PuddingsComments Off on Baked Cheesecake Bramley Apples
Almost everyone I’ve spoken to about baked Bramley apples smiles, sighs and looks all misty eyed. They recount childhood memories of melt in the mouth stuffed Bramleys served sometimes plain, or with cream, maybe ice-cream or even custard.
It’s not surprising. The British grown Bramley has been the best apple to cook with for over 200 years; it’s higher malic acid content and lower sugar levels produce a stronger tangier tasting apple after cooking, with a melt in the mouth moist texture. READ MORE
It’s Bramley Apple Week! I am very proud to be one of the bloggers chosen to create a recipe to celebrate this home grown gem of ours; the great British Bramley apple. And given it’s also pancake week it felt right and fitting to make a delicious crepe cake – layers and layers of pancakes sandwiched together with a spiced cinnamon Bramley apple sauce and a cream cheese icing. Topped of course with yet more Bramley apples, gently cooked in a little sugar. READ MORE
The sheer alchemy of applying heat to ingredients never ceases to amaze me. Take apples for example. Raw apples are tart and bright and crisp and loud. Cooked apples are soft and slow and quiet. You could secretly eat cooked apples without anyone knowing. Raw apples are too shouty for that. READ MORE
Lawrence here again. I’m 16 months now and slowly getting to the point where I can leave this living hell of routine, removal from the bath, vegetables, limited treats, car journeys over 3 minutes and shoes. I have a message for all you baby/toddler hybrids out there about keeping your mother/father/adult ‘in charge’ on their toes. READ MORE
Well it wouldn’t be Easter without a Cadbury Crème Egg recipe. I’ve given you Cadbury Crème Egg mess and of course Cadbury Crème Egg chocolate flapjack in the past, but this time it’s the turn of the unbaked cheesecake. This is easy, assemble ahead stuff. It’s all the better for longer chilling in the fridge so make the day before if you can.
Have a wonderful Easter!
I made a lovely video with the Scoff folks to show how to make this Crème Egg cheesecake. You can see the vid on my YouTube channel and also the Scoff one. You can watch it below too.
Grease and line a 20cm springform tin with clingfilm – this is important as it makes it much easier to remove later. Mix the biscuits, melted butter and sugar together (you can use a food processor if you wish), stir in the chocolate chips and press into the tin using the back of a metal spoon. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
To make the cheesecake layer, beat the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla extract in a stand mixer, with an electric handheld mixer or with a wooden spoon until combined. Then gently fold through the whipped double cream with a large metal spoon. Spoon a third onto your chilled biscuit base, then add half of the crème egg pieces, add another third, then the rest of the crème egg pieces and then the last third of the cheesecake mixture. Smooth until flatish and pop back in the fridge for 1 hour.
Melt the chocolate in short bursts in the microwave or over a bain marie then add the oil, stirring well. Pour over the top of the cheesecake and add the mini crème eggs to the top. Chill for another 2 hours.
To serve gently remove the springform tin and unpeel from the clingfilm. Cut into slices using a knife dipped in hot water for clean cuts, though beware this dessert is messy when served. Gobble it up quickly!
Failure can be a good thing. Take London for example. The first time I took a solo trip to London it was a disaster.
In 1999 I was a fresher at Liverpool University, studying for a degree in English Language & Literature. One day I bought a copy of Vogue. Now given I was a chunky size 14 this was ill advised. However this copy did feature a writing competition. Which I of course, being full of arrogant youthfulness, entered.
Months later I received a very proper looking embossed letter telling me I hadn’t won, but I was a runner up. How exciting! Imagine! A girl from Leicester, via Liverpool, being invited to London! All the L’s and all the exclamations. At this point I should have been happy in my triumph, left it there and declined. But I didn’t.
I bought a pashmina. Because that’s what I imagined women in London who were invited to Vogue House might wear. It was beige. I also bought a pair of pedal pushers in a kind of gold colour. They fit badly and made my already reasonable sized backside look gargantuan. I also wore a white loose fitting peasant style T shirt. And heels. A pair of heels that barely fit, were again beige, and hurt considerably. Oh and a beige handbag that didn’t fit much in. Not an umbrella for instance.
But wait! The horror wasn’t complete! I decided, the night before I caught the train to London, from my teenage bedroom in Leicester, to fake tan my whole body.
Reader, I don’t think I need to tell you how bad I looked. A beige monstrosity, streaked in orange. It rained in London, as it often does, and I, being a girl from up North, had no idea that carrying an umbrella in the heat of the capital’s summer might be a good idea. I arrived; wet, streaked, stressed and beige.
I managed to sit through the lunch, in a panelled board room, with Alexandra Shulman (Editor), Miranda Sawyer (Journo) and Nick Hornby (Author), the latter whose work I bought days before to swot up on.
