginger Cheesecake

Not the prettiest, but it was darn tasty!

I have recently joined up with a cooking community called Kitchen Surfing! It looks like it could be a lot of fun. Basically it means that if someone likes the look of the food I make (mostly curries) and the cakes I bake, then they could hire me to come and cook in their home! Fun! There also seems to be market selling opportunities too. In any case, this links in to this post as I had to cook some dishes to take to an interview/tasting to see what sort of things I make. This cheesecake was one of them. 

I love cheesecake and usually stick to my chai baked one, but this time wanted to have the flavours reflect the wintery months. Honey, lime and ginger was the winning combination as this is what you need when you start to feel a bit poorly - and they are a tasty trio.
Topped with honey and fresh ginger syrup for extra oomph.

Ingredients:
325g butter keks smashed to within an inch of their lives
30g oats
150g butter, melted
2 1/2 tblsp ground ginger

500g cream cheese(room temp)
100g sugar
100g honey
4 eggs (room temp)
250ml cream(room temp)
zest of 2 limes and the juice of one
1tsp vanilla extract
2 tblsp plain flour

thumb sized piece of ginger
2 tblsp honey

Method:
-Preheat the oven to gas mark 4. Line a loose bottomed, deep, round tin with paper and set aside.
-Make the buttery biscuit base: Pour the butter in to the smashed biscuits, oats and ginger powder and mix well. Tip in to the tin and press down firmly so it is tightly packed. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
-beat the cream cheese then add in the sugar and beat for a few minutes. Add in the honey and cream and whisk together until smooth.
-Add the eggs, zest, juice and vanilla and carefully whisk in. Sieve the flour over the top and gently fold. Try not to incorporate too mach air. Carefully bang the bowl on the kitchen side to remove large air bubbles.
- pour on to the prepared biscuit base. Bake for around an hour. It should rise up, nice and puffy, slightly brown around the edges and still have a wobble in the center. After an hour, turn off the oven and leave inside. Then after another hour, open the door and leave it for another hour. So 3 hours in total. You basically want to let it cool down as slowly as possible.
-to make the syrup, grate the ginger, squeeze the juice in to a small pan and put the ginger in too. Add the honey and a little water. Boil for a few minutes till thickened. Cool and pour over the cooled cheesecake!
Slice and munch.

Lebkuchen

Chocolate-dipped, crunchy-chewy domes of Christmas spice.

It's that time of year again! It's nearly Christmas, hooray! For a long time now it's been a tradition of mine to have a 'fake' Christmas day - the works: get up early, presents, a tree, the dinner, lots of films, cheese, mulled wine and falling asleep on the sofa at the appropriate time of 8.30 pm. This year I found my self in Berlin and so though that I would give all my lovely ladies a fake Christmas day. A table filled with nibbles in the day and a roast for eleven at night...
So I had the task of thinking of some lovely baked goods - lebkuchen, of course! Lovely gingery spiced biscuit-cakes that pop up everywhere at Cristmastime in Germany and date back as far as the 1200s. They are sweetened naturally with a lot of honey, so take care they don't catch in the oven. These are very, very easy to make. These taste better the longer you can leave the dough to rest. 4 hours is ok, but if you have the time, make the mixture the day before you want to eat them!
This recipe is adapted from goodfood.co.uk

Ingredients:

250g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
90g ground almonds
1 tsp lebkuchen spice mix (cinnamon, coriander, pepper, anis, ginger)
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 ground black pepper
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
200ml honey
80g butter
zest of a lemon and an orange

100g dark chocolate

Method:
- sift the dry ingredients in to a large bowl.
- heat the honey and butter together until the butter melts and allow to cool slightly.
- Pour the molten honey on to the four, add the zest and beat well using a wooden spoon until combined. Cover with clingfilm and allow to rest. The dough will be very sticky and wet, but will firm up as it cools.

ready to bake!

- preheat the oven to gas mark 3/ 160C and line a large baking sheet with paper.
- Plonk the dough on to a lightly floured board and knead for a few seconds. Divide in to 30 equal portions (I went a bit overboard to ensure even sized treats. This recipe will make 30 21g biscuits!). Roll in to small balls and then lightly flatten so they have domed tops. Place on the sheet and bake in two batches for 10-12 minutes,
- cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water and dip the bottoms in. Leave to set upside down.
- boil the kettle, stick on the Muppet Christmas Carol and enjoy.

