Ottolenghi's Caramel and Macadamia Cheesecake

I was really excited when I was invited by Heavenly Housewife to participate in the cheesecake challenge as Ottolenghi's caramel and macadamia cheesecake is my favourite cheesecake in the world and has been on my to bake list for far too long. I have been avoiding baking this partly because it has quite a few components to it and seemed a bit of a faff but I'm really glad I gave it a go. Plus I have had quite a few mishaps with caramel in the past.  Unfortunately, it's not quite like Ottolenghi's as I was running out of time - literally finished baking today which is the deadline! and therefore made a few mistakes. I burnt the caramel :( but it still tasted ok and I think the tin I used was way too large as the base is quite thin and the cake is about half the height as the ones sold in Ottolenghi! I didn't have time or any more nuts to remake the nut topping so I just went with the burnt caramel macadamia nuts!
Despite all that, it's really delicious and I'll admit I've already scoffed a quarter of the cake!! I would definitely make this again but probably only for a special occasion or maybe one more time just to make sure I get it perfect :) If anyone wants a slice, let me know!

Do check out the other fantastic bloggers who joined in this event as I'm sure their cheesecakes are much better! 

Heavenly Housewife from Donuts to Delirium

Stevie from Weird Combinations

Tammy from Il Dolce Bacio

Liz from Tip Top Shape

Reenie from Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice

Nanzeen from Coffee and Crumpets

Vanessa from Sweet Artichoke

Amanda from Glamorous Glutton 

 cake base 

 baked cheesecake 

 burnt caramel! you really have to watch it like a hawk

 burnt caramel coated macadamia nuts 

 making caramel sauce- not quite ready yet 

 lovely caramel colour - not burnt this time! hurray 

 assembling the cake - chilled cheesecake which cracked in the middle 

 cover with caramel sauce 

 add macadamia nuts on top 

 Delicious! 

Recipe from Ottolenghi's Cookbook

Serves 8-10

For the cheesecake

600g cream cheese

120g caster sugar

1/2 vanilla pod

4 eggs, lightly beaten

60ml soured cream

icing sugar for dusting

For the base

160g dry biscuits (HobNobs)

40g unsalted butter, melted

For the Nut topping

150g macadamia nuts (not enough to cover whole cheesecake of size shown)

90g caster sugar

For the caramel sauce

65g unsalted butter

160g caster sugar

100ml whipping cream

• Preheat the oven to 140C. 


• Lightly grease a 20cm springform cake tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment. 


• To make the base, whiz the biscuits to crumbs in a food processor (or crush in a ziploc bag). 


• Mix with the melted butter to a wet, sandy consistency.


• Transfer to the lined tin and flatten with the back of a teaspoon to create a level base. 


• To make the cake batter, put the sugar and cream cheese in a mixing bowl. 


• Slit the vanilla pod lengthways in half, and using a sharp knife, scrape the seeds out into the bowl.


• Whisk by hand, or with an electric mixer until smooth. 


• Gradually add the eggs and soured cream, whisking until smooth. 


• Pour the mixture over the biscuit base and place in the oven.


• Bake for 60-70 minutes, until set - a skewer inserted in the centre should come out with a slightly wet crumb attached. 


• Leave to cool to room temperature, then turn out of the tin.


• Chill the cake for at least a few hours. 


• To prepare the nut topping, scatter the nuts over a baking sheet and roast in the oven at 140C for about 15 minutes, until golden. 


• Remove from the oven and set aside. 


• Line a baking tray with parchment paper.


• Place the sugar in a large saucepan with a very thick base (make sure the sugar is not more than 3mm high). 


• Heat the sugar gently until it turns into a golden-brown caramel.


• Do not stir it at any stage. 


• Don't worry if some small bits of sugar don't totally dissolve. (Note to self - watch the pan closely as it changes very quickly from brown to burnt).


• Carefully add the toasted nuts and mix gently with a wooden spoon. 


• When most of the nuts are coated in caramel, pour them on to the lined tray and leave to set. 


• Break bits off and chop them very roughly. 


• To make the caramel sauce, put the butter and sugar in a thick-bottomed saucepan and stir constantly over a medium heat with a wooden spoon until it becomes a smooth, dark caramel.


