Baking Love: White Chocolate Cheesecake

I saved the most decadent baking recipe for the day before Christmas to share with you all. This white chocolate cheesecake is a calorie bomb, but it tastes so good! This cheesecake is easy to make if you need to make something for a large gathering because it is easy and you don't take too much of the damage ;) It original recipe comes from Cakeje van Eigen Deeg. If you make it today, you can serve it tomorrow at Christmas. So if you are the type that decides last minute what to make, head to the shop and get baking :)

White Chocolate Cheesecake: (serves 12)
- 200 gr Bastogne cookies (or any other cookies you like)
- 100 gr unsalted butter, melted
- 450 gr soft cream cheese
- 4 eggs
- 250 gr white chocolate
- 250 gr creme fraiche
- 1 vanilla bean

Line a springform with parchment paper. Don't forget the sides. Crumble the bastogne cookies using a food processor. Toss the crumbles in a bowl and add the melted butter. Stir through until the butter is absorbed by the cookie crumbs.
Coat the bottom of the springform with the crumble mixture. Press the mixture well with a spoon. Place the springform in the fridge.

Pre heat the oven to 150 degrees. Melt the white chocolate au bain marie. Meanwhile add the cream cheese to a big bowl and mix this until it is light and creamy. Scrape the pulp out of the vanilla bean and add this to the cream cheese. Add the eggs one by one and mix in between. Make sure you keep an eye on your chocolate and remove it from the heat once it has melted. Add the creme fraiche with the white chocolate and stir through, Add this to the cheese mixture and mix through once more.

Remove the springform from the fridge and pour in the cheesecake mixture. Tap with the springform on the surface to remove air bubbles. Then bake the cheesecake in about 50-55 minutes. The side should be firm but the middle may be wobbly. Leave the cheesecake to cool before you remove the springform. Place it in the fridge overnight (but at least 2 hours) to stiffen the cheesecake completely.

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Baking Love: Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies

Christmas and cranberries seems to be a trend that has reached the Netherlands from the United States, which is fine by me, because I love my share of cranberries every once in a while. I made this cookies the previous winter, but I never got around to actually write about it. Now seemed the perfect time to share them finally on the blog. This is another recipe that I tried from Laura's Bakery. She also shares more difficult baking recipes but I tend to stick to the simple things that I know I can manage and that are still delicious. Granted my cookies don't look as pretty as hers. They are actually a bit misshapen. But they tasted great and are especially good to bake for white chocolate lovers.

Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies: (makes about 20)
- 225 gr butter
- 150 gr white castor sugar
- 8 gr vanilla sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 280 gr flour
- pinch of salt
- 90 gr dried cranberries
- 90 gram white chocolate, chopped

Beat the butter with the two sugars until creamy. Then mix in the egg. Add the flour and salt and knead until you have a firm dough. Lastly add the cranberries and the white chocolate and scoop them through the dough evenly.

Make a roll from the dough and wrap it in cling foil. Leave the roll to cool in the fridge for at least 3 hours. Pre heat the oven to 190 degrees. Remove the cling foil and cut the dough into 0.5 cm slices with a sharp knife. Bake the cookies for about 18 minutes. If you have to bake in multiple batches, place the 2nd batch in the fridge until you can put them in the oven.

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Baking Love: M&Ms Christmas Cookies

We had a staff meeting with our volunteer work a few days ago and we wanted to spread some Christmas cheer so we made some cookies. I love making simple yet delicious cookies and these were gone in minutes! I made them according to the recipe on Laura's Bakery. It has to be one of my favorite baking blogs. We thought these cookies were so good that we might just bake them once more before it is Christmas ;)

M&Ms Christmas Cookies (makes about 20 - 30)
- 225 gr butter
- 150 gr white castor sugar
- 8 gr vanilla sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 280 gr flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 100 gr Christmas M&Ms

Beat the butter with both sugars until creamy. Add the egg yolk and mix through. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and knead until you have a dough. Lastly add the M&Ms to the dough. Wrap the dough in plastic cling and leave it in the fridge for 1 hour.

Pre heat the oven on 190 degrees. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Make little balls from the dough and press them a little bit flatter. The cookies spread so don't lay them too close together. Press some more M&M's on top of the cookies. Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges turn golden.

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Fabulous Fish: Lemon Cod from the Oven

I made this recipe just on a regular weekday a while back, but I thought I would share it today because I think this could be a great main dish for Christmas. Served with different kind of veggies and pommes duchess for example. The recipe is very easy and you don't have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen to make something great. The original recipe is from Uit Pauline's Keuken. If cod is too expensive for your budget, you can also make this with any other white fish. Please excuse the not so appealing weekday picture. The fish really does taste awesome.

