Chocolate and Caramel Brownie Mini Cheesecakes

 

 

Coming back from our honeymoon in the Galapagos Islands earlier this year, we had a very long layover at Miami airport. To kill some time we went to a nearby shopping mall and had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory - the third US city where I've eaten at one of those restaurants. I can't get enough of the cheesecake!

This time I had the caramel pecan turtle cheesecake - named after a particular brand of chocolate called turtles. It consisted of a pecan brownie and caramel-fudge swirl cheesecake, topped with caramel turtle pecans and chocolate. It was so good- though of course I couldn't eat more than half of it!

Back at the airport, shopping to use up the last of my dollars, I bought a packet of  - which contained a pecan and soft caramel covered in chocolate. I'd had them before so didn't eat them right away and brought them home. A few weeks ago I found them in the cupboard and decided to see if I could recreate the Cheesecake Factory dessert. The only caveat being that my husband doesn't like nuts!

I found this copycat recipe which looks amazing; but I was making the dessert on a night when I had been out all day and needed to make some shortcuts. I also wanted to turn them into mini cheesecakes rather than one large one. I'd just had an Asda delivery a couple of days before so had bought some chocolate brownies; I used these as the base of my dessert, cutting out a circle to put in the bottom of a silicon muffin tray.

 

I followed the recipe instructions for the filling, using a tin of Carnation caramel for the caramel sauce. This is the cream cheese, egg, sugar and vanilla mixture, poured on top of the brownie base which was obviously already cooked as it was ready made.



 

I mixed the chocolate sauce with the caramel sauce and swirled it in to the cheesecake mixture:

 

 

Here they are after being baked in the oven.

 

 

I topped each mini cheesecake with a layer of Carnation caramel and a drizzle of chocolate sauce - I used Choc Shot as you can squeeze out a thin drizzle easily. Finally I topped each one with a mini chocolate turtle.

 

 

Here is the view from the side. These were amazing - one mini cheesecake was enough as they are quite rich but the flavours of the caramel and chocolate, and the texture of the cheesecake on the brownie base, were just amazing. Almost as good as at the Cheesecake Factory!

 

 

I'm sending these to Treat Petite, hosted by Stuart at Cakeyboi and Kat, the Baking Explorer, for their monthly baking challenge.

 

 

I'm also sharing these with We Should Cocoa, hosted by Choclette at Tin and Thyme.

 

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Restaurant Review: Bishopsgate Kitchen, London

Poached eggs seem to be a bit of a thing with me at the moment. My team had a very early start recently when the company we work for reported its Q3 financial results, so when all was done, we went for a team breakfast (as it was also my manager's birthday) at the Bishopsgate Kitchen. I didn't realise until I looked at the website just now that it is run by Benugo's which actually runs the café in my office building!

This was definitely better as it is a proper bar and restaurant with quite a wide menu of dishes, far more than it would be feasible to offer in the workplace. I had the chorizo hash, which came with sliced potatoes, a poached duck egg, spinach and parmesan cheese, for £10.50.

It tasted really good though a little on the spicy side because of the chorizo and was very filling, though I think quite expensive for what it was. I also found the potatoes quite dry so I kept needing sips of water while I ate! Overall it was still a good breakfast and a nice change from the norm.

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Leon Poached Egg Pots

I love the breakfast egg pots at Leon. Have you come across Leon before? They are largely based around London with branches at airports as well as a couple of other cities and their motto is 'naturally fast food'. I first went to a Leon at Heathrow airport but now there are several around where I work.

I still remember how good the egg pot was that I had at the airport three years ago - it was simple but a combination I hadn't come across before, with a poached egg, cheese sauce and chopped ham served in a little pot. I decided to make it for my husband and me for brunch last weekend and found this recipe on Lovefood, written by Leon founder Henry Dimbleby.

I didn't follow the recipe that closely as I didn't have any truffle oil to put in the cheese sauce and to poach the eggs I cheated and used 'poachies' - little bags that you crack the eggs into and put them in a pan of boiling water. I have an egg poaching pan, and a microwave egg poacher that I use sometimes at work, and have tried various ways to poach eggs and have found these to be the best by far, so I recommend them if you have trouble getting perfectly poached eggs!

So all I did was whip up a quick cheese sauce from a roux of flour and butter and then milk and melted cheese, poach the eggs and fry some chorizo. I served them in ramekins with the egg on the bottom, some salt and pepper, then the cheese then the chorizo on top - I can't begin to tell you how good these are!

