Cookies & Cream (Oreo) Cheesecake

I was looking for a recipe to use the cream cheese that I had sitting in my fridge. I decided to make this to bring to church for afternoon tea. I have been wanting to make a cheesecake with Oreos for a long time... and I had a packet of Oreos in my pantry for that purpose :)

(Adapted from Taste)
250g chocolate ripple (or Oreo) biscuits, halved
150g Oreo biscuits or cream-filled chocolate biscuits, roughly chopped
100g butter, melted
500g light cream cheese, softened, chopped
3 eggs
2/3 cup caster sugar
extra Oreo biscuits to decorate (optional)

Process 250g halved biscuits in a food processor until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add butter and process until combined. Press mixture over the side and base of a greased 20-cm springform pan. Refrigerate it for 30 mins to set (or freeze it for 15 mins).

If your food processor is not big enough (like mine), you may process the biscuits in a few batches. Place all the processed biscuits into a bowl and add melted butter and mix until it looks like wet sand.

In a mixing bowl, whisk cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, whisking until combined. Fold in 150g chopped biscuits. Pour mixture into refrigerated pan. Place pan on a baking tray and bake for 50 mins to 1 hour at 160C or until just set (cheesecake will wobble slightly in the centre).

Turn off oven. Cool cheesecake in oven and leave the oven door ajar for 3 hours. Refrigerate overnight. Decorate with extra Oreo biscuits. Slice and serve.

Some extra tips:
How to line the base of a cheesecake pan
How to make the perfect cheesecake base
How to cut a cheesecake

Apple & Sultana Puffs

This is something I improvised from an apple turnover recipe.

3 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed

400g can apples, diced

1/3 cup sultanas

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 egg, lightly beaten

icing sugar, to dust

Preheat oven to 200C. Cut the squares sheet of puff pastry into 16 small squares per sheet.

In a bowl, combine apples, sultanas, sugar and cinnamon. Place about 1/2 to 1 tsp of the apple filling onto one small square and cover it with another small square pastry sheet. Press the edges together to seal the filling in between 2 small square pastry cut-outs. Using a fork, press it around the edges of the puff.

Place the puffs onto a tray lined with baking paper. Brush them lightly with beaten egg. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.

Dust the puffs and serve warm or at room temperature.

Passionfruit Mille Feullie

I had my first mille feuille in Jakarta (yes, Indonesia!) a few years ago. My friend brought me to a restaurant where they served her favourite dessert.

I made a simplified version, recipe taken from Taste. I brought this to my friend's place as a dessert. As a finishing touch, she requested that I add some frozen blueberries that she had. It turned out real good! This is one of the desserts that Quop likes (he usually likes savoury food) :)

There is a short-cut version to it - buy ready made custard from the supermarket. That means you only need to bake the pastry sheets and make the passionfruit mixture. All that is left is assembling and plating up.

More on Ondeh Ondeh

I made some ondeh ondeh some time back. Poh (Masterchef Australia 2009 finalist) showed us how to make them on her tv program.

But I am not sure I will try all the other flavours, even though the peanut one sounds appealing to me. I think, like Emmanuel Mollois, I still prefer the original pandan ball with palm sugar filling :)

No-Bake Chocolate Tart

This is for chocolate fans only! :)

I found this recipe on the latest (June 2010) issue of the "Better Homes and Gardens" magazine. The photo of the tart looked really decadent so I decided to make this simple dessert to bring to a friend's home yesterday.

This non-baked chocolate tart is easy to make. The end result looks simple too. Depending on the type of chocolate you use this can either be an ordinary chocolate tart or a luxurious decadent treat. The biscuits and chocolate I used in this attempt were the good but cheaper version with "You Love Coles" brand. Feel free to substitute it with Arnotts biscuits and Lindt 70% or 85% dark chocolate.

YLC Chocolate with min 50% cocoa, Kahlua liqueur and YLC chocolate scotch fingers

250g chocolate-coated biscuits

80g butter, melted, cooled

extra 40g butter, chopped

300ml light thickened cream

300g good quality dark chocolate*, finely chopped

2 Tbsp Frangelico liqueur (I used Kahlua)

1 Tbsp icing sugar (optional)

1 Tbsp cocoa or drinking chocolate (optional)

*dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa solids will give a richer colour and flavour.

Brush a fluted loose-bottom tart tin with butter. You may also use a silicon tart tray.

