Peanut butter and oreo (mini) cheesecakes

Combining the best of both worlds, I give you...peanut butter and oreo cheesecake!

Pumpkin Pie (to continue the age-old food blogging tradition of assigning ridiculous, food-related monikers to one's privacy-loving friends), one of my oldest and best friends, is addicted to cheesecake in a really bad way. I often joke about how lucky it is for her waistline that she lacks the motivation to bake herself a cheesecake, so her opportunities to actually indulge in her favourite treat are far and few in between.

I, on the other hand, possess the means to whip up one of these anytime I feel like it. And like John Crichton from Farscape, it is only with an enormous amount of self-restraint and discipline that I do not put my knowledge of wormhole technology cheesecake-making to evil use. It leaves me feeling down-trodden and awfully redundant, but I can usually console myself with healthier baking projects like shortbread and glazed cinnamon rolls.

So imagine my delight when P. Pie issued a request for cheesecake for her next birthday. And not just any cheesecake, but Ms. Nigella Lawson's chocolate peanut butter cheesecake. But since her next birthday wasn't going to happen until sometime late next year and I was impatient, I took it upon myself to fulfil the request for a few months earlier and brought the finished products to a pre-Xmas dinner for dessert :D

I'd made this cheesecake once before for my own birthday party this year, and it was pretty much decimated by the hoards (who had already stuffed themselves full with gelato cake, potato salad and trifle, I might add) on the spot.

Yep, it was tasty all right.

 

The one at my party was made following Nigella's recipe to a tee, including the digestive biscuits base and chocolate-sour cream glaze. This time round, I altered the recipe and made glaze-less mini-cheesecakes for 1) easier transportation and 2) a higher level of consumption convenience.

I was inspired by Nicole's (from Baking Bites) Halloween Oreo Cheesecakes recipe, in which she cleverly used a single, whole oreo cookie as the 'crust' for her mini cheesecakes. As she has mentioned in her post, this is a great (not to mention delicious :D) way of avoiding the trouble of processing together the ingredients for the crust, and then actually lining the baking tin (which has always been my least favourite part of making a cheesecake).

I also made a spontaneous decision not to put any chocolate glaze on these mini cheesecakes after observing how high they rose in the oven. I had filled each cupcake liner until there was about half a centimetre left at the top in order to leave room for the glaze, but clearly I'd forgotten that cheesecakes do rise when baked *facepalm*. My suggestion would be to either get deeper liners, or fill them with less cheesecake mixture.

Without further ado, here is the recipe!

Recipe for Peanut Butter and Oreo Mini Cheesecakes

Ingredients (adapted from Nigella Lawson's recipe)

Makes 22-24 mini cheesecakes

For the 'base'

• 22-24 whole oreo cookies

For the filling

• 500g cream cheese
• 3 eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 200g caster sugar
• 125ml sour cream
• 250g smooth peanut butter

For the glaze (which I didn't end up making for this recipe)

• 250ml sour cream
• 100g milk or dark chocolate chips
• 30g soft brown sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170°C (or 325°F).

2. Line muffin tray(s) with cupcake liners. Place a single, whole oreo cookie at the bottom of each liner. It's fine if the oreo doesn't cover the whole base of the liner. As you can see from the first picture in this post, the cheesecake mixture went over the sides of the oreo, so the cookie was essentially embedded in the cheesecake. I think it makes a nice surprise when you cut it open to reveal the oreo inside :D

3. To make the filling, process the cream cheese, whole eggs and egg yolks, caster sugar, sour cream and peanut butter in a food processor or with an electric beater, until smooth.

4. Spoon filling into the cupcake liners until there's about 1cm of space from the top of the mixture to the top of the liner. That'll leave you with enough room for the (optional) chocolate glaze.

5. Bake in oven for 18-20 minutes. The top should feel set and dry. Take mini-cheesecakes out of the oven. If you're not planning on making the glaze to go on top, the cheesecakes are done by this point and may be allowed to cool. If you are making the filling, go to step 6.

