Blackcurrant Cheesecake

by Trisha Vaz
So today, I finally had a little time to take a peek at this space and yet again, its been a while since I last posted here. I’m still getting my head around the what’s where here in Sydney and will post more about my findings soon. In the meanwhile, I found that I still have a few recipes in my drafts, this is all from before we left Mumbai. Things were so hectic then, that I hardly had the time to share some of these recipes with you. Well, now is as good a time as any. So in the next few days, I’ll be finally posting some of the stuff I’d whipped up earlier.

This cheesecake was requested for, by my brother. He had a friends birthday to attend and the birthday boy is a big fan of cheesecake, hence the request. This recipe is one I hadn’t tried before, so I literally had my fingers crossed while this was coming together. I actually made a second tiny cheesecake, so that we could taste it too.

The cheesecake was a complete hit. We at home loved it too, so I know for sure they weren’t just trying to be nice when they complemented it. I heard that at the party there was quite a scramble for it. There were a couple of pieces set aside to take to someone, but apparently a couple of the boys were found in the kitchen gobbling them down. All that was left were crumbs. Its always so nice to hear that. That’s what keeps me baking.

I followed the recipe I found on Easy Meal Planning for the cheesecake. I didn’t however, have the time to make the sauce for the topping. This cheesecake was originally supposed to be a Blueberry Cheesecake, but my brother who was supposed to pick up a tin for this specific purpose, picked up a tin of Blackcurrant pie filling instead. So we decided to use it anyway. Waste not! Want Not!

This cheesecake had to travel about an hour to its destination, so all I did was use the dull side of a knife to loosed the edges of the cheesecake after it had cooled completely. Then I placed a glass on the table and the cheesecake tin over it just to demould it completely. I simply picked the ring up again and then added the topping. I wrapped it all up nice and securely at the base and covered the top with some al-foil. It reached safe and sound.

Blackcurrant Cheesecake
Yields 1-8″ and a tiny 4″ one or 1 – 9″ cake

For the base
250g digestive biscuits, crushed
60g butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

You can either use the food processor and lightly crush the biscuits till it resembled coarse bread crumbs or you can use a rolling pin. I used the food processor to save time.

Tip the biscuit crumbs in a mixing bowl and add the melted butter. Stir till it is incorporated well and starts to look like wet sand.

Press this mixture into the bottom of a loose bottomed cake tin (you could also use a spring form pan if you have one) and let it come up the sides as well. How high you let it come depends on how you like your cheesecake crust. Avoid making the crust too thick where the base meets the sides.

Bake for 7-10 minutes till it has lightly browned.

While this is happening, you can start mixing your filling.

For the filling
250g cream cheese
450g cottage cheese
200g light brown sugar
6 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp. lemon zest

Make sure the cream cheese and the cottage cheese is near room temperature and not chilled to get a nice, creamy texture.

Blitz the cottage cheese in a blender with some milk / cream till smooth and creamy. Do not over beat.

Beat together the cottage cheese, the cream cheese, sour cream and the sugar. Add the egg yolks and continue to beat. Add the zest and the vanilla essence and beat till it has been incorporated well into the mix.

Beat the egg whites till they hold soft peaks. Fold the beaten whites into the cream cheese mix.

Pour the mix into the baked biscuit shell.

Wrap a large piece of heavy duty aluminium foil around the base of the tin and up the sides. Place the tin in a roasting tray. Carefully, pour boiling water in the roasting pan till it reaches halfway up the side of the cake pan.

Carefully place the roasting pan in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes or till a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out just clean.

Remove the foil from around the tin and let the cheesecake cool completely.

Now you can demould the cake and add the topping. I used a tin of black-currant pie filling/cheesecake topping.

(Note that the original recipe calls for 450g cream cheese and 250g cottage cheese. I had just about 250g cream cheese and the local store was out of cream cheese so I used the quantities above and still ended up with a cheesecake that had beautiful texture.) 

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Cakes, Cakes, Cookies & Desserts, Dessert, Recipes

Mini Eggless Banana Walnut Muffins

by Trisha Vaz

Can you tell that I absolutely love bananas? They’ve always been one of my favorite fruits. If you’re new here and don’t believe me, check out these beauties – Banana Bread, Bananas Foster, Stuffed French Toast and Monkey Business. See I wasn’t kidding. Today I have yet another banana treat for you. And let me tell you that these were absolutely wonderful. Even though they were an eggless bake, they were light, moist and super yum. I made mini muffins this time just as an excuse to have a second helping, maybe even a third 😉 These were so great that the next time I whip these up, I’m going to make them the regular muffin size. I think that tells you how much we enjoyed them. I hope you do too! Oh, I love my new silicone mini muffin cups. They are so gorgeous, they just brighten up my day. Am I crazy to want them in every color available 🙂 ? Unfortunately I forgot to use them while baking the muffins but they do make a pretty picture. Can’t wait to bake with them.



