Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes

What to do if your guests request you more than one dessert? just mix them! and this is what I did. Well I saw this original idea in the book of Lola. And here you have a cheesecake cupcake with a generous topping of brownies and white chocolate. For the topping I used this recipe. 

INGREDIENTS makes 12

Base
100 g digestive biscuits crushed
30 g melted butter

Mix the crushed biscuits with the melted butter and divide the mixture into the muffin cases. Press down slightly with the back of the spoon.

Filling

130 g white chocolate

130 g dark chocolate

300 g cream cheese

2 1/2 tbsp caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

Preheat the oven up to 160º.

Put the white and the dark chocolates chopped in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Heat, stirring until the chocolate melts. Set aside.

Put the cream cheese, the sugar and the vanilla in a mixing bowl and beat until well combined.

Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat between each addition. Reduce the speed to low and slowly add the melted chocolate.

Divide the mixture into the muffin cases up to the top.

Bake for 20 mintues or until set and just firm to the touch. The cakes will rise and feel springy.

Let it cool for 30 minutes in the tin, after remove the cupcakes carefully and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours or overnight to allow them time to set before applying the assorted toppings.

To decorate

brownies and melted white chocolate

Top each chilled cupcake with chunks of chopped brownie and drizzle with white chocolate melted.

These cupcakes will keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

Enjoy them ♥

Pumpkin Loaf

Another pumpkin recipe! I know, but I can not control myself when I see the colourfukl pumpkins in the market. I told you that several times... I just love them, in any dish, savory or sweet. This loaf is absolutly soft and tasty, the pumpkin adds moisture and colour to the sponge. I do not like dry and flavourless cakes, this is completly the other way around, juicy, very soft and with all kind of spices. And to emphasize this all even more topped with a lemon glaze is delicous. You can add also some pecan or walnutes but I made it without.

INGRIEDIENTS makes a 22 cm loaf tin

250 g plain flour

250 g golden caster sugar

3 large eggs
120 ml mild olive oil or sunflower oil 

1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
a pinch of ground clove
a pinch of salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

300 g pumpkin puree (instructions here)

Preheat the oven to 180º and grease the loaf tin.

Sift the flour, baking powder, all the ground spices, salt and bicarbonate in a bowl, set aside.

Mix the oil and the sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffly. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and beat again.

Add the sifted ingredients graduatlly in three addition, alternating with the puree and mix until just combined.

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and level it out with a spatula,

Bake in the center of the oven for 50 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool ten minutes in the tin and then let cool completely on a wire rack.

If your loaf gets darker on top before the inside is done cooking, just cover it with aluminium foil.

You can also use loaf tin paper liners or just a baking paper on the bottom to unmold it better, but with a tin perfectly greased this should not be any problem.

For de Glaze
150 g icing sugar
2 tbsp fresly squeezed lemon juice

Stif the icing sugar. Pour the lemon juice into the bowl of the sugar and beat with a hand mixer and after with an electric hand mixer. The glaze should have a liquid consistency.
Pour the glaze carefully over the top of the loaf, allowing it to run over the sides.
Allow the glaze to set a little bit before serving.

Enjoy this loaf better one day after baking  ♥

Chocolate Marmalade Tartlets

Here I suggest you an easy way to fill tartlets, with chocolate and jam, just a perfect combination. You can fill them with your favorite jam, in my case I used the pumpkin jam I did, which is spiced and very tasty and mixed with the chocolate ganache is absolutly delicious. I love the touch that  caramelized pine nuts gives to this dish, but you can also easily substitute for an other nut. But make sure you put those three ingredients, jam, chocolate and crunchy nuts for ultimate in flavour and texture.

Tartlets are so easy to make. You will just need to make the crust, it is also posible to buy it on a store ready to use. Of course I rather do one by myself, much healthy and with ingredients that for sure everybody has at home. 

INGREDIENTS 6 serves

Pâte Sablée {based on Martha's Stewart}

140 g butter cubed and room temperature

100 g white sugar (I used vanilla sugar I made)

190 g all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

With an electric mixer beat the butter and the sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add flour and salt, beat until just combined, do not overmix. Shape the dough into a ball, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate 1 hour or up to 2 days, or freeze up to 3 months.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough 3/4 mm thick and make a disk a little bit bigger than your tartlet shells with removeable bottoms. Press each portion into the bottoms and sides and pierce the bottoms of the shells all over with a fork. Refrigerate them for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180º. Cover tartlet shells with baking paper and fill them with dried beans. 

