The wonderful thing about living in this part of the world is that despite being winter, the strawberry season has just started and will continue until November. Even the early strawberries are tasting great, the ones pictured came farm fresh from a local grower not far up the road.

This recipe was one bought to my attention by a friend and the original can be found at the Taste.com website. As their recipe suggested, I substituted lemon juice with liqueur (I don’t need much prompting to use a bit of grog in my cooking) and I also changed the granita biscuits for choc ripple. I made the cheesecakes the day before and the biscuits went a little soggy, but in a good way, the choc flavour mellowed and went really well with the strawberry filling. I also use raw sugar (I think it tastes way better than white sugar). To make it ‘castor’ give it a quick wizz in a coffee grinder or blender.

The recipe is for six, but I found I could get eight out of this recipe, nine if I hadn’t licked the spoon, although I think I used regular sized muffin tins. I don’t have electric mixers, I found this recipe only takes five minutes even beating with a wooden spoon.

Method

• Mix the strawberries, liqueur and sugar well, dissolving the sugar. Set aside in the fridge to macerate.
• Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 6 large muffin holes with a paper patty case each.
• Beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and liqueur until light and creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time.
• Place a biscuit at the base of each muffin hole, pressing down firmly. Top with cream cheese mixture.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until slightly risen and just beginning to crack on the surface. The cheesecakes will sink a little on cooling.
• Set aside to cool completely. Refrigerate for one hour or until chilled. Top with strawberries, a drizzle of the marinade liquid and serve with a dollop of cream and a dusting of icing sugar.

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1. Little Adult Chocolate Cakes
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This slice is very sweet (anything that involved a can of condensed milk is going to be sweet), but quite moorish nevertheless. And it got gobbled up before I got a chance to take a picture.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (360°F). Grease and line a 26cm x 16cm lamington pan
2. Combine butter, vanilla and brown sugar in a bowl, sift flour and baking powder and mix with butter mixture.
3. Press the mixture into the pan with your fingertips. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden. Let cool for 5 minutes.
4. Roughly chop the chocolate. Sprinkle chocolate and almonds evenly over the cooked base.
5. Drizzle condensed milk evenly over chocolate and almonds.
6. Bake for 18 – 20 minutes or until golden. Cool completely and cut into squares.

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Creating Hours: Time Management For Busy Parents

Creating hours isn’t the usual time management strategy of calendars and schedules. Instead it provides tips and tricks that help you gain control over your time so that those extra minutes here and there add up to extra spare hours over the week, spare hours to read, relax, do hobbies or whatever you please. More than that, this downloadable eBook is tailored to parents who have to deal with the ‘unscheduled’ everyday little emergencies that happen when raising children. For more information click here.

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1. Caramel Peach Upside Down Cake
2. One Cake Batter – Over 40 Variations
3. Zucchini Bread

I nearly did morrello cherries and kirsch, but stuck with the traditional after all.

Make this one day ahead to allow for the liquid to be absorbed by the cake.

Method

1. Make jelly according to packet directions and pour into a shallow dish and refrigerate until set. Cut into bite sized cubes.
2. Line a 1ltr glass bowl with cake. Sprinkle cake with sherry (or whatever you have on hand) and brush with peach syrup.
3. Pour half the custard over the cake, top with the jelly and then about 2/3 of the peaches and then the remaining custard.
4. Top with remaining peaches, whipped cream and grated chocolate. Refrigerate overnight.

Have you read these articles?:

1. One Cake Batter – Over 40 Variations
2. Caramel Peach Upside Down Cake
3. chocolate rum mousse

To get the best flavoured mousse, splurge on the best quality chocolate you can find. Valrhona is a popular brand when it comes to making these things, but I’ve never seen it anywhere (I don’t think it’s a supermarket staple) so I use Lindt when I want good chocolate. And don’t spoil it by using any non-fat light cream stuff! Use the real deal.

Vary this mouse with the type of liqueur you add (or leave it out altogether (DH is not a rum fan). Cointreau or it’s alternative will give a nice Jaffa flavour, whiskey actually makes a nice accompaniment to chocolate, Tia Maria or Kahlua will give a mocha flavour, or Frangelico for a hazelnut flavour. Alternatively, you could use white chocolate instead of dark (I’d probably ditch the added sugar though).

Method

1. Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl that has been set over a pot of simmering water. Ensure that the bowl isn’t touching the water. Leave to cool. You want the chocolate cool enough so it won’t scramble the eggs, but still runny.
2. Beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl until the mixture is thick, pale and increased in volume. Electric beaters are good here (it takes about 5 minutes) but a whisk works fine (and works your arm).
3. Using a metal spoon, fold the chocolate and the rum into the eggs, leave the mixture to cool further.
4. Gently fold in the whipped cream until just combined.
5. Spoon into ramekins or desert glasses and refrigerate for for 2 hours or until set.
6. Serve with extra whipped cream and garnish with grated chocolate.

Have you read these articles?:

1. Little Adult Chocolate Cakes
2. Banana and Yoghurt Bread
3. strawberry liqueur mini cheesecakes with fresh macerated strawberries

The measurements are given as a guideline but I didn’t measure as I cooked this so taste as you go and adjust to suit how you enjoy your crumble. You may need to adjust the sugar level with the apples anyway depending on what variety of apples you have and how naturally sweet they are. If you don’t have lemon leave it out, it adds an extra dimension to the flavour, but isn’t necessary, substitute the cinnamon for nutmeg or cardamom or allspice if you prefer.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C
2. Core, peel and chop the apples. In a saucepan add apples, sugar, lemon and cinnamon.
3. Simmer apples until soft or to the texture that you prefer.
4. Meanwhile combine the flour, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon and rub together with your fingers to get a ‘breadcrumb’ like consistency.
5. Pour apple mixture into greased oven dish or individual dishes, sprinkle with crumble mixture and bake for about 20 minutes or until the top is golden.

Variations

• Add sultanas or other dried fruit for variety
• You can use any fruit that you have on hand like berries (fresh or frozen) pears, peaches, plums etc.
• To make this dish even quicker, use tin fruit. No need to cook just drain.
• Add rolled oats or crushed nuts to the crumble mixture for more texture. You may need to add a little extra butter to get the right consistency.

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Method

1. Line a pie dish or flan tin with pastry. Blind bake and cool.
2. Whisk eggs and sugar until well combined. Add cream and whisk to combine. Add lemon juice and zest. Whisk well to combine.
3. Pour into prepared pastry base. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes at 150°C.
4. Cool and serve

The bigger the tart tin, the thinner the filling, but it is a very rich and ‘tart’ tart so a little goes a long way. Using a store bought pastry case will mean that this dish will take less than 5 minutes to prepare.

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