Ricecooker Pumpkin Cheesecake

Cheesecake is my favorite cake. Cheesecake is pretty popular in Korea nowadays and many people prefer Cheesecake to the more traditional Whipping Cream-Fruit Cake. Unfortunately though, the Cheesecake Factory hasn’t opened a franchise store in Seoul yet. So, instead of being depressed and gloomy, I decided to make my own Pumpkin Cheesecake in my little red rice cooker.

Ingredients

makes a small 14cm cake

for the crust

• 3/4 cups digestive biscuits (5 pieces)
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

for the filling

• 2 packages (230g) of cream cheese, room temperature
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 2,5 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 2 large eggs, room temperature

Preparation

1. Make the crust:

Crush the digestive biscuits in a zip lock back with your hands. Melt your butter in a microwave. In a medium bowl, mix digestive crumbs, sugar, and butter until moistened. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom of your rice cooker bowl. Press cook and let the crumbs set. This will take around 10 minutes.

2. Make the filling:

With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar on low speed until smooth, mix in flour (do not overmix). Add pumpkin puree, cinnamon powder, vanilla, and salt. Mix just until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until each is incorporated before adding the next.

Pour the mixture onto your cooled crust. The good thing about using the rice cooker to make cheese cake is that you don’t have to grease the sides of the bowl.

Press cook and cook your cheesecake for 45-50 minutes. Because the rice cooker doesn’t get as hot as an oven, it will take a little bit longer than baking in an oven! When the cheese cake is done, open the lid and give the rice cooker a little shake to see if the centre is still a little bit jiggly. Jiggly is a good sign.

Now close the lid and let the cake cool down a little in the rice cooker. This will prevent the top from cracking. Once it has cooled down a little, remove the bowl from the rice cooker. Place a plate firmly onto the bowl and carefully tip the cake upside down. Then, quickly take another plate and tip it back upright.

Decorate with nuts, or cinnamon sugar!

Be creative 🐱

Ricecooker Carrot Cake

I really had no idea that my ricecooker could serve as an oven. I’m still somewhat amazed and astonished at the outcome of my cakes. And right now, I’m especially proud of this simple, but delicious Carrot Cake which I baked over the weekend. Moist on the inside with a bunch of colliding flavours. Simply fantastic I must say ~^^It doesn’t always have to be fancy, does it? As we all know very well, it’s the inside that counts.

Ingredients

(makes a 14cm cake) Feel free to double the amount of ingredients if you have a bigger rice cooker.

Cake batter

• 3 eggs (room temperature)
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 large grated carrot (squeeze out the moisture)
• 2 Tbs sugar
• 3/4 cup crushed nuts (I used walnuts)
• 1/3 cup canola oil (neutral tasting oil of any kind will do)
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Preparation

Start the cake by greasing the rice cooker bowl with vegetable oil (you can also use butter).  Use your fingers or a kitchen towel.

Sift together flour and baking powder.  Set aside.

Whisk egg whites.  When egg whites turn white and foamy, add half of the sugar and continue to whisk.  When the sugar has been incorporated and the meringue starts turning glossy, add the rest of the sugar and continue to whisk.  Stop when the meringue is firm and starts building peaks.  When you lift the whisk, the tip should gently fall, which is about soft-medium.

Now add the egg yolks one by one and salt and continue to mix. Then add the oil, cinnamon and shredded carrots to the mixture. Using a wooden spoon, combine the ingrediens. Then add the nuts and give everything a good stir.

Still using your wooden spoon, add half of the flour and incorporate into the mixture. Then, add in the remaining flour and fold in gently. Be careful not to overmix. Stop when there are no lumps in the batter.

Pour your mixture into the rice cooker bowl and press the cook button. Your cake should steam for at least 40 minutes.

To check if your cake is done, insert a wooden stick or skewer into the middle of the cake. If the stick comes out wet, give it another 10 minutes or until the stick comes out dry.

When the cake is done, carefully tilt it onto a rack and let it cool down completely before eating.