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Butterfly Thinking of You Cards

While I was sorting out my craft cupboard - which is a narrow (single) wardrobe from Ikea, with shelves and two drawers instead of a hanging rail - I came across some cards I made ages ago (probably a couple of years).

Sometimes you need a card for a sombre or sorry occasion, or sometimes just to wish people well and let them know you are thinking of them. All the elements on both of these cards came from one big pack; the butterflies are die cuts that I thought went well with the patterns of the backing paper. The 'thinking of you' sentiments are also both die cuts, with gold words and edging on white card; I mounted them on the cards with adhesive pads so they would stand out.

I'm entering this in the Butterfly Spot Challenge where the theme each time is a butterfly and a colour or something beginning with a particular letter; this time it is navy. The butterflies have navy blue in their wings and though you can't quite tell, the dots on the background of the bottom card are navy blue.

I'm also sending it to the Crafty Boots challenge as the theme is 'things with wings'.

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Cowboy Pie

This pie is based on an idea I saw in a Slimming World book or magazine a while ago but isn't actually particularly Slimming - I wanted an excuse to use my cow print rolling pin again! It came from Etsy and was a Christmas gift last year I think but I've only used it a few times. The rolling pin leaves an imprint of a cow pattern on anything you roll out!

I decided to theme a pie around it and use it to roll out the pastry to go on the top. The cow theme would work for cottage pie (which uses minced beef) but I decided to make what I call a cowboy pie - based on sausage and beans which have associations with cowboys sitting around a camp fire!

Preheat the oven to 180C. First fry or grill a couple of sausages per person until they are just cooked and cut into chunks. You can also add some diced chorizo or pancetta to the pan and fry. Put into a pie dish (either an individual dish or a large one - I did an individual one for my husband) and pour over half a tin of baked beans and mix together.

You can see how the rolling pin leaves the cow pattern on the pastry. I used ready-made shortcrust pastry though you can make your own.

Top the pie with the pastry and trim the edges; make a small hole for any steam to escape

When baked the pastry should turn golden brown (though it doesn't look very brown in this picture)

You also can't see the cow pattern very well any more in this photo, but it was there!

This is what the pie looks like inside - my husband said it was good. It's a nice change to the way you might normally serve sausage and beans, anyway!

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Meal Planning Monday 2016 - Week 46

I was supposed to be away for three nights this week but have cancelled as my cat is very ill and I don't want to leave her on her own. It's been a very upsetting few days as I'm so worried about her. I don't much feel like eating but know I need to eat proper food and not live off junk food, and we are going back to the vet on Wednesday so hopefully will get some better news, otherwise the rest of the week's meal plan might go out the window.

Prior to my cat being ill I was trying to declutter and found a huge folder of Weightwatchers recipes torn out of their magazines. I haven't followed Weightwatchers for a long time and have probably enough recipes to cook something different every day for the rest of my life, but wanted to use a few of them before getting rid of the rest! So these recipes are from various magazines from several years ago - I will share some of my versions of the recipes on my blog over the coming weeks, if I get back into blogging - giving my kitty cat some extra love has been my priority recently.

Monday - curried fish pie from Weightwatchers magazine for me, with chicken for him as he doesn't eat fish.

Tuesday - tortelloni pasta with pumpkin and sage from Weightwatchers magazine - but I think I will use butternut squash

Wednesday - teriyaki salmon from Weightwatchers magazine for me, with beef medallions  for him

Thursday - chicken in a creamy tarragon sauce from Weightwatchers magazine

Friday - tuna polpette in red pepper sauce from Weightwatchers magazine; spaghetti and meatballs for him

Saturday lunch - soup with crusty bread
dinner: chicken fajitas and enchiladas I was going to do last week but didn't
dessert: pear and hazelnut crumble for me, from Weightwatchers magazine; chocolate crumble from this recipe for my husband as he doesn't eat fruit

Sunday
lunch- spicy prawn pockets from Weightwatchers magazine for me, with pizza filling for him
dinner - chicken basque from Weightwatchers magazine

This is a blog hop, join in!

An InLinkz Link-up

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MidWeek Coconut Fish Curry

I love prawns, and think they work really well with pasta or curry, so when I came across this recipe for a coconut fish curry on the BBC Good Food website, where the prawns took centre stage, I knew I had to make it. The flavours are inspired by both India and Thailand and doesn't take that long to cook -the part that took longest was probably finding all the ingredients in the cupboard! So it makes a great mid-week meal.

