Oreo and Nutella Cheesecake

This Cheesecake is so yummy I cannot stop myself from eating a huge portion everytime I make it.
The base is made with oreos, there are more oreos in the middle mixed with the cheese and the cream and more oreos on top of the cheesescake, to make this cake to totally die for I mix part of the cheese and the cream with nutella... simply irresistible.

Matcha and White Chocolate Cake

Today I decided to bake a Matcha and White Chocolate cake following the recipe from the "Tokyo Cult Recipes" and I have to say that it's good. I was not really sure before I put the tin in the oven because as I said on Facebook I was not sure if I would get a cake or the Incredible Hulk :D but I was not disapointed.This is the third recipe I try from this book and I am loving it, so far all the recipes are really well explained and work!! I cannot say the same from other books. The result is a quite dense cake which taste like white chocolate (my favourite chocolate) :)

 

Mini Merengues

Today is so grey and horrible outside that I decided to make mini meringues with sprinkles and bright colours to try to forget the rain and wind for a while. I saw something similar on a website months ago and I thought it was a great idea so here it is.

This recipe is really easy, you would need egg whites, I had some from my previous post (pear tart) and as I hate to waste anything this recipe worked like a charm, and caster sugar (double the weight of the egg whites), half a tsp of vanilla extract and food colourant.

Pear Tart

Tart shell

250g of plain flour

150g of butter

1/4tsp of salt

1 egg

1Tbsp of milk

Filling
1/2 l of milk
4 Tbsp of white sugar
1/4tsp of cinnamon
2 Tbsp of cornflour
2 egg yolks
Topping

4 pears

50g of white sugar

50g of butter

We start caramelise the pears, so firstly we peel and halve them and we cut them alongside in 8 parts. Meanwhile we clean the pears we put together the sugar and the butter in a pan with a medium heat until the mixture gets a golden-brown colour once we reach this point put the pears inside and wait until they caramelised all over and remove from the heat.

Now we start with the tart shell, we put the flour, the salt and the butter in a bowl and rub the butter into the flour until we get small pieces of butter covered in flour, when we reach this point add the milk and the egg and combine everything by hand adding more flour if the dough is too sticky. Once we have a nice dough roll it and cover a 23cm (9”) tart tin and place it in the fridge (don't cut the excess of dough yet).

While we have the dough chilling we pre-heat the oven to 180C-Gas 4 and we can start making the custard. Put aside ½ cup of milk and heat the rest with the sugar over a medium heat, meanwhile we are heating up the milk mix the egg yolks and the cornflour and start adding the milk we put aside slowly until everything is mix and there are no lumps. When the milk is boiling add the mixture with the rest of the milk and whisk together add the cinnamon and keep whisking for about 5 minutes over a medium heat, it is really important to whisk all the time, otherwise it would burn.

Now we take the tart shell from the fridge and press the border with the rolling pin in order to remove the excess of dough and now we will blind bake it, prick the base of the pastry shell all over with a fork. Line the tart tin with baking parchment and fill with ceramic baking beans . Bake for about 15 minutes or until the pastry is firm, then remove the beans and cook for about 5 minutes more, until golden brown.

Once the tart shell is ready fill it with the custard and place the caramelised pears into the filling, put it back into the oven for about 10 minutes. After that place the tin on a cooling rack. Wait 10 minutes more or less before you remove the tart from the tin. Now you just have to wait until it cool down...or not ;)