6. While the cheesecakes are cooling slightly out of the oven, make the topping by heating the chocolate chips with the sour cream and brown sugar gently in a saucepan over low heat. Stir to thoroughly blend everything together. Once well combined, take mixture off the heat.

7. Spoon chocolate glaze over mini-cheesecakes. Put back into the oven for a final 10 minutes. According to Nigella, this is to allow the glaze to "set".

8. Take cheesecakes out of the oven and allow them to cool completely in the muffin trays, then cover with cling and put in the fridge to chill overnight. Take cheesecakes out of the fridge slightly in advance before serving.

Breakfast at Cafe Ish

A couple of weeks ago, I organised a breakfast in the city for myself and a group of friends. And being possessed of a domineering persona (according to others anyway; I've always seen myself as simply strong-willed), the decision of where to breakfast of course fell to me. As if the others had a choice...at all!

And - for me - if we're even going to think about having breakfast in the Sydney CBD, there is one place that we have to try out. Once, at the very least.

So we went to Cafe Ish. I insisted. No one dared to argue.

Having heard about the cafe owners' reservations about people taking pictures of their food, I made sure to ask our friendly waitress whether photography was allowed. She assured me that it was, to my immense relief. I have my own opinions regarding food photography at restaurants, but since everything that's worth saying about the issue has already been said, I'll simply state here that the reason I take pictures of food is because I like whatever it is that I am seeing and want to share it with others. And if the quality of the food and service is genuinely of a high standard, res ipsa loquitur - the thing speaks for itself.

That's enough self-righteous spiel from me. Onto the food!

I went for broke and immediately put my name down for the Big ish. Had I been anticipating a day of intense downhill skiing in the hours ahead, I wouldn't have thought twice about polishing off this whole sumptuous feast-on-a-plate by myself. As it was, since my friends and I had plans to make a trip to Bourke Street Bakery after breakfast for dessert (I know, I know), and also for the sake of variety, we agreed to do the 'order one dish each and periodically rotate plates' thing :D

The 'Big ish' - 2 eggs sunny-side up, bacon, tomato, crocodile(!) sausage, mushroom, beans, damper toast, and fried mochi, $20.50

I love me a full English breakfast, and this was a fantastic Australian (and maybe Japanese also?) rendition of the classic favourite. The fried mochi tasted like chewy hash browns. All of my friends remarked on how delicious the baked beans were.

I also ordered the iced version of barista and co-owner Ai's famous wattle maccacino. The macadamia ice cream used in this was made by Gundowring, and that for me elevates this drink to the level of a gourmet dessert. I loved it! I'm so looking forward to the days getting cooler again so I can try out the hot version.

Iced wattle maccacino

One of the friends, who has a major sweet tooth, ordered the dessert-y Emperor Don.

'Emperor Don' - toasted brioche, lemon myrtle ricotta, sake scented rosella and rasperries with passionfruit, $14.50



So beautiful! I wish my photos could do it more justice...

Another friend, who had never tried sourdough before, ordered this:

Sourdough toast with tomato and avocado salsa, dressed with extra virgin olive oil, $8.50

And both of them ordered this pretty, pink tea infusion, the name of which escapes me.

My third friend decided to venture beyond the breakfast menu and ordered chicken skewers with rice and miso. Rice for breakfast? That's authenticity for you!

I can't find this on the menu over at Cafe Ish's website, but it was tasty!

On our way out, we happened upon this little darling:

Looks like my chihuahua has competition for the title of cutest dog in Sydney.

We left Cafe Ish feeling extremely well-fed and delighted over the innovation inherent in each and every one of the dishes we tried. Since then, I've gone back there for a casual, afternoon coffee...and then dinner the very next day!

Cafe Ish, you've got yourself one, very happy return customer right here! :D

Cafe Ish

82 Campbell Street,

Surry Hills, NSW 2010

(02)9281 1688

Green Tea Cupcakes

Recently, I purchased a modest-sized bag of green tea (matcha) powder with the intent of trying out some of the recipes I've seen over at my favourite baking sites. I'm a huge fan of the green tea flavour, and would paint my bedroom walls, floor and ceiling the same colour. And trust me, were it not for the fear of being made to sleep in the dog house while my parents hired paint removers and had my room restored to its usual, drab cream-and-rose colour scheme, my humble dwellings would already resemble the inside of a green tea cupcake. This one, in fact.

