Individual Honey and Walnut Cheesecakes

Dessert Challenge time has rolled around once again!  And once again we have a classic combination that I have never encountered before!  This month's ingredients are honey and walnut and my contribution is little, individual cheesecakes!  Also, as an added bonus, these cheesecakes are both sugar free and wheat free, as all the sugar is replaced with honey and the base is made of nuts! 

When I sat down to think about this challenge I was at a bit of a loss.  Honey and walnut is not something I've really used in combination and I've only used honey...once I believe as a significant ingredient, back when I made that honeycomb layer cake.  Oh wait, there was also that honey wheat bread.  But yes, for the most part, not really worked with this month's ingredients.  Hence I decided to turn to Google and see what came up for the two of them.  Of course, the most popular result was baklava!  I did consider baklava.  But it does involve my nemesis: pastry!  And you know me, I am wanting to make my own pastry.  I can't just buy it from a shop!  But baklava requires phyllo pastry, which is possibly one of the most terrifying looking pastries to make and I didn't think I was quite ready to attempt that.  Besides, I don't have a big enough table for all the stretching.

So it was back to the drawing board.  To be honest, I am not entirely sure how I eventually ended up at cheesecakes.  I have never made cheesecake ever.  Nor have I eaten it.  It just doesn't really appeal to me.  But that never stops me from making something.  Some browsing around yielded that I could use walnuts to make a base so that was great and I figured I could get the honey bit into the cheesecake's filling somehow.  It was then I had an idea!  Honey can be used as a sugar substitute so why not substitute the sugar in the filling for honey!  Clearly this was a stroke of genius!  So I looked into ratios and advice of substituting honey.  When it came to cheesecakes though, most places recommended against it due to the liquid content.  But one site did have some suggestions on how it could be done so I took inspiration from there.  I then found a simple looking cheesecake recipe to work from and was set!

Now obviously, when you have no experience either making or eating something then it is clearly a great idea to mess with a recipe!  You may have guessed that the first attempt did not go quite to plan.  Its main problem was the base.  My first issue was that I did not have ground almonds.  Well, I did but they were out of date so I couldn't use them and I hadn't ordered more.  I should really not be so lazy about walking over to the kitchen and checking these things when I am ordering my weekly shop.  Anyway, it meant I ended up substituting in more walnuts.  I also did not bake the base on its own, because the recipe I was adapting didn't either.  I had also read that nuts could burn much more easily than a biscuit base and didn't want to risk cooking them for too long.  The result after baking the whole thing was that I had a greasy base that remained rather gross and soggy even after the cases were removed.  They also fell apart very easily and were apparently quite bitter tasting.  Oh dear.  The topping was apparently quite nice according to my lovely tasters at Markinch Primary School, which was something at least because I had no idea if it had come out correctly.  I had kept them in the oven a lot longer than recommended because I could not work out if they were cooked or not.  However, overall, I was not happy.  So I made a second attempt the following weekend.

This time I made some changes.  I actually put the ground almonds in this time and I baked the base sans topping for a bit first to try and firm it up somewhat.  I had also been unhappy with the presentation of the previous cakes because I had used very large cases to line my tins.  Too large and so they folded in and caused the final cakes to have weird shapes.  This time, I used smaller cases.  I also decided to pipe my filling in, rather than use a spoon since it gave a smoother finish.  I stuck to the cooking time too.  I could actually see a change in colour on this attempt.  I couldn't with the last batch which is why I cooked them longer than I should have.  My final changes came with the decoration.  Before I had just drizzled them with honey and topped with a walnut.  I figured I could do better and go a bit fancier.  So I made a honey glaze to coat the walnuts and then roasted them!  And then made a honey sauce for drizzling.

