Cheesecake loves brownie

It was a rainy Saturday afternoon and I needed something sweet. Here what happen: cheesecake fell in love with a brownie. Now they are one.

This was my second try within a week and now I feel that the recipe is perfect. At least for me. 

Recipe for 12 pieces

Brownie:

150g butter

125g dark chocolate 

1,5 dl cocoa powder

1,5 dl dark sugar

2 eggs

2 dl flour

1 ts baking powder

Cheese-topping:

200g Philadelphia cream cheese 

2 eggs yolks

1 lime (juiced)

1. Heat the oven to175 degrees.

2. Chop the butter and chocolate to a casserole. Melt in low temperature. Let cool and add the sugar.

3. Mix together flour, baking & cocoa powder.

4. Whisk eggs together wiht melted chocolate & butter.

5. Add the flours and whisk gently.

6. Pour it to an oven-safe platter

7. Whisk cream cheese with egg yolks. Add lime juice.

8. Pour the cheese on top and make patterns to the surface.

9. Bake 20-30 minutes. 

10. Let it cool in room temperature and store in the refrigerator.

Chorizo Salad

Chorizo Salad

Happy fathers' day you all out there. This delicious and masculine salad made our celebration a little bit better. Perfect avec for any beef!

Salad for four

Cucumber, half

Tomatoes, 100 gr

Red onion, 1

Salad leaves, one hand full

Basil, one hand full

Chick peas, 250 gr

Capers, 3 tbs

Chorizo, 100 gr

Feta cheese, 100 gr

Sun flower seeds, 3 tbs

Sauce

Olive oil, 5 tbs

Apple vinegar, 2 tbs

Honey, 1 tbs

Salt

Pepper

Good Morning Cake

Good morning you - yes you indeed! 

A piece of this "healthy" cake will make you smile like a cheese. Somehow this cake for me is almost a breakfast cake - brunch for sure. The crispy taste comes form fresh lemons, lemon curd and spelt flours. Try out!  

Thanks to this recipe goes to Mari Moilanen (www.somethingtasty.fi).  

Ingredients

200 g butter

4.5 dl sugar

4 egg yolks

4 egg whites

Pinch of salt

6 dl semi rough spelt flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla powder

2.5 dl cream

3 tbsp lemon curd

2 tbsp lemon juice

Filling and frosting

900 g unflavoured cream cheese (e.g. Philadelphia)

2 tbsp lemon juice

6 tbsp lemon curd

1 tsp vanilla sugar

1.5 dl powdered sugar

Couple of caps of yellow caramel colouring

Instructions

1. Beat the room temperature butter and sugar until foamy. Add egg yolks one at a time. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites and a pinch of salt until stiff.
2. Mix baking powder and vanilla powder with flours and add flour mixture alternately with cream to butter/egg mixture. Mix gently by lifting the mass. Add 3 heaped tablespoons of lemon curd. Last, gently fold egg whites into batter until blended.
3. Pour batter into two cake tins, 18-20 cm in diameter. Bake for about 35-40 minutes, until cakes are done. Bake for first 15 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 200°C and for remaining time at 175°C on the lowest rack.
4. Test with toothpick before you remove cakes from oven. Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. However, do not overcook cakes for they are wonderfully juicy and moist when perfectly done. While cakes are cooling, prepare filling.
5. Colour white cream cheese chicken yellow with caramel colouring. Whisk all filling ingredients together.
6. Cut cooled cakes in half lengthwise and spread lemon/cream cheese mixture on each layer of the cake. Save some of the filling for frosting and spread it evenly on the top of the cake with knife. This cake does not need to be moistened; it is juicy as it is.

Salmon Frittata - celebration of Eggs Press

Thanks to organic eggs my mind is full of excellent egg recipes. Here is one - the Frittata twisted with salmon. You can easily replace salmon with bacon or ham. This is really an everyday meal that you can create from just about everything. The four must's are: organic eggs, potatoes, tomatoes and onions. 

Recipe for 6

8 organic eggs

6 potatoes

2 onions

2 tomatoes

150 gr cold smoked salmon

4-6 tbs of fresh cream cheese (Koskenlaskija)

4 tbs of sparkling water (Vichy)

1 dl cream

salt

pepper

olive oil

basil

Slice and chop all vegetables.  Cook and fry the potatoes 10 minutes in a pan with olive oil, add onions and cook couple of minutes more. Mix eggs with cream and Vichy and add salt and pepper. Add tomatoes and salmon and pour the eggs on top of everything. Cook in medium until the Frittata is solid. Add 4-6 table spoons of cheese at the end of cooking. Serve with fresh herbs. 

Redcurrant Sorbet

This sorbet will blow your mind. It is not only tasty, but also beautiful - and pink! The recipe is simple, but you need an ice cream maker to do this. Take your time with this as well: cooling the hot berry sauce takes a while. The recipe is applicable with any other berry as well.

Recipe

1 litre of berries

3 dl water

3 dl sugar (can be adjusted)

2 egg whites

Mix the berries, water and sugar in a casserole and cook them a while (10 minutes). Strain off the seeds and let the sauce cool as cold as possible. Whisk the egg whites to a foam. Mix the foam with the berry sauce and pour all to the ice cream maker. Remember to put the machine spinning before pouring the cold stuff in. Let it spin 45 minutes. Tip: if the sorbet is not solid enough after 45 min, pour it to mugs and put them to the freezer for a while. I served these beauties the next day from the freezer and it worked well. Enjoy! 

Apple-Cinnamon Jam

I have heard many times people saying that apple jams are the best of all jams. Can't argue. Here is the simplest recipe, twisted with cinnamon. This jam is also perfect during christmas time with rice porridge - if you manage to spare one jar until then. Good luck! 

Recipe

1 kg apples (peeled 800 g)

2 dl water

500 g jam sugar

Cinnamon

Peel the apples and take the heart away. Chop apples into a small pieces and put them to the casserole. Pour the water along with apples and heat until the apples get soft. This takes 10-20 minutes depending the amount of apples you cook at once. Mash the apples if you want a smooth jam. Finally add the sugar and cinnamon and cook 10-15 minutes. 

In the meantime, prepare your jars by cleaning them with boiling water. Make sure that they are clean. Fill the jars and restore them in a cold place. 

My Precious - Old-fashioned Pickles

The fall is my favourite season and not least because of harvesting. These upcoming weeks can be stressful, but in the winter I will thank me, myself and I for the effort.

Here are my pickles - I make these every year. 

5 kg cucumber (kirby)

Dill (two hand fulls)

Mustard seeds (1/2 dl)

Black currant leaves (30 leaves)

Cloves (2 tablespoon)

Garlic (15 cloves)

Sauce: 

Vinegar 6 dl

Water 2 1/2 l

White sugar 400 g

Coarse salt 2 dl

Allspice, table spoon

Prepare the sauce first. Pour and add all ingredients to casserole and heat it up. Leave it to cool down. 

Prepare the needed jars. Wash the cucumbers and cut into slices or boats. Slice garlic. Start layer the cucumber slices to jars and add spicies as you wish. Finally pour the sauce and put the jars to fridge. After one week you can enjoy delicious cucumber pickles on top of sandwiches or part of a meal.