Oreo Cheesecake

Monster requested to bake a lemon cheesecake, saw an offer on Oreo biscuits in Tesco. Then have an idea to make a easy Oreo cheesecake. The monsters and shark love it so much.


Recipes source : Same as Lemon Cheesecake but replace the lemon to Oreo biscuits with minor changes

The bottom layer
1 pack of vanilla Oreo biscuits (around 14 pieces) without the filling, see the picture below how to remove the filling. Twisted the biscuit and use a knife to remove the filling and set aside.
2 tbsp melted butter
1 to 2  tbsp brown sugar

Cheesecake layer
560 gm or 600 gm(depend the quantity per pack) cream cheese room temperature(I'm using medium cream cheese)
200 ml of condensed milk
4 pieces Oreo biscuits (without filling)
3 eggs

Top layer

The left over vanilla filling
2 pieces Oreo biscuits (without filling)

For the crust

1. Prepared 7" loose round cake pan, wrap the bottom with kitchen foil.
2. Make the biscuits to fine crumbs.
3. Add in melted butter and sugar, stir the mixture evenly.
4. Press the mixture into the bottom of the pan and put it to refrigerate for 30 minutes.

For the filling

1. Preheated the oven(fan) 150 C, because this cheesecake need low temp.(Every oven is different)
2. Crush the Oreo biscuits to smaller piece but not fine crumbs and set aside.
3. Stir the cream cheese with spatula in a big bowl.
4. Add the condensed milk.
5. Add the eggs.Combined but don't over beat.
6. The last add in the crush biscuits and mix it.
7. The batter should be smooth but not watery.
8. Take out the crust from refrigerate and pour the filling in.
9. Set the round pan to a slightly larger pan, shallower pan on bottom.
10. Set in the oven and then pour the hot water into the outer pan. This call water bath bake.
11. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until the center is just firm. Don't over bake the cake will cause cracking and dry.
12. Turn off the oven. Leave the oven door open ajar for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. Remove from the pan. Set aside

For the top layer

1. Melt the vanilla filling in the microwave around 30 seconds or until it melt. Let cool down for a second.
2. Make the 2 pieces biscuits to fine crumbs.
3. Add one tablespoon biscuit crumbs to the melt vanilla filling and mix it.
4. Spread on top of the baked cheesecake, cover the whole top layer.
5. The last using a small sieve, spread the fine crumbs biscuits on top of the vanilla filling.
6. Chill in a fridge for more then 4 hours or overnight before serving.

Note: 

Open the oven door ajar is let the cheesecake cool down gradually. But remember don't keep it too long in the oven because moist will develop at the bottom of the pan.

Remember don't over beat the mixture.

The water bath bake is to let the cheesecake from cracking and moist texture. Have try to bake without water bath but result is not good as water bath.

Remember , when slicing the cake need to dip the knife in warm water and clean it after every slice. 

Chinese Crispy Roast Pork(Siew Yoke)

Crispy as eating a crisp...mention by my monsters. Absolutely fabulous, thank so much Happyhomemaker for the fantastic recipe. Been try two other recipe before but the result is not crispy at all. 

Crispy Roast Pork is one of our favorite. Finally I'm get what we like... been making this crispy crispy every two weeks even when we celebrated the festival.

Adapted from : Happyhomemaker88

2.5 kg to 3 kg belly pork with skin

Marinade on meat side

1 1/2 cube fermented red beancurd (nam yue)

3 tablespoon 5-spice powder (ng heong fun)

3 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoon pounded garlic

2 tablespoon sugar

Brushing for the skin

2 to 3 tablespoon white vinegar

2 tablespoon salt

Method Marinade and Brushing(first day)

1. Washed the pork belly, scald the skin side in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes. This is to make the skin slightly cooked then is easily to be pricked with a fork or sharp point of knife.
2. Take it out and drain off in a colander and pat dry with paper kitchen towels.
3. Prick all over with the tines of a fork or sharp knife on the skin side. (prick as many hole as you can)
4. Turn it over, use a sharp knife to make shallow cuts on the meat side about 1 cm apart each cut.
5. Mix all the ingredients for marinade and rub thoroughly into the meat side of the pork. (even inside the shallow cuts)
6. Brushing the vinegar all over the skin.
7. After brushing vinegar follow by brushing the salt all over the skin.
8. Place pork belly meat side down in a rectangular baking tray.
9. Place uncovered in the refrigerator overnight until an hour before roasting. The air in the fridge will dry out the pork skin. 