In a food processor, process the biscuits until finely chopped. Transfer to a bowl with the melted butter. Stir until well-combined. Press into the base and sides of prepared tin. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm (I was running short of time and I placed it in my freezer for around 10 minutes).

Put cream in a saucepan and set over a medium heat. When the cream just comes to the boil, remove it from the heat. Add chocolate and extra butter and stir until mixture is smooth. Add liqueur and stir well. Pour into tart shell and refrigerate for 3 hours or until the filling is set. Remove pie from tin and transfer to a serving plate.

Optional - Combine icing sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl. Dust the tart with icing sugar mixture and serve.

I used a 20cm-round loose-bottom tart tin. This tart is rather rich and hence I suggest each serving to be a small slice. The tart I made could produce 12 servings. Note that if you are not a chocolate fan (like Quop), you will not go beyond eating 2-3 bites :p

Sticky Date Pudding with Whisky Butterscotch Sauce & Almond Praline

The name of this dessert is quite a mouthful and it looks difficult to make. In my opinion, this dessert requires a little more effort than usual but really not as difficult as you think it is. I have attempted this a handful number of times but this is only the 2nd time I served it with almond praline. Praline is basically a confectionary made of sugar and nuts. The 1st time I made this praline, I burnt the sugar and the praline tasted bitter :( This 2nd time is *quite* perfect :)

For the pudding:

1 cup pitted dates, roughly chopped

1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda

60g butter, softened

3/4 cup, firmly packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup self-raising flour

For the almond praline:

1/4 cup silvered almonds, lightly toasted

1/2 caster sugar

2 tbsp water

For the butterscotch sauce:

50g butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp whisky (optional)

Place dates and 1 1/4 cup water into a saucepan and bring it to the boil over high heat. Remove from heat and add bicarb soda. The mixture will start to fizzle. Stir until the dates start to break down. Set aside to cool, stirring occasionally to release the heat.

Whisk butter and brown sugar in a bowl until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the date mixture and stir to combine. Add flour and carefully fold through. Divide mixture in prepared tray (in my case, I use a muffin tray).

Place tray into a baking dish. Carefully pour enough boiling warer into the dish to come about 1/2 of the way. Bake 180C for 40mins or until they rise.

To make praline, line an oven tray with non-stick baking paper and scatter almonds onto the tray. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, swirling the saucepan but not stirring, until sugar has dissolved and becomes a deep brown caramel. Pour over the almonds and allow it to cool and set. Randomly break it into small pieces.

To make the butterscotch sauce, combine butter, sugar, cream, vanilla extract and whisky in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and cook 5-6 mins or until sauce thickens.

To serve: place one pudding on a plate and generously drizzle butterscotch sauce onto the pudding. Place a piece of praline on the plate. I like it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (I use low fat ones). If you are lazy to make the praline, the ice cream is just as good to serve with :)

Green Tea Ice Cream with 'Mochi' and Azuki Beans

This is one of the simpliest yummy Jap desert... but be warned that the cost of this dessert is not cheap :p So try this if you are making Jap cuisine or when you feel like you want to indulge.

I used dislike green tea ice cream. I mean, I'd rather drink the tea itself. Not until my friend CL first made this dessert for me and some friends years ago.. Simply add about 2 tsp of green tea powder (below) into 1L of softened vanilla ice cream (I used the low fat ones). Quickly whisk the powder into the ice cream (when I was lazy, I just used a spoon to mix. Just make sure it is done well) and then quickly place it back into the freezer to freeze.

Tip: If you have a 2L ice cream (which is the usual packaging in Oz), halve the ice cream in a big mixing bowl and then mix both portions separately and then combine them into the original container. You may notice that the overall volume shrinks a little. That is normal.

This small bottle of green tea powder for about A$8 at Yuen's. The exact one cost about S$6-7 in SG. It seems there is only this one brand/type available

Some have asked "Can I use green tea drink for substitute?" I can only say that it will definitely be quite different. This powder is a lot more concentrated. And besides, you do not want to add extra liquid into the ice cream. That liquid will freeze like ice, which is not what you want.

Next, for the 'mochi', the cheat version is to buy tang yuan (glutinous rice balls, sold at Asian grocery store in their frozen food section) with sesame filling. Cook them as per packet instructions. Once they are cooked, drain them and immediately place them into a bowl of cold water with ice. After about 10 mins, fish them out of the water and serve with green tea ice cream and red beans.