Mini  Eggless Banana Walnut Muffins
Yields 12 mini muffins

2-3 over ripe banans, mashed
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup natural unflavored yogurt
1/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt, or to taste

Preheat the oven to 180ºC and prepare your muffin mould

Mash the bananas in a bowl and add the oil, yogurt, sugar and vanilla and mix well.

Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Mix well.

Add the mashed banana mix and fold it into the flour till incorporated. Don’t beat the batter.

Add the walnuts, reserving a few and stir them in gently.

Spoon the batter into paper lined muffin tins and sprinkle the reserved walnuts on top of them.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or till done.

This recipe is linked to –
Sweet Tooth Friday
Sweets for a Saturday
Savory Sunday
Mix it up Monday
My Meatless Mondays
Bake Fest

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Breakfast, Cakes, Cakes, Cookies & Desserts, Recipes, Snacks

The Lightest and Creamiest Japanese Cheesecake

by Trisha Vaz
I’m so glad Blogger is back. I was worried, especially when the latest post and comments went missing. But thankfully all is well now. I couldn’t wait to share this delightful treat with all of you. For me, this Japanese cheesecake is humbly plain, yet amazingly glorious. If made correctly, it is light as air, while still somehow maintaining the creaminess of the cream cheese. My husband had picked up one of these a few years ago and it was really hard to not finish the whole thing in one sitting, between the two of us. I was thrilled to bits when I made it myself. And you know something, it was just as good. The lemon juice adds a lovely flavor to it. Sadly, I don’t have a picture of a wedge of the cake after it was cut up. It’s really hard to stop eating this.  🙂  🙂  🙂

I’d read in a few places that this cheesecake is finicky and a lot can go wrong, but after making it, what I can say is that if you follow the instructions carefully, you will be treated to the most amazing cheesecake you’ve had in a while and that too, made right in your kitchen. I do hope you try this out. It would be such a shame to miss out on making this. And when you do, I;d love to know how it goes.

Please excuse the picture quality, my camera was dead and I knew if I waited to charge it, there’d be nothing left to capture. So I just used my phone instead!

Japanese Cheesecake
Recipe from: Diana’s Desserts

140g superfine sugar
6 eggs, separated
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g butter
250g cream cheese
100 ml milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
60g all purpose flour
20g cornflour
1/4 tsp salt

Line an 8″ round cake pan (bottom and sides) with some lightly greased parchment paper. (I just lined the bottom of the pan and it worked fine too.)

Melt the cream cheese, butter and milk in a double boiler.

Cool this mix down.

Fold in the flour, cornflour, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.

Whisk the egg whites with the cream of tartar till it is foamy. Add the sugar and continue to whisk till soft peaks form.

Add the cream cheese mix to the egg white mix and mix well.

Pour the mix into the prepared cake pan and bake it in a water bath at 160ºC for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until set and golden brown.

Note: I halved the recipe and used a 6″ round cake pan.

This recipe is linked to –
Sweet Tooth Friday
Sweets for a Saturday
A Themed Bakers Sunday
Not Baaad
Mangia Mondays
Homespun Bakeshop

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Cakes, Cakes, Cookies & Desserts, Dessert, Recipes

Homemade Doughnuts – Three ways

by Trisha Vaz
I’m really excited as I write this post. Those of you following my blog will know that I’ve been venturing into the world of baking with yeast lately. Obviously this is just the tip of the ice berg. There is so much more I need to learn and try. But so far its been great fun. So when I made these doughnuts yesterday and they turned out great, I was thrilled to bits. Now, for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been craving doughnuts. Sinful, luscious, indulgent doughnuts. Strangely this craving pops around over the weekend. The past couple of weekends have been a little busy, so I really haven’t been able to do anything about this craving for a long time. But this weekend I needed to get my doughnut fix. I really didn’t want to stop by the mall and pick up a box of doughnuts. I wanted to try making them on my own. I had bookmarked a recipe that I liked a few months ago. And please don’t laugh, but I really wanted to try out this doughnut cutter that I’d picked up over a year ago. I tend to do that every now and then, buy stuff planning to put it to good use, but sometimes it gets pushed right back to the deep dark recesses of my shelf and doesn’t see the light of day for a while. But now I can happily justify this impulse buying. **wink*wink**