Lemon Cod from the Oven: (serves 4)
- 4 cod filets (or any other kind of white fish)
- 1 lemon
- 2 tbsp herbal butter
- handful of fresh chives
- olive oil
- dash of pepper and salt

Defrost the cod filets. You can place them under water or let them defrost in the fridge overnight. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees. Use some olive oil on a paper towel to grease the oven dish. Lay the cod in the dish and add a dash of salt and pepper. Then smear some herbal butter on the fish, sprinkle some chopped chives over them and lastly place the lemon wedges on top of the fish. Place it in the oven for about 15 minutes. If your fish is still frozen, add another 5 minutes.

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On a Budget: Indian Tomato Soup

The December month is expensive enough as it is, so I thought I would share a recipe with you for a starter for your Christmas meal. This soup is delicious because of the herbs used and it sure tastes different from classic tomato soup, so it will be a nice surprise for your guests. This recipe is especially cheap to make if you cook Indian on a regular basis because then you probably have all the spices you need already. However, even if you don't, it is an one time investment that is not really expensive. I found this recipe on Bonbon Break. We ate it as a main course a couple of days back with some bread. It would also be a great soup for lunch.

Indian Tomato Soup (serves 4 as a starter, 2 as a main)
- 800 gr canned crushed tomatoes
- 0.5 cup thick yoghurt
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 0.5 tsp ground cumin
- 0.5 tsp ground cardamom
- 0.5 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- fresh cilantro for serving (if they have it)
- dash of salt

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, salt, cardamom, cumin and cayenne. Bake for 10 minutes or until the onion is soft, stirring frequently. Keep a close watch at this point, you don't want your spices to burn.  Add the tomatoes and their juices. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add yoghurt and lime juice. Blend the soup until smooth. Garnish with cilantro.

I made it in the slow cooker myself so here is the slow cooker version too.
Just punt everything except the yoghurt and lime juice in the slow cooker. Put it on low for 4 hours to let the flavours develop. Then transfer the soup from the slow cooker to a pan, add the yoghurt and lime juice and blend the soup until smooth. Garnish with cilantro.

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Bento Bites: Cranberry Feta Wraps

One of the advantages of having a huge recipe backlog is that I now can choose which recipes I want to publish that fit best with the time of year. Cranberries are always used a lot in this season and these wraps are a great hit on a party. They are very fitting for a x-mas party or for New years. We actually served them at Nick's b-day party last May. They can also be prepared for a bento but you won't need as much then. Luckily it is easy to reduce the amount so it is a great recipe if you have some leftover feta. The original recipe comes from Laura's bakery.

Cranberry Feta Wraps (makes about 40-50 small bites)
- 4 large wraps
- 200 gr cream cheese
- 100 gr feta
- 75 gr dried cranberries
- 2 spring onions, chopped

Crumble the feta in a bowl. Then mix that with all the other ingredients. Make sure that the spring onions and cranberries are divided evenly. Spread the 4 wraps with the mixture. Make sure you get as close to the edges as you can. Roll the wraps. Remove both ends of each wrap with a sharp knife. Then cut each wrap into 10-12 pieces. Keep them in the fridge until serving.

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So Sweet: Nutella Peanut Butter Truffles

We served these at New Year's Eve, but of course you can also make them for whatever occasion you want, like Valentines Day. Just use other decoration that Christmas sprinkles :) Of course not very healthy, but they taste so good! In the Netherlands they sell these balls called Ferrero Rocher, and I loved those luxury chocolates as a child. These taste a bit similar. The original recipe comes from Pretty Simple Sweet.

Nutella Peanut Butter Truffles (makes 20-30 truffles, depending on how large you roll them)
- 40 gr butter, melted
- 2 tbsp powdered sugar
- 0.5 cups + 3tbsp Nutella
- 0.5 cup peanut butter
- 2 cups vanilla wafers, crushed (crush first, then measure)
- 2-3 tbsp milk

In a large bowl, combine melted butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Add peanut butter and Nutella and mix well. Then add the crumbled wafers and mix again. Lastly add 2 to 3 tbsp of milk, until the mixture is no longer crumble and can be rolled into balls easily. Let the mixture rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Or make up ahead until this point, until you have time to roll them.

Shape balls from the mixture. I used a tablespoon to scoop a heaping spoon out and rolled that into a ball. This can be a bit messy. But that is part of making truffles. Roll each ball into a topping of choice. Leave the balls in the fridge for at least one hour. Keep them there until serving. You can store them in an air tight container for a week.

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Yule: Gingerbread Bundt Cake

Yes, I know that Yule is already a couple of weeks behind us, and I wanted to post this sooner, but the flu and the holidays got in the way of that. I didn't want to save it for next year, so here it is. Besides, I am sure this cake is good to make any time during winter. Just change up the decorations.
The original recipe is from Laura's Bakery.