Bake in preheated oven until edges are golden. Remove paper and weights and continue baking until crust is golden-brown all over, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Chocolate Ganache

150 ml heavy cream

190 g chocolate, finely chopped

Pumpkin jam (or your favourite jam)

caramelized pine nuts for garnish (optional)

Put the chocolate chopped into a bowl. Bring the heavy cream to a boil on a medium saucepan over medium heat. Remove just when starts boiling and pour into chocolate bowl and stir with a rubber spatula until smooth. Let it cool for 5 mintues.

Once tartlet shells are completly cold, remove tins, spread the bottom with the jam and cover with the chocolate ganache. Tap tartlets to flatten. Top with some caramelized pine nuts.

Serve cold.

I think this pumpkin jam is amazing but I would also recommend you any other homemade jam.

♥

Chestnut Cream

I am keeping doing perserves during last weeks, these cold days makes me stay more at home and enjoying cooking moments.

It's chestnuts season and I decided to make a this cream which has a consistent texture, perfect to accompany tarts, pannacotas, and other sweet tenders. I am thinking to fill some macaroons with it. But as well as other perserves and jams, this cream is also suitable to use in savory dishes such as grilled meats.

Preserves is also a nice option to give away, and for Christmas I am already planning to delight my relatives with perserve jars.

I do not like to make so much jars, with the quantities I detail you below you will get a jar of 250 ml, if you want to make some more just increase the ingredient quantity and you will enjoy longer this lovely cream.

To give an stronger taste of vanilla I used homemade vanilla flavored sugar. You can also add cinnamon, clove, ginger, any other spice or just any extra flavor.


INGREDIENTS

150 g chestnuts (roasted and peel) 300 g whole chestnuts
125 ml heavy cream
120 ml milk (full or half fat)
80 g white sugar (I used homemade vanilla flavour sugar)
a pinch of salt

half vanilla bean

Preheat the oven to 180º.

Make a cut to each chestnut and put them ont the tray in the middle position of the oven, over a baking paper.  Roast them about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and peel them when they are still hot.

Put the chestnuts in a saucepan with the milk, heeavy cream, sugar, salt and the half vanilla bean until it boils and let it cook on a low heat for 15-20 minutes, or when it gets the right consistensy for a cream. The chestnuts will get softer and the mixture thickens. Remove the vanilla bean,

If the mixture is too thick just add cold milk, you can add as much milk as you want until you get the desire texture.

Liquify the mixtute with a blender and pour the hot cream into sterilised jars, let it cool and place in the fridge. 

To sterelize the jars put them into boiling water.

Try to add some congac or other liqueur to the cream to give an special taste. Mixed with chocolate ganache is perfect to fill cakes, cupcakes or any other dessert dish.

Happy All Saints Day ♥

Panellets

"La Castanyada" is a traditional celebration in Catalonia during the night of October 31th and All Saints Day day we eat roasted chestnuts and the appreciated sweets called "panellets".

This celebration makes me remember when I was a child. At school we used to celebrate that day with a big party: singing songs, with painted faces, and eating chestnuts and panellets at the playground of the school. The panellets were made by the children and teachers. Each child had to bring some ingredients and chestnuts, and panellets were done by each class a few days before. And the big day each one recived a bag of panallets and some roasted chestnuts. So you can imagine what a big mess we did in the class making these sweets.

I really enjoy that celebration, making panallets with my family and the smell of roasted chestnuts on the street, I really love that smell!

The pine nuts panallets are the most known and the most appreciated, also by me. I think they are the best. Cocoa and coffee powder can also be added to the mixture to change the taste. Pine nuts can be substituted for chopped almonds or coconut. You can find a large variety of ingredients, but this time I've made pine nuts, chocolate and coffee.

INGREDIENTS
250 g almond powder
250 g white sugar (you can add less sugar, on your taste)
100 g potato
lemon zest
vanilla sugar

130 g pine nuts
cacao powder
instant coffee powder
1 yolk egg (to stick the pine nuts)
1 egg (to brush the pine nuts ones)
icing sugar (to roll the cacao and coffee ones)

Wash and bring to boil the potato with the skin until is soft, about 20-30 minutes. Peel and mash the potato. Add the sugar and the almond and mix it until well combined. Divide the mixture into 2 pieces and add the vanilla sugar on one and the lemon zest in the other one.  Continue mixing well, first use a fork or a spatula and latter on use your hands until it becomes a very thick paste. Wrap the mixture with plastic film and store it in the fridge at least 6 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 200º.
Put in a little bowl an egg yolk and pour it the pine nuts and mix it.
Put in an other bowl the whole beatten egg.
Make little balls of mixture with your hands and cover them with pine nuts. Egg yolk will make easier to stick them on. Place the panallets on a baking tray and brush them with the whole egg.

