Lay the table » cinnamon

Miniature Gingerbread Houses

Becs — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 12:36:50 +0000

This year I’m getting started early on Christmas. I’ve bought presents, I remembered to bring back the decorations from my parents house last month. We moved into this house in January, so we haven’t experienced Christmas here yet, so I’m wondering will December bring the electricity meters into meltdown as the neighbours compete to have the best decorated house on the street?

Well we may not have the best decorated house, but we’ll try and have some of the best food that’s for sure. I look forward to Christmas because of all the amazing party nibbles that are about at this time of year. Serious issues around eating proper meals during the festive season, I’ll happily just eat random nibbles all night long. This is combined with the fact that I already know before December’s even begun that I need to go on a diet (yes, waistbands are begining to strain)…

But for the moment, I’m holding off on the dieting and bringing you delicious gingerbread treats instead. The sort of gingerbread that you find in Lapland with cinnamon in. And I love gingerbread houses, but how the heck do you portion that out? Well these mini ones provide an easy solution, and they’ll make really sweet(!) gifts for those of you a bit strapped for cash this winter. They keep well stored in a cool dry place so you could make them a little in advance.

They do take a little while to make, I will say. But nothing great was ever easy. I’m afraid I wasn’t too great with the flash because I was decorating them in the nights after work. I have tried my best to give you a good photo guide on how to do them though. The decoration can be anything you want it to be. I kind of discovered I’d forgotten to buy any decorations, so just made use of the sanding sugar and hundreds and thousands I had in my cake drawers but I’m sure you can you do a better job! If you do make them I’d love you to hook me up with some links to the photos, it’d make my day!

One of the best things about gingerbread is that it’s pretty darn easy to make. I will stress that it’s fairly imperative to have a way or being able to make the dough even thickness when you roll it out. Whether that’s using a special Joseph Joseph Adjustable Wooden Rolling Pin or using a rolling pin with two sticks. If you don’t make the dough even, you’re going to end up with dark bits of gingerbread where it’s thinner (and more breakable due to being brittle) and light bits where it’s thicker and perhaps not cooked enough.

First we’re going to need a template. Copy and paste it into an image editing program. Don’t use Word or try and use the Windows image printing program as they’re both likely to rescale the image. To make nice easy-to-use template pieces, I printed the template out onto a piece of paper, stuck it on some stuff cardboard and then covered each piece with cling film with all the edges stuck together as the top so I wouldn’t mark the gingerbread too much.

Then we’ll get all the ingredients together…

Next we’re going to whip cream and a little vanilla together, then mix with brown sugar, black treacle, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon until it looks like this:

Then we’ll add the flour in bit by bit, then you’ll be able to squeeze it together gently to form a dough.

Now we need to roll out the dough evenly and as tightly as possible, cut the pieces out…

Put your pieces onto the baking tray. I’d suggest putting all the roof pieces together, all the sides together etc. It makes it easier to sort things out afterwards.

Bake…once cool we can make up the royal icing to cement it all together and start a little decoration! I put the doors and windows on prior to glueing.

Now we want to begin construction. The easiest way is to “wiggle pipe” so icing onto the base all the way around and leave for a minute. You’ll also want to pipe down the sides of the sides. You don’t need to worry about being neat, we’ll repipe the sides afterwards really prettily.

Then we’re going to gently place a front or back onto the house, gently pressing onto the very edge of the base, then sticking each of the sides to it to support it.

Glue the other sides on and hold together until they can support themselves

Then you can pipe around the outsides of the edges and pipe the tops of the front, back and sides in preparation for glueing the roof on.

Put each roof piece on gently…

Now you can decorate and pipe to your heart’s content. I piped some of the rooves using a star tip!

Here’s some other roof ideas…Piping icicles is really easy, just use a small nozzle, make sure you give a good squeeze onto the roof on the bottom side then pull down quickly,

{Makes 6 mini gingerbread houses}

Adapted from here

Ingredients

⅓ cup whipping cream
¼ tsp vanilla extract
½ tbsp bicarb soda
⅔ cup packed brown sugar
¾ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cinnamon
⅓ cup black treacle
2¼ plain flour

