Blueberry Cheesecake with Peanut Crust

I had been staring the pictures of this cake in one of William Sonoma's books, and I really wanted to make one. But I never did (because my husband doesn't like cheesecake), until today, because I'm going to Seattle this weekend and there's still some packages of cream cheese left on my fridge.
The original recipe required hazelnut, but I only had salted peanut. So I tried using these peanuts, and it turned great. I brought it to a farewell party of my friend, and everyone loved it (including my husband). I was so glad!

For the crust
Ingredients:
11/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/16 cup sugar (additional, because I used 'salted' peanuts')
3/4 cup roasted, finely chopped peanuts
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 2 cm pieces

Method:
Preheat oven to 325 F (165 C). Butter a 9-inch (23 cm) square springform pan.
To make the crust, in a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, peanuts, salt, until blended. Using a knife, cut in the butter until mixture forms large, coarse crumbs the size of small peas.
Press the crust mixture into the bottom and 1 inch (2,5 cm) up the sides of the prepared pan. Bake the crust until it is golden and the top looks dry and firm, 15-20 minutes. Set aside.

For the filling
Ingredients:
1 pound cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup heavy (double) cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups blueberry

Method:
In a large bowl, combine the cream cheese and sugar and beat together with a wooden spoon or a mixer until blended and smooth. Stir in the flour until blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until the batter is smooth. Stir in the cream and vanilla and almond extracts and stir until incorporated. Gently fold in the blueberries. Pour the batter into the prepared crust.
Bake in the preheated oven until the center is set when you give the pan a gentle shake, 35-40 minutes. Remove from the oven and open the sides of the springform pan. Let cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, at least 3 hours or overnight.

Sweet Blanc (Sweet Bun with Cream Cheese Filling)

My friend, Bicil, and I have exactly the same hobby - cooking. So we like to talk about food or good recipes. One day she told me about this bread recipe that she likes a lot.
I looked at the pictures, it was so pretty and the recipe was quite simple. I had to give it a try.
Well, I love the filling, absolutely. Cream cheese and strawberry yoghurt is a perfect combination. But I'm not really into the bread. I imagined that I was going to eat a sweet bun, but it's not. Maybe because my yoghurt is not sweet enough. More sugar in the recipe would be perfect.

Dough
	210 g	Bread Flour
	40 g	Cake Flour
A	6 g	Instant dried yeast
	4 g	Salt
	30 g	Sugar
	63 g	Plain yoghurt
	1	Egg
B	13 g	Condensed milk
	8 g	Honey
	50 cc	Water
30 g		Unsalted butter (soft)

Egg wash
		1 egg + 1tbsp water
Decoration
10		Strawberry
		Icing sugar

Cream cheese filling
230 g	Cream cheese
50 g	Sugar
80 g	Plain yoghurt
30 cc	Whipping cream
2 tsp	Lemon juice

Make the filling

1. Beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy in a bowl.

2. Pour the yoghurt into cream cheese mixture, beat to combine.

3. Pour the whipping cream and lemon juice into the mixture, mix well

4. Cover the bowl with cling film and refrigerate until use.

Make the dough

Mix the (B) ingredients together.

Put the (A) ingredients in a bowl, whisk to combine, pour the (B) mixture into the bowl, and use large spoon or pastry scraper to mix everything together. When all the ingredients come together, put the butter in the bowl and rub until all butter is distributed, and kneads briefly to bring all the ingredients together

Take the dough out of the bowl and knead, until the dough is soft, smooth and elastic about 10 minutes.

Put the dough into a light buttered bowl. Let the dough rise in a warm place until double in size about 1 hour.

Gently press down the dough, then put the dough back into a light buttered bowl. Let the dough rise again in a warm place for another 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C, and butter the muffin pan. Take the dough out of the bowl. Gently press down the dough and cut the dough into 10 pieces (about 50 g/ piece). Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a circle, about 8 cm. Gently presses down the dough into the muffin pan to form a cup. 