Shulman and I didn’t speak. I imagine she was concerned the beige horror might be a contagious disease. Sawyer chatted kindly, though clearly not engaged in anything a 19 year old student might have to say. (I don’t blame her). Nick was lovely. So interested in everyone. A real gent.
I took the Midland Mainline back to Leicester on the to pick up my Fiat Panda, feeling London was so very unattainable to me. I had embarrassed myself and done a disservice to every girl from the Midlands trying desperately to reinvent herself.
Just 3 years later I moved to London, again, solo. And it was anything but a disaster. I loved it. And I never wore a beige pashmina again. Or gold pedal pushers. (The same can’t be said for my love affair with ‘Holiday Skin’ fake tan).
I made a lovely video with the Scoff folks to show how to make these very easy white chocolate mousse eggs. You can see the vid on my YouTube channel and also the Scoff one. You can watch it below too.
Makes about 9 though depends on the size of your chocolate eggs
Ingredients:
For the curd:
35g butter
70g castor sugar
1 lemon
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
For the mousse:
2 large eggs, separated
125g white chocolate
To finish:
9 hollow milk chocolate eggs (though how many you fill will depend on the size of your eggs of course)
Melt the white chocolate in the microwave, allow to cool a little. Locate something to stand the finished eggs in – an empty egg box would be perfect.
Make the curd by placing a pan of simmering water over a medium heat and placing a heat proof bowl over the top, being careful that the water doesn’t touch the bowl. Place the butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice into the bowl and whisk. Stir until completely dissolved.
Then add the eggs and whisk intermittently for 10 minutes until the curd has thickened. Chill in the fridge.
To make the mousse, whisk the egg yolks until pale and creamy then add in the melted chocolate and whisk well.
In a very clean bowl whisk the egg whites until you have stiff peaks then add 1 tbsp into the mousse to loosen it a little – simply beat it in with a wooden spoon.
Then add in the rest of the whisked egg whites and fold into the mousse with a metal spoon using a slicing action. Place the mousse in the fridge.
Take the hollow chocolate eggs and gently saw off the top of the egg with a sharp knife, just to reveal the inside enough to spoon mousse into. (Don’t worry if some of the chocolate falls into the chocolate egg).
Spoon white chocolate mousse into the hollow eggs and place in the egg box. Spoon a tiny bit of cooled lemon curd into the middle of the mousse before serving.
NB: These hollow eggs must be kept in the fridge until serving. It is advised not to serve raw eggs to young children, pregnant women or the elderly.
Today I attended a Mother’s Day assembly that not one of my sons’ featured in. Not one. No, I was not being a kind soul and sitting in the audience watching a friend’s child whose mother has to work. Nor am I some kind of Mother’s Day service addict; a woman who can only cry through watching emotional clip art on a projected Power Point presentation set to Enya. (Like Helena BC’s character in fight club, though I seem to recall she was addicted to support groups). No, no and no. I am just deeply disorganised, though not in the traditional sense.
One of my very good friends, who I shall call Helena (for that is her name) noticed my strangely efficient style of disorganisation at university and commented that because I display a ruthlessly efficient façade everyone trusts me to know what to do, get them to places on time and generally mother people. But it’s all just smoke and mirrors and today reader, my cover has been blown.
Here is a pudding that is ruthlessly efficient. It uses these fantastic flan cases from Iced Jems. Serve it warm with a scoop of ice cream and perhaps some slices of banana. Or just alone if you’re in a not-very-efficient mood.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 and pop 8 flan cases onto a baking tray. If you don’t have flan cases like these ones from Iced Jems then you could line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cases but beware that the cakes will take longer to bake – so these will be more like 20 – 25 minute chocolate cake puddings rather than speedy 15 minute ones. Right, logistics over. Ready?
Place all the ingredients into a large bowl and whisk with a hand whisk (or you can do this in a stand mixer or with an electric hand held mixer if you prefer) for 3 minutes. Then divide the mixture between the 8 flan cases equally and bake for 15 minutes. Check them after 10 minutes as all ovens are different and you don’t want a dry chocolate cake.
Either serve immediately with a large scoop of vanilla ice-cream and maybe some chocolate chips for good measure or serve alone. Cream might be nice too. These can of course also be eaten cold, just as a cake.
I feel I could be in danger of teaching grandmother to suck eggs. But I’m ploughing on through anyway. It’s pancake day, or rather Shrove Tuesday. The day to use up all the fat and eggs in the house before the first day of Lent.
Now I am pretty sure most of you have a pancake recipe already. Perhaps some of you are expert flippers. If you’re not in possession of the perfect recipe or the right wrist action then read on. This recipe works for me every time. You do need a non stick frying pan though. And nerves of steel. Expert flipping is all about nerves of steel.
