Easy Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

One day, we were debating over the merits of what we wanted to go with our savory meal. One of us wanted to do some sort of cheesecake, and the other wanted to do something easier and less time-consuming like cookies. Like all great partnerships, during times of trouble, we decided to compromise and make some sort of cheesecake-cookie hybrid that wouldn't take up a lot of time and was low on ingredient cost. Hence, the choice to make oreo cheesecake cookies.

Ingredients: 

about 10-12 oreos 

1 cup chocolate chips (milk or dark)

3/4 cup butter (thawed)

1/3 cup cream cheese (thawed)

1 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven at 350F
2. Remove the white centre from the oreos and place the cookies in a ziplock bag. Crush them until semi-fine
3. Cream butter, sugar and cream cheese until all ingredients are combined.
4. Add the egg yolk, vanilla and salt
5. Slowly add the flour while mixing 
6. Then add the chocolate chips and oreos until all parts are evenly mixed
7. Line baking pans with parchment paper. Scoop and make 1-1.5 inch balls of the cookie dough to place on the baking pan. Press these with a spoon until they resemble mini-cookies (there is minimal expansion with these cookies).
8. If desired, create patterns on the top with a fork (i.e. something that looks like --> #)
9. Bake from 12-14 minutes or until the edges are golden. If you can't see the golden edges, you'll notice the batter becomes dry and the texture looks a bit cookie-like. This should be enough
10. Remove from the oven and let them cool .... 
11. Try not to go all cookie-monster on these yummy things. 

Oreo. cheesecake. cookies. Still warm from the oven and ready to melt in your mouth. 

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

Breakfast is a very important meal to us. Apart from what experts say, we believe eating breakfast is essential so that we don't get cranky before lunch. (No rumbling tummies around 11am!) But, it's really hard to get up in the morning and have to prepare something, and on the days that we don't want smoothies, but need to get rid of those overripe bananas, simple muffins are made (and eaten for the rest of the week).

Yes, breakfast muffins are the way of the future. 

This recipe is healthy, packed with protein, fiber, potassium and chocolate chips

Ingredients (yields 15-18): 

3 mashed bananas 

1 cup almond milk (or soy, but almond milk is delicious)

2 eggs

1 tbsp baking powder 

3 cups steel cut oats (or rolled oats. they work too)

1 tsp vanilla extract 

chocolate chips (at your own risk! we prefer to use plenty) 

Procedure: 

1. Preheat the oven to 370F
2. Mix bananas with almond milk, eggs and vanilla extract
3. Add the baking powder and oats to the mix and stir until even. 
4. Grease, or line the muffin tins. Either would do
5. Mix a million pounds  the chocolate chips until you think you have enough. (We normally use about 50-60g) 
6. Place batter in the muffin tins. Keep in mind these don't rise as much as regular muffins do.  
7. Bake for 18-25 minutes (until tops are golden brown) and cool for 10-15 minutes. To reheat just place in the microwave for 15-20 seconds. 

Muffins are the way of the breakfast future. 

Summer Cocktails: Kiwi Blueberry Mojitos

As previous service-industry workers, there are some drinks that are a little bit of a pain to make during a rush like cappuccinos, matcha lattes and mojitos. At the same time, we LOVE summer cocktails because they're really refreshing. The bonus bit about making your own cocktails is that you don't have to really scrimp   measure alcohol, or any of the ingredients for that matter, and it costs a lot less. The ingredients here are an estimate that has worked for us, but feel free to change to suit your palettes.

