My collection of food photography and recipes. Attention: sugar high content!
Fresh pasta has always been one of my favourite addictions, but so far, I had resisted the temptation to buy one of those fabulous pasta rolling gadgets. That is, until this month’s Daring Bakers Challenge: Home made green lasagna!
The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.
I’ve been told I’m a sweet sort of person, but when it comes to Valentine’s Day… Boy, am I bitter! And as hard as I try to ignore this cursed date, hearts suddenly appear everywhere and make it impossible to bury my head in the sand. The Daring Bakers were no exception this month, with a heart shaped chocolate Valentino cake.
The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.
Lately, work has been so crazy that I missed the December Daring Bakers, and almost missed January’s too. But after a whole month of postponing, I decided it was too good a challenge to miss, baked away until obscenely late, and hoped the sun would come out this morning for some nice photos.
This month’s challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.
That was what my grandmother Helena would say to get me to eat another spoon. “I don’t need it, my eyes are already pretty”, I would reply without a hint of modesty.
Caramel is definitely not my favourite flavour, so I started the November Daring Baker’s Challenge with a bit of suspicion. Busy as I was this month, though, I didn’t give it much thought, and decided to give the recipe a chance without any hacks or additions.
But then something happened… the most delicious cake popped out of th oven. I could hardly believe it.
I returned to my trip to New York with a serious addiction to cheesecake. While there, I couldn’t have enough of it. Once I was back, I started having serious withdrawal symptoms, I craved for that dense creamy heavenly dessert night and day.
I really had to try to bake one, but the occasion always seemed to escape. If I didn’t have a party or dinner to take it to, or some friends over to share it with, I would easily have ended up eating a whole cheesecake on my own. And we all know why that would be a bad idea!
Addiction is a powerful thing, though, so in the end, I decided to create a miniature New York cheesecake, just for one. Technically, it’s still quite a big portion, so you can share it… But do so at your own risk, as you may end up fighting for the last bite.
The main challenge was to find a mini springform pan. I decided to go all McGyver and improvised by wrapping the bottom of a 9cm metal cooking ring in foil and holding it with a string. It worked out quite nicely.
Mini New York Cheesecake
Crust:
4 digestive biscuits
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar
Filling:
130g full fat cream cheese (like Philadelphia)
50ml of sour cream
90g sugar
1 egg
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
pinch of salt
Place the biscuits in a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin.
Pre-heat the oven to 180º.
Melt the butter in a small sauce pan.
Stir in the biscuit crumbs and the sugar, mix until uniform and press the mixture on the bottom of a 10cm springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes and cool on a wire rack.
In a bowl, soften the cream cheese, stir in the sour cream and the egg and beat until smooth.
Add the sugar, the lemon juice and the salt and mix well.
Pour over the crust and place it back into the still hot oven (200ºC).
Bake for 10 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 100º.
Cook it for about 20 minutes more or until it starts to golden slightly. It should still jiggle a bit in the centre.
Let it cool in the oven for an hour, as it will crack if it cools too quickly. When completely cool, refrigerate for a few more hours, preferably overnight.
Top it with strawberry jam, or simply sugared strawberry puree, and sour cream.
It’s only natural to react with a bit of suspicion when we come across a recipe as strange as no-knead bread. Something so simple and easy sure feels like cutting corners and it’s hard to believe that proper delicious bread can really come out of there. But even to my mum’s disbelief, it does. Dense, tasty, crusty, yummy bread.
©2007 Patrícia Furtado