The shrimp paste in the recipe is not the kind that you may have had n your sandwiches as a child; it is an essential ingredient in Thai cooking. These days it is easy to find in supermarkets like Tesco though, in the speciality ingredients aisle.

To serve 4, you need:
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely grated
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp shrimp paste
1 small red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
2 lemongrass stalks, split and bruised with a rolling pin
1 heaped tbsp. medium curry powder
1 heaped tbsp. light muscovado sugar
small bunch of coriander, stems finely chopped
400g can coconut milk
450g skinless hake or other white fish fillets, cut into large chunks
220g prawns
1 lime, halved
cooked rice to serve
I also served mine with some broccoli

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion for 5 minutes until softened. Stir in the ginger, garlic, shrimp paste, chilli and lemongrass and cook for 2 minutes.

Add the curry powder and sugar and stir until the sugar starts to melt, then add the coriander stems, coconut milk and 2 tbsp. water. Bring to a simmer.

 

Add the fish and prawns and squeeze in half the lime. Simmer for 5 minutes until the fish is cooked, scatter over the coriander leaves and serve.

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GBBO Pistachio and White Chocolate Churros

I treated myself to the latest Great British Bake Off recipe book since it was only £7 at a Book People book sale at work. This was when the series was only part-way through and I wasn't sure what they would be making each week though the recipes in the book do give a clue. I really liked the look of the pistachio and white chocolate churros, which I think I remember were made by Jane, the eventual runner-up of the show.

The full recipe is available on the BBC Food website which is helpful as it would have taken me ages to write out everything I did! I consider myself a fairly proficient baker, but I found these really hard - not to make as much as to assemble.

The book had a good explanation of how to shell pistachios; after you remove the hard shell there is still a brown skin covering the green nut. Bring the pistachios to boil in a pan of water and simmer for ten seconds; drain them in a sieve then rub with kitchen paper or use your fingers and the brown skins come off easily.

When I made the pistachio custard and pulsed the nuts in a food processor, I just couldn't get them smooth enough, so my custard was quite lumpy, even after I sieved it.

 

Making the churros was fairly easy but the largest star nozzle I have isn't that big - I wasn't aware that they come in bigger sizes but it meant that the churros that I piped were pretty thin. This wouldn't normally be a problem - I just rolled some of them in sugar and served them with chocolate sauce and they were brilliant. However, the idea is to pipe the pistachio custard inside the churros which I found absolutely impossible as they were so thin, and my custard was quite thick. I ended up splitting them down the middle and serving as a sort of open churro!

 

 

These did taste really nice but were quite fiddly to make with the various stages and I couldn't work out how to pipe them big enough to fill. I won't be making these again, or applying to go on the Great British Bake Off any time soon!

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Sticky Sausage, Carrot and Cous Cous Bake

Sausages are a great family food at this time of year, perhaps due to the association between bangers and bonfire night. It's also nice when you can just throw things into a pan in the oven at this time of year and enjoy some warming flavours.

I came across this recipe on the Tesco website for sticky sausages with carrots and couscous - not things I would have thought to combine, but it was really good and something I will definitely make again.

To serve 4 (or fewer, depending on how many sausages you want per person) you need:
8 pork sausages
150g Tendersweet carrots, halved lengthways - I used regular carrots though Chantenay carrots would also be good
1 red onion, sliced
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp clear honey

for the couscous:
200g couscous
1 tbsp. fresh mint leaves, chopped
1 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced

For the harissa yogurt

1 tbsp harissa paste

150g pot natural yogurt

 

Preheat oven to 200C. Line a roasting tin with foil and put the sausages, carrots and onions in the pan and toss with the cumin, coriander and oil. Roast for 30 minutes, turning halfway, until cooked through.

 

 

 

Make up the couscous according to pack instructions and leave to stand until all the water has been absorbed. Mix in the herbs, oil and lemon juice.

 

To make the harissa yogurt, mix the harissa paste into the yogurt. When the sausages are cooked, drizzle over the honey and toss the sausages and vegetables until they are coated. Serve with the couscous and harissa yogurt on the side.

 

 

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Meal Planning Monday 2016 - Week 45

I had the whole of last week off from work and did a lot of decluttering and organising around the house, plus a day of card making - some of which you will start to see on the blog soon! It was really nice to have time to cook nice meals and a couple of desserts as well, but I got so complacent that when I turned to this week's meal plan on Sunday I realised I hadn't actually done it! I did a huge online grocery shop at the beginning of last week and did try to buy a lot to go in the freezer so I am going to plan as many meals this week as I can that don't involve doing any more grocery shopping. I also need to get back onto the diet wagon though!