Here's a recipe that yields 4-6 tall glasses (1 pitcher) of the kiwi blueberry mojitos:

Ingredients:
200-250g blueberries (one medium pack at the grocery, or 2 cups frozen)
8 kiwis
mint (for garnish.. but very important in mojitos)
1/4 cup lime juice (that's about 3-4 limes)
1/2 cup sugar and a little more (1 tbsp) for the rims
1.5 cups sparkling water (tonic water)
ice cubes
rum (dark/light) - amount varies

Procedure:

1. Peel 5-6 kiwis, squeeze lime juice, add 1/2 cup sugar and puree in a blender. Add as much rum as required (to taste)
2. Set aside 2-3 sliced kiwis
3. Gently crush the blueberries and set aside
4. Prepare the glasses by moistening the rims with a slice of lime and running the moist rims against the 1tbsp of sugar on a plate
5. After the rims are moistened, place ice, 1-2 slices of kiwi and some blueberries in the glass. Add the puree from step (1) until about the halfway point, and use sparkling water the rest of the way. Add mint to the top for garnish. Stir and enjoy!

The final product - refreshing, fruity summer cocktails 

Mojitos are more often than not, worth the effort

And remember folks, hammer and potato do not support drinking and driving!

High Tea Saturday Part 3: Prosciutto Gruyere Parmesan Scones

At last! The final recipe we used for our High Tea Saturday series (here are links to part 1 and part 2). This was our first time making savoury scones and they turned out to be a pretty cheesy success. They also turned out to be breakfast for the next two days--easy to warm up by sticking them in the toaster while the coffee is brewing.

We would like to give credit to the original recipe, found here

Ingredients: 
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
2 large eggs
2/3 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup grated gruyere (we don't really measure cheese. we may have added a bit more)
1/2 cup chopped prosciutto (again, we may have added a bit more)
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup chopped green onion (we may have used less. not a big fan of these)
2 tablespoons half and half

Procedure: 

1. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Chop up the butter and slowly add to the mixture until crumbly (use your hands.. just because it's fun!)
2. Add the eggs and buttermilk and whisk together
3. Add the cheeses, onion and prosciutto and mix until the dough is sticky
4. Find a clean and flat surface. Flour the surface and knead until all ingredients are evenly combined. 
5. Roll the dough flat until it is about 0.5-1 inch thick and cut into fun shapes (like triangles. triangles are pretty fun)
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the scone triangles. (The original recipe yielded about 10 scones but we used our amazing tetris skills to get more scones out of the surface area of out baking sheet and yielded a little above 15 triangles of different sizes. with a bit of space in between each scone as room for expansion)
7. Lightly brush batter with half and half cream and sprinkle with additional salt/cheese
8. Chill in the freezer for half an hour and preheat the oven to 400F
9. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown at the top. Best served with some tea (this isn't high tea without the tea, folks!) 

These scones look quite photogenic

The final product: Different sizes of scones loaded up with all the things we love--cheese and prosciutto. Notice all that ham sticking out of that middle scone. /happiness

High Tea Saturday Part 2: Tomato Basil Mushroom Quiches

Sorry for the delayed post folks! Part 2 of our High Tea Saturday Adventure, consisted of some delicious Quiches! Quiche is one of those recipes that are made differently by everyone and differently every time it is made. The great thing about quiche is that it's so versatile and customizable! You can put practically anything you want in it. In our version of Quiche, we added tomatoes, mushrooms and some fresh basil.

Tomato, Basil and Mushroom Quiche

Ingredients:
Phyllo pastry
Tomatoes
Mushrooms
Basil
Eggs
Seasoning

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Cut your phyllo pastry into little squares and place over each well in your muffin tin. Make sure the squares of phyllo are big enough that they hang a little past the edges of the wells in the muffin tin.
3. Prep and chop your tomatoes, mushrooms and basil into bite sized pieces.
4. In a separate bowl, beat your eggs and add in your tomatoes, mushrooms and basil and your seasoning of choice to taste. For seasoning, we used salt, pepper, garlic powder and oregano and thyme.
5. Carefully pour your filling into each phyllo pastry cup.
6. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

It is important to note that the reason why we didn't specify any exact measurements is because the amount of ingredients you use will depend on how many quiches you want to make, so we recommend just eyeballing the amount of ingredients you want to use. We made about a dozen mini quiches that day. Additionally, you can put almost anything in your quiches! We recommend getting creative! Suggestions could be some cheddar cheese (or any cheese of choice), bacon, pepper, garlic etc. The sky's the limit with Quiche!