• The butter and sugar will look as if they have split - don't worry, just keep on stirring (see pics above).


• Once the desired colour is reached, carefully add the cream while stirring vigorously. 


• Remove from the heat and leave to cool.


• To finish the cake, dust the edges and sides with icing sugar. 


• Spoon the sauce in the centre, allowing it to spill over a little.


• Scatter lots of caramelised nuts on top. 


• The cheesecake will keep in the fridge for 3 days. (probably not in my house!) 

Pecan and chocolate chip cookies

I also made these for the bake sale event that I made flapjacks and homemade chocolate fudge for. I figured everyone loves cookies (well mainly me!) I remember seeing this recipe using vegetable oil instead of butter and thinking it would be so quick and easy to put together and it was! No mixer required. Just add all ingredients and stir - my favourite kind of recipe!

The cookies smelled amazing coming out of the oven and tasted good! The crunch and flavour of pecan nuts was subtle but I think I may have chopped the nuts too finely. Next time, I'll roughly chop them and maybe use chopped chocolate instead of chocolate chips.

 forming cookie dough 

 add chocolate chips and pecans 

160g brown sugar

80ml vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking powder 

1/4 teaspoon salt

125g whole wheat flour

80g oats

80g dark chocolate chips 

30g toasted pecan pieces 

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Mix brown sugar, oil, vanilla and egg. 
• Add the flour, salt and baking powder. 
• Mix well.
• Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. 
• Scoop a small ice-cream scoop of cookie dough onto prepared trays, spaced about 2 inches apart.
• Bake for approximately 10-13 minutes until the edges are slightly browned.
• Allow to cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Chocolate Fudge

I made this for the same bake sale event that I made the flapjacks for.  These were chosen as it's a simple no bake recipe and I thought the kids would love it. I got the recipe from a cute little book called Miss Hope's Chocolate Box. It was really easy to make and proved to be extremely popular on the day.

Melt butter, chocolate and condensed milk

 press into a tray

topped with M&Ms

delicious!

60g unsalted butter

125g milk chocolate, chopped

125g dark chocolate, chopped 

200g can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 bag of M&M's 

• Generously butter a 17cm square tin and line with baking parchment. 
• Heat 2inch of water in a pan. 
• Pop a heatproof bowl on top of the pan, making sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water.
• Add the two types of chocolate, butter, condensed milk and vanilla extract to the bowl. 
• Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and allow the chocolate and butter to melt. 
• Take the pan off the heat and stir all the ingredients together. 
• Pour into the prepared tin and scatter over M&M's (or topping of your choice), pushing them in slightly so that they stick.
• Cool, then chill overnight. 
• Remove from the fridge and cut into squares. 

Flapjacks

I finally got to try a recipe from Lorraine Pascale's Baking Made Easy. I picked flapjacks as I was baking them for a bake sale event and wanted something simple that would appeal to the masses.  I omitted the ground ginger and lemon zest from her recipe and just made them plain. They are really easy to make and delicious. I'm sure you can make many variations by adding fruits and/or nuts or drizzling with chocolate. The possibilities are endless! What's your favourite flapjack? 

melt butter, sugar and golden syrup.

 pack it down in the baking tray

freshly baked

 delicious! I personally love the end bits :)

175g butter

175g muscovado sugar

175g golden syrup

350g oats

Optional

finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon

pinch of ground ginger

• Preheat the oven to 150C. Grease and lie and 20cm square baking tin. 
• Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a low heat. 
• Dip a brush in the butter and brush the baking tin with a little bit of it. 
• Add the golden syrup and sugar to the butter and heat gently.
• Once the sugar is dissolved and the butter is melted, remove from the heat and stir in the oats. Add lemon zest and ginger if using. 
• Pack the mixture into the baking tin and squash down. 
• Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.
• Remove from the oven, allow to cool for 15 minutes then turn out on to a chopping board and cut into squares. 



Apple Crumble

I made these quite a few months back but have only got round to blogging about it now. A good friend of mine came to stay with me earlier this year and she bought me these cute Le Creuset minis which are absolutely adorable. Thank you again Angie! 

