Martha Stewart's New York style Cheesecake

I meant to post this over the weekend but it's been really hectic around here (and I've got really uncooperative wifi at the moment). Sunday was especially crazy with the hot windy weather causing a huge fire to flare up near my house. Originally it was headed in our direction, so everyone but my Dad and brother in law evacuated to my sister's house. Luckily (for us) the wind changed not long after we'd left and caused the fire to head away from us. We spent the day watching the ABC news channel and listening to the water bombers (helicopters) fly back and forth over the house and trying to entertain 5 very young kids.

 Mum, Dad and I were came home Sunday night and it was so eerie driving through the burnt area and seeing the whole horizon glowing from the fire. On the one hand we were so so lucky that the wind changed and sent the fire in a different direction but I feel terrible for all those other people who have been effected by the fires. They're still going after a couple of days and I'm just hoping that all those amazing fire-fighters are able to put them out.

It's crazy to think only a day before all of this, on Saturday, we were all together as a family celebrating my Mum's birthday. Mum loves cheesecakes so I decided to try this Martha Stewart recipe for New York style cheesecake. There's a lot of cream cheese in this and it makes a huge cheesecake so you could probably half the recipe to make a smaller one. It's a great recipe though, and it went perfectly with the ice cream and strawberries one of my sisters brought over. 

Ingredients:
FOR THE CRUST-
1 packet of Marie biscuits
6 tbsp butter, melted; plus more for pan
2 tbsp sugar
Pinch salt
FOR THE CAKE - 
3.5 lb (1.5kg) cream cheese, room temperature
2 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup plain flour
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5 large eggs, room temperature
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Butter the sides of a large springform pan. Wrap exterior of pan (including base) in a double layer of foil.
2. To make the crust, process biscuits in a food processor until fine. Combine biscuit crumbs, butter, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Transfer mixture to the pan and pat into an even layer. Freeze the dough in the pan for about 15 minutes. Plan the pan on a baking sheet and bake until the crust is firm to touch and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire wrack to cool completely.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the cream cheese on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and flour. With mixer on low speed, gradually add sugar mixture to cream cheese; mix until smooth. Add sour cream and vanilla; mix until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined; don't over mix.
5. Pour cream cheese filling into the prepared pan. Set pan inside a large, shallow roasting pan. Carefully pour boiling water into roasting pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the springform pan.
6. Bake for 45 minutes; reduce oven temperature to 160 degrees Celsius. Continue baking until cake is set but still slightly wobbly in the centre, about 30 minutes more. Turn off oven; leave the cake in the oven with the door slightly ajar, about 1 hour. Transfer the pan to a wire rack; let cake cool completely. Refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 6 hours or overnight. Before unmolding, run a knife around the edge of the cake.

Martha Stewart's Zucchini Fritters

You may have noticed a lack of recipes on the blog recently. To be honest I've not really felt much like cooking much for these past few months. I'm not really sure why, usually I want to cook everything, all the time (make ALL the recipes!) but lately that drive just hasn't been there. Until these last couple of days, when the urge to cook has started coming back.

I had a couple of zucchini's in my fridge that I wanted to use, but felt like doing something different than just steaming them for dinner. I thought this Martha Stewart recipe for Zucchini Fritters sounded interesting, and tried them out. I've made them a couple of times since then and they've been a hit with everyone. I really like how easy they are to make and the different subtle flavours you can taste in them. Who would have thought that lemon zest would work with zucchini? But it really does.

INGREDIENTS:
- 2 medium zucchini
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp grated lemon zest
- 10 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup plain flour
- Olive oil

METHOD:
1.  Grate zucchini into a medium bowl. Add salt, lemon zest, chopped parsley, garlic, pepper, and eggs. Mix well to combine. Slowly add the flour, stirring so no lumps form.
2. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat until the oil sizzles when you drop a small amount of zucchini mixture into the pan. Carefully drop two spoonfuls of zucchini mixture into the pan; repeat, spacing fritters a few inches apart.
3. Cook fritters until golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Lower heat to medium. Turn fritters, and continue cooking until golden, 2 to 3 minutes more. Transfer fritters to a plate; set aside. Cook remaining mixture, adding more oil to the frying pan if necessary.

RECIPE SOURCE:
Martha Stewart recipe for
Zucchini Fritters

Mini Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

Firstly, I'm going to have to start off another post with an apology. I know it's been a long time since I've posted and hopefully I'm going to be able to catch up on posts in the near future. To be honest, though, I haven't been cooking as much as I usually do. Well, when it comes to things I can blog about anyway. This has been for a couple of reasons, but the main two are that I'm saving up for an overseas trip at the end of the year (New York!!) plus I've been trying to eat healthier meals and less snacks. So you can see why I haven't had many things I could blog about! But, I'm not going to let this stop me from blogging. My plan is to share some more budget friendly meal options and less of the usual treats you might have become used to seeing. Well apart from today's post, as you can see!
These cheesecakes were a great last minute recipe for a BBQ I was invited to. They were super easy to make and turned out beautifully (thanks Martha!). My sister didn't need to be asked twice when I offered to leave the 6 leftover cheesecakes for her and her partner to eat. I made it a little more affordable by halving the recipe - there was only 9 of us at the BBQ, so the full recipe for 30 cheesecakes (plus the lemon meringue pie my Mum made) would have been a little over the top!
Ingredients: (for the full recipe)
42 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped
900g (2 pounds) cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 135C (275F). Line muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-filled cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, about 22 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate (still in tins) at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

Recipe Source:
Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
Recipe for 'Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes'

Mini Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes Ingredients: (for the full recipe) 42 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped 900g (2 pounds) cream cheese 1 cup sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 4 large eggs, lightly beaten 1 cup sour cream Pinch of salt Method: 1. Preheat oven to 135C (275F). Line muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup. 2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla. 3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand. 4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-filled cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, about 22 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate (still in tins) at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

Melted Crayon Art

I know this isn't exactly food related or a recipe but thanks to all the blogs I regularly read and to my new pinterest account I have a feeling I might be posting more entries like this. Besides, Martha isn't just about recipes and cooking either - in fact she's one of the inspirations I've had to start getting into crafts more!

I've recently become addicted to a blog called Whatever, and as I was reading back through the entries (yes I managed to read all of them!) I found one about a project the blog owner, Meg Duerksen, had done with her kids called Melted Crayon Art. I'm not usually into crafts, but this one caught my eye with all the bright colours, and it seemed simple enough that even I could manage it! All you need for it is crayons in whatever colours you want, a canvas, a glue gun and a hair dryer. I managed to find everything quite easily - except for the crayons. I ended up going into four or five stores and they'd either have only one packet of crayons or none! Anyway, here's my attempt at Melted Crayon Art:

Start by glueing your crayons to the top of your canvas in the order you want them in.

Do this until they go right across the top of the canvas.

Turn your hair dryer on and hold close to the crayons until they start to melt.

It was really hard to get my hair dryer in the right position to get the colours to go straight down. There was a little bit of splattering to the side, although at this early stage it didn't matter too much.

And done! I'm really happy with how it turned out, but I think if I did it again I'd take out the darker colours and have more of the brighter colours. I also found a similar idea on a blog, Dilly Dally Art, where the creator cut out a letter (for the start of her daughter's names) using paper and placed it under the crayons in the centre of the canvas. After she'd melted the crayons she took the letter off, leaving a white letter amongst the melted crayon. It looked really effective and I'm hoping to try that in the future too.