Spinach ricotta lasagna and Cheesecake crumble

December 22, 2013
Had some relatives over for dinner, so I made a lasagna and a cheesecake.

Mini apple tarts

December 08, 2013
These ones were much more successful than the last ones! I managed to make the crust in a way that satisfied me, and my friends' parents loved them, as they weren't too sweet. The apple parts of these tarts are exactly the same as before, except that instead of microwaving my apple slices, I boiled them in sweetened apple syrup (aka the water used to make the apple sauce + sugar). Just the crust is different (recipe below).

---

SHORTBREAD PASTRY CRUST RECIPE (Pâte Brisée)

  Ingredients

• 250 g flour
• 125 g cold butter, cubed
• 4 tbs brown sugar
• 2-3 tbs cold water

  Procedure

1. Mix flour, sugar, and salt.
2. Add in cubed butter and rub into the flour until there is no trace of butter on its own.
3. Add water slowly until it forms a dough.
4. Let rest 1 hour.
5. Roll out and place into tin.

  Tips

     Poke full of holes with a fork and bake at 180°C for 5 to 10 minutes before using.

For better results, first cut the butter into the flour with two butter knives until it is smaller. The less the butter melts from body heat, the better.

Yet another gratin

December 6, 2013
I made another gratin at some friends' house, but this time I added pasta into the mix. We didn't have very good pans to bake it in, so I split it into a big glass bowl and a couple of mugs.

Apple cinnamon cake

December 3, 2013
I was staying at my uncle's house for about a week, and there were a lot of apples going old in the fridge. So I decided to make a cake out of them. Sorry, I forgot where I got the recipe from...

Cheesecake crumble

December 1, 2013
I learned this recipe from a family friend, but she used eggs in hers. I tried to adapt to make it egg-free, and added some lemon zest for extra fragrance.

Some friends asked for the recipe, so instead of typing it out, I made an image of it. On the image, I included a recipe for homemade egg replacer that I found here. The original recipe using eggs is also available on the image.

Tip: Don't use low-fat sour cream or cream cheese in baked cheesecakes, as they make it harder to hold together.

Gratin, cookies, and tarts

November 24, 2013
I went to one of my teachers' and mentors' house for a lunch. Baked a gratin (zucchini, carrot, mushroom, broccoli in white sauce). Accompanied with some baguette.

 I also tested out a recipe for Spéculoos, and I must say, they were pretty successful! (recipe below) I also baked them for some high school students I was spending a lot of time with. I used a cleaned tomato concentrate can as a cookie cutter. Mixed in some slivered almonds as extra texture fun. Baked a good... 100 of them.

Also used my new mini tart-tins (I have 6 of them) with removable bottom to make mini apple tarts! I tried making the crust myself instead of buying pre-made ones. I felt this one was too sweet, so I won't include the recipe in this post.

---

SPECULOOS RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 250 g (2 cups) flour
• 100 g (7 tbs) butter or margarine (margarine makes it vegan but softer)
• 150 g (12-13 tbs) brown sugar
• 2 g (1/2 tsp) baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 4-5 tbs cold water

  Procedure

1. Take butter out ahead of time to let it soften.
2. Preheat oven at 180°C (350°F).
3. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl
4. Cut in softened butter and rub into the flour into a sandy mix.
5. Add water progressively until it comes together into a smooth dough.
6. Roll out and cut into desired shapes.
7. Bake for 15 mins.

  Tips

• Mix some sliced almonds into the dough for extra texture.

Butter cookies

November 11, 2013
I wanted to test whether it would be good to try making my almond cookies without the almond powder... I used some blackberry jam this time. Personally, I thought they weren't as good, but my friend (who hasn't had the original version) thought they were good...

Cake Pops and Apple Tart

September 16, 2013
For a family get-together, I made cake pops (using crumbs made from the leftover cupcakes from the friends' visit, cream cheese, chocolate, and crushed almonds), and an apple tart.

The cake pops were a great success! The last time I made cake truffles, I found them way too sweet, what with the cake crumbs, the frosting, and the chocolate. This time, in anticipation, I lowered the amount of sugar in the cake recipe, and using cream cheese also brought down the level of sweetness. Using toasted sliced almonds that I crushed to smaller pieces helped to even out the flavor.

Chocolate mousse and cupcakes

September 13, 2013
My mom had some friends visiting for a snack and tea get-together, so I made some desserts to go with the tea. Composed of failed egg-free chocolate mousse (I beat the cream too long) that turned almost into truffle filling. Topped with some whipped cream. Accompanied by some mini cupcakes made with my go-to cake recipe, just without the matcha.

Prince (Apple-Cinnamon) Cheesecake

It all began with a journal posted by *claremanson on DeviantArt. She was hosting a baking contest! I thought it was awesome, and decided that I wanted to take part in it.

Because the theme was an Oreo cheesecake based on *claremanson's recipe, I had a bit of trouble visualizing what I would do. Why? Well, because there are no Oreos to be found in the vicinity of my normal shopping area. I wasn't too keen on going around different stores to try and find those cookies, or some knock-off brand, so I took the closest thing I could find at Colruyt: Mini Prince vanilla-filled cookies.

After finding these cookies at the store, I thought I would start with a couple of test runs to test the flavors I had in mind. Because this is a no-bake cheesecake, it is much easier to do a couple of tiny practice cheesecakes. The one on the left was a test of the cinnamon flavored cheesecake, and the one on the right has plain vanilla cheesecake. They are topped with applesauce, lightly roasted apple slices, and 1/4 of a cookie each.

I wanted to stay away from the heavy cream, so I also tested to see how well it would set with yogurt instead. Worked wonderfully.

Now that I had the flavors in mind, and a rough idea for the presentation, I did a couple of concept sketches (in Paper). I varied from the recipe on these points:

• No Oreos.
• Vanilla is boring, so I used a cinnamon flavor.
• Used yogurt instead of heavy cream.
• Made it fruity for the summer with apples, to match with cinnamon (we all know I love the apple and cinnamon combo).

Then got to work on the final product. I had issues with the sugar mix not wanting to become caramel, and the burning me after it did... I started by trying to make a small batch of this microwave caramel sauce recipe, which didn't caramelize (maybe because I didn't have corn syrup so tried it out with honey instead...). I ended up using this recipe (I made a quarter batch), which turned out deliciously addicting. It took me around a whole afternoon, plus the time to finish up the decoration to finish it all.

I borrowed my dad's professional Canon camera to take these sunny pictures, so that the shots would be better quality than if taken with my Canon Powershot. (Which caused a whole issue with the fact that my dad had lost his Compact Flash card reader, and I had to get the pictures through cord... and the camera not being recognized by Windows 7, etc...)

I also made a bunch of smaller ones (4 the size of the test runs, and 3 in larger coffee cups), but they were mostly used as rough drafts for the decoration components, and therefore not fit for photography.

The contest winners were announced today. I didn't win anything, but got an honorable mention ^^