It is time for me to make a confession. I was not confident enough to say it until now but it is a real problem for the blog at the moment and therefore I have to share. So here we go:
I don’t have an oven. Since I have moved to Berlin, where I am about to start studying, my kitchen contains no oven, nor the possibility to place one inside the new flat.
Until I move out, it will not be possible for me to bake sweets in my new home, so baked goods might be shown here less often (you might have already noticed). Nevertheless, I have prepared some things for you that should keep the blog going until my kitchen supplies have changed and I hope you like the result shown in the pictures as much as I do.
You know I love figs. Hells, I REALLY love them. When visiting my grandma in Bulgaria this year, I kind of occupied her oven to experiment. This is a result, isn’t it? Cinnamon cheesecake with a crunchy cookie crust, topped with sweet, soft and juicy figs and in between a caramel note due to the decorative parts.
So this is how things are going right now and I really hope to be able to show you more of this as soon as possible. But for now, we remain with this beauty here. And this is the recipe:
Fig Topped Cinnamon Cheesecake:
crust:
250 g (8 oz.) Hobbit cookies
125 g (1 stick) butter, melted
cheese layer:
600 g (20 oz.) cream cheese
200 g (7 oz.) sour cream
200 g (1 cup – 1 tbsp.) sugar
3 eggs
3 tsp ground cinnamon
1 pckt. vanilla pudding powder (or 2 tbsp. flour)
fig topping:
400 g fresh figs
50 g (1/4 cup) sugar
Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F).
Crunch the cookies in a freezer bag. Mix the crumbles with the melted butter and spread in a round cake pan with 26 cm (10´´) diameter. Press down the cookie and butter mixture with a spoon.
In a large bowl, combine the ingredients for the cheese layer and beat with a mixer until the mass is smooth. Pour the mass over the cookie crust and bake for about 45 minutes (until the center stops jiggling).
Don’t turn off the oven yet.
Let the cheesecake cool and prepare the figs in the meantime.
Place the figs in a large pan. Spread the sugar on top and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes, until there is a jelly-like liquid at the bottom of your pan.
Place the figs on top of the cake and pour the jelly all over them.
You can decorate the cake with caramel ornaments, if you wish. (Heat about 75 g/ 1/3 cup of white sugar in a saucepan until it melts and spread the caramel on a sheet of parchment paper to harden.)
Tastes best with… nah, it tastes good enough the way it is. Enjoy!
I am so glad my bf got me a gorgeous ice cream maker for Christmas, because I adore ice cream.
I love frozen yoghurt.
I love sorbet.
I love soft ice cream.
Ice cream in a cone.
In a bowl.
A big melba.
Just every kind of ice cream (except mint).
It feels just right to make my own one with the machine and it is pretty easy, if you ask me.
You can just toss the ingredients together an freeze them or make a deluxe version with egg yolks (this is the kind that takes more time – but believe me that it is absolutely worth the stress).
This recipe is based on the basic ice cream recipe that I found in the gadget’s manual. It worked pretty good, I just added the molten chocolate toffee to the mass.
Chocolate Toffee Ice Cream
(makes about 750 ml/3 cups)
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp corn starch
100 g (1/2 cup – 1 tbsp) sugar
250 g (8 oz.) chocolate toffee
350 ml (1 2/3 cup) milk
150 ml (2/3 cup) heavy cream
Prepare your ice cream maker. I had to put my bowl in the freezer for 24 hours before I could get started. Be sue sou have this prepared.
Place the egg yolks, corn starch and sugar in a bowl. Whisk by hand or with a mixer until the mass thickens and turns pale (abour 90 seconds) .
Melt the unwrapped chocolate toffee in the microwave, heating it for no more than 30 seconds at a time. Stir before you place the bowl in the microwave for another 30 s. Set the dish aside.
Combine the milk and cream in a medium saucepan and heat until the liquid starts to boil. Remove from heat. Start stirring the egg yolk mass and gently incorporate the hot dairy mixture.
When you have poured in all the milk and cream, add the molten toffee and let it dissolve.
Now pour the mass back into the saucepan and heat one more time while stirring, until the mixture thickens a bit (it should not boil).
Let it cool on the counter and then place it in the fridge for at least 12 hours. (You may not put hot ingredients in the mixing bowl of the ice cream machine.)
Now turn on the mmachine and slowly pour in the prepared ice cream mixture. You should get a nice portion of chocolatey, creamy goodness.
One more candy bar truffle recipe. Hm. This one is my very own, as well. I could not help but make another one, since I survived my first examination in class 12 today.
It is also my brother’s birthday tomorrow – and he loves Snickers. So I made him some mini mini snickers.
In fact, these are really easy to make and do not take much time until they’re done. Maybe your Valentine will love some, too? Do not miss the chance to impress them with a homemade treat.
(makes about 30 truffles)
30 chocolate hollow spheres
3 heaped tbsp marshmallow fluff (fluff is usually so sticky that you can only use heaped tbsp)
3 tbsp creamy peanut butter
60 g (2 oz.) caramelized condensed milk
200 g (5 oz.) chocolate coating
1 cup peanuts (not salted)
Mix peanut butter and marshmallow fluff with a spoon. You will receive a chewy mass which can be formed by hand. Fill it in the hollow spheres until about 2/3 full. Use your fingers for this – you might rinse them with cold water every now and then.
Place 1 or two peanuts in the chocolate spheres. Fill in the caramellized condensed milk until full.
Freeze for about 2 hours.
Melt the chocolate coating in the microwave, not heating it for longer than 30 seconds at a time, or over a water bath. Dip the truffles in the chocolate and place them on a baking sheet until the coating has hardened. You can put half a peanut on top for decoration.