Yummmm~

Apple Strudel

Ok, let me explain… I’m sure you remember me telling you that I wouldn’t be baking until I leave to Seoul, right? Well, this baking session wasn’t exactly planned and I had no idea about it until my mom came back from the store with a huge bag of apples and some puff pastry! I swear! Despite the fact that it was not my idea to bake this today, I still ended up making it in the end… and eating a piece. Who wouldn’t?! I mean… this yummy dessert/snack has warm, baked apples, cinnamon, almonds, sugar and lemon oozing out from inside! I couldn’t resisit, I really couldn’t. And neither will wou! There goes my strict diet plan… Shattered on day 2. Yay! ~

Ingredients

(makes 6 Apple Strudels)

• 1 pack ready-made rectangular puff pastry
• 4-5 apples, depending on their size
• 5 tablespoons hazelnut powder
• 2-3 tablespoons raisins
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3-5 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons melted butter + 2 tablespoons for the dough
• 1 egg yolk
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon almond flakes

Preparation

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Peel the apples and cut them into 0,5x1cm pieces. Place apples in a bowl, add the lemon juice, hazelnut powder, raisins, sugar, cinnamon and melted butter to the apples and mix well.

On a clean surface, spread out the puff pastry. Have a baking tray ready lined with baking paper on the side.

Using a knife, cut slits of about 10cm long and 1,5cm wide into the middle of the dough, all the way from one side to the other, as shown in the picture. Spread the remaining melted butter onto the slits before spooning the apple mixture onto the slits in the middle of the dough.

For the eggwash, combine the egg yolk with the milk and mix well.

Using a kitchen brush, paint one side of the dough with the eggwash to make it stick better. Fold the un-eggwashed-side over the apples tightly, then fold the egg washed side over to make a roll-like-shape.

Divide the roll into 6 equal pieces. Using a steel turner, quickly slide under each piece and transport to the baking tray. Flip the piece of Apple Strudel over so that the slits appear on top and the thicker, double layer is on the bottom.

Eggwash the tops of the Apple Strudels slightly and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes. after 25 minutes, take the baking tray out of the oven, sprinkle some almond flakes onto the tops and bake again until the tops are golden brown. Let the Strudels cool down on a wire rack. Before serving, sprinkle some powdered sugar onto the tops and serve with freshly whipped cream or warm vanilla sauce.

Eat them for breakfast, as a snack or for dessert! These pretty strudels are not too sweet, yet have a simple but delicious filling to satisfy the whole family… Take a bite!

Cinnamon Nut and Raisin Rolls

Cinnamon!!! Nuts!!! And Raisins!!! This is probably THE perfect bread recipe everrr. All of you who love cinnamon, nuts and raisins should definitely try out this recipe! Look how pretty the bread turned out~

Ingredients

(makes two loaf pans full)

Sweet yeast dough

• 2 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
• 3/4 cube (35g) fresh yeast
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon bourbon vanilla
• 1/3 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling and eggwash 

• 2 tablespoons melted and browned butter
• 250g sugar (add more or less, depending on how sweet you want the bread to be)
• 1,5 tablespoons cinnamon
• 5 tablespoons raisins, soaked in 2 tablespoons cognac and 2 tablespoons water
• 6 tablespoons ground hazlenuts
• 1 egg yolk
• 1dl milk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 170°C.

In a large mixing bowl whisk together 2 cups flour, sugar, and salt.  Set aside.

Whisk the egg  and set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt together milk and butter until butter has just melted.  Remove from the heat and add water and vanilla extract.  Break in the fresh yeast and stir well until the yeast has dissolved completely.

Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula.  Add the egg and stir the mixture until the eggs are incorporated into the batter. Add the remaining 3/4 cup of flour and stir with the spatula for about 2 minutes.  The mixture will be sticky.  That’s just how you want it!

Place the dough in a large,  slightly greased bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel.  Place in a warm place and allow to rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

While waiting for the dough to rise, soak the raisins as listed above. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl. In a small frying pan brown the sugar and set aside. In a small bowl combine the egg yolk and 1dl milk for the eggwash.

Once the dough is ready to be deflated, sprinkle some flour onto a clean surface and roll the dough out into a rectangle. (50x30cm) Using a kitchen brush, spread the butter onto the dough. Sprinkle the nut powder onto the butter, evenly spread the cinnamon sugar onto the nut powder and finally top with the soaked (squeeze out the liquid with your hands before adding to the dough) raisins.