Cover the shaped dough; let rise until almost doubled in volume, about 30-40 minutes. Before baking, brush the dough with egg wash and pour the filling in.

Bake for 12 minutes.

When cool, place the strawberry on top and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Beef Bulgogi

The first time I had bulgogi was at Iday and Oliv's place. They invited me and my husband to have a 'korean night' with them. And, as I did with any other korean cuisine like bibimbap, khalbi, and kimchi, I loved the beef bulgogi! 

I found this recipe in the internet and it works. I like it also because it is so practical. I could just marinate the beef the night before, and simply fry it the next day.

Ingredients:

1 lb thin sliced beef

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 pieces green onions

1/2 yellow onion

1 big carrot, sliced

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp garlic

2 tbsp rice wine/apple juice

2 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tbsp sesame oil/vegetable oil

Method:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

Mix well and marinade in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Cook over medium to high heat for about 3-5 minutes.

Serve with steamed rice.

Grilled Chicken with Spicy Sauce (Ayam Panggang Bumbu Rujak)

This is one of our favorite Indonesian cuisine. It's sweet, spicy, and tasty. My mom used to make this at home. While I was in college, I lived far from home, so I had to go look for this dishes in certain places. Now that I can make it by myself, I wouldn't need to go look for this anymore :)

Ingredients:

5 chicken drumsticks 

Juice from 1 lime

1/2 can coconut milk

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp ground galangal

3 lime leaves

3 lemon grass, cut into 2 inches long

5 tbsp red onion, processed

5 tbsp red fresno chilli, processed

3 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp shrimp paste (terasi)

salt to taste

3 tbsp brown sugar

Directions:

Marinate chicken with lime juice. After 15 minutes, rinse the chicken and put aside.

Fry all the other ingredients (except coconut milk) with vegetable oil until fragrant. Then, pour chicken and coconut milk, stir until incorporated with all the ingredients. In medium heat, let the chicken be tendered and sauce be caramelized. During the process, stir the chicken for every couple minutes, to avoid the coconut milk from cracking. Once done, broil the chicken in the oven for 5-10 minutes. Ready to serve.

Baked Oreo Cheesecake

I've just bought a spring pan yesterday, just because I wanted to make this delish Oreo Cheesecake. My husband doesn't really like cheesecake. But if it comes with Oreo, I'm sure he wouldn't mind :)

In the original recipe, leftover Oreos are chopped and mixed into the cheesecake batter. For me, I prefer the leftover Oreos to be finely ground and poured on top of the cheesecake batter. I think it looks prettier.

One more think, the size of the cheesecake is smaller than the regular cheesecake. Not too big, so it's perfect for us. But you can always double the recipe for the cheesecake (not the crust), if you need to make a bigger one.

Ingredients:
For the crust:
25 Oreo cookies
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
For the cheesecake:
12 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tbsp sugar
6 tbsp sour cream, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
6 Oreo cookies, finely grounded, for spreading on top of the cheesecake.


Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 F.
To make the crust, remove fillings from the Oreo, place the Oreos in the bowl of a food processor, Process, pulsing, until the cookies are finely ground. Add in the melted butter and mix with the cookies until incorporated. Transfer the mixture to the spring pan. Press the crumbs into an even layer over the bottom of the pan. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then set aside and prepare the filling while maintaining the oven temperature.
To make the filling, add the cream cheese to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until light and smooth, about 2 minutes. Mix in the sugar until well combined. Blend in the sour cream, vanilla, and salt. Beat in the egg and egg yolk on medium-high speed until incorporated, scraping down the bowl as needed.
Pour the cheesecake batter over the prepared crust, smoothing the top with a spatula. Spread finely ground oreo cookies on top of the batter. Bake for about 40-50 minutes, until the cheesecake is set around the edges but slightly wobbly in the center. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool about 1 hour to room temperature. Cover the pan and refrigerate until well chilled, about 3 hours.
To cut the cheesecake, clean the knife blade between each slice to keep the edges neat. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.