Apricot Cheesecake with Amaretto Caramel

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 21, 2015 // 50 Comments

I finally started baking again and oh boy did I go hard my first time back! What better way to get my mojo back by baking this wonderfully creamy, thick apricot cheesecake, topped with a delicious amaretto spiked caramel! I think the universe was just waiting for something truly awesome to come into my head before I could bake again, or maybe subconsciously I felt I had to go really big to make up for my absence in the kitchen. Either way, I was so happy with the results – this cheesecake disappeared pretty quickly in my house, despite the size of it!

The inspiration came about when I picked up some apricots from the Indian supermarket by me, I like apricots a lot but I’ve never really done much with them so I decided to pick up a few to see if I could get them to spark my imagination. And they did! Cheesecake is one of my absolutely favourite desserts, if not my actual favourite, and I really don’t make them often enough – so the apricots were destined for a cheesecake! I can’t really say where the inspiration for the amaretto caramel came from, but I’ve been wanting to bake with amaretto for a while now (hopefully one day I’ll work up the courage to make some amaertti cookies!) and almond and apricot are a good match. And it really does work so well, the sweet almond liquor caramel combined with the creamy, tart cheesecake is just a match made in heaven. So good! The caramel is the sauce from my Brown Sugar & Pecan Caramel Pound Cake, it’s thick and delicious and perfect for topping a cheesecake – it sets but doesn’t get hard so the sauce stays on top of your slice but you’re not gonna break your teeth! The very bottom of the sauce layer stayed runny and gooey though, I’m not sure why but I loved it – a little bit of goo is very good in my books!

Now, let’s talk crust! I love the crust of a cheesecake, it might even be my favourite part. I’m personally offended by crustless cheesecakes to be quite honest, if there’s no crust I don’t want to know about it! And my love of cheesecake crusts is why this cake as so much of it – it has a thin crust base and then a thick crust border all the way up the sides, which is the perfect combination in my books. If you don’t like joy, then feel free to limit your crust to the base 😉 The crust on this cheesecake is a digestive biscuit base with some almond flour thrown in for a subtle almondy kick. Don’t worry if you can’t get digestives easily where you live, graham crackers are a good substitute. So now we have creamy, tart cheesecake, sweet amaretto caramel and a crunchy digestive crust – if this isn’t what dreams are made of then I don’t know what is!

Did I mention yet that the apricots are roasted before they go in the cheesecake? Yep! With a little brown sugar to caramelise them just a little and also to reduce the moisture just a little. You don’t have to worry about the liquid in the fruit too much for this particular cheesecake because it doesn’t have any cream in it, so a little extra liquid won’t make it sloppy. This is a baked cheesecake too, I’ve had and seen some wonderful no bake cheesecakes but, for me, a real cheesecake is always baked! You just can’t beat the texture and taste you get from a baked cheesecake. It does take a bit of time for the cheesecake to be ready to eat, but it’s worth it. Plus most of the time is baking, cooling and chilling, the actual hands on time isn’t very long and it’s easy to do. Trust me, you can do this! And you’re going to want to! Apricots aren’t in season in the northern hemisphere right now (mine were imported), so you can use canned apricots if you can’t find any fresh ones – just make sure to drain them really well before roasting. Another important note if you’re looking to make this cheesecake but you don’t want any alcohol in it – just swap out the amaretto for almond extract, I’ll include a note on that in the recipe.

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Apricot Cheesecake with Amaretto Caramel

2015-01-21 19:52:02

A delicious creamy and thick apricot cheesecake with an amaretto spiked caramel topping and a digestive crust.

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For the crust

250g digestive biscuits
50g ground almonds
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
150g unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake

8 apricots
1 tbsp brown sugar
1kg full fat cream cheese, room temperature
230g caster sugar (super fine white sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature

For the caramel

1 can sweetened condensed milk (397g can)
180g brown sugar
30g unsalted butter
3 tbsp amaretto