And the final result?  A VAST improvement!  For a start, they looked much nicer and more appetising.  The bases were not greasy though they were still a little soft in comparison to a normal cheesecake base.  And the taste was much, MUCH better according to my tasters.  These ones were scoffed!  I was very pleased.  I am definitely getting better at this baking thing if I can mess with a recipe to such an extent and get a great result on the second attempt.  Of course, I would have preferred it to be right first time around but I am still very happy!

Recipe - inspired by Bill Granger, via GoodFood

Makes 12 individual cheesecakes

Base:

• 100g/3.5oz walnut halves
• 55g/2oz ground almonds
• 50g/1.7oz butter 

Filling:

• 400g/14oz cream cheese
• 55g/2oz runny honey 
• 100ml/3.5fl.oz sour cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Zest of half a lemon

Honey Roasted Walnuts:

• 30g/1oz runny honey
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 55g/2oz walnut halves

Honey Drizzle:

• 55g/2oz runny honey
• 15g/0.5oz butter
• 1 tsp water 

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3 and line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Blend the walnuts into crumbs in a food processor.
3. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and then add it and the ground almonds to the walnuts.  Mix to combine.
4. Divide the nut mixture between the paper cases and press flat.
5. Bake for about 20 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, make the filling by first mixing the cream cheese, sour cream and honey together in a large bowl until smooth.
7. Add the egg yolk, vanilla extract and lemon zest and mix to combine.
8. Either spoon or pipe the mixture into the prepared cases on top of the walnut base.
9. Put back in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the topping has puffed up and started to change colour.
10. Switch off the oven and leave the door ajar.  Let the cheesecakes rest in the oven for about 30 minutes before removing and carefully transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
11. Whilst the cheesecakes cool, make the honey roasted walnuts.  Cover 2 small trays with baking parchment and preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 1.  
12. Put the honey in a small saucepan and heat gently until it becomes thin and very, very runny.
13. Stir in the cayenne pepper with a rubber spatula.
14. Add the walnut halves and stir until they are fully coated. 
15. Spread the coated walnuts out onto one of the trays in a single layer and then bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.
16. Remove from the oven and transfer to the other tray and allow to cool so that the glaze sets.
17. When the cheesecakes have cooled, press a glazed walnut piece into the top and then store in the fridge until ready to serve.
18. Make the glaze shortly before serving.  Put the honey, butter and water into a small saucepan.
19. Cook over a gentle heat until the butter melts and the honey turns thin.  Whisk together for about 5 minutes.
20. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.  It will darken and thicken.
21. To serve, remove the cheesecakes from their cases and plate.  Give the sauce a quick whisk and then drizzle over the top of the cheesecakes.

Honey Wheat Bread

 

It's been quite a busy few days for baking.  There are three entries I need to compile for the blog (including this one) so best get a move on.

So, to kickstart it all, I present honey wheat bread!  Been a while since I've done bread and this one was a PAIN.  It all started as a reason to use up the leftover buttermilk again.  I really wish I could get smaller pots of buttermilk sometimes.  I always have leftovers I need to use up.  Anyway, I was originally looking at cake recipes but then saw one for honey wheat buttermilk bread, which sounded like it would be a nice one to make for the fiancé.  I really wanted to make him something yummy since he had an eleven hour shift on Sunday, starting at 7:30am, with a 6 mile cycle to get there.  Not fun.  But this bread sounded perfect.

And thus I set about making it.  Seemed easy enough though the dough was ridiculously sticky.  I ended up adding a bit more flour just to make it more manageable, though still sticky.  It proved to be an annoying dough, since it really didn't want to rise on the first go around.  Then when I knocked it back, re-kneaded and put it in the bread tin, it did rise, albeit very slowly and with considerable help from the electric heater.  But fine, it looked alright and so in the oven it went. 

Now when baking bread, you know it's down when it sounds hollow when tapped on the base.  I cooked it for the time recommended, pulled it out, flipped it and tapped it.  Thunk.  No hollow sound.  Okay, I thought, I'll just put it back in.  I did this at least 3 more times and still wasn't getting a good sound.  So in the end, I just pulled it and left it to cool, thinking that maybe I was mishearing it.