I decided to make apple crumble as I had leftover apples from making apple and olive oil cake for my friend's birthday. The same friend also loves apple crumble and could not believe I've never made my own. Yes I don't know how but fortunately I can now say I have made my own crumble and I'm wondering why I've not made it earlier! It's really simple to make and extremely tasty especially with a big scoop of ice cream (or cream or custard but we didn't have any of those). 

Another friend was moving house and a few of us helped him move. I cooked dinner and made apple crumble as dessert which was well received after a hard day's labour. 

Does anyone have any suggestions for recipes in my mini Le Creuset? (preferably sweet but I could probably manage savoury as well) 

 my lovely mini Le Creuset 

 Apple with cinnamon and sugar 

 Add the crumble 

 freshly baked 

 served with ice cream 

For the crumble

150g plain flour

75g brown sugar 

100g butter (My friend recommends equal butter to flour but I resisted!) 

For the filling

4 bramley apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks

50g brown sugar 

1 tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Place the flour and sugar in a large bowl and mix well. 
• Cut the butter into cubes.
• Rub a few cubes of butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. 
• Repeat until all the butter is used up. 
• Place the apples in a large bowl.
• Sprinkle over the sugar, flour and cinnamon and mix well. 
• Spoon the apples into the dish and sprinkle the crumble mixture on top.
• Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the crumble is browned and the fruit mixture is bubbling. (You will need to increase the baking time if you are using a large dish instead of small ramekins like mine)

Ham, cheese and mushroom muffins

This is the carnivorous version of the spinach and cheese muffin I made earlier. In fact I've been making quite a few batches of these muffins to freeze as they are so simple to make and so convenient to have for breakfast or for a snack. I've also added some cherry tomatoes to a batch which worked really well.

 cook the mushrooms in butter 

 chop up the ham 

 I had some leftover spinach leaves so added that to a few of my muffins 

 delicious! 

50g butter

1/2 small onion, finely chopped

80g button mushroom, chopped

350g plain flour

2.5 teaspoons baking powder

250g cheddar cheese, grated

220ml whole milk

1 egg

80g smoked ham, finely chopped

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then fry the onion and mushrooms until cooked. 
• Season with sea salt and black pepper. Set aside.
• Put the flour, baking powder and cheese in a large bowl.
• In a separate bowl, mix the milk and egg together, then slowly pour into the flour mixture and beat with an electric handheld whisk until all the ingredients are well mixed. 
• Stir in the onion, mushrooms and chopped ham with a wooden spoon until evenly dispersed. 
• Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until deep golden and the sponge bounces back when touched. 
• Leave the muffins to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely. 

Apricot, cherry and white chocolate oat cookies

Apologies for the long absence everyone. I don't know where July has disappeared to. I have been baking albeit very sparsely this month and haven't had time to blog about any of my creations yet but hopefully all in good time. Anyway I'm glad that I've just managed to make it for the we should cocoa challenge this month. When I first found out that the special ingredient for this month is apricots, my heart sank a little as I don't really like apricots and couldn't immediately think of an apricot and chocolate pairing. However, in a flash of inspiration at the weekend, I found this cookie recipe which has apricots and cherries (yet another fruit I'm not too fond of). So you can imagine my excitement at making these cookies! I was honestly surprised at how well they turned out and how delicious they are. They are quite addictive and I had a quite a few when it came out of the oven :) The cookies are quite buttery with a slight crispy edge and soft chewy bits of apricots and cherries. Plus I'm pretty sure they contribute to my 5 a day! :)

 lovely apricots

 cherries 

 cookie batter 

 yum! 

250g butter

150g soft brown sugar

150g self raising flour

225g porridge oats

100g glace cherries, cut into pieces

100g soft dried apricots, cut into pieces

100g white chocolate chips 

• Preheat oven to 180C. 
• Line 2 baking sheets with greaseproof paper. 
• Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add in remaining ingredients and mix well. Use your hands at the end to give it a really good mix. 
• Place a tablespoon of dough or use a small ice cream scoop onto the baking sheet and flatten slightly. 
• Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes. 
• Remove from the oven, cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.