These doughnuts are fried, but are not in the least bit greasy. They are ever so light and did I mention, really delicious. The dough is not too sweet, just the way I like it. And I think I got a little carried away while dressing them up. I had some with a vanilla glaze, some with a chocolate glaze and some dipped in cinnamon sugar. The cinna-sugar ones were my favorite. I would also suggest making sure your vanilla glaze is nice and thick or else it won’t be seen. You can’t really tell but the vanilla glaze is supposed to be a lovely yellow. In any case, they are really delicious, so no one will really mind. I halved the recipe and I got 19 doughnuts. I guess your yield will depend on the size of you cutter. The recipe below is the full one that should yield 30. 
Homemade Doughnuts
Recipe from: La Mia Vita Dolce
4 tsp Active Dry Yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1 cup lukewarm milk
3 tbsp caster sugar
100g butter, melted
3 eggs
4 1/4 cups all purpose flour
Vegetable oil, for deep frying
Activate the yeast by placing the water, milk, sugar and yeast in a bowl. Keep aside for 10 minutes. It will turn into a frothy concoction, indicating that the yeast is active.
Mix the flour, butter, eggs and the yeast mixture to form a sticky dough.
Cover with a damp cloth and keep aside for about 45 minutes or till the dough has doubled in size.
Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface till it becomes smooth and elastic.
Roll on a lightly floured surface and cut out. Place the doughnuts on lightly greased baking paper. Cover with a tea towel and keep aside for about 30 minutes to rise.
Heat oil for deep frying. Carefully fry the doughnuts on a medium flame till golden brown. Drain on absorbent kitchen paper.
For the chocolate glaze – 
(Makes enough to glaze the whole batch)
2 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup warm milk
1 tbsp light corn syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
Sift icing sugar and keep aside.
Combine butter, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until butter is melted.
Decrease the heat to low, add the chocolate, and whisk until melted.
Turn off heat, add the icing sugar, and whisk until smooth.
Dip the doughnuts in this glaze and sprinkle as desired. 
For the Vanilla glaze
(Makes enough to glaze the whole batch)

¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
Gel paste food colouring (if using)

Warm the milk and vanilla in a medium saucepan set over low heat.

Add the confectioners’ sugar and whisk slowly until well combined.

If tinting glaze, using a toothpick, add a drop of gel paste at a time, whisking to combine well, until you’ve reach the desired colour.

Remove from heat and set over a bowl of warm water (you may have to reheat over low heat occasionally).

Dip the doughnuts in the glaze and sprinkle as desired.




Cinnamon Sugar Topping

1 cup caster sugar
Cinnamon powder 
1/4 cup Melted butter

Mix the caster sugar and enough cinnamon powder, till you get the intensity of flavor you are looking for.

Dip the doughnut very briefly in the melted butter and then dip in the sugar and cinnamon mix to coat well.


This recipe has been linked to – 
Sweet Tooth Friday

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Bread, Cakes, Cakes, Cookies & Desserts, Dessert, Recipes, Snacks

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

by Trisha Vaz
This post is a relatively exciting one for me. In my part of the world, some baking ingredients, tools and bakeware that many of you find in every possible store around you, is practically impossible to find. So whenever I go shopping, I keep my eyes peeled for something I’ve not seen before. Imagine my joy a few days ago when I was on one such grocery shopping trip and I spotted a bundt pan, a silicon one. I wasn’t going to be fussy about how it was not the likes of a typical Nordicware pan, so I quickly grabbed one. Yay! my very first bundt pan. I had recently seen a post on a cream cheese pound cake and I knew that was what I was going to bake in this one. Now shocking as it may sound to many of you, I must admit I’ve never baked a pound cake before. I can’t figure out why. So yes, for me it was another first, my very first pound cake. I also baked some burger buns that day. Yeasted bread, another first for me – I will post about that later. Getting back to the cake, I was a little concerned at first, when I found there was no baking powder listed in the ingredients for this cake. I crossed my fingers and followed the recipe closely. I ended up with one of the most delicious cakes I’ve ever tasted. It was moist and light and tasted heavenly. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake
4 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
3/4 cup butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
Preheat the oven to 165ºC.
Cream the butter and cream cheese till it is silky.
Add the sugar and beat well till fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition.
Add the vanilla and beat well. At this point you may want to scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix well.
Add the flour and gently fold it in until it is just incorporated. Do not beat the flour.
Bake at 165ºC for an hour. (The original recipe said 1 hour and 20 minutes but mine was done in a hour.)
 
 
This recipe is linked to –
Decidedly Healthy or Horridly Decadent
Sweets for a Saturday
Remembrance Cakes for 9-11

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Cakes, Cakes, Cookies & Desserts, Recipes