Method for roasting(second day)

1. Take the roast pork out of fridge back to room temperature before roasting.
2. Test the skin, if the skin not dry enough or still soft use a hair dryer to dry it up. (very important step, to make sure the skin is dry. If the skin not dry enough then the roast pork won't be crispy)
3. To roast, preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius. Have both the upper and lower heating elements as well as the fan in the oven on. (every oven is different, you must adjust the temperature accordingly). 
4. Place pork belly on a rack in the middle of the oven. Have a pan below to catch the dripping fat during roasting. Placed a piece of aluminium in the pan for easy cleaning later. Roast for 30 minutes.
5. After 30 minutes , change the oven setting to just the upper heating element or “grill function to 250 degrees celcius and roast for one hour or more, depending to the oven and the charred of the skin.
6. When you see some liquid fat building up on the skin, Using a pair of long tongs, dab frequently with kitchen paper towels frequently to promote more crackling/bubbling crispy. (very important step)
7. Around 20 to 30 minutes roast,  turned the meat around to make sure all the skin is exposed.
8. Must to monitor the pork quite often by looking at the progress of the skin in getting crispy. The total time it takes for the skin to get really light and crispy will depend on your oven and how dry the skin was before roasting.
9. Look at the skin closely. The  pork skin needs to get charred and burnt as that will mean that the skin has become really crispy all the way through.
10. Don’t worry about the burnt parts – use a steak knife that has a serrated edge and you can easily scrape the charred bits off in 2 minutes. The roast pork will be look nicely.
11. Crispy homemade roast pork is ready. Let it rest for about 15 minutes or more before CHOP (don’t slice as the crispy skin will drop off) it into bite sized pieces. 

Cinnamon Pumpkin Bun

Autumn is over....when another season taking place, the markets will have offers on the Pumpkin. Is a bargain I'm brought the whole pumpkin just  £ 0.10. Unbelievable...the oven is calling.

Adapted from: My Kitchen Snippets

Dough

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 packet/7 gram dried yeast
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup pumpkin puree – drains and squeeze out all the water
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk *
4 tablespoon butter

Filling

4 tablespoon soft butter

4 tablespoon dark brown sugar(I'm used light brown sugar)
½ teaspoon cinnamon powder
½ cup pumpkin seeds(I'm replace with melon seeds, will try to use raisin on next attempt)

Note from My Kitchen Snippets :*Adjust the amount of milk. It depends on your environment, the dryness of your flour and the wetness of your pumpkin puree. It’s always best to start with the lesser amount; you can always add more, but it’s pretty hard to go back and add less.

Method:

1. Fit the mixer with the dough hook attachment. Combined all the dried ingredients for the dough and mix it well. Combined the eggs and pumpkin. Add it into the dried ingredients and turn on the mixer to medium speed. Slowly drizzle in the milk until the dough comes together and forms a nice ball of dough. (I'm used bread maker to make the dough)
2. Slowly add in the cut butter and continue to mix until dough is smooth. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place it in buttered bowl and cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest and raise at room temperature until double it size. 
3. Punch down the dough; dust the work counter with some flour. Roll out the dough into rectangle shape and about 1/3” thickness, spread on the soft butter. Combined together the brown sugar, cinnamon and pumpkin seeds. Sprinkle it all over the roll out dough.
4. With your palm lightly press the filling ingredients into dough and then roll them up. Secure the roll by pinching both ends of the roll. Cut the rolls into ¾” pieces and arrange them in a well butter baking pan. 
5. Cover them and let them rest and rise for an hour or until they are doubled in size. Bake them at 350°F for about 25-30 minutes or until they are golden brown. (I'm bake at 160 C)
6. Remove them from the oven and let them cool on wire rack.

Japanese Cream Bun(with mexico topping)

Been making this delicious bun for many times, I'm using the same recipe to make curry bun and BBQ pork bun as well (without mexico topping). So pleased with the results. 

Adapted from : Frozen Wings

(makes 16  with 60 gm per bun)

Ingredients A

120 gm bread flour
85 gm boiling water

Ingredients B

380 gm bread flour
75 gm sugar
6 gm salt(I'm used 3 gm only)
8 gm instant yeast

Ingredients C

120 gm cold milk
100 gm whipping cream
1 cold egg

Ingredients D

40 gm butter

Mexico topping

A  60 gm butter
     50 gm sugar
B  1 egg
C  65 gm flour
     1/4 tsp baking powder

Method:

1. Add the boiling water from A into flour, mix until well blended to form dough. Cover and set aside to cool. Keep it refrigerated for at least 12 hours.
2. The next day, mix B until well blended. Add in C and knead to form rough dough. Add in A and knead until well blended. 
3. Add in D and knead to form elastic dough.(I'm used bread maker for all the kneading)
4. Let it proof for 40 minutes or until double the size. Divide dough into 60 gm each ,  mould it round and let rest for 10 minutes.
5. Place onto greased pan ( I'm used two rectangle pan- 8 buns per pan) and let proof for another 50 minutes or until double size.  Bake at 190 C for 15 minutes.(I'm bake at 170 C(fan) for 20 minutes)

Method for mexico topping:

1. Cream A until well blended.
2. Add in B and cream until smooth. 
3. Lastly, add in C and mix until well blended.
4. After the 2nd proof, pour in a pipping bag.
5. Pipe the topping onto the buns just before baking.

Notes:

If use this recipe to make another type of buns like curry buns without mexico topping, need to brush whisked egg on surface of buns before baking.

Mini pizza

Summer holiday is over, so busy and tired. My monsters love pizza to the top, been making many times already but in the summer time we make the pizza with egg frying shapes mould. The monsters so enjoy it and they can spend at least one hour to roll, shapes and adding the topping. Good activities on summer holiday.

