Basic Vanilla Cheesecake
This is a great basic baked cheesecake which uses ricotta cheese to create a light texture. A perfect dessert when topped with fresh berries
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Bagels – Montreal style
Montreal-style bagel is a distinctive variety of handmade and wood-fired baked . In contrast to the New York bagel which contains sourdough the Montreal bagel is smaller, thinner, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole, and is always baked in a wood fired oven . It contains malt, egg and no salt, and is boiled in honey-sweetened water before being baked.
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 3/4 tsp yeast
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp beaten egg
3 Tbsp veggie oil
1 tsp malt syrup
1 tsp kosher salt
4 1/2 – 5 1/2 cups of flour
Method
Proof yeast by placing it in warm water with a tsp spoon of sugar, it will be ready when it froths up.
Once yeast ready, place it in the mixing bowl with remaining sugar, malt ,honey, egg, salt and oil. Stir in flour 1 cup at a time , once the dough becomes less sticky either knead by hand or dough hook on a mixer.
Keep kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic, Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel, and let rise for 2 hours.
Punch the dough down, place it on a lightly floured work surface, and use a knife or dough scraper to divide the dough into 6 pieces (or more, for smaller bagels). Roll each piece of dough into a sausage shape about 6 inches long. Join the ends to form a circle. Repeat with the remaining dough, and let the bagels rest for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange small plates with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and onion flakes next to the baking sheet.
Bring 4 quarts water to a boil in a large pot. Add 1/4 cup of honey, Boil the bagels, three at a time, until they rise to the surface of the pot, about 1 minute per side. Remove the bagels with a slotted spoon and place them on the parchment-lined baking sheet.
Dip the tops of the wet bagels into the toppings and arrange them, seeds up, on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with coarse salt, if desired. Bake in the preheated oven until the bagels begin to brown, 15 to 20 minutes.
There are lots of different toppings and variations to bagels – have fun and just give it a go! My baking style is rather random and I have been known to change recipes as I go. Not the best practice in baking as precision can be important but it makes it fun!
Here are some good links for more reference
Chocolate chip cookies
Who doesn’t love a good chocolate chip cookie! I actually have a few variations depending if I want them to be flat and chewy or more robust and chunky. this one is for the classic flat chewy ones as they make great ice cream sandwiches since they are softer.
Ingredients
2 1/4 flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup softened butter
3/4 white sugar
3/4 brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups choc chips or a block of dark chocolate ( I like 50% dark choc Whitakers)
1 cup roasted chopped nuts ( optional but I like almonds if any on hand)
Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C, cream butter with sugars until nice and fluffy. Add 2 eggs and beat well.
Gradually add flour with baking soda to butter mixture and beat to combine. Throw in chocolate and nuts to complete the dough.
Drop rounded spoonfuls on to ungreased cookie sheet , If the dough seems too sticky let it rest in the fridge for 10 mins prior to cooking. Bake for about 10 mins. Cool slightly and enjoy!!
Variations
To make ice cream sandwiches, let the cookies cool completely. Then sandwich some vanilla ice cream between drizzle with chocolate ganache
It’s that easy- have fun and experiment with different ingredients. Let me know what combinations you come up with!
Cinnamon Rolls
Cinnamon rolls are one of my childhood favs! We would have them every Christmas morning and I have continued the tradition with my kids.
Ingredients
1 portion of white bread dough
100g melted butter
1/2 cup Brown sugar with 2 tsp cinnamon
Method
Prepare the basic white bread recipe.
Once the dough has risen the first time , roll the dough into a 2 cm thick rectangle shape and spread with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Roll the long side into a log, then cut pinwheels to form the cinnamon rolls.
Place in Texan Muffin tins and let rise second time.
Cook in 180c oven for 30 mins
cupcake
recipe to come
Pizza
Basic Pizza dough
Ingredients
- A Sachet of active yeast,
- 300 ml of lukewarm water,
- 2 tsp sugar,
- 1 tsp sea salt,
- 2 Tbsp of olive oil,
- 350-400 g of pizza flour
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- Â Dissolve sugar in warm water, then sprinkle yeast in and gently stir.
- Â Place yeast mixture in the bowl of a mixer, add olive oil and salt.
- Â Slowly add the flour using the basic mixer attachment at first. Continue to add flour until the mixture gets too heavy for the basic mixer attachment then switch to the dough attachment. Continue to mix in the flour until the dough is smooth and elastic. This takes approx 10 mins and let the dough be a little more wet than a bread dough. It can take practice to get get the right consistency, but don’t worry. Practice makes perfect.
- Â Form the dough into a ball then place it into an oiled bowl.Cover it and let it rise until doubled in size, about 45 mins.
- While the dough is rising, pre heat oven to 200 C. A hot oven is good so if you can go even higher to 220 C.
- Â Once the dough has risen, divide the dough and roll each out thinly on a floured board.
- Â Add sauce and your favourite toppings
- Â Bake in the middle of the oven until crust golden colour.
Enjoy!!