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F
Halve the apricots and remove the stone. Lay on a baking tray, cut side up and sprinkle with 1 tbsp brown sugar. Roast in oven for 10 minutes. Leave to cool for 5 minutes, put in blender and blend until smooth. Leave to cool completely.
Line the base of a 9"/23cm push bottom or springform cake tin with parchment paper, then grease the edges.
To make the base, add the digestives, almond flour, sugar and cinnamon to a food processor and blitz until you have fine crumbs. Add the butter a little at time and stir in until the mixture can be easily clumped together - you might not need all the butter.
Press the mixture into the base of the cake tin and around the edges - use the side of a glass and roll around the sides of the tin to press in the edges easily. Place in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 170C/325F.
Add the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla to the bowl of your stand mixer (or in a large bowl if you're using a hand held) and beat on medium until smooth and fluffy, about 90 seconds.
Add the apricot puree and beat in gently, on a low speed.
Add the eggs one at time, beating on low between each addition.
Pour the mixture into the prepared crust and baked for 1 hour 15 minutes. The cheesecake is done when the edges look dull and set. It will still have quite a wobble to it, that's okay - it carries on baking as it cools and you don't want to over bake it. Turn the oven off and open the door a couple of inches, leave the cheesecake to cool in the off oven for 1 hour. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
To make the caramel, put the condensed milk and sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over a medium high heat, whisking constantly. Reduce heat and simmer for 8 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in butter and amaretto. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.
Remove the cooled cheesecake from the pan and place on plate. Pour caramel over the top and spread out evenly. Chill cheesecake in fridge for a minimum of 4 hours before serving.

Notes

If you don't have digestives, graham crackers are a good substitute
Swap the 3 tbsp of amaretto for 1 tsp almond extract for an alcohol free version.
An over baked cheesecake will crack along the top as it cools and there are ways to help stop this happening, however I don't personally bother with most of them unless it's important for the top to be smooth. Since there is a topping on this cheesecake it doesn't matter if there are cracks - however if you'd like to avoid them you can bake the cheesecake in a bath - place the tin in a roasting dish filled with about an inch of water before placing in the oven. If using a spring form or loose bottomed pan, wrap the outside of the pan in foil before putting in the bath.

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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Pear and Persimmon Galette

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 16, 2015 // 31 Comments

Happy Friday everybody! Today I’m bringing you another recipe for something I baked a while ago but hadn’t shared the recipe for yet. I don’t know why this one has been locked away in the figurative vault for so long, it’s really, really yummy – other recipes just took precedence I guess, that tends to happen with the holidays!

Galettes are like a pie or tart without the need for a dish, you form them by hand. Which works out well for me because I don’t currently own a pie dish, plus I absolutely love the rustic look, don’t you? This galette has beautiful flaky pastry wrapped around pears and persimmons in an almond filling, it’s a beautiful combination. I came across some persimmons at the market stalls in my town and picked up a few to bake with. Persimmon are a really yummy, sweet fruit, very similar to Sharon fruit, but you need to make sure they’re properly ripe before you eat them or they’re very astringent. A persimmon is ripe enough to use when you can really indent it when pressed, it should feel almost like pudding underneath the skin – anything less than that and it’ll feel like you ate a box of chalk! Mine took over a week until they were ripe enough, but it was worth the wait – especially combined with the pear and almond, so yummy!

The beauty of a galette too is you can make them pretty much any shape you like, I made mine rectangular because all of my baking sheets are rectangular and none are big enough to make any other shape! Go nuts with yours though, you could even make it into a little heart shape for the upcoming valentines day! Aww! That might take a little artistic expertise, but I believe in you – besides that rough homemade look is always good! You can also use any kind of pear you like, I used Bosc because that’s what’s readily available here but feel free to use your favourite kind. Bosc are good to bake with though as they hold their shape pretty well – I didn’t utilise that feature by making a pretty pattern, but its definitely an option with these pears. Oh, and the type of persimmon I used is called a Kaki which is the type that looks like a big, orangey tomato.

You can serve this up with a little cream, maybe a la mode or even just by itself it’s gonna be great! I served mine with a little cream and some of my spiced caramel which was a really yummy addition! Whatever you serve it with though, everybody is gonna love that buttery, flakey pastry and the sweet, fruity filling – it was certainly a hit at my house!

I have a few more recipes left to share in my fault, but I should have a brand spanking new one for you next week! I baked for the first time since before Christmas today and *fingers crossed* if turns out well I’ll get that recipe up for you soon, I’m very excited about it so I hope it came out!