Chai Masala Cake with Honey and Ginger Cheesecake Icing

With a sprinkle of ginger on the top.

It's getting rather chilly here now - snow, sleet, visible breath - so I thought it best to have a few folk over for some dinner to warm them (and my flat) up! Curry is my go to main so I baked a chai flavoured cake to go along with it. I made a version of this last year, but it didn't quite work - the icing was all runny and it felt a bit heavy. So this time I went for a Swiss meringue butter cream loaded with cream cheese for a tangy, fluffy and stable icing. Chai + ginger + honey x 4 = tasty cake in your mouth.

Ingredients:

for the chai spice mix

- 4 cardamom pods, seeds out

- 7 cloves

- 10 black pepper corns

- 1 stick of cinnamon

- 1 tblsp ground ginger

- pinch of ground star anise

for the cake

- 240g softened butter

- 240g sugar

- 4 eggs

- 240g plain flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1tsp vanilla extract

- 1 tea bag (I used Yorkshire tea)

for the Swiss meringue cheesecake icing

- 2 egg whites

- 70g sugar

- 200g room temp butter, cubed*

- 150g cream cheese, room temp*

- 1 tsp ground ginger

- 1 tblsp honey

*they need to be the same temperature or else one could chill the other = lumpy butter in the icing

Method: - First thing's first: make the spice mix. Heat a dry frying pan on a low heat and add all the whole spices. Keep swirling so they don't burn. Once they smell tasty, they're done. Tip in to a spice grinder/pestle and mortar and add the ground ginger and anise and finely grind.

- preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and line two 20cm round sponge tins with baking paper. Stick on the kettle. Make a nice, strong cup of tea with 1/4tsp of the spice mix and 100ml water. Steep.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale. Add the eggs, one at a time mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add the vanilla.
- Sift on the flour and baking powder and gently stir in, then beat for 10 seconds or so until fully incorporated. Add the rest of the spice mixture and the strong tea (sans bag), and mix well.
- Divide between the two tins and bake for 18 mins, check for done-ness if they need more time, give them some. Once baked, turn on to wire racks to cool.

Rustic...yes. That's what we'll call it.

- For the icing: Heat an inch or so of water in a small pan and simmer. Place the egg whites and sugar in a heat proof bowl and set over the pan (do not allow the water to touch the bowl). Whisk gently by hand. You want to dissolve the sugar whilst gently cooking the egg. Once dissolved (check by rubbing some between your fingers) whisk faster. Remove from the heat and beat with an electric whisk until the bowl has cooled and you have 

meringue. It takes a while.
- Once cooled, begin to add the butter, beating well as you go. The meringue will disappear, it will look like soup and or cottage cheese at varying points, but persevere. One all in, add the cream cheese in the same fashion.
- by now it should be more solid and looking like fluffy frosting. Add the ginger and the honey and stir well.
- Assemble! Cut each of the sponges in half so you have 4 (ideally the same size...I did not manage that). Place the first layer on a plate and spoon on 1/4 of the icing. Do the same with the rest. Sprinkle with a little more ginger and enjoy!

Light, fluffy, cheesecake-esque icing.

Banana Waffles

Waffles with three different styles of banana!

Since I decided the floor was no place to hang my coat anymore, I realised that I was going to need a friend to come and help me drill some holes for a pretty set of hooks I had acquired. Because this was going to happen in the morning, I made some brunch in exchange for labour - and seeing as I don't get nearly enough use from that waffle iron, waffles were on the menu! A request was put in for them to have banana in. I had a look on the internet for a recipe, but couldn't decide on any of them so just sort of...well I made it up. They have bananas times three: one mashed in to the batter, some cooked in the middle and then some fresh slices on the top. A dollop of yogurt and a drizzle of honey later, you have tasty breakfast times! The batter keeps for a few days in the fridge - which is good as this will make 8.

Ingredients:

200g plain flour

80g wholemeal flour

2tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp each of ground ginger and cinnamon 

10g vanilla sugar

1 ripe banana, mashed up in a bowl

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

300ml milk

65g plain yogurt

25g butter, melted

2tblsp honey

one banana per waffle

yogurt

honey

Method:

- place all of the dry ingredients in to a large bowl and mix about a bit

- crack the eggs in to the mashed banana and combine using a balloon whisk. Then add the milk and vanilla and mix well. Add this in to the dry ingredients, mix well then add the yogurt.