For the icing…

200g royal icing sugar
a few tablespoons of water

Ingredients

Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper or Silpat. Print out your template pieces, stick onto thick cardboard and then cover with cling film to protect dough, making sure that the cling film edges are facing up to prevent denting the dough too much.
Preheat oven to 140°C/275°F/Gas Mark 1
Whip cream and vanilla in a small bowl until they form soft peaks.
In a large bowl, stir together brown sugar, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, and cinnamon. Stir in the black treacle, then beat in whipped cream mixture until well-combined
Gradually add flour bit by bit, making sure each time that the flour has been mixed in well.
Dust a pastry mat or kitchen surface with flour. Divide dough in half and roll out one portion of the dough until flat – about 6mm thick. I then cut the dough so that the sides we kind of straight as I found this the easiest way to work.
Using your templates, you’ll need to cut 12 x roof pieces, 12 x front/back pieces, 12 side pieces and 6 bases. Using a palette knife, lift carefully onto baking trays.
Bake for about 20 mins but do check after 15 minutes. They will feel firm and edges will just be beginning to darken. Cool on a wire rack.
Once cool, mix up your royal icing. Place your royal icing sugar in the mixer and gradually add water drop by drop until it’s thick but spreadable. Then mix for 3-4 minutes.
Follow the visual demonstrations in this post for help with glueing and decorating your gingerbread houses!

Mini loaf orange and cinnamon cake with sultanas

Becs — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:34:46 +0000

Hurrah! We finally have some studio flashes I can use! Considering what a grey weekend it was over here I made full use of the new flashes and the inclement weather to get down to some baking and cooking. I’ve been hatching plans for a couple of weeks as Mr Lay the table and I have been off visiting our families, but prior to last weekend’s expedition we paid a visit to Lakeland in Harrogate (always dangerous to let me in there) and I came away with some pretty awesome single use mini loaf paper cases which I just knew I had to use straight away. And thus, my little loaf sponge cakes were born.

Since I used Edd Kimber’s scone recipe and read about soaking the sultanas, I thought it would be fun if I soaked these one in some amaretto I had kicking around. I just used a small handful and then splashed in some of the alcohol, with just enough to cover then strained them before I put them into the sponge mix. I then used a little of the leftover juices mixed with orange juice for my drizzle icing.

The recipe is fairly simple, first you need to rind your orange…

Then cream your butter and sugar

Add the other sponge cake ingredients, orange peel plus our strained amaretto sultanas and mix well…

Spoon the mixture into the loaf moulds and bake for around 18 minutes…

Whilst they’re baking, we need to make a drizzle…juice half of the orange we use the rind mixed with a tablespoon of amaretto. Slowly add drop by drop to icing sugar until we have a runny drizzle.

Once the cakes come out of the oven, poke holes using a kebab stick then drizzle with the icing and allow to cool

Pipe an orange zig zag onto the tops to finish

{Makes 6 Lakeland mini loaf cakes}

Ingredients

A small handful of sultanas
A good slosh of Amaretto
1 orange
&fract14; cinnamon
&fract14; baking powder
2 large eggs
85g self raising flour
30g ground almonds
115g unsalted butter
115g granulated sugar
85g icing sugar
Orange food colouring

Instructions

Soak the sultanas overnight in a small bowl or cup, ensuring that you cover the sultanas well with amaretto and you’ll have a little to spare afterwards for the drizzle icing (If you don’t have time you could them for 15-20 minutes). Strain sultanas and reserve juice.
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°c;/350°F. Place 6 cases on a baking tray
Rind the orange and save the orange for use later.
Sift the flour, ground almonds, cinnamon and baking powder together.
Cream the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy on a medium speed, then add the eggs in one by one ensuring that they are thoroughly mixed in each time. Add in the sultanas and orange peel.
Turn the mixer down to medium/low and add half of the flour mix and mix in, then repeat.
Spoon the mixture into the cases evenly and wipe any residue from the sides.
Place baking tray with cases on in the oven for around 18 minutes. Near the end you may wish to cover with brown paper to present the tops browning before the middle is cooked. Test with a cake tester inserted into the middle before removing from the oven.
Whilst the cakes are in the oven, take 55g of your icing sugar and put in a bowl. Juice half of the orange we saved and add in a tablespoon of the amaretto. Spoonful by spoonful add this to the icing sugar until it resembles runny honey.
Once the cakes come out of the oven, place on a cooling rack. Take a kebab stick and make a few piercings in each cake, then spoon the runny drizzle icing over each (around 2 tablespoons per cake) and ensure you have fully covered each top with glaze. Allow to cool.
With the remaining icing sugar, make a thick icing (like cold custard) with water and a little orange food colour, then pipe zigzags of orange onto the top to finish!