I’m bringing this yummy little free-formed tart along to Fiesta Friday to share with the masses! FF is a great party held by Angie every week, you should definitely stop by, it’s a lot of fun! Our hosts this week are the ever fabulous Jhuls and JuJu

Do come hang out with me on Social Media, I’m always pretty active on Instagram, – I also have Twitter and Facebook. I’d love to see you guys on there!

Pear & Persimmon Galette

2015-01-15 18:03:53

A free formed tart with flaky pastry filled with pears, persimmons and almond

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For the pastry

320g plain flour (all purpose flour)
1 tsp salt
90g unsalted butter, cold and cubed
155g 100% vegetable shortening (e.g crisco or trex), cold
120ml ice water
1 egg and 1 tbsp milk for egg wash.

For the filling

2 persimmon
3 pears
1 tbsp cornflour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
5 tbsp almond flour
2 tbsp brown sugar
25g unsalted butter, chopped into small cubes

Instructions

To make the pastry, mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the cold butter and shortening ad cut it into the flour using a pastry cutter or two forks, until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs (some pieces may be larger, that's okay).
Pour 120ml cold water into a cup or jug and add a few pieces of ice, swirl and leave to sit for a moment. Add 1 tbsp of the water to the dough at time, mixing in completely after each addition. You don't need to add all the water, just add it until the dough begins to clump together.
Turn the dough out on to floured work surface and roughly roll out so it all comes together, the dough shouldn't be too sticky and should come together easily.
Form into a ball and flatten it into a disk, wrap in plastic and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour (up to 5 days).
Meanwhile, slice up and core the persimmon and pears, you can leave the skin on for both (you can peel the pears first if you'd prefer) and place in a large bowl. Add the cornflour, the cinnamon and 3 tbsp of the almond flour and mix to combine. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 190C/375F and line a large baking tray with parchment paper.
Take the pastry dough out of the fridge and roll into a large rectangle, with the approximate dimensions as your baking tray but bigger.
Sprinkle the brown sugar and remaining almond flour over the pastry.
Arrange the persimmons and pears over the pastry, leaving a 2 inch border around the edge.
Sprinkle the butter cubes over the top.
Fold the edges of the pastry over on top of the fruit, then brush with egg wash.
Bake for 30 minutes, until pastry is a deep golden brown and the filling is bubbling
Serve warm

Notes

Can be made a day in advance, you can reheat it under the grill/broiler for 10 or so minutes - keeping a close eye to watch it doesn't burn.

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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Chocolate Raspberry Green Smoothie

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 9, 2015 // 37 Comments

Hey guys, how you been doing? First off, apologies for how quiet I’ve been on the blog lately – I’ve been majorly lacking in inspiration! Would you believe it if I told you I hadn’t baked since before Christmas? That’s crazy by my standards! I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s a post holiday funk? Or maybe it’s just one of those things! Either way, hopefully I’ll get my mojo back soon or I might drive myself crazy! I have a few recipes in the figurative lock box still to post, but my lack of inspiration spreads to writing too! That might be more of a lack of motivation, it’s a dangerous spiral really – I need to bake to keep myself level headed and happy, when I stop that I lose motivation to do anything else! But I’m here today because a) I need to force myself back into things if I want any hope of returning to normal and b) I can’t miss Fiesta Friday now, can I?

I think we all find ourselves in funks like this every now and then, it’s part of life. People talk about writer’s block a lot, but you don’t hear much about other blocks – baker’s block, knitter’s block, painter’s bloc etc. They all exist, no matter how much you love doing something, sometimes you just can’t! What do you guys do when you find yourself in that situation? Any tricks you use to get yourself back in the game? Or do you find it’s just one of those things you have to let play out? So far I’ve just been letting it play out, but I think it’s gone on long enough now so I’m taking action! Starting with writing up the recipe for something yummy I’ve had in my list of recipes to share with y’all. Next up I’m going to be baking some things to photograph, recipes I’ve already posted but their photos are terrible so they need updating – that’s what I’m gonna be spending my Friday doing – I’ll be baking profiteroles. I’ll only have time for that one thing though, as I have to take the cat to the vet in the evening and then me and my mum are having some late Christmas drinks (aka an excuse to drink more wine than we should!) – but I think it’ll make a good start and hopefully that will give me the kick up the rear I need to get me in the kitchen properly again!