Divide the dough into half (you’ll have 2 pieces of 25x30cm rectangles). Leave the dough to rest for 5 minutes. Then start rolling up the dough to make a 25cm roll. Place the roll into a greased loaf pan and let it rest again for 10 minutes in a warm place. Brush some eggwash over the top and sides of your loaf and bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. The top will be a beautifully shiny, golden brown. Serve warm! You’ll love it!!!

Giant Pancake with Plums

Good morning world! I hope you all had a good sleep and started the day as yummly as I did… Because guess what? I had pancakes today! Well… actually not “pancakeS”, I had one… giant…pancake filled with oh-so-sweet, warm and soft plums. Couldn’t be a better start to a day, agreed? Agreed.

Ingredients

(makes one large pancake or several small ones)

• 2 heaped tablespoons of all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons of oats
• 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon bourbon
• 1 small egg
• 1dl buttermilk or normal milk
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• butter for the pan

Filling

• 6-8 plums cut into halves
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preparation

Cut your plums in halves als place them into a small saucepan. Add all the other ingredients for the filling and simmer over low heat until the pancakes are done.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, bourbon and oats. Mix well. In another smaller bowl, whisk the egg and milk until combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir with a spoon. Heat 1 teaspoon of butter in a medium frying pan over medium-high heat. Pour in the pancake mixture and wait until the surface begins to bubble like crazy. This is when you want to turn the pancake over. Voilà! Beautifully browned, right? Now all you do is wait 2 more minutes for the other side to brown too (the second side will not brown the same way the first side did! But that’s normal, don’t panic).

Place the pancake onto a flat plate, fill the plums into half of the pancake, then fold the other half over the plums! Sprinkle some powdered sugar onto the top and dig in!!!

Fruity French Toast

Yummy!!! Another quite healthy breakfast that I made for myself this morning… I just love the fact that you can combine french toast with almost any fruit! I had a banana and some giant blueberries which I skewered in between the bread. I think these skewers look pretty adorable… Don’t you?

Ingredients

(makes 6 skewers)

• 18-20 cubes of brown bread (3-4cm thick)
• 1 large egg
• 200ml buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon bourbon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons butter
• Fruits of your choice (strawberries, raspberries, banana, blueberries…)
• 6 skewers

Preparation

Cut your bread into cubes. Use any bread… Preferably soft white bread. In a bowl, mix the egg, buttermilk, vanilla, sugar and salt together to make the custard. Use your fingers to soak your bread cubes in the custard, turning them over to coat each side well. Make sure your bread is really drenched in the yummy custard!

In a frying pan, heat the butter. Place the soaked bread cubes onto the pan and fry each side for about 3 minutes. Each side should be equally browned.

In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and cinnamon. Place aside.

Cut your fruit, if needed, into 1-2 cm sized bites.

Once the bread is done and brown on each side, take the pan off the heat. Arrange the bread and fruit onto the skewers. You’re free to arrange them however you want to! When the skewers are made and ready, sprinkle some cinnamon sugar over the breads and eat them while they are still warm! Yum…

Cinnamon Rice Pudding

Every night when my head hits the pillow, I think of what I should make for breakfast the next morning. It’s almost like a ritual… I do it every night. Sometimes I have crazy ideas and can’t get to sleep for hours… This was not the case last night (thank goodness). Last night I had a vision of warm, creamy Rice Pudding which I could not get out of my head. No matter how hard I tried to think of some other, more challenging and ingredient-rich recipes, the rice pudding was stuck in my head. So this is what I cooked this morning. Cinnamon Rice Pudding with some slightly baked apples. Simple, easy, not much bling-bling, just tasety!

Ingredients

(serves 2)

• 120g risotto rice (or Arborio)
• 400-450ml low fat milk mixed with 4 tablespoons water
• 3-4 teaspoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bourbon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 apple

Preparation

Put the rice, milk and water into a pot and boil over medium heat. Keep stiring to prevent the milk from overflowing! after about 15 minutes, the milk will have reduced. Now is the time to add the sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. Stir again over medium heat until the milk becomes thicker.

Preheat your oven to 200°C, cut an apple into thin slices and bake them for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, try some rice to see if it has softened enough for your taste. I like my rice pudding to bee soft and runny. If it needs more milk, simply add little by little and wait until it has reduced again. When the rice is ready, take the pot from the heat, add in the butter and stir one last time. Serve in little bowls and garnish with some apple slices and a sprinkle of cinnamon. You can always add more sugar if you have to. I prefer to eat mine not too sweet!