Blackberry and cinnamon custard tarts

Becs — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 21:56:56 +0000

Wow, it’s Thursday already and where’s the week gone? Last night I was making a huge batch of scones for my boss’ return from 5 months travelling. I’m honestly trying to remember what on earth I’ve been doing the rest of the week but I have such a sloppy memory I actually can’t remember!

I fell in love with Portuguese custard tarts about six years ago during a stint as a receptionist at Social Services during university summer holidays. There was quite a big influx of Portuguese migrants who set up their own little shops in town – the sort you wouldn’t go in unless you were Portuguese, the sort where everyone turns around and looks at you coming in. But I didn’t care, because I’d spied two things in this little place that I loved and ate them on a regular basis on my lunch break. One of them was stuff crabs claws (are these even traditionally Portuguese?) and the other was custard tarts.

When I stopped working there, there was a empty place in me waiting to be filled with an eggy custard filled pastry. I then discovered they serve the same egg custards at Nando’s. But I don’t like eating there because they don’t do free range chicken and so I turned to the internet to find my own recipe and not feel guilty about eating more than one (or at least not let people see how many I eat!).

With blackberries in the shops, I wanted to make something that felt distinctly autumnal and make the most of the seasonal flavours. Here I’ve taken the traditional Portuguese tart and give it my own twist with fruits and cinnamon. I used gold top milk in my custard to make it extra indulgent and rich in taste.

Making the tarts is super simple…roll out your puff pastry square and place over muffin tin hole

I have this awesome little tool to gently push pastry into the hole to stop tearing

Then add in the blackberries and custard…mmmm

20 minutes in the oven et voila! Leave to cool on a wire rack

{Makes 12 tarts}

45mins – Prep time: 25 mins – Cooking time: 20mins

Ingredients

1 x 500g block puff pastry
12 blackberries
220ml full fat milk (preferably gold top)
3tbsp cornflour
200g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla bean paste
½tsp ground cinnamon
6 free range egg yolks

Instructions

Grease a deep muffin tin and preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5
Roll out the puff pastry on a floured surface into a rectangle of roughly 4:3 ratio until it’s about 3mm deep. This is because you need to cut squares to fit the muffin tins and so mae 4 rows with 3 columns to make 12 squares.
I pushed the pastry into each muffin hole using my tool and then placed the tin back in the fridge to keep the pastry cool whilst making the custard.
Whisk the egg yolks gently in a mixing bowl and set aside.
In a medium sized saucepan, add the milk, sugar, cornflour, vanilla bean paste and cinnamon. Warm over a gentle heat and stir regularly until it begins to thicken, then remove from the heat.
Stirring the yolks constantly, gently add in half of the milk mixture bit by bit to prevent the eggs coagulating. When it’s all mixed well, whisk that mixture back into the saucepan.
Put the saucepan back on a gentle heat and whisk constantly until the mixture thickens again, after three minutes or so.
Remove muffin tin from the fridge and spoon a small tablespoon of custard into each pastry case, place a blackerry on top and then spoon another spoonful of custard on top.
Place muffin tin in the oven and cook for around 20 minutes until a little browned on top and the puff pastry is golden.
Remove the oven, leave in muffin pan for a minute or two then place them on a wire cooling rack to prevent bottom of pastry case going soft.

The Fairy Hobmother & Stroopwafels

Becs — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:21:17 +0000

I became a bit obsessed with making my own stroopwafels a few years ago. I’ve always loved buying them from Starbucks and warming them on a caramel latte but I thought I could do better making my own. I realised I’d need a pizzelle iron – not readily available in the UK – you’d have to have it shipped in. I kind of gave up on the idea but occasionally I still buy them from Starbucks or when I was in Amsterdam I bought a suitcase full. Small space for pants, huge space for food…that’s just how I roll.

So when I was contacted by The Fairy Hobmother the other day to let me know my dream of pizzelle maker ownership was very soon to become a reality, the only right thing to do was write to blog post on it. I made my wish on @tehbus’ blog post and never expected to hear any more of it. I’ve been a very lucky girl in the past couple of weeks what with this and my lovely KitchenAid (and something else coming up soon).

The Fairy Hobmother works for Appliances Online. They’ve got some pretty nice stuff over there, I’ve been eyeing up a nice duel fuel cream range cooker that would look just laaaaverly in my kitchen. And if you leave a comment at the bottom of this post with your wish for something nice, the Fairy Hobmother might just pay you a visit!

So back to the stroopwafels…I found a recipe online and tweaked it a bit – I used half wholemeal flour and used light golden syrup as I find molasses a bit too strong in flavour, which worked out perfectly. The recipe said it was for 12 waffles, but I ended up with 24. Well, I had about 20 as I cut some of them up wrong (and took a bit of my finger off, so please be careful!).