The Japanese sweetened red beans come in a can form. The cheapest at Yuen's cost A$5.99 and it is a big can, enough to probably produce 12 servings. For leftovers, eating it with green tea ice cream is good enough too! This red bean is so sweet... so just top the ice cream sparingly.

Hope you will enjoy this as much as I do!

Mango-misu

(photo compliments from my SIL G)

An impressive and an easy dessert to make. Great summer dessert and a great alternative to a tiramisu, especially for people who may not like coffee or chocolate.

See recipe here.

(Tiramisu recipe available here if you are keen)

Passionfruit Slice

I kid you not when I say that this dessert is easy to make. I had all the ingredients at home, including the passionfruit pulp. My in-laws grows passionfruit (we too, but waiting for our plant to bear fruit) and they often have too much and would freeze the pulp for future use. I had a little freezed portion which was probably from 3 passionfruits and I used that for this recipe.

Of course mine did not look as nice as that in the recipe. But I tell you, it tastes really good!

How my baked slice looks like. My oven is unevenly hot, hence those brown parts in the foreground

The recipe is found here.

However I did not bother about mixing the passionfruit pulp and juice proportion. I just used the entire pulp of about 3 passionfruits. It turned out well and I love the punch of the taste of passionfruit. And as for lemon juice, you may also use the one which I recommended the last time.

Pouring Custard

This is a simple, inexpensive solution to having great desserts. I bought this at reduced price of A$1.70 today because it will be expiring in 4 days' time. I will use this to feed some people who are coming over tomorrow night for a meeting. I intend for it to go with Sara Lee's apple berry crumble (bought cheaply at Sara Lee warehouse). This is a light and healthier alternative to cream, ice cream :)

I am sure you can use this with many desserts if you do a google search. This custard comes in banana, chocolate and normal custard flavour. The custard in the photo above is vanilla flavoured. I bought a light normal custard version for A$0.49 last Friday when it was going to expire in 2 days' time. Over the weekend, we used it to accompany our fruits (we even ate it 1 day pass expiry and it was perfectly fine). I do not usually buy custard... but now I know of an easy, inexpensive way to spruce up a dessert or boring fruits. The trick also is, to head to supermarkets just 1-2 days before you know you are going to use the custard. Chances are, you will be able to find a reduced price item that is nearing expiry but definitely still good to use/eat.

Vanilla Ice Cream with Mango Coulis

I wanted to make Aussie Mess (aussie version of Eton mess) from the Masterchef cookbook but in the end only made the mango coulis from the recipe, because I wanted to use up some ripened mangoes that I have. Coulis (a french word pronounced koo-lee without the s) is basically made by pureeing the mango flesh.

Thinking that I have an extra box of vanilla ice cream in my freezer, I thought I will bring the coulis and ice cream to church to share it as an arvo tea. It was such a hit! The mango coulis also came in well with the random trifle that Steppi made just because she wanted to use up ingredients in her fridge, post Christmas and New Year.

Here is the simple recipe:

Puree the flesh of 3 ripe mangoes. Bring it to simmer in a saucepan. Cook over med-low heat until it is reduced  by half. If fruit is not particularly sweet, you may like to ad a little sugar. Allow to cool. Scoop it over ice cream :)

You can also make raspberry, strawberry coulis with the same method. But you will have to put it through a sieve to remove the seeds. Easy and versatile, isn't it?

Sago Gula Melaka (With Mango)

Saw this and really looks yummy :) Try this for a simple and tasty dessert :)

Find the recipe here!

Citrus Tartlets

Yet another mini series of tarts, aka tartlets. This is also quite simple if you like your lemons and limes. Try them when the lemons (~A$2+ /kg) and limes (30cents or less each) are cheap at your local supermarkets.

Recipe can be found here.

White Chocolate Tartlets with Blueberries

Kid you not, this is a easy to make and yummy dessert/finger food.

You probably don't have a pastry cutter, but do not fret. Just use something round of the similar size to cut out the pastry rounds. If you don't have the min-muffin moulds/trays, ask around and borrow. I have 2 moulds that are able to make 24 at one go. You can make the tart shells up to 1 week in advance. Store the cooled shells in a airtight container in room temperature or in the fridge.

Recipe is found here. The recipe portions are for normal muffin sized tarts. I like the mini ones which are easier for people to pick up and pop it in their mouths. Just as a guide, if you are making the mini sizes, each pastry sheet is able to produce up to 20 shells (if you know how to cut it properly).