Nutella Cheesecake Bars

WARNING: DIETERS AVOID THIS RECIPE!
It is not low fat. 
It is not healthy.
It is however delicious.
And it will definitely require some exercise afterwards to prevent this sugar from going straight to your thighs.
But if you, like me, have a sweet tooth, then it's absolutely worth it.

Nutella Cheesecake Bars

(original recipe here) 

Ingredients

Crust

• 1.5 cups crushed tennis biscuits (about 1 pack)
• 6 Tablespoons (90 grams) melted unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup (67 grams) granulated sugar

Filling

• 2 tubs cream cheese (460g), softened to room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup (100g) Nutella, slightly warmed*

Directions

Preheat oven to 180C degrees. Line a 8x8inch baking pan with aluminium foil with enough overhang on the sides. Set aside. My dish was 6x10inch which worked perfectly.

To make the crust: 

Using either a blender or a bag and rolling pin, pulverise the biscuits. 

Pour into a medium bowl and mix with melted butter and sugar. 

Press into the lined pan. Bake for 5 - 8 minutes. Allow to cool as you prepare the filling.

For the filling: 

Beat cream cheese, egg, sugar, and vanilla extract together with a hand or stand mixer until smooth and creamy, about 3 full minutes. 

Spoon filling onto the crust. Drop large spoonfuls of Nutella on top of filling and swirl gently with a knife.

(To make the Nutella easier to manage, heat it for a few seconds as it then becomes much easier to swirl.)

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cheesecake has set up and the edges are lightly browned. The bars will be very puffy, but will sink slightly down as they cool. Allow to cool for 30 minutes at room temperature on a wire rack and then chill in the refrigerator for at least three hours. Lift the foil out of the pan and cut into squares.

Store bars in a covered container for up to 5 days in the refrigerator. (That’s if you can manage to make them last that long. We gobbled mine up in 3 days)

Baking the crust

Dollop in the cream cheese mixture

Drop the Nutella on the top and swirl around

After refrigerating, cut up and enjoy!

Sticky, Messy, Delicious...

This cake is not for sophisticated parties. 
This cake is not for high teas with the posh girlies. 
This cake is for indulgent moments with friends, where chocolate moustaches and licking fingers is totally acceptable. 
It is sticky, it is moist, it is messy but it is absolutely delicious! 

Sticky Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

2 cups white sugar

1 3/4 cups cake flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 extra-large eggs (at room temperature)

1 cup full cream milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

Directions

Heat oven to 180C

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb and salt.

Into the flour mixture add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.  Beat on a medium speed until blended. Be sure not to overbeat.

Stir in boiling water (the batter will look really runny - don’t panic this is the secret trick).

Spay cake tin with ‘spray and bake’ and fill with all batter (will be about half full).

I use an 11 inch tin so that the cake is big but not thick, producing far more ladylike slices.

Cook in heated oven for 40 minutes.

Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.

Chocolate Cream Cheese icing

Ingredients:
½ cup butter (NOT margarine) Set at room temperature to soften.
1 tub of cream cheese (230g)  - directly from fridge.

½ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups icing sugar

Directions:
Place the butter in your mixing bowl and beat until smooth.
Mix the cream cheese in and continue to blend until smooth and combined.
Add vanilla extract.
Add cocoa powder to mixture
Add in the icing sugar, one cup at a time, blending in until smooth. Increase speed once all icing sugar has been added to fluff icing up.

Once cake has cooled, slice cake through the centre, ice the inside, then place the top half back on the iced bottom and ice the whole cake.
Decorate as desired. (I like to add strawberries to create a bit of a taste explosion, with the rich chocolate contrasted against the soft light strawberry)

 

Dress - Forever New

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Moist Chocolate Brownies

I had a fairly last minute invite to a friend's place (well we kind of knew we would see them over the weekend but no details had been confirmed) and wanted a quick and easy recipe that ticked all the boxes (tasty, cost effective, quick, simple), and this brownie recipe seemed to be the ideal solution.

Tasty - Heck yes!
Cost effective - Most definitely (I actually had all the ingredients at home already)
Quick - Yup.  About 15 minutes effort and 30 minutes baking time
Simple - Too easy. All ingredients in one pot, mixed. No mess, no fuss.

Ingredients

3/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts) - optional.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
Grease a 9x13" pan.
Melt butter in a big enough saucepan over low heat, then stir in cocoa (all ingredients will be mixed in this pan, hence why it must be big enough)
Remove from heat and mix in sugar and vanilla then mix in eggs one at a time.
Stir in remaining ingredients then stir in nuts.
Pour into baking pan and bake for 30 minutes.
Cool completely, before cutting into squares.

Recipe taken from here 

Can you just see the soft gooey centre...

LOVE this sign. Seen hanging in my friend's kitchen...

Dangerously Decadent

Warning: Do not attempt this recipe if you are dieting or trying to watch your weight. These cookies are devilishly decadent and you may find yourself having more than just one…

Rolo Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

¾ cup baking cocoa

1 cup butter

2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 ¾ cup flour

1tsp baking soda

5 packs of rolos (50 rolos in total)

extra sugar to roll each ball in.

Directions

Mix sugars, cocoa, butter, vanilla and eggs.

Once mixed add the flour and baking soda.

Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes

Roll dough around each rolo, (it should now be about the size of a ping pong ball), and then roll each ball in sugar.

Place on a baking tray that has been covered with wax paper then bake for 8 – 10 minutes. They will start to crack when they are ready to be taken out.

Cookies will last if kept in an airtight container (assuming they don’t all get eaten immediately.)

Note: allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes before taking them off the paper. the rolo inside will be very soft, and when I took one off to soon the entire rolo dropped out and stuck to the paper...

Original recipe taken off the Big Oven iphone app.