Cheesecake with apple almond topping

"If happiness were a cake"... An article with that title couldn't stay without attention. Because I'm pretty sure a tasty cake is our happiness. Especially a cake that will follow in this post. I have to admit that free magazines are sometimes even more useful than you think. One of those, as you already understood, enclosed a precious recipe of my favorite C-H-E-E-S-E-C-A-K-E ;)

As a naughty girl I can't cook strictly following the recipe. So I grabbed all I needed and was ready to bake my own interpretation. A good thing is that you can always add what you like or reduce the quantity of harmful ingredients and meanwhile create a new recipe. That means being creative. And it keeps you always full of ideas.

Ingredients:

1 kg low fat cottage-cheese

200 g creme fraiche
2 bananas
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
5 eggs
zest from 1 lemon
1 pack of vanilla pudding powder
2 middle-sized apples
2 tbsp almond leaves
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1 pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180° C.

Separate egg whites from yolks in different bowls. Put the egg whites into fridge. Meanwhile mix yolks with 2 tbsp of sugar and mashed bananas. Add vanilla seeds, mix well. Now its turn of cheese. I usually take low-fat cheese. If you prefer any other, go ahead. We're here to make baking interesting and personal. Put cheese of your choice, pudding powder and lemon zest into yolk-banana-sugar mixture. Mix thoroughly.

Now leave it all aside and get the egg whites out of the fringe.

Tip!
A perfection of majority desserts is achieved through the structure. It is main advantage of using egg whites. Light, melting in your mouth, a piece of heaven... Yes. All you need is to beat the whites until stiff peaks. For that important task use better a copper, stainless-steel, or glass bowl. Make sure there are no traces of yolk, water or fat. They might be the reason of a bad result. Add a pinch of salt. Start beating at small speed and then increase it. Beat whites until you have stiff peaks. You can easily check the right condition if you title the bowl. The mixture should not slide around. When adding beaten egg whites to another mixture, immediately fold them gently into it. That way a volume will not be destroyed.

Middle-step overview: choose any topping you prefer and leave some place for fantasy ;)

Beat egg whites as explained in a tip below. Fold the carefully into cheese mixture and get a big baking form of 28 cm in diameter. Pour the ready cheesecake mixture into the form. Cover the bottom of the form with foil and place it in a bath. In other words, take a bigger form and pour 1-2 glasses of water into it. That would be a bath for our form with cheesecake. If you have no bigger form you can use just any heat resistant folder with water as a bath. Put it then on the bottom of your oven. This trick will insure you a velvety structure of the cake. And believe me, that is something worth to reach.

 
Baking time - 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 140° C and bake 20-30 minutes more. It depends on the height of the cake. The higher - the longer baking time.

After that let it cool down until room temperature. I know this might be a challenge in some sense. But I have another task for you meanwhile - topping. It consists of 2 main parts. For the first one heat some butter in a pan and add 1 tsp of sugar. As the mixture is warm, put in apple slices and cinnamon. Caramelize from all sides until a bit softer. For second part heat the rest of sugar in a saucepan, add butter and almond leaves. For 2-3 minutes let them get golden color and sweet flavor. That's it.

Last and final step - decorate the cheese basis with apple slices and almond leaves.

Voilà - happy cheesecake is ready to surprise you with a range of flavors.

Just be careful not to get addicted ;)

Gourmet Beef Tartare

When walking along the meat section in the supermarket I found myself hypnotized by a little pack of high quality beef. As I stayed and stared at that little meaty ball, a taste of tartare flew into my thoughts and I just couldn't stand it. Crispy bread slice with a layer of raw spicy beef. That would definitely do my evening.



A positive side of tartare is minimum time and maximum satisfaction. That might resolve your lack of time, as you will see.

Ingredients:
4 pieces whole wheat bread slices
100 g beef
1 raw yolk
1/4 medium onion
20  g mustard
2  g ground black pepper
2  g salt
1 tsp lemon juice
cornichons

Mince 1/4 of middle-sized onion. The pieces should be small, yet tangible. That is pretty much it of the to-does on the step of preparations.

The next step is to mix already minced beef with onion. Add mustard, pepper and salt and mix well. Squeeze needed quantity of lemon juice for extra freshness.

Serve in a little bowl. Put egg yolk in the middle. Last step - toast bread slices and add some cornishons. Here we are, sitting together - with family or friends, big company or romantic dinner for two... Tartare is an appetizer that will do your evening. Trust me!

Tip!

An interesting way to serve it for guests is to put aside all the ingredients, already minces, grounded...whatever. A big serving plate would be perfect for that purpose. Just mix all of the parts in to one perfect tartare in front of your guests. Enjoy!

Bon Appétit :)

Apple flower tart with cinnamon

When the holidays with a big variety of fatty food are left in the past and cold winter already there in the window, the only escape seems to be impossible. But we sometimes overreact a lot. A sweet-home-atmosphere is always a good escape. Especially when with light cinnamon flavor:) Apple tart means - minimum dough and maximum apples. Therefore it is a good choice of dessert at any time. Apples are available all year long and the recipe is absolutely easy. So let's start.

Ingredients:

3 middle apples

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

2 tbsp coconut oil (may be any other kind of healthy oil you have - walnut, flax seed etc.)

1/2 middle-sized mashed banana

1-2 tbsp cold water

1 tsp cinnamon 

1 tsp brown sugar

1/8 tsp grated nutmeg

pinch of salt

Tip!

The traditional recipe of a crust is high in saturated fat from butter and sugar. Therefore I strongly advise to use substitutes instead and as a result reduce unhealthy empty calories. Banana is a good alternative to sugar, when mashed. Extra virgin oil and some water will replace butter and add healthy fats.

