Vanilla meringue cheesecake

I never was a big fan of meringue but I tried this cheesecake last week and I have to admit I changed my mind about meringue toppings :) I really liked the soft and fluffy finish! Will come back soon to this recipe! 

Ingredients:

For the shortcrust base, take the recipe form here: My mum' apple pie

For the cheesecake: 

• 6 yolks 
• 1 kg cream cheese (you can use a full "quark"or ricotta)
• 250g sugar
• 1 package vanilla sugar (16g)
• 200 ml cream (doesn't have to be the a double cream, you can use sour cream) 

For the meringue:

• 6 egg whites
• 110g sugar

Preparation:

For the shortcrust bottom please follow the steps from the link above. 

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. For the cheesecake. In a food processor whisk yolks with sugar until pale, add the cheese and milk and keep whisking until all the ingredients combine. Pour the cheese mixture into your cool shortcrust bottom. And put into the oven for approx. 50 minutes. Whisk the egg whites with sugar until you get a nice, white foam. Pour the foam on your cheesecake and keep baking for another 10-15 minutes until the meringue will get a nice gold color. Yummie!!!!!!!

Very easy cheesecake

This cheesecake is one of my favorites because it is very easy to make you just can't make anything wrong and it is simply delicious! It's fluffy texture and vanilla flavor will just make you want to repeat it! The best thing about this cheesecake is that it is low in calories because I am using a low fat cheese, no mascarpone or cream is needed to make it taste so good! Try and let me know if you liked it?

Ingredients:

For the bottom:

• 300g cookies (I use Digestives but you can use butter biscuits or any others that you like)
• 60g dark chocolate - optional
• 50g butter

This time I also added a handful of chopped almonds but this is totally up to you...

(to make the cheesecake even more "light" you can skip the biscuit bottom and just prepare a plain cheesecake)

For the cake:

• 1kg of low fat or semi fat cheese, I use the low fat "quark"
• 6 eggs
• 300 g sugar
• 2 instant vanilla puddings
• 1 package of vanilla sugar (16g) or a teaspoon of vanilla essence

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 175ºC and prepare a 22-25cm round tin.
For the cookies bottom. Crumble the cookies, add melted chocolate and melted butter and mix everything together. Pour your cookies mixture and with a spoon or with you opened hand press on the cookies until you get a flat surface. 

For the cheesecake. Separate the yolks from the eggwhites in two seperate mixing bowls. Add sugar and vanilla sugar to the yolks and whisk until pale. Little by little start adding the quark and keep whisking untill all ingredients combine. When you are finish with the quark add the instant puddings and whisk again. Now take the bowl with the egg whites and whisk until you get a soft white foam. Gently combine the foam with the quark mixture and pour into the tin. Bake first 15 min in 180ºC and then 60min in 150ºC . If you notice that during baking the cheesecake gets a dark color just put down the temperature to 120ºC and bake additional 10-15min. 
Switch off the owen and leave the cake inside for about 30min then take out too cool down completely. After that you just have to enjoy it :) 

Extreme chocolate mousse cake

If you are a real chocolate lover you have to try this cake! It is a must!! But you have to be careful because it is highly addictive! 

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 60g softened butter
• 3 eggs
• 120g sugar
• 60g flour
• 50g grounded walnuts
• 60g dark cocoa
• 1/2 baking powder

For the chocolate mousse:

• 150 g sugar
• 3 whole eggs + 3 yolks
• 1 spoon cocoa 
• 200 ml fat cream
• 100 g butter
• 250 g dark chocolate min 70% of cocoa + 50 g for the decoration

Preparation:

For the dough. Preheat your oven to 180ºC and prepare 22cm round tin. 

Beat the yolks and the sugars together either in the food processor, or in a bowl with a whisk, until pale, add butter and whisk again. Add flour and baking powder, cocoa and whisk until combined. Add the walnuts and whisk it all again.

In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form soft white foam peaks. Now take your cocoa mixture and gently combine it with your white foam. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake around 35 minutes. You can check to see that it's ready by sticking a cocktail stick into the centre of the cake. It should come out clean and not sticky, if it is still sticky just leave it in the oven for a couple of more minutes.

For the mousse. Take a metal mixing bowl and pour in 100g sugar, add 6 yolks, cocoa and the cream. Put the bowl on a pot with boiling water and start whisking everything until the mixture gets sticky or warm, be careful not to heat it too much because you will get chocolate scrambled eggs :) When the mixture is ready remove it from the pot and add  250g of chopped chocolate and mix until it melts completely. If the mixture cools down and you have problems with melting the chocolate put the bowl back on the pot with the boiling water in order to warm it up which will help the chocolate to melt. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites with the remaining sugar until you get a soft white foam. Gently combine the foam with the chocolate mixture and pour the mousse directly on your chocolate dough. For the decoration you can melt the remaining 50g of chocolate and pour it on a plane surface (you can use a tin or a plate) wait until it congeals and using a knife scratch the chocolate forming small chocolate flakes. You can decorate your cake as you want but I like to put the flakes in the centre of the mousse. Next put your cake into the fridge for at least 4-5 hours but preferably for the whole night. 