Fresh baked mini quiches, straight out of the oven

Quiche is so simple and easy to make, yet it's packed with flavour and deliciousness! Give this refreshing twist on eggs a try!

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Red Velvet is one of those classic flavours that many of us are familiar with now. Red Velvet cupcakes are a staple in our kitchens (stay tuned!) and we're always trying to find new ways to make that more exciting. Today we decided to experiment with our good ol' Red Velvet cupcake recipe and turn it into something lighter, hence Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies were born!

Ingredients:
Yield: 16 brownies

Red Velvet Brownie:
1/2 cup of unsalted butter (softened at room temperature)
1 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup flour
4.5 TBSP cocoa powder
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Red food colouring

Cream Cheese Layer:
1 250g package of cream cheese
1 egg
4.5 TBSP white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure:

1. Grease a 9x9 baking pan with butter or non-stick cooking spray. Cut some parchment paper out, and lay the parchment paper on the greased pan.
2. Preheat oven to 350F
3. Cream together butter and sugar. Once creamy and smooth, add the eggs and beat well. Add the cocoa powder and make sure it is well mixed. Add the salt, followed by the food colouring and vinegar. Make sure to mix between adding each ingredient. Add the flour last and just mix until everything is combined and well incorporated
4. Reserve a little bit of the batter (1/4 cup will do) and put it in a bowl aside
5. Pour the rest of the batter into the prepared baking pan
6. Cream the cream cheese, egg, sugar and vanilla extract until well mixed. (Note: make sure the cream cheese is completely softened in order to avoid lumps in your cheesecake layer)
7. Pour the cream cheese mixture on top of the red velvet brownie mixture and smooth out to the edges
8. Using a spoon, dollop the remaining red velvet batter you put aside on top of the cream cheese.
9. Using a butter knife or toothpick, swirl the batter into the cream cheese miture.
10. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350F (or until inserted toothpick comes out clean)
11. Make sure brownies are completely cool, cut and serve!

Note: It's best to make use of red food colouring PASTE (if you have it) as it will give you a richer and brighter red colour. We, however, didn't have any and made use of the regular liquid food colouring and they still turned out quite red, we just had to add a bit more until they were the colour we wanted. The amount you use is up to you and how bright or dark you want the red to be. Alternatively, you could also just leave out the food colouring all together if desired.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

These brownies are a delicious and "lighter" twist on the classic red velvet cake/cupcake. They're fudgey, moist and very reminiscent of a red velvet cupcake (minus all the overly sweet calorie filled icing!) They are quick and easy to prepare, and will disappear before your eyes! Give this recipe a try, for when you're next craving the classic Red Velvet!

High Tea Saturday Part 1: Smoked Salmon Tea Sandwiches

One fine Saturday, we had decided to try out hand at some of our high tea recipes because we felt fancy  like we wanted to have lots of some English food. In this three-part series, we'll be sharing our adventure with three of our favorite high tea items - savoury style. For our first recipe, we made some simple tea sandwiches. This recipe is highly fuss free and will need the following:

Ingredients: 
1 package smoked salmon from the deli (normally 100-300 grams, depending on how many sandwiches you want)
1 small block of cream cheese (250g)
fresh dill to taste
1 loaf of rye bread (preferably square shaped)

Process: 

1. Remove the crusts from the bread and cut into square pieces 
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the dill and the cream cheese until the tart taste of the dill flavours the cheese. Mix until the cheese has the consistency of a spread 



Tea sandwiches in the making!

3. Take two slices of bread and spread with a cream cheese layer. On one slice, add a few slices of smoked salmon (based on our package, 1-1.5 round pieces) and then cover with the other slice of bread (basically, combine all ingredients to make a sandwich). 

The finished product. We may or may not have gobbled the entire plate down.