Homemade Cinnamon-Plum Jam

The plum tree in our garden has once more produced a heck of alot of plums this year… I must have picked about 10kg and the tree still looks purple from a distance! So, what to do with all that plum you ask? The first thing I did was cut them in half, pit the stone and put into freezing bags. This way you can keep your plums for… however long you want to actually and always have a bag ready for when you feel like baking a Plum tarte or making Plum compote to go with vanilla ice cream. Since my freezer was packed full I made some home made Plum jam and spiced it with some cinnamon and lemon zest! Perfect breakfast treat with a slice of buttered bread!

Ingredients

(makes 4 jars of jam)

• 1kg ripe plum, washed and pitted
• 500g granulated white sugar
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest

Preparation

Wash out the jam jars with hot water and dry completely with a clean kitchen cloth! Cut your plums into 6-8 pieces and place them into a large pot. Heat up to medium high heat, until the plums start to loose some water. Add the sugar all at once and give the plums a stir. Heat everything on high-heat for 5 minutes or until the plums start to bubble like crazy. Keep stiring and adjust the heat so that the plum-mixture doesn’t overflow… You’ll have a sticky mess if it does! Keep stiring the bottom and add in the cinnamon sticks. Keep simmering for another 5-10 minutes until the juice has reduced and thickened.

Take away from heat and fill up the jars immediately up to the top, leaving only 1cm space between the lid and jam. Close the jars tightly and leave them to cool down to room temperature. Store in a cool place (basement). Once you open a jar, make sure you store it in the fridge. Unopened jam can be stored for… several years, I was told!

Cinnamon sugar pull apart bread

Can you resist this? Can you? I couldn’t… That’s why I just had to try out this amazing recipe I found on “Joy the bakers blog”. It turned out great and I’m very proud!

Ingredients

For the Dough:

• 2 3/4 cups plus 2
  tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons (1
  envelope) active dry yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 ounces unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 large eggs, at room
  temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla
  extract

For the Filling:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground
  nutmeg
• 2 ounces unsalted butter,
  melted until browned

Preparation

In a large mixing bowl mix together 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Set aside.

Whisk together eggs and set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt together milk and butter until butter has just melted. Remove from the heat and add water and vanilla extract. Let mixture stand for a minute or two, or until
the mixture registers 115 to 125 degrees F.

Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula. Add the eggs and stir the mixture until the eggs are incorporated into the batter. The eggs will feel soupy and it’ll seem like the dough and the eggs are never going to come together. Keep stirring. Add the remaining 3/4 cup of flour and stir with the spatula for about 2 minutes. The mixture will be sticky. That’s just right.

Place the dough in a large, greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel. Place in a warm space and allow to rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

While the dough rises, whisk together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg for the filling. Set aside. Melt 2 ounces of butter until browned. Set aside. Grease and flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Set that aside too.

Deflate the risen dough and knead about 2 tablespoons of flour into the dough. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 5 minutes. On a lightly floured work surface, use a rolling pin to roll the dough out. The dough should be 30 cm wide and about 55 cm long. If you can’t get the dough 55cm long… that’s okay. Just roll it as large as the dough will go. Use a pastry brush to spread melted butter across all of the dough. Sprinkle with all of the sugar and cinnamon
mixture. It might seem like a lot of sugar. Just go for it though, you won’t regret it.

Slice the dough vertically, into six equal-sized strips. Stack the strips on top of one another and slice the stack into six equal slices once again. You’ll have six stacks of six squares. Layer the dough squares in the loaf pan like a flip-book. Place a kitchen towel over the loaf pan and allow in a warm place for 30 to 45 minutes or until almost doubled in size.

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 180°C. Place loaf in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is very golden brown. The top may be lightly browned, but the center may still be raw. A nice, dark, golden brown will ensure that the center is cooked as well.

Remove from the oven and allow it to rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the bread and invert onto a clean board. Place a cake stand or cake plate on top of the upside down loaf, and carefully invert so it’s right side up. Serve warm with coffee or tea.

This bread tastes the best when served on the same day… I got a tummy ache because I ate some of it while it was still warm! I just couldn’t help it, the smell was so sweet and yummy!!!!