Classic New York Cheesecake

It is only 18 days to X’Mas. Ready? Ready? Ready? Some families start to decorate their houses. You can see those hanging lights, X’Mas tree, wreath and different kind of hanging stars and hearts. Soon, you can see almost every house’s decoration. Sometime, it is like a competition. See whose house has the brightest lights, or see whose house gets the beautiful decoration. Guess what kind of the decorations our house will have?

 

Oven Temperature Setting: 170C/350F/Gas Mark 4

Baking Time: Around 40~50 minutes
Recipe: A 7” Classic New York Cheesecake

 

Steps of Classic New York Cheesecake

(1) Prepare Shortbread Crust: Place butter and sugar in a bowl. Whisk them until the butter turns a light and fluffy. And flour into the bowl. Mix flour into the butter. Line the dough to the baking tray. Bake at pre-heat oven at 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6 around 10 minutes until the top turns golden.

(2) Separate egg white and egg yolk. Whisk egg white until it has stiff peaks form. Add lemon juice in when there are some bubble s at whisking. Then, set aside.

(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: The bowl used for egg white must be very clean.)

(3) Add soft cream, double cream, vanilla extract into bowl with yolk. Mix all ingredients well.

(4) Add sugar, flour, and cornstarch into the batter. Well-mixed all ingredients.

(5) Fold the stiff egg white into the soft cream batter gradually and lightly.

(6) Pour the batter over the top of baked shortbread crust and send to the oven at 170C/350F/Gas Mark 4 around 40~50 minutes

 

Believe me, classic New York cheesecake is such a easy job. And you can bake at home totally. The cheese flavor is very strong like what we eat at restaurant!! Come and try it. Enjoy :D

Checkerboard Biscuit

Shortbread is very popular in the UK. It is a good choice for the tea time. When X’mas is coming, shortbread becomes more popular. There are lots shortbread gift boxes. My friend, Miss S, tells me that shortbread gift box is a very good gift for people during X’Mas. So, we can see lots of these sold in the shops.

So, I decide to do shortbread again. But, a little different. Checkerboard style.

 

Oven Temperature Setting: 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3

Baking Time: 20~25 minutes

Recipe

 

 

Step of Shortbread

(1) Place flour and sugar in a bowl. Mix them well.
(2) Add butter into the bowl. Rub butter into the flour. It will be crumble-like

(3) Add milk into the mixture. Lightly knead it into a ball. Cover with kitchen film or put in a food container. Set in the fridge for 30 minutes.

 

Step of Chocolate Shortbread
(1) Place chocolate powder, flour and sugar in a bowl. Mix them well.
(2) Add butter into the bowl. Rub butter into the flour. It will be crumble-like

(3) Add milk into the mixture. Lightly knead it into a ball. Cover with kitchen film or put in a food container. Set in the fridge for 30 minutes.

 

Step of Assembly
(1) Roll shortbread into a 15 x 25 cm rectangle. Then, cover with a kitchen film.
(2) Roll chocolate shortbread into a 15 x 25 cm rectangle. Then, place shortbread over the top off chocolate shortbread. Cover with a kitchen film. Set in the fridge for 30 minutes.

(3) Slice into a 0.8 cm wide stripe.

(4) Brush some egg at the side you would like to stick with another stripe. Make sure the color is cross-over.
(5) Wrap with kitchen film and Set in the fridge for 60 minutes.

(6) Slice the dough into 0.8 cm height. Place the dough on the baking tray. Send into the pre-heat oven at 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3 for 20~25 minutes.

 

The biscuit is not hard to make. The only thing you need is PATIENCE. As a baking lover, we won’t feel tired even stand in the kitchen all day. Our satisfaction comes from the big smile of our family and friends. So, enjoy it.

Shortbread

Believe it or not! There are still two months for X’mas, but some shops start to sell X’mas gifts now. And you can see various kinds of shortbread gift boxes sold. I don’t eat biscuits a lot, however, I like shortbread. I like the enriched butter flavor. Like the movie, July & Julia, Is there anything better than butter? I think the answer is very obvious, NO!

In order not to eat too much, I don’t bake a lot every time. Hee… I need to find another way to limit my sugar consumption. But, do I care about it?

Recipe

 

Steps of Shortbread

(1) Place butter and sugar into a bowl. Whisk butter and sugar until it turns light and fluffy.

(2) Add vanilla extract and plain flour into the bowl. Mix well with the batter.