Bake them in the middle on the preheated oven for 8-10 mintues, until they get golden. Make sure you control them at any time due to  the fact they get done very fast. To make them even brown I place them the last minute in the higher position of the oven.
Remove them gently and cool on a plate.

For the cacao and coffee just add the powder into the mixture and mix it well until combined. Roll the mixture into 3-4 cm ball. Bake them 8-10 minutes: Remove them gently and let it cool them for a while before you roll them into icing sugar.

With these ingredients I did 14 pine nuts, 10 coffee and 10 chocolate.

Cover them or store in a box in room temperature, they taste much better after 2 days.

Enjoy your panallets with roasted chestnuts and a nice glass of Moscatell  ♥

Pumpkin Cupcakes

I really love cakes with any vegetable such as carrot, zucchini or pumpkin. And for these dates what better than a pumpkin cake? This time I did cupcakes with it. I like the smell, the taste and it is extremply soft. I used the pumpkin jam I did to fill some of them, and they are even more softer and tasty. 

I topped them with cream cheese. Even I love the cream cheese frosting I have to say I rather eat them without the frosting, just after they cool down a little bit, that is when I enjoy the most this cake. It would be great to make them some scary but in my country we do not celebrate Halloween. But as a lot of other costums this Celtic tradition is also taking place in Spain and in the Netherlands, and you can see it in a lot of stores where you can buy all kind of Halloween stuff. I did not know so much about this celebration until I lived for some months in Ireland, so there I celebrated my only one Halloween party, it was great.

INGREDIENTS makes 12
190 g all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
100 g butter, cubed and at room temperature
120 g light brown caster sugar
2 large eggs
200 g pumpkin purée
60 ml buttermilk
pumpkin jam for filling (optional)

For the pumpking purée: you will need about 280/300 g of pumpkin to get 200 g of purée. Put the peeled and cubed pumpkin in a medium saucepan covered with unsalted water until the pumpkin is slightly soft. Remove water and make the purée using a blender. Let it cool down while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Preheat the oven to 160º.

Sift together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, bicarbonate and salt in a bowl, and set aside.

Put the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream with and electric hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs on at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the sifted dry ingredients and beat on low speed until combined. Finally add the pumpkin purée and the buttermilk.

Divide the mixture between the cupcakes cases. Bake 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven, let them in the tin for 5 minutes and finally let them cool completely in a wire rack before decorating.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
140 g cream cheese (very cold)

60 g butter, cubed and at room temperature

1 tablespoon of whole milk

300 g icing sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnnamon and some more for the topping

Sift the icing sugar in the mixing bowl, add the butter and the milk and beat until until well mixed and pale and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the cream cheese and the cinnamon and beat until fluffy.

Top the cupcakes with the frosting and dust with ground cinnamon.

Very important take out the cream cheese just before using, it is necessary to be very cold.

I rather fill cupcakes with jam or brush them with syrup, since you can keep them longer. With the pumking jam mixed with the cream cheese frosting is absolutly delicious.

If you are a Halloween lover just top the cupcakes with a little fonfant or marzipan pumpkin!

Next post I will tell you what is traditionally to do in my town for the 31st october evening.

What are you gonna do for Halloween? ♥

Apple Crumble

Here I show you a warm dessert which is one of my old favorites. I love crumble with any fruit and even a salty crumble. It is really very quick to prepare. This preparation consists of two steps, the crumbs topping and the filling of apples which gives and excelent contrast to the dish.  And if you want to enjoy it better top it with a scoop of icecream sprinkeled with cinnamon. I love these contrasting flavours.

You can use any type of apples, and you can even use a mixture of apples.

This recipe makes a large and thick crust crumble which I love, but if you prefer put less crumble on top and then the apple juices will bubble up through the surface.

INGREDIENTS makes a 32cm by 18cm tin 

For the crumble
380 g all purpose flour
200 g caster sugar
210 g butter cubed at room temperature
a pinch of salt

For the filling
4 apples (peeled, cored and medium diced)
2 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons sugar (I used light brown caster)
200 g crème fraîche
50 g raisins
70 g nuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon


Preheat the oven to 175º.

Place the flour, the sugar and a pinch of salt in a large bowl and mix well. Add the soft butter and blend with your fingertips until the mixture turns to breadcrumbs. Set aside.

Grease the tin.

Put the prepared apple in a large bowl and sprinkle over the cinnamon, raisins and nuts. Mix the mixture. Add the sugar, the honey and the crème fraîche and mix until combined.

Put the filling mixture into the greased tin, spread it evenly around. Take the crumble and top the apple mixture with it and again spread it evenly

Place tin in the oven for 30 minutes or until the crumble is brown and the apple mixture bubbles.

Served it warm and topped with a scoop of icecream it is just delicious ♥