To get me back into the blogging side of things, I’m sharing a pretty easy recipe with you today. It’s nice and simple to put together, it’s super yummy and it’s good for you – that’s 3 pretty awesome boxes checked there! It’s also pretty customisable – I used raspberries because I had a nice supply of them in my freezer and chocolate and raspberry is one of my favourite flavour combinations, but you could also use cherries or strawberries. I love, love, love my green smoothies – it took me a long time to convince myself to try them, but I’m so glad I did. They’re super yummy and they just make you feel healthy even when, like me, your diet really isn’t! I can’t eat a lot of fresh vegetables because of my TMJ so the green smoothie is a great way for me to get some of that goodness in my diet without cooking vegetables until they’re way too soft and lose most of their nutrients. This smoothie is a great one to start with if you’re still on the fence, it’s got plenty of sweetness and a deep cocoa flavour, you’ll forget there’s even spinach in it! My general rule for green smoothies is to have a 2:1 ratio of greens and fruit – so if I use 1 cup spinach I’ll have 2 cups of fruit (or 1 cup and a banana), that way you don’t have to worry about any bitter aftertastes ruining the smoothie for you. Nut milks are a great addition too to help counteract the bitterness, and the almond milk in this one is just a must, it really adds to that chocolatey flavour.

As a rule, I like at least one ingredient in my smoothie to be frozen to make the smoothie cold without any need for ice. I usually buy fruit when it’s on sale or discounted (buying fruit that’s been marked down at the end of it’s shelf life is great for this), then I divide it into portions and freeze in zip lock bags, that way I have handy portions of frozen fruit ready to go! I do the same with my greens too, 1 cup of packed greens per zip lock bag and I’m always ready to go when the smoothie need hits! Although I do like to keep fresh greens on hand when possible, so I don’t lose out on those nutrients.

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Chocolate Banana Muffins

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 1, 2015 // 40 Comments

Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and 2015 is full of non stop awesome for you! I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, especially diet related ones! I’m a baker and I’m very attached to my butter and sugar, dieting just isn’t for me even if I would like to lose a couple pounds. With that said, the first recipe I’m posting in 2015 is pretty healthy! I’m not a calorie or nutrition counter so I don’t know how healthy these are but they have no butter, the majority of the sweetness comes from the bananas with only a small amount of brown sugar supplementing it. They’re also made with wholemeal (whole wheat) flour – they’re practically a health food! These will also be dairy free if you use chocolate chips that don’t contain dairy (I use semi-sweet chips, which do contain traces of milk I believe). You could also potentially make them vegan with a little fiddling, replacing the eggs with applesauce would probably work but I haven’t tested that, so I can’t say for sure.

These chocolate banana muffins are also delicious, way more delicious than they are healthy which is my kind of muffin! They’re a nice dense, moist muffin, I hate those muffins that are like biting into air, I want some substance in my muffins – leave the light and airy for the cupcakes! They’re equally chocolatey and banana-ry, with a hint of cinnamon to give them a nice flavour depth. The chocolate chips are definitely a must too, they add little chunks of chocolatey goodness and a little extra sweetness,

These muffins came about because I had a few way too ripe bananas – my first idea was, naturally, banana bread, but I only had three bananas so it would have been a very small loaf! Muffins seemed like a great idea and they really were! Over ripened bananas are so great for baking, never ever throw away those brown bananas okay! They look pretty nasty and aren’t fun to eat, but the riper they get the sweeter they are, so when they’re all brown and mushy, there’s so much natural sweetness in them that’s perfect for baking, you can even cut down on your sugar usage because of all the natural sweetness. Next time you have some bananas getting a bit too comfy in your kitchen, you should definitely turn them into these muffins, you’ll love them! They’re worth buying bananas especially to make these muffins, you’ll have some waiting time but they’re so yummy it’s worth the wait.

Because of all the natural sweetness, you really can have them at any time. Grab one for a quick and tasty breakfast in the morning, pack one in the kid’s lunchbox for a snack or treat, or even pass them out as dessert after dinner – everybody will love them any time of the day. They have those wonderful domed and chewy muffins tops that are essential for a good muffin! The best way, I find, to get a good muffin top is to fill the paper cases up until they’re almost full and then bake on a high temperature for 10 minutes before lowering it to bake throughout – I never fail to get a great muffin top with that method!