In a bowl mix both types of flour, salt and grated nutmeg. Add oil and mashed banana. Add one tablespoon of water so that the dough stays together when pressed. If it seems too dry add another tablespoon of cold water.

Mix well and form a ball. Wrap it with plastic foil and put into a fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180° C.

A tart pan 24 cm in diameter would be just perfect for this pie. As I'm only planning to buy one, I used a pizza form and made the pie flatter. Tasty, anyway!

In case you are lucky to have a fluted tart pan, make bigger amount of dough in order to decorate a pie with nice curly sides. In both sides, butter the pan well in advance.

Take dough out of the fridge and make a thin layer in the tart pan.

Wash the apples and peel them. Slice thinly. Put all over the dough layer in a nice flower-form manner beginning from the sides and moving to the centre.

Mix nutmeg, cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over the apple flower.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the dough is golden brown and the apple layer begins to get softer and a bit darker.

Sweet date candy-balls

You are working hard and find no time for yourself, time is running crazy and you wish a day had at least 48 hours so that you could stop and enjoy for a while? Welcome to our world full of crazy rushing faces. And now think of one thing that will keep you aside and blow you away to an island of your dreams.... What could be better than a sweet treat?! It is a little tiny things ready to conquer your heart. And in moderation brings you no harm.

Food processor makes miracles from simple ingredients, so just grab it and get ready. The result - 20 sweet candy-balls - the best alternative to chocolate bars and sweets full of sugar and harmful saturated fats.

Ingredients:

200 g oat flakes

200-250 g pitted dates

1 tbsp molasses (or rice syrup)

1 tbsp bran

coconut, grounded nuts, sesame

Grind the oat flakes in a food processor, add pitted dates and go on grinding.

Tip!
I used molasses to provide the balls with some extra flavor and sweetness. If you can't find one, put the same quantity of organic honey of our choice.

You will get a sticky mixture ready to be rolled into mouth-sized balls. Go ahead and use your creativity. You can make any shape you like and roll it in coconut, grounded nuts or sesame... Whatever tasty you can find in the kitchen.

And now stop, sit, and enjoy! Because you've earned a little bit of relaxing. Leave bad energy and negative thoughts behind. Think positive and eat healthy. Because it is easy, tasty and always a good idea ;)

Chicken liver parfait with caramelized apples and almonds

Holidays have come. Wonders can happen anytime. Such a special mood brings other vision of simple things (as they seem at first sight).

Chicken liver... Is it possible to cook it special?! If you follow me from the beginning on, you might remember the recipe of Light and hearty salad with chicken liver. By the way, it turned out to be quite popular among my followers. Therefore I made up my mind to cook chicken liver, but in a totally other way than usually. As a result I wanted smooth, mild taste with a tiny sweet note of apples which seem to be a perfect combination with chicken liver.

Check the ingredients' list and grab some patience:
Parfait:
400 g chicken liver
250 ml milk
1 big onion
1 big carrot
4 garlic cloves
1 slice whole wheat bread
100 g salty cracker
2 egg
2 tbsp corn flour
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tbsp butter

Garnish:
1 apple
1 tsp almond slices
1 tsp brown sugar
1tsp cinnamon
1 tsp butter

Firstly, as usually, soak the liver in 200 ml of milk for about 20 minutes. 

Tip!

I would strongly recommend you not to skip this simple step. Milk takes away all the bitterness and ensures smooth and mild taste of the liver.

Meanwhile prepare the other ingredients: grate the carrot. Chop onion and garlic cloves into little pieces.

Wash chicken liver with cold water. Separate all the streaks and cut the liver into middle-sized pieces.

In one pan heat one tbsp of olive oil and fry chopped onion for 2 minutes at middle heat, add grated carrot and garlic. Let it stew in its juice until soft. (you can add 2 tbsp of water if liquid evaporates)

In another pan fry chicken liver in a small quantity of olive oil mixed with 1 tsp of butter. Stir from time to time so that it doesn't stick and burn. When you see that the pieces are fried already, add soy sauce and stir thoroughly. Don't be afraid if the liver is not ready inside yet. It will be baked in the oven afterwards, anyway :)

Soak whole wheat bread in 50 ml of milk. Blend crackers into a crumb. We will use it to make extra crust. Prepare the form for baking. Butter it from all sides and sprinkle all the sides with cracker crumbs. I used silicone form. If you don't have silicone one, put baking paper into your form to make sure that you will take parfait out easily. Put aside and preheat the oven at 180°C.

The next step is important for the proper texture. Blend liver and carrot-onion-garlic mixture in a food processor until smooth and silky. Season the mixture with coriander, salt and pepper. Squeeze the bread slice to avoid extra liquids and add it to the liver mixture. Add corn flour, eggs and butter. Mix well. Pour the mixture into a form and sprinkle the top with cracker crumb. Place the form in a water bath. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 130°C and bake another 30 minutes.

It's time to prepare the garnish. It consists of caramelised apple slices mixed with almonds. Wash the apple and cut it into slices. Heat some butter in a frying pan and put the apple slices into it. Stir for a minute, add sugar and cinnamon. Stir further. Add almond slices and wait until the apples get golden-brown.

After 40 minutes total in the oven check the parfait. I'm pretty sure it is ready and tasty ;) Serve as sjown below. And enjoy your precious minutes of pleasure.

Have a wonderful New Year. Leave all the fears and uncertainty in the past and go ahead full of hope and confidence!

Happy New year!!!!!!
Bon Appetit!