But then the cutting came.  When I've made bread previously, we've always eaten it almost fresh from the oven and it's been scrummy.  So I was unbelievably disappointed when I cut into the loaf and discovered the bottom half was still raw.  The fiancé still thought it tasted good but I was not happy.

 

On to round two.  I decided there could be many things that caused the problem: needing new yeast; not kneading enough; the recipe was intended for a breadmaker; should have left it to cool completely before cutting.  One of those had to be the cause, right?  So I found a very similar recipe, this one not intended for a breadmaker, and had the fiancé pick me up new yeast when he went to the supermarket (along with more buttermilk).  Again, I did what the recipe told me and thought this time around would be more successful.  But it wasn't.  It was still raw at the bottom.  The oven temperature was right.  The internal temperature of the bread was right.  I left it to cool before cutting but nope, still didn't work.

Now I was determined.  I was going to give it one more shot and this time I was going to do what I had been avoiding, which was using a recipe from the only bread book I own.  I had not turned to it before because I feel bad posting recipes from just one book (despite how awesome it is).  But the past two failures had pushed me to it so I flicked through and found something fairly similar, though not identical.  This recipe didn't have buttermilk in it (though I added some in instead of some of the milk) and it wasn't a yeasted dough.  So it was a very quick bread to make.

And it worked!  I was so happy.  It rose nicely and looked good when I cut it up.  Plus it was cooked through.  Honestly, The Big Book of Bread never steers me wrong.  No wonder I only own one bread book.

The fiancé also enjoyed it.  Throughout the trials, I'd used varying amounts of honey.  The first had 4 tbsp honey, and you could really taste it.  The second had 2 tbsp and didn't come through at all.  This recipe also called for 4, but I made it 3, because the fiancé said that something between the two previous ones would be perfect.  So the honey taste is subtler in this one, but still clearly there and would not clash with any topping you chose to put on the bread.

Recipe - adapted from The Big Book of Bread

Makes 1 x 20cm/8inch round loaf

• 450g/1lb wholemeal flour
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 25g/1oz butter
• 3-4 tbsp runny honey
• 55ml/2fl.oz buttermilk
• About 200ml/7fl.oz milk

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6 and flour a baking tray.
2. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon together in a large bowl.
3. Dice up the butter and add it to the dry ingredients.  Rub it in with your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Add the honey and buttermilk and stir in.
5. Add the milk a little at a time, mixing everything together until you form a soft dough.  You might not need all the milk.
6. Knead the dough gently in the bowl or on a lightly floured surface for 5-10 minutes. 
7. Shape into a 20cm/8inch round (a flattish circle) and place on the tray.
8. Use a sharp knife to cut three slits across the top of the dough.
9. Bake for 25-30 minutes until it is risen and lightly browned.  It should sound hollow when tapped on the base.
10. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Turkish Delight

So today is another branch into new territory: sweet making!  I tried making fudge a couple of years ago but it didn't work.  I think I suffered by not having a sugar thermometer since I could not tell if I'd reached the soft ball stage or not, even with the water test.  The fiancé also attempts to make fudge for me each Valentine's Day, with varying degrees of success.  He certainly gets better every year.  Anyway, since my first failure I'd not really considered making sweets again until I visited my family over Easter.  My Dad's partner has a bunch of cooking books in her kitchen which I decided to rifle through since that is what I do when I'm bored.  I fell in love with The Home-Made Sweet Shop.  It is a GORGEOUS book with lots of recipes that I wanted to try.  I have since bought my own copy but it was only yesterday that I was brave enough to try one.