Adapted from: Sainsbury's food magazine

(minor changes from monsterandsharkkitchen)

(makes 2 pizzas or 12 mini pizzas)

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for greasing

1 teaspoon fine sea salt (I'm used normal table salt)

400 gm bread flour, plus extra for kneading

100 gm semolina flour

A carton of chopped tomatoes in tomato juice 

A pack of mozzarella, thinly sliced 

Some mild mature cheese, shredded 

Ingredients for topping: ham, onion, red pepper, sweetcorn, mushroom and etc.

Method: 

1. In a large bowl, combine the yeast and sugar with 330 ml warm water and stir to blend. Let the mixture stand for about 5 minutes until foamy. Stir  in the olive oil and salt. 
2. Add the flour, a little at a time, stirring until the dough forms a ball. Knead on a floured work surface until elastic. If necessary, add extra flour to stop the dough from sticking.(Note: I'm used bread maker to make the dough, added the wet ingredients followed by the dry ingredients).
3. Knead the dough into a ball shape. Place the dough in a large bowl, lightly greased with little olive oil. Cover and set aside to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (around 1-2 hours).
4. While the dough is rising, prepared the sauce by putting the tomatoes and juice into a pan and simmer until reduced to a thick sauce.
5. When dough doubled in size, punch the dough down and divide in two. If making two pizzas, put half of the dough aside and cover with damp tea towel while prepared the another half. If just use for one pizza, wrap the remaining half of the dough in clingfilm and chill in the fridge(the dough will keep for 2 to 3 days)
6. Preheat the oven to 220 C or 200 C (fan).
7. Stretch the dough or use a rolling pin to roll. If making mini pizzas, stamp with your shapes mould. 
8. Spread over the tomato sauce. Top with mozzarella slices.
9. Put on the topping ingredients and last top with shredded cheese
10. Bake for 10 minutes or until the crust is golden and the cheese has melted.

Simple Biscuits

Little monster birthday on summer holiday, she order me to make some biscuits to give away to her friend before end of the school term. Then I'm just think to make something simple and cute like this simple biscuits with Winnie The Pooh cookies cutter and stamp with alphabet cookies stamp all of her friends name on every biscuits. So easy and is for the family play time together. All the kids, even the parent love it because is special. The kids love to have a biscuit with they name on it. The parent ask me a question " Where do you get it from"

Adapted From: Stork

200 gm Stork packet or any other brand butter
250 gm plain flour + extra for dusting
1 teaspoon baking powder
100 gm caster sugar
2 large egg yolks


Method:

1. Cut the butter into small pieces.
2. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large bowl.
3. Add the sugar, egg yolks and butter and mix with a wooden spoon, hand mixer or cold hands quickly into a stiff dough (don’t mix for too long!). Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave to rest and chill at least 30 minutes in the fridge.
4. Preheat oven to 190°C, 170°C fan oven, Gas mark 5.
5. Dust the work surface with a little flour and roll out the dough until it is about 5 mm thick.(if the dough too sticky add more flour but not too much, little by little)
6. Cut out shapes with a sharp knife or cookie cutters and place on the baking sheet lined with baking paper. Fold the dough scraps together, roll them out and cut out more shapes.(can use any shape of cookie cutters)
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until cooked and lightly browned. Leave the cookies to cool on the baking sheet.
8. Dust the cookies with icing sugar.(I'm omit this step)

Notes:

Can top up the eye, nose and mouth with melt chocolate with piping bag.

Make it more adorable, use your own imagination.

Kueh Lapis(Steamed Layer Cake)

Kueh Lapis or nine layer dessert, one of the delicious kuih muih in Malaysia. We can choose whatever colour we like to make this dessert look fantastic. The children love it because they can peeling each layer with different coloured. My monster request to have more layer to peel next time like 15 to 18 layer.

Adapted from: Nasi Lemak Lover
(with minor changes of the colour layer)

400 ml water
70 gm coarse sugar
5 pandan leaves, knotted
400 ml coconut milk (I'm not using fresh coconut milk, just from can)
180 gm rice flour
120 gm tapioca flour

Red food colouring
Green food colouring

Method:

1. Boil water, sugar, pandan leaves and coconut milk until sugar dissolved. Discard pandan leaves and set aside to cool completely.
2. Add in rice flour and tapioca flour, stir to mix well. Strain the batter.
3. Grease a 7" steam pan with a little oil. Place the pan in a steamer and steam until hot. 
4. Divide batter into 3 portions, measure by scale to make sure all the portions is even.
5. Add in food colouring to 2 portion. The last is plain batter.
6. Pour 1st layer with green batter into steam pan, and steam for 3 minutes over medium high heat.(around 120++gm for each layer)
7. Pour 2nd layer with white batter into steam pan, and steam for 3 minutes.
8. Pour 3rd layer with red batter into steam pan, and steam for 3 minutes.
9. Repeat until all 8 layers set. Add a drop of red food colouring to let red batter to become dark pink batter and steam for 15 minutes.
10. Leave the kueh to cool completely (take about 6 hours) at room temperature before cutting (use a plastic knife to cut).