{Makes about 24 stroopwafels}

Ingredients

For the waffles

300g wholemeal flour
300g plain flour
160g unsalted butter
125ml warm water (I used 50/50 boiling & cold)
120g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
7g yeast
½ tsp ground cinnamon

For the filling

330g dark brown sugar
160g unsalted butter
90ml golden syrup
1 tsp ground cinnamon

You’ll also need a pizzelle iron and a sweet/candy thermometer

Instructions

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water
Put the butter into the flour and start by mixing it in a little, then add the rest of the waffle ingredients into the mix until it’s smooth.
Cover bowl with cling film and leave for 45 minutes.
Whilst waiting for the dough to work its magic, make the filling. Take all the filling ingredients and warm in a pan, stirring constantly. Using the sweet thermometer, when it gets to soft ball stage, remove from the heat.
Preheat your pizzelle maker and split up the dough into 24 even pieces, rolling into balls. I find the easiest way is to split in half, then halve each half, then split each of those into three. Place two at a time into the pizzelle maker and leave for about 30 seconds to a minute, until golden brown. Remove and leave to cool a little. Mine were very unshapely so I used a round cutter to remove the crusty uneven edges and give it a neat edge.
Using a bread knife, carefully slice each pizzelle in half and use 1-2 tbsp of the filling to sandwich the stroopwafel back together. If the sauce goes too hard to spread, warm a little on the hob again. Delicious fresh and warm, or leaving a little longer to go a bit harder.

Caramelised apple cinnamon fudge

Becs — Mon, 02 May 2011 10:47:36 +0000

While I was travelling, I discovered an amazing sweet shop in Queenstown, New Zealand called the Remarkable Sweet Shop where I tried the most amazing fudge ever – apple pie fudge. I’ve never been able to find apple fudge anywhere else, so I decided to make my own. This creamier coloured soft fudge contains pieces of caramelised apple, and is adapted from this recipe for crumbly butter tablet.

Ingredients

For the caramelised apple

2 sweet apples (I used Jazz apples), peeled cored and finely chopped
15g unsalted butter
2tbsp soft brown sugar
2tbsp apple juice (or you use high juice squash)
¼ tsp ground cinnamon + ½ tsp ground cinnamon for decoration

For the fudge

900g caster sugar
100g dark brown sugar
794g condensed milk (2x 397g Carnation tins)
80g unsalted butter
180ml water
½tsp ground cinnamon
2tbsp apple juice

Instructions

Make the caramelised apples by melting the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat, then add the apples. Once most of the butter has absorbed and nearly all the liquid has gone, sprinkle in the brown sugar and cinnamon and stir well. Watch for the juices to thicken and darken then remove from the heat. Leave to cool a little.
You’ll need a 9″x9″ square dish to put the fudge in. I used silicone as it was easier to remove the fudge, but if you’re using ceramic or metal, you’ll need to line your dish with greaseproof paper.
Make the fudge by melting the butter on low heat in a large saucepan, then turning up the heat to medium/high and adding the rest of the ingredients, stirring constantly. Bring to bring to the boil.
Turn the heat down to medium, but keep the mixture boiling, still stirring regularly for 20 minutes. The mixture will darken and thicken.
Take the pan off the heat and beat with an electric mixer for 4 minutes. Then add in the caramelised apples and beat for another 3 minutes.
Place mixture in your prepared dish and smooth over. Finish by sprinkling cinnamon over the top of the fudge. Place dish on a cooling rack and leave to cool for 10 minutes then slice up the fudge. Leave to cool for at least 3 hours.

Belated birthday cake – apple spiced cake

Becs — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 21:20:26 +0000

This is the belated birthday cake I made for myself at the weekend. I got the recipe from Martha Stewart’s website: Caramelised apple spice cake with brown sugar swiss meringue buttercream.

Does anyone have any tips for working with gas ovens? I swear using it made my task of baking this extravagant cake twice as hard! Plus I didn’t have the tin size they recommended either. Having scoured Morrisons for a 2″ deep cake tin I decided it’d be easier to use the tins I had and use a third, smaller tin and just trim the other sponges down. I ended up using 4 tins and the cake mix still overflowed onto the bottom of the oven.