Today is the birthday of the fiancé's dad, and he likes Turkish delight, thus providing the perfect excuse to give it a go.  I only made a fifth of the amount in the book since 1.6kg of the stuff seemed a bit excessive.  Consequently I shortened some timings based on what looked right.  I also ended up doing it twice because the first batch caught and burnt.  I blame some of the sugar in the sugar syrup re-crystallising.  When I made the second batch I switched up the order I did things to get a better flow and so my syrup didn't cool too much and become impossible to transfer into the rest of the mixture.  Hence I'll document the way I did it.  It was probably the smaller amounts which affected the method.  Ah well.

The final result looks quite good.  Having never had Turkish delight though, I honestly wasn't sure if it was right.  The fiancé tried it for me and said it tasted nice but he's never had it before either so that didn't help much.  So I'll have to wait for a final verdict on taste from his family. The results are in!  Apparently it tasted very much like Turkish Delight and was therefore delicious, it was just a little bit too soft.

Recipe - adapted from The Home-Made Sweet Shop

Makes about 320g

• Butter for greasing
• 180ml/6fl.oz water
• 90g/3.2oz caster sugar
• Pinch of cream of tartar
• 15g/0.5oz cornflour
• 40g/1.4oz icing sugar, plus extra for coating
• 10g/0.35oz honey
• Lemon extract
• Rose extract
• Pink food colouring

1. Grease a small square tin with the butter.  I used two 5x10cm/2x4inch tins.
2. Mix the cornflour, icing sugar and 10ml/0.3fl.oz of the water together in a heatproof bowl to make a paste.
3. Boil 140ml/4.7fl.oz of water and then pour onto the cornflour paste.  Whisk until dissolved.
4. Pour into a saucepan and simmer until it is clear and thick.
5. Meanwhile, put the caster sugar, cream of tartar and the remaining 30ml/1fl.oz of water into a saucepan placed over a medium heat.
6. Stir the sugar to dissolve it, bring to the boil and heat until it reaches the softball stage (114°C/238°F).
7. Add the the clear cornflour mixture slowly, whisking the whole time and then boil for another 5 minutes.  The mixture should be a pale yellow and rather transparent.
8. Turn down the heat and add the honey and a little lemon and rose extract.  I used about 1/4 tsp of each.  Add a couple of drops of pink food colouring and mix.
9. Pour into the prepared tins and leave to cool for several hours.
10. Cover a board with icing sugar and turn the Turkish delight out onto it.  It may need a knife run around the edges and a slight nudge to encourage it out.  
11. Coat in icing sugar and cut into smaller pieces.  Re-coat with sugar a few times as it will absorb it.
12. When storing, do so in an airtight container with lots of icing sugar to stop them sticking together.  Eat within one week.

Honeycomb Layer Cake

Today is my birthday!  So now I'm 24.  And engaged, since the boyfriend proposed to me this morning over presents (and should probably be promoted to 'the fiancé' now).  I may just be terribly chuffed.

Anyway, I've usually made my own birthday cake since I was about...9...10, after my first brother was born at the very least (on my eighth birthday, I was not happy).  I was never a fan of store bought cakes, especially as I didn't really like buttercream at the time.  So I figured I would start making my own so I could have it any way I wanted!  Usually it was a pretty simple sponge made of fairy cake batter with jam in and rolled out fondant on top, decorated with something to do with whatever I was into at the time.  Admittedly my first cake was a domed ladybird covered in chocolate.  Very nice although the middle didn't cook properly...But I was 9/10.  I thought I did quite well in spite of everything.

My point is, I do this every year.  It's just this year I divulged from the norm slightly by not doing my usual cake.  Last year was an experiment with a new sponge recipe but was still a vanilla sponge.  It was the origin of the chocolate orange buttercream though.  This year I stumbled across this cake on Preheat the Oven, the blog of 2011 Great British Bake Off contestant Jason, back at the end of July and knew it was what I wanted for my birthday cake.