Dip the knife in hot water each time you cut a peace, this will prevent the mousse from sticking to the knife. 

Enjoy!!! 

Sweet snails

This funny cookies look good and taste even better. I love to dip everything in the coffee and those sweet snails are a perfect combination with milk or hot chocolate! Yummy! 

Ingredients: 

• 175g softened butter
• 200g sugar
• 1 egg
• 350g flour
• 25g melted dark chocolate
• 5 spoons of cocoa powder

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. In a mixing bowl whisk together butter and sugar, beat in the egg and whisk again. Add flour and whisk until combined. Divide the dough into 2 pieces.  Put the half of the dough into a separate mixing bowl and add the melted chocolate, cocoa powder and whisk all together. On a floured work surface roll both pieces of the dough to 1/2 cm thickness, then put one part on the top of the other and roll together*. Help yourself with a baking paper and try to roll the dough very tight. Put the roll into the fridge an leave to cool for approx. 30min. 

Take out your roll from the fridge and cut the dough into thin slices. Place your snails on the baking tin and bake for 13 minutes. Leave to cool down and bit in!!!! 

* Tip: It will make it easier to roll the dough if you put it directly on a baking paper and then roll. 

Oatmeal cookies with chia seeds

Chia seeds are one of my favorite super fruits, so why not adding them to one of my favorite oatmeal cookies? Perfect combination for a rich and tasty breakfast or as an emergency snack when we need a power kick! Chia seeds are super high in dietary fibre, making it great for digestion and healing digestion issues, they are packed with Omega 3, they are high in antioxidants, contain calcium and iron and much more. You just have to add chia seeds to your diet!

 Ingredients:

• 1 cup of oats
• 125g butter, softened
• 120g brown sugar
• 150g flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 package vanilla sugar or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 80g desiccated coconut
• a handful of chopped almonds
• a handful of hazelnuts
• 2 spoons of chia seeds 

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180ºC 

Pour the oats into a dry pan a fry for approx. 2-3 minutes until the oats get a golden color. In a mixing bowl whisk together butter and sugar and vanilla sugar. Beat in eggs and whisk again. Add flour with the baking powder, salt, and stir until combined. Mix in oats, nuts and chia seeds.

Use a spoon to form your cookies and place them on the baking sheet, cookies should be 2cm apart from each other. Bake for 10-12 minutes until they get a nice golden color. Cool down and enjoy! 

Butter cookies with a coconut flavor

These basic butter cookies are very easy to make. They smell and taste extremely good! Every time you bake them you can make a double portion, easily store them in a cookie tin. They will save you every time you have some unexpected visitors :)

Ingredients:

• 250g flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 125g cold butter
• 125g powder sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 yolk
• 1 teaspoon of coconut essence - if you don't have, or you don't like coconut, you can use vanilla essence or 1 package of vanilla sugar (16g)

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 180ºC. You can make your pastry by hand, or simply pulse all the ingredients in a food processor. If making by hand, sieve the flour with the baking powder, sugar into a large mixing bowl. Add chopped butter and mix with your hands until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg, the yolk and the coconut essence and gently work it together until you have a ball of pastry dough. Sprinkle a little flour over the pastry, then wrap it in cling film and pop it into the fridge to rest for 0.5hour. (If you are running out of time you can skip the fridge.)On a floured worksurface, roll dough to 1/2 cm thickness and cut with a heart-shaped cookie cutter. 
Place your hearts on the tray and bake for 13 minutes or until you get a golden color. You can use any shape you like they will still be delicious!

Oatmeal cookies with goji berries

I love cookies, all kind of cookies!!! Those oatmeal cookies are not only delicious but also very healthy and that's because of the rich in antioxidants goji berries also known as wolfberries. This amazing little super-fruit also contains natural anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal compounds and is loaded with vitamin C. Great treat for the coming cold winter days!!!!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of oats
• 125g butter, softened
• 100g sugar
• 120g flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 package vanilla sugar or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• pinch of salt
• a handful of goji berries 
• a handful of cranberries
• a handful of chopped almonds
• a handful of chopped hazelnuts
• 1/2 handful of dry coconut pieces
• 1/2 handful of dry mango pieces

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180ºC 

Pour the oats into a dry pan a fry for approx. 2-3 minutes until the oats get a golden color  In a mixing bowl whisk together butter and sugar and vanilla sugar. Beat in eggs and whisk again. Add flour with the baking powder, salt, and stir until combined. Mix in oats, berries and nuts. 

Use a spoon to form your cookies and place them on the baking sheet, cookies should be 2cm apart from each other. Bake for 10-12 minutes until they get a nice golden color. Cool down and bite in ;)