Gingerbread Bundt Cake: (serves 20)
- 360 gr butter
- 280 dark brown castor sugar
- 16 gr vanilla sugar
- 8 eggs
- 360 gr self rising flour
- 320 gr maple syrup (or other)
- pinch of salt
- 1.5 tbsp ginger powder
- 1.5 tbsp cinnamon
- 3 tsp nutmeg
- 150 gr white chocolate
- chocolate sprinkles
- chocolate holly leaves

Beat butter and both sugars creamy together. Add the eggs one by one, make sure one egg is absorbed before adding the next. Don't worry about the state of the batter at this point, because it has too many fluids, but it will be fine later on. Add the syrup and mix well, then add the flour, salt and spices. Now mix until you have a smooth batter. If your bundt cake pan is not silicone, you might want to line it with butter and some flour, but with my silicone one, this isn't needed. Add all the batter in the pan and bake the cake in a pre heated oven on 170 degrees for about 60-70 minutes.

Let the cake completely cool down before you start with the decorations. We actually baked the cake one day in advance, covered it up and let it stay overnight before we decorated it this next day. Melt the white chocolate au bain marie and pour it over the cake. I did a tablespoon at the time because I don't have much decorating experience and I just wanted to make sure it was evenly divided. I started with adding a couple of handfuls of chocolate sprinkles. And then gently placed the chocolate leaves on top. The latter should be fine because the melting temperature of white chocolate is lower than milk chocolate. Make sure the chocolate is completely set before serving.

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Bento Bites: Voodoo Lounge Cupcakes

Sometimes you have to think out of the box and with Rudolph's savoury cupcakes you can make cupcakes for lunch or even for dinner. The latter is what we did a couple of weeks ago. I think this dish could be very festive on your x-mas table as a side dish or as part of a non traditional x-mas lunch. If you are looking for something different, It is an easy recipe, it just needs some oven time. Originally this recipe was made with minced chicken meat, but I made a vegetarian version. Sorry for the picture. My therapy lamp was on during dinner that day. And as you know, I don't alter things for pictures, I just take a snap before eating it ;)

Voodoo Lounge Cupcakes: (makes 12-16)
- 250 gr whole wheat flour
- 9 gr baking powder
- 1 heaping tbsp BBQ spices
- 300 gr vegetarian mince
- 2 eggs
- 300 ml buttermilk
- 80 ml sunflower oil
- 60 gr corn
- 60 gr grated cheese
- 2 tbsp chives, chopped

For the sauce:
- 1 spring onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- pinch of chili powder
- a bit of oil
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp brown castor sugar
- 200 ml vegetable broth
- 1 tsp cornstarch

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder and BBQ spices together with a spoon. In another bowl, mix mince, eggs, buttermilk, sunflower oil, corn, cheese and chives. Stir both mixtures together until combined. Fill the holes in a cupcake tray halfway to 3/4 and bake them for about 25 minutes.

Chop garlic and onion. Heat a bit of oil in a pan and bake the garlic, onion, tomato paste and sugar for about 3 minutes. Add vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Let the sauce simmer on low for about 15 minutes. Add chili powder to taste and if the sauce is to thin add a tsp of cornstarch to bind the sauce.

To garnish the cupcakes, pour some sauce on top and garnish with more spring onions, if desired.
If you have any leftovers, just reheat the cakes and sauce separately, but even cold they are good!

I am hooking this up with Cook it up challenge from Trish. Head over there and link up, if you cooked something from a cookbook :)

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Yule: Stuffed Almond Muffins

Tomorrow it is Yule, the shortest day of the year and the start of winter. I wanted to post more Yule recipes, but sadly I didn't make that many recipes beforehand as I wanted. For Yule you can think of almost any recipes you would make with Christmas, because a lot of Christmas traditions have their origins from Yule. I will bake something else on x-mas eve, but I am not the kind of blogger that bakes their goods before I need them for the sake of blogging ;) But for now enjoy these delicious muffins :)

Stuffed Almond Muffins: (makes 10, or 20 mini)
- 200 gr self rising flour
- 1 heaping tbsp of speculaas spices (or gingerbread spices)
- 150 gr brown castor sugar
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 100 gr hard butter
- 25 gr chopped almonds
- 1 egg and 1 egg yolk
- 1-2 tbsp milk (if needed)
- about 80 gr almond paste

Sift the flour, speculaas spices, sugar and salt in a large bowl and combine. Add the hard butter and make crumbs with 2 knives. Then add the egg yolk and almonds and knead until you have a ball of dough. If it is too crumbly, add first 1 tbsp of milk and if that isn't enough add another. Wrap the ball in plastic foil and leave it at least one hour in the fridge, but this can also be done overnight.

Pre heat the oven to 160 degrees. I use a silicone muffin tin, so I don't have to grease them but if you have a tin one, please do. Roll the dough into a rectangular and cut out circles that are slightly bigger than the holes of the muffin tin you are using. You can use a small glass to do this. Fill each hole with a piece of dough. Make little balls of almond paste with your hands and place them on the dough. Then cut out some smaller circles from the dough to function as a lid. Press them on the almond paste and make sure you the dough is connected so the muffins stay closed.

Glaze them with some egg. Bake them for about 25 minutes (15-20 for mini)

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