The once I’d cleaned up the oven it was time to make my brown sugar swiss meringue buttercream. A little tip here, if you have a Kitchen Aid or other stand mixer, use it. I had to clean the kitchen up several times as the mixture went everywhere, even in one of my big heavy mixing bowls! Luckily I succeeded in making the swiss meringue buttercream which is supposed to be quite hard to make, really glad I spent a few pounds on the kitchen thermometer!

The finished result doesn’t really look like the pictures on Martha Stewart’s website – I found it really hard to smooth the buttercream around plus the texture of the buttercream was too bubbly. The problem was I’d make it the night before and then had to bring it to room temperature – I should’ve perhaps but the mixer on a slower speed to stop air bubbles getting in it. At least I’ll know for next time…

Never mind, the cake was pretty good in the end, I think the result was worth it! I believe birthday cakes should always have more effort put into them and I’m really glad I tested myself and rose to the challenge!

Recipe for Martha Stewart’s caramelized apple spice cake and also brown sugar swiss meringue buttercream.

Christmas pudding fruit cake

Becs — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:31:04 +0000

These little fruit cakes are great to share and look gorgeous. It was so much fun to make these and the smells from the kitchen really warmed the house with rich spicy scent of Christmas.

Tools

I used these Kitchen Craft mini pudding bowls to make my puddings, which makes about 8 from the mixture. I also used a small holly cutter, like the smallest one from these Holly Shaped Cookie Cutters to cut the leaves. You’ll also need a large round pastry cutter, sharp pair of small scissors and a cake tester.

1hr 50mins (45 mins unattended) + prep night before (20 mins) – Prep time: 30mins – Cooking time: 1hr

Ingredients

25oz mixed fruit
11oz Plain Flour
8oz Butter
8oz Dark Brown Sugar
3oz Ground Almonds
3oz Glace Cherries – halved or quartered
2oz Candied peel, diced finely
3 Large Eggs
1 Lemon – juice & rind
1 Orange – juice & Rind
10tbsp favourite alcohol, I used amareto but you can use more traditional rum or brandy
1 tbsp Black Treacle (warmed – stand tin in basin of v.hot water)
1tbsp apricot jam
3/4 tspn Mixed spice
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate Of soda
1 tsp Vanilla essence
1 tsp Glycerine
1/2 pack marzipan
Good pinch of Salt
A little bit of flowerpaste or roll out icing
Red and green food colouring

Instructions

Oven temp: 140°C/275°F/Gas Mark 1

Soak fruit, candied peel and cherries in lemon & orange rind and juice in a large bowl. Add 3 tbsp alcohol, then cover and leave, preferably OVERNIGHT.
Roll out the flowerpaste and split in two. Make one half green, roll out and cut out small holly leaves (two per pudding). Make the other half red and make holly berries (two per pudding). Leave to harden, preferably overnight.
Grease the tins and line the bottoms with greaseproof paper.
Sieve flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk eggs.
Cream butter, sugar, treacle then add vanilla essence and glycerine, gradually add eggs with a little flour to stop curdling.
Fold in remaining flour, then ground almonds, add fruit and mix thoroughly.
Turn into prepared tins and smooth tops with wet knuckles.
Bake on the lower middle shelf for 45 mins – 1 hr. Keep testing with a testing spike should come out clean.
Remove from oven and leave to cool in tin. Then turn out and remove greaseproof paper. I pricked the tops with a toothpick and poured 1tbsp alcohol onto each cake.
Roll out 3mm thick piece of marzipan and cut out circles using the pastry cutter.
Using the scissors, cut a wobbly edge to create drips. Using the rolling pin, roll out the marzipan topping to spread the drips out more, then stick on by brushing apricot jam onto the marzipan and positioning on top of the pudding.
Take the hardened holly and gently poke one end into the centre of the pudding top, and stick the holly berries around their bases using a little more apricot jam.

Mmmince pies

Becs — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:14:39 +0000

Spending time on mince pies is always worth the effort! Impress your friends by using the snowflake shaped cutter for the cutout. I based this on Nigella’s recipe but added a few ingredients of my own. The addition of spices to the pastry adds some extra flavour.