So, 2015 is finally upon us! The year of my golden birthday, the rugby world cup, the year of general elections in the UK and, assuming she’s still reigning towards the end of the year, Queen Elizabeth II will be our longest reigning queen, beating Queen Victoria! And lots more yet to be determined I’m sure. I haven’t made any proper resolutions but I do plan on a few changes this year to help make it a good year – and of course, there will be lots of baking! Do you guys have any big plans for 2015? Have you made any resolutions?

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German Cinnamon Stars (with a Georgia Twist)

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 24, 2014 // 24 Comments

German Cinnamon Stars are a classic German Christmas cookie, these delicious meringue cookies have been given a Georgia twist and are made with toasted pecans! Chewy, delicious and totally festive!

Merry Christmas Everybody!! It’s finally almost here, Santa is coming tonight yay! I’m bringing you a gift myself today and it’s Day 10 of my Countdown to Christmas recipes, in the lead up to Christmas I have been posting a festive recipe every day – Day 1 was Spiced Caramel, Day 2 was a Chocolate Peppermint Milkshake, Day 3 was Peppermint Puppy Chow, Day 4 was Mince Pies, Day 5 was Christmas Spiced Chocolate Cake, Day 6 was Frosted Shortbread Christmas Cookies, Day 7 was Spiced Chocolate Orange Puppy Chow, Day 8 was a Spiked Black Forest Milkshake and Day 9 was Christmas Spiced Pudding Cookies. My final festive recipe of the year are these ridiculously delicious German Cinnamon Stars.

The yummy little cookies are traditionally made with almond flour and I first heard about them from Ginger and Ginger and Bread and I pretty much fell in love with them, I knew I had to make them soon. I made mine with pecans instead of almonds though because man, I just love pecans and I couldn’t pass up that opportunity! Plus, I’m spending the holidays in Georgia so it only makes sense to use pecans, right?! I swear I don’t purposefully just stomp all over baking traditions, I just can’t help but put my own stamp on them! I will make them with almond flour one day though, because these are too yummy not to make again and again, all year round!

These are kind of like Germany’s answer to France’s macarons (I have no idea which one came first, so maybe it’s the other way around!) – they’re made basically with meringue and almond flour (or pecan flour, in my case), just like a macaron. These go much heavier on the nuts though so they’re much more robust and definitely feel way more German – none of that delicate French nonsense (disclaimer: I love French patisserie, no offense meant haha) just good ol’ fashioned deliciousness in a nice, chewy cookie that could hold it’s own in a fight!

I read quite a few recipes for these in preparation to make them and most of them mentioned they were a pain in the butt to make, so when mine came together really easily I was sure I had messed them up somehow! I guess I was just lucky though because they came out beautifully, I really can’t say enough good things about these cookies – they’re so much flavour and such a gorgeous texture for only a few ingredients, it makes me stop and appreciate the art of baking even more than usual! It’s crazy though isn’t it? How you can put just a few ingredients together in the right way and you come back with something so delicious?

I did have one little problem with these is and that is I rolled a few of them out a little too thin so they over baked a tad, so a couple of them don’t have that gorgeous chewy centre. But it’s okay, I have enough of the thick, chewy ones to go around and keep everybody happy!

I know I said these came together pretty easily for me, but they do take a bit of prep. The night before I toasted the pecans to bring out their wonderful flavour, I like to do mine on the stove top so I can keep a close eye on them. I left them to cool over night and then threw them in a food processor to blitz them into flour, I did it in two batches with a 1/2 cup of icing sugar in each to help stop it clumping together and starting to turn into butter. You can process them as fine as you dare, mine was a little coarse as it started to clump a little but I really liked that texture. Once that’s done you just have to whip up the egg whites, add the sugar and whip until you have a nice stiff and glossy meringue. Then add your nut flour and mix it all up. Once your dough has chilled in the fridge for about an hour, you roll it out and cut out stars. Then top with some meringue and bake! Even after it’s chilled the dough is pretty sticky and can be quite hard to work with, it’s best to roll it out between two sheets of parchment. I didn’t have too much trouble with mine that way. This is not a cheap cookie to make either, I used a 1lb of pecans in one batch and pecans are not cheap (lucky for me, Leah’s mum bought me a 2lb bag from Costco) – you will get about 50 amazing cookies out of it though!

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