-pour over the melted butter and honey and whisk

- turn on the waffle iron and when hot spoon some of the batter on and spread a little (I used a 1/4 cup measure as it was about the right size) slice half a banana on to the batter then dot a little more of the mixture on top of each slice. Close the iron and cook for around 3 minutes or until fluffed up and browned. 

-serve with the other half of the banana, yogurt and honey. YUM!(AND only 215 calories a waffle, if you make 8 - excellent!)

Fluffy!

Honey Madeleines

I got a madeleines tin for Christmas and thought a tasty honey recipe was in order. I made them and took them round to a friend's house as she was cooking dinner. She had made some tasty tiny lemon pots and they went together like peas in a pod!  This is from the New Mrs Beeton 'How to Cook Book'. I think that my tin isn't quite crinkly enough, or I may have just over buttered the holes, hence the near lack of ridges! Still tasty though.

Ingredients:
120g butter
50g set honey
3 medium eggs at room temp
100g caster sugar
100g self raising flour
25g ground almonds

Method:
-using a small pan, melt the butter and cook until it starts to brown and smell a bit nutty. Remove from the heat once it's a caramel colour. Stir the honey in straight away to halt the cooking process. Set aside to cool slightly
-beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer for around 10-15 mins until light and fluffy. Sift the flour and almonds over the top of the egg mix and fold in gently with a large metal spoon, then add the butter and fold in until incorporated. Cover and place in the fridge for 30 mins.
-grease the tin with butter and dust with flour, tipping away any excess. Turn the oven to gas mark 3/ 160C.
- divide the batter between the holes of the tin (I did two batches). You don't want to fill them too high. Bake for 10-12 mins until golden and springy. Allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turnout on to a wire rack.
They keep for 4 or 5 days on a decent tin, so you can have tasty afternoon tea every day!

Moroccan Semolina Pancakes with Blueberries and warm Honey

These semolina pancakes are one of my favourite things to make for breakfast on a lazy day off. Although they look like a crumpet or a pikelet, they taste completely different and are delicious served with butter and warm honey drizzled over the top. Yeast is the raising agent so they take a little longer to make than a pancake made with baking powder, but the extra time is worth it.


This time I made a quick blueberry sauce with lime juice and a little sugar to counteract the sweetness of the honey. 


This recipe will make 16 good sized pancakes. I usually serve 2-3 per person.


For the pancakes:


4tsp active dried yeast
125ml lukewarm water + 375ml lukewarm water
250g plain flour
250g fine semolina
1/2 tsp fine salt
2 medium eggs
125ml lukewarm milk


oil for coating the frying pan
butter, to serve
warmed set honey, to serve.


For the Blueberries:
225g of blueberries
juice and zest of 1/2 a lime
1 tsp granulated sugar.


Method:
-Dissolve the yeast in the 125ml of lukewarm water and mix in 3 tsp of the plain flour. Cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place for around 15 minutes until frothy.
- Sift the rest of the flour, the semolina and the salt in to a large, warm bowl. Make a deep well in the centre. Lightly beat the eggs in to the warm milk and pour in to the well, then add the frothy yeast mixture and the 375ml lukewarm water. 
- Using a balloon whisk, gradually incorporate the dry ingredients in to the wet. Whisk for 5 minutes until smooth. It should be quite thick.
- Cover the bowl with a clean towel and leave in a warm place for an hour until doubled in size and bubbly.


-Meanwhile, place the sauce ingredients in a pan and cook gently. add a little more sugar if desired. Keep warm or reheat when needed.


- Heat a frying pan on high then turn the heat to medium. Add a little oil then wipe away the excess with kitchen roll. Ladle in a small amount of the batter (just smaller than a saucer). 
- Cook until small holes appear in the top and the pancake looks dry- around 3 minutes per cake. 


Serve with lashings of butter, warm honey, the blueberries and a nice cup of tea. 

If you can't manage them all, they keep well in the fridge for 2 days layered between greaseproof paper.




Recipe adapted from Tess Malos. The food of Morocco, a journey for food lovers. Murdoch Books, 2008.