55mins – Prep time: 40mins – Cooking time: 15mins

{Makes: 12}

Ingredients

8oz plain flour
2oz lard, diced into small squares
2oz cold butter, diced into small squares
130ml orange juice
1oz icing sugar
1/2 grated nutmeg
1tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp ground almond
2tbsp demerera sugar for sprinkling
1 jar mincemeat (admittedly I cheated and used shop-bought one, Duerr’s Luxury Mincemeat)
Splash of amaretto

Instructions

Oven temp: 180°C/320°F

Grease and flour a 12 hole bun tin.
Sift the flour and icing sugar into a bowl and mix in the nutmeg, cinnamon and almond. Then bit by bit, add the lard and butter, shaking the to cover them in flour. Add Place in fridge for 20 mins.
Blitz the mixture in a blender until it goes into breadcrumb form, then add the juice until it just starts to form dough.
Knead the mixture of a floured surface, then wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Once removed, quarter, then roll out 2 quarters into thin layers with a rolling pin on a floured surface. Cut out circles with a cutter, just larger than the bun tin’s holes.
Gently push down the pastry circles into the bun tin with the end of your thumb.
Add the splash of amaretto to your jar of mincemeat and shake to mix. Then taking a tablespoonful at a time, put the mincemeat into the pies cases.
Roll out the other two quarters into thin layers on a floured surface and use the large snowflake cutter from this PME 3 Pce Snowflake Cutter Set to create snowflakes for the top.
Tip: Be very gentle with the snowflakes , they’re fragile! We found that pushing out the design right on top of the mince pies worked really well as we didn’t need to move them too much, otherwise they can break.
You can brush the tops with a little milk and dust with the demerera sugar for a caramel crunch top.
Place in the oven for about 12 minutes.
Ensure the mince pies cool down thoroughly as the pastry is quite short and prone to breaking if not left to hard a little before moving.

Brown sugar & cinnamon cashews and pecans

Becs — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:17:27 +0000

These make a perfect bonfire treat, especially when served still warm. My mother always brings me these back from Belgium when she visits as she knows I love them so much. You should eat a handful of nuts and seeds every day, so this is just a tasty way of doing it. I’ll be making some more of these for my Christmas food hampers, wrapped in cellophane with a ribbon.

15mins – Prep time: 5mins – Cooking time: 10mins

Ingredients

150g pecan halves
150g cashews, unsalted
100g golden caster sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

Line a large frying pan with foil (this saves on washing up!)
Put the cinammon and the sugar in the pan and heat until it just starts to melt.
Add the pecans and cashews and stir to ensure even distribution. Cook until nuts have browned a little.
Remove foil with nuts from the pan and allow to cool a little. Then tip onto a plate to prevent the nuts sticking to the foil

Apple Daim bar cheesecake

Becs — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:07:21 +0000

This was inspired by Creative Review’s tweet about Bailey’s cheesecake which is an adaptation of a Nigella Lawson recipe. I liked the idea of using Daim bar in the base, but I quite fancied cheesecake with apple as I’d never tried it. In fact, this is the first cheesecake I’ve ever made!

3hr 30mins – Prep time: 30mins – Cooking time: 1hr – Cooling time: 2hrs

{Serves: 3-4}

Ingredients

Cheesecake base

125g Oat biscuits (I used Hob Nobs)
125g Digestive biscuits
80g butter
3 Daim bars
1/2tsp cinammon
pinch of salt

Cheesecake mixture

500g mascarpone cheese
100g soft cream cheese
3 eggs
125g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1tsp vanilla essence)

Apple mixture

4tsp light brown sugar
1tbsp butter
1 bramley apple, peeled and sliced into 1cm pieces
1tsp cinammon

Instructions

Oven temp: 160°C /320°F

Make the apple mixture. Melt the butter on a low heat in the saucepan and add the apple. Mix together and allow to cook for 1 minute before adding 2tsp light brown sugar.
Cover and allow to cook gently for 3-4 minutes when the apples will go soft. Stir in the cinnamon and remaining sugar. Leave to cool.
Make the cheesecake base. Take the Daim bars, put in a plastic bag and beat with a rolling pin until the Daim bars are in rough pieces.
Then add the biscuits to the bag and beat again until everything is in fine crumbs but not dust.
Melt the butter and combine with the biscuit crumbs in a medium size mixing bowl.
Add the cinnamon and salt and mix well.
In a 23cm springform pan, press the biscuit mixture down evenly in the bottom of the pan. Place in the fridge to chill.
Make the cheesecake mixture. In a large mixing bowl mix add the mascarpone cheese and soft cream cheese. Add each egg one at a time whisking until the mixture is smooth. Then whisk in the vanilla and caster sugar.
Add about half of the apple mixture to the cheesecake mixture and fold in.
Remove cheesecake base from the fridge and pour mixture on top.
By hand, gently add the remaining apple on top, then push into the mixture with a spoon
Place in the oven for about 50-60 mins or until the top is just browning.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 2 hours. Store in the fridge. Serve with a dusting of cinnamon.