This recipe plus my chocolate pancakes recipe and my spinach & ricotta filling recipe are all here too as well as a video of me flipping pancakes with the boys.
Rapeseed or other vegetable oil (but not olive oil)
Measure the flour into a bowl and make a well in the middle.
Crack the eggs into the well and add about a quarter of the milk.
Whisk well with a handheld whisk until the batter is smooth and thick.
Add the rest of the milk in thirds, whisking well after each addition.
Add the water and melted butter, whisk well, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours. (This stage is important as it makes the pancakes more tender).
Heat ½ tsp of oil in a non-stick frying pan (approx. 28cm wide) on a very high heat. Don’t be tempted to add more oil as it deep fries the edges making them thicker and rubbery.
Hold the hot frying pan away from the heat then take a ladle (or use a jug) to pour just enough pancake batter into the frying pan to thinly cover the base. Tilt the pan to help the batter run over the base of the frying pan. The first one will always be a bit thicker than the rest – it’s a learning process to see just how much batter you need to spoon in.
Place the frying pan back on the heat and wait until the edges start to curl and the centre shows large bubbles – this takes about 40 – 60 seconds. Then shake the pan a little to see if the pancake comes loose. If it doesn’t use a slice or palate knife to loosen the edges.
You can either use the slice/palate knife to flip the pancake over or you can have a go at tossing the pancake in the air to turn it. To toss it make sure all small children and animals are out of the way (!) and hold the frying pan away from your body, pointing downwards at about 45 degrees. With a quick hand movement push the frying pan forwards and upwards which will push the pancake off the edge of the pan furthest away from you. Try and catch the pancake!
Don’t worry if it falls on the floor or flips over folded. Pancake tossing takes a bit of practice!
Fry the other side of the pancake back on the high heat for about 30 seconds, then slip the pancake onto a plate.
Add another ½ tsp of oil to the pan and repeat until all the pancake batter is used up. You can keep the pancakes warm by separating them with non-stick baking parchment and placing them in a low oven whilst you fry the rest.
I have so much going on I can barely stop to talk. I really hate it when people do this – tell you how busy they are and then waste 15 precious minutes talking about their stress when they could be tacking their to do list. So I won’t. Instead I will just offer up something that is simply amazing. I don’t even like egg nog (the drink) but I do like these. Oh yes I do.
(P.S. If you are wondering about the other truffles in the picture then I also made orange truffles using this recipe and then rolled them in crushed Oreos. I used the same recipe to make coconut truffles, subbing the orange extract for Malibu and then rolling in desiccated coconut. I also rolled some egg nog truffles in nutmeg spiked icing sugar. They all keep for 1 week from making, provided your double cream has a use by date that doesn’t come before that. Keep in the fridge and bring to room temperature for 1 hour pre serving. And please, if you want to temper your chocolate then go ahead and do it, I just don’t have the time at the moment, nor to explain it. You may get a bloom on your chocolate coating if you don’t temper. It’s fine, it will still taste the same. Just sprinkle with more nutmeg. Did I mention how busy I am?)
I made a lovely video with the Scoff folks to show off how to make these truffles. You can see the vid on my YouTube channel and also the Scoff one. You can watch it below too.
Melt the chocolate, cream, brandy, nutmeg and cinnamon in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, being careful not to let the bowl touch the water. Stir until completely smooth then chill for about 2 hours until hard.
Take a teaspoon and remove heaped spoons of the truffle mixture. Roll between your hands to form spheres. Place on a plate covered in non-stick paper and chill again for another hour.
Melt the chocolate using the same method as before. Dip each truffle into the chocolate using a spoon and fork. Drain as much chocolate from the truffle as possible and transfer to a tray lined with greaseproof paper. Grate a little nutmeg over each truffle. Leave to set either at room temperature or in the fridge, though be aware a bloom is more likely to develop on the chocolate if you use the faster fridge method.
I’m a mum of 3 boys, a cookbook writer and also a finalist on the 2011 Great British Bake Off.
I’ve decided to record the recipes I use, partly to save them somewhere and partly in case someone else might like to use them...
[Read more]
Just sign up to receive my latest blog posts straight to your inbox: Simply click here.
P.S. To sign up for my free monthly newsletter just click here. It has a baking SOS, recommendations on bits of kit I can’t live without, my kitchen catastrophe of the month, a sneak preview of a recipe coming up on this blog and a letter from me telling you what I’ve been up to.
Remember to check your inbox for a confirmation email and also to add my email recipesfromanormalmum@gmail.com to your contacts. Otherwise I could go to spam.
Holly Bell 