How was that for a segue? I feel that I ought to apologise in advance for the future incidences of incorrect grammar, unsophisticated expression and unsound logic that are bound to pop up in my posts ahead. Blogging for a public audience is quite a new experience for me; prior to this, I've only had the pleasure of jotting down my jumbled, semi-coherent thoughts for my own viewing, and that of a few friends who actually care about what I ate for breakfast, or my discovery of new yoghurt brands, or my thoughts on the latest episode of NCIS (big fan, BIG FAN).

But this, this public blogging thing - this is much, much more exciting :D

You may have noticed an odd straggler masquerading (unsuccessfully) as a cupcake in the picture above. That is, in fact, a steamed hedgehog bun that my grandmother made using some leftover dough from my second baking project: Piggy Buns, recipe courtesy of Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella!

 

The making of these adorable (and disturbingly edible) creatures will be detailed in a post to come. For now, let us concentrate on these matcha beauties.

I purposely chose a recipe that involved cake flour, since I've never worked with the stuff before and wanted to see for myself whether it truly made for a softer, crumblier and tastier cake. From the three that I, ahem, taste-tested, I can vouch for the effectiveness of combining cake flour with all-purpose plain flour in the recipe compared to only all-purpose plain flour when it comes to making cupcakes. To all the Aussie readers: This (see below) was the only brand I could find in a major supermarket. Are there any other (cheaper) versions available in Australia?

I ended up adjusting a vanilla cupcake recipe from Billy's Bakery which I found on Kwanster's website, adding in three tablespoons of green tea powder to the dry ingredients. I was initially worried about the vanilla essence masking the flavour of the green tea. However, my concerns proved to be unfounded; the green tea flavour was unmistakably present. I also used a method of combining ingredients which I've found to give the best rise to cupcakes.

Recipe for Green Tea Cupcakes
Ingredients (adapted from Billy's vanilla vanilla cupcakes on Kwanster's site)

Makes 30 cupcakes

• 1 cup (2 sticks or 227g) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 cups caster sugar
• 1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoon green tea (matcha) powder
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• A few drops green food colouring (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (or 325°F).

2. Using a spatula, cream together the softened but still solid butter (I microwaved mine for 10 seconds straight out of the fridge) and the caster sugar until there are no visible sugar lumps. Using an electric beater, cream the butter and sugar at an high speed until light and fluffy.

3. In another bowl, combine the cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and green tea powder. You can sift the dry ingredients if you want to. I personally never bother with a sieve, and I haven't ended up with lumps of flour or salt in my cakes (yet).

4. In yet another bowl, combine the milk and vanilla extract.

5. Into the creamed butter and sugar add the eggs, one at a time and beating with electric beater until just incorporated between each addition.

6. Once the eggs have all been mixed in, you can put everything in the three bowls together! Add the dry ingredients and milk to the butter/sugar/egg mixture in turns, alternating between the two, beating well after each addition.

7. Give it a final beating on high power until everything is nice and fluffy (rather than liquidy, which is a sign that you've either added wrong amounts of ingredients or have overbeaten the mixture). At this point, you can add in a few drops of green food colouring if you think the natural greenness of the matcha isn't showing that well.

8. Line tins with cupcake cases. Fill cases with batter until three-quarters full. The cupcakes should rise in the oven!

9. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, checking after 17 minutes by inserting a toothpick into the cupcake and seeing if it comes out cleanly. If it does, the cupcakes are done baking and ready to be taken out of the oven and transferred to wire racks to cool.

10. You can frost the cupcakes with a frosting of choice after they've cooled completely. I find frosted cupcakes too rich for casual snacking (of which I do plenty!), and prefer to munch on them as is. But there are some wonderful recipes for red bean frosting out there, and everyone knows that red bean + green tea = a flavour match made in paradise.

 

The cupcakes were soft, not too sweet, and had a distinctive but not overbearing green tea flavour. Do try and tell me how they turn out!