It was a bit more of a challenge than I thought.  The honeycomb gave me the most trouble and took me three attempts before I could melt all the sugar without some of it burning and ruining the whole thing.  My poor fiancé is now trying to clean up the mess I made of the saucepans as he clears up my kitchen (being the birthday girl has some perks).  I've also never covered a whole cake in buttercream before, so that was interesting.  I've by no means done a perfect job.  Far from it in fact.  But I'm still rather pleased.

The only other thing I can say about the cake that disappointed me was that it was a bit flatter than expected.  But that's my own fault.  I was very silly when reading through the recipe to see if I had all the ingredients and forgot to check the size of tin.  It was supposed to be a 6 inch tin, which I did not have and could not find when I was in Kirkcaldy.  I was kicking myself for not buying the ones I saw in Sainsbury's last week.  That's what I get for behaving myself.  So mine is made in 7 inch tins instead, because that's the smallest I could find.

Taste wise it is quite lovely.  You can taste the honey in the cake but it's not too strong, which is great if you're not much of a honey lover, like myself.  The buttercream is quite sweet but not ridiculously so and the honeycomb is lovely, crunchy and sweet.

Recipe - adapted from Preheat the Oven 


For the cakes:

• 150g/5.3oz unsalted butter
• 180g/6.3oz light brown sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 150g/5.3oz self-raising flour
• 75g/2.6oz plain flour
• 75ml/2.6fl.oz milk
• 6 tbsp honey

For the honeycomb:

• 100g/3.5oz caster sugar
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the buttercream:

• 480g/17oz icing sugar
• 120g/4.2oz unsalted butter
• 60ml/2fl.oz milk at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.  Grease and line a 15cm/6inch cake tin (you can use a 17.5cm/7inch pan like I did but you get a shorter, wider cake obviously).
2. Start by making the cakes.  You make the batter for each cake individually, using 1/3 of the ingredients for each.
3. Beat together 60g/2.1oz of sugar and 50g/1.8oz butter until pale and creamy.
4. Add one egg and beat in.
5. Combine 50g/1.8oz self-raising flour and 25g/0.6oz plain flour together in a bowl.  Add half to the cake batter and mix in.
6. Add 25ml/0.6fl.oz milk and 2 tbsp of honey to the batter and mix in.
7. Add the rest of the flour and beat in until smooth.
8. Transfer batter to the cake tin, smoothing with a rubber spatula.
9. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
10. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
11. Repeat steps 3-10 until you have a total of three cakes.
12. To make the honeycomb, first prepare a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. 
13. Put the sugar and golden syrup into a saucepan and place over a medium heat.  I recommend using a fairly large saucepan that distributes heat evenly and place it on the biggest ring on your hob.  That way most of the sugar should dissolve at the same rate.
14. You want the sugar to melt and the mixture to be the colour of honey.  Do not stir.  Just be patient.
15. When the mixture is the right colour, quickly add the bicarbonate of soda and whisk it in, then pour immediately onto the prepared baking sheet.
16. Leave to one side to set.
17. To make the buttercream, mix half the icing sugar together with the butter, vanilla extract and milk until smooth and creamy.
18. Add the rest of the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time, mixing after each addition.  The result should be thick and creamy.
19. Transfer 1/3 of the buttercream to a different bowl.
20. Crush 30g/1oz of the honeycomb and mix it in to the smaller amount of buttercream.
21. Place the first layer of cake on a cake board or serving plate and cover the top with half the honeycombed buttercream.
22. Place the second layer on top, cover with the second half of the honeycombed buttercream, then top with the final layer.  Press down gently to squish them together a bit more.
23. Cover the top and sides of the cake in a fairly thin layer of buttercream to create a crumb coat.  This is basically to prevent crumbs showing through.
24. Coat the top and sides with a thicker layer of buttercream, smoothing over as you go.
25. Break off about 6 large-ish shards of honeycomb and place on top.  Break the remaining honeycomb into small piece and place around the base of the cake.  If there's still a bit left over after that, crush it and sprinkle it on top.