For lunches this week I am going to have the broccoli cheese soup left over from the end of last week (which was really nice - recipe coming soon) and I'm going to aim to make the cream of sweet potato soup from 'America's Favourite Recipes' (p.214) - though with a couple of nights out this week I may not get time.

Monday
The plan was for spiralized carrot and butternut squash with prawns for me, chicken chargrills and mashed potato for him - unfortunately there were massive train delays this evening thanks to a trespasser so dinner was a ham and cheese croissant at the station!

Tuesday
Out at the theatre

Wednesday
tuna and rest of spiralized veg for me, lasagne and garlic bread for him

Thursday
I'm out for drinks after work (following an award ceremony in the afternoon where I've been shortlisted for two awards), my husband will probably go to his mum's

Friday
sausage and chips

Saturday
Lunch: Leon egg pots (recipe here) with baked beans on toast for him as I don't think the eggs will be enough
Dinner: chicken fajitas and enchiladas

Sunday
Lunch: bacon sandwich for him, jacket potato for me
Dinner: I'll have Shrimp Marinara (America's Most Wanted Recipes p.232) with broccoli bites (p.26) that was on the meal plan for last week which I didn't do and he can have toad in the hole as he doesn't eat those things.

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Restaurant Review: Pitcher & Piano, Monument, London

For a pub chain, Pitcher & Piano has a really unusual menu. I don't think I've ever seen a quinoa and cauliflower burger on a menu - and I was quite keen to try it but didn't really want a burger and chips even if it was meat-free - and the rest of the menu is a combination of classics and a nod to current trends. Everyone seems to be obsessed with avocado at the moment, and at Pitcher & Piano you can enjoy a mozzarella and avocado brioche or a bacon and avocado salad, or a chicken and kale salad, and sweet potato fries as a side. Or if you want a classic pub meal there's steak, sausage and mash, fish and chips and the like.

I was there for lunch with work colleagues and there was something to keep everyone happy - even one person who avoids carbs completely and had a selection of dishes from the starter section instead of a main. We were in a hurry to order so without much time to think I plumped for the fish finger brioche - something I haven't had in ages.

It was quite nice but ended up feeling more like a fish burger and chips - I'm used to fish finger sandwiches being made with doorstep bread and not coming with chips. In another twist on the norm, my pot of tea came with an espresso cup - I assume that was deliberate and not a mistake, but it was a bit odd to keep having to pour myself tiny cups of tea. It did come with an iced ring biscuit on the side though!

This is a City centre bar that I can imagine is quite busy in the evenings but we had no problem fitting in a big group at lunch. The food was good even if it wasn't quite what I was expecting!

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Cauliflower Pizza: gluten-free pizza with a cauliflower base

When I was doing sugar-free September I cut out gluten and so wasn't eating bread or potatoes. I decided to make pizza for lunch one weekend - my husband had a normal homemade pizza base, while I decided to try something I'd kept hearing about - cauliflower pizza.

That's not pizza with cauliflower on top (though I did once share a pizza with a vegetarian many years ago that had nothing but broccoli on top) - but where the pizza base is actually made of cauliflower. Have you heard of cauliflower rice? The pizza base is made in a similar way with the cauliflower riced and then baked in the oven. It tasted surprisingly good - cauliflower normally has quite a strong taste but it is masked somewhat by the pizza toppings.

To serve 2, you need:
1 whole cauliflower
1 egg
30g pepper
pinch of salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C. Pulse the raw cauliflower in a food processor until you have crumbs that look like rice.

 

Tip into a large frying pan - you don't need to add any oil - and cook for ten minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cauliflower loses some of its moisture.

 

Allow the cauliflower to cool then mix in a large bowl with the egg, cheese and salt and pepper.

Line a flat baking sheet with greaseproof paper and spread out the cauliflower mixture on top. Push down with the back of a spoon so you have a fairly packed down layer. Bake for 30 minutes until the cauliflower has turned golden brown.

If you can, get a spatula under the pizza base and turn it over in one piece and bake on the other side for ten minutes.

Remove from the oven and spread with tomato puree. Top with grated mozzarella and whatever pizza toppings you enjoy, and return to the oven for a few minutes until the cheese has melted.

Why not give it a go if you haven't tried this before?

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