(3) Cover it and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes

(4) Roll it into a big flat, around 1 cm thick. Cut it by any kind of biscuit cutter.
(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: There is always left to be shaped that I just shape all of them into a flat again and cut as a finger-shape.)
(5) Place the cut dough on a baking tray. Send it into the pre-heat oven at 190C/375F/Gas 5. It takes around 15~20 minutes until it turns light golden brown.

 

Last time, I purchased lot of shortbread back when I went to Scotland. Now, I don’t need to buy it anymore. Because my homemade shortbread is so scrumptious :D Enjoy!!!

Rocky Road

Rocky Road is a very easy and simple dessert. It is very suitable for new bakers or parents-children enjoying their fun time in the kitchen.

It is a very popular dessert in the UK that I have seen rocky road in lots of parties. Everyone likes it a lot. Usually, it is the first dessert gone from the table. We only need 4 ingredients and no need to use oven. Then, we can have this lovely chocolate bite. Come and do this with me.

Recipe: Serve 6 people

 

 

Steps of Rocky Road

(1) Put chopped dark chocolate, butter, and chocolate into a big bowl. Put the bowl on the top of the boiling water. Stir all of them until melting. Please don’t let the bottom of the bowl touching the boiling water.

(2) Then, add golden syrup into the melting chocolate. Mix everything well.

(3) Add the small pieces biscuits and marshmallow into the melting sauce. Make sure all biscuits and marshmallow are covered with chocolate sauce.

(4) Place them into a tin and set in the fridge around 2~3 hours until it is set.

 

Is it easy? Everyone can do it!! There was a meeting last week that we demonstrated to new students how to do this simple, but yum dessert… they all love it. So, go and enjoy this baking fun.

Blackberry Cheese Cake with Shortbread Crust

 

After baking two different blackberry sponge cake. I need find out a new texture for my blackberry cake season. My favorite cake is classic cheesecake. I like the enriched and silky cream cheese filling in the mouth. The dense of cheese cake is the reason people like it. It is so simple to bake even though I am a new baker. So, cheesecake with blackberry, um… it sounds brilliant. And don’t use digestive biscuits today. It is so boring to use it all the time. Try a new crust for my blackberry cheese cake.

I think baking can reflect a person’s personality. I like to add something new in the classic style. I admit I am an old-school person, but I like to have some different things for my old-school life.

 





Oven Temperature Setting for shortbread crust: 200C/390F for 10 minutes
Oven Temperature Setting for cheese cake : 200C/390F for first 10 minutes; 170C/325F for another 30~35 minutes
Recipe: For a 8” round baking tray 

 

Steps of Blackberry

(1) Put blackberry in the pan. And add sugar in it.

(2) Boiling blackberry for around 5 minutes
(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: We can use a folk mashing a couple of blackberries first. It is easier to cook it. )
(3) Pour through a sieve. Set aside.

 

Steps of Shortbread Crust

(1) Weight all ingredients

(2) Add butter and sugar into a bowl. Mix it well until it looks fluffy and lightly.

 

(3) Add flour into the butter batter. Mix it well

(4) Pout it into a 8” tin. Spread and press it evenly by our fingers or a spoon. Leave it in the fridge around 10 minutes. And then, send it to a pre-heated oven at 200C/390F for around 10 minute until the top become golden.

 

Steps of Cheese Cake

(1) Weight all ingredients

(2) Put all wet ingredients (cream cheese, egg, cream, vanilla extract, and lemon juice) into a bowl. Well-mixed all ingredients into a light yellow batter.

(3) Add sugar and cornstarch into the batter. Mix well again.

(4) Add blackberry filling gradually (3~4 times) into the batter. Use a baking spatula fold the batter gently.

 

Steps of Assembly

(1) Remove shortbread from the oven. Use a spoon to press it tightly again.

(2) Pour the blackberry batter over the shortbread crust. Send it back to the oven. Bake at 200C/390F for 10 minute. And then, turn the temperature to 170C/325F for another 30~35 minutes.
(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: Insert the cake tester into the middle of the cake. If there is no batter left on it, it means it is ready.)

For cheesecake, I’ll leave it into the oven with an open door around 20 minutes. (Of course, the oven is switched off!) It can prevent the sink because the temperature difference.

 

The best taste of cheese cake is to leave in the fridge over 8 hours and EAT it. So, be patient. My friends and I ate this last night. Oh~~ It is so YUM. We were all full, but we still wanted more cheese cake. The sweet-sour flavor of blackberry balances the creamy cheese cake. It is so perfect with shortbread crust. Just one bite, you can have dense cheese cake, sweet-sour blackberry, and crispy shortbread. Look for something to bake for this weekend, try this one. Enjoy it.