Oreo Cookie Cake – More like Oreo cheesecake

Posted by gmirage1 on Jan 10, 2012 in Baking, Dessert | 9 comments

We first got to savor a slice of Oreo Cake from a cafê that daughter and I frequent. We really liked it, even my older son who is very particular with cakes liked it too…When we visited mom-in-law at my brother-in-law’s place my son saw a box of ready-to-make Oreo Cookie cake. The idea is to make a cake that resembles an Oreo cookie…white filling – ‘cream’ or ‘creme’, sandwiched between two circular chocolate or golden cookie pieces, here that would be layers of chocolate cookie crust.

This cake is very simple I believe the packaged ingredients are the same with the original recipe. I saw that most have the same ingredients but this one is something I’ll try.

Ingredients

1 (20 ounce) package oreo cookies
1/2 cup melted butter

500 grams cream cheese (Philadelphia)
500 grams Mascarpone cheese
230 grams confectioners sugar, sifted
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
720 ml  cold heavy whipping cream

Directions

1. Crush cookies, leave some as bite size pieces or reserve some of the crushed cookies for the top. Combine melted butter and crushed cookies. Press the mixture into 9×13 pan. Leave in freezer for 5 minutes.

2. Beat half of cream cheese and half mascarpone in a bowl, pour half of sugar and mix in remaining cream cheese and mascarpone.

3. Include vanilla extract and slowly put in whipping cream, mix until smooth and thick.

4. Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly on crust and top with remaining crushed cookies or if you prefer bite size pieces, top the cream cheese with those. Put in the fridge for an hour or two.

 Carefully remove from pan, slice and serve. Voila, one happy lil’ kid…

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Food Friday

Rinderrouladen

Posted by gmirage1 on Jan 6, 2012 in Austrian/German, beef | 11 comments

At first look you’ll know that this is like Morcon, a rolled meat with fillings of vegetables, cheese, hard-boiled eggs, hotdogs and pickles served on special occasions back home. Rouladen simply means rolled meat. The German and Austrian counterpart has less filling and has a different sauce from what I remember my mom makes. Well, I don’t expect them to be the same, that’s one good thing about food, there are similarities and differences that you get to enjoy whichever you like.

Roulade:
4-5 Beef Roulade (thin strips)
8-10 slices of bacon
2-3 onions
1-2 tablespoons spicy mustard from Dijon
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons butter
freshly ground white or black pepper
Sea salt or coarse salt ground pepper

Sauce:
2-3 onions
1  carrot (cut in half)
1 / 4 celeriac
1 clove of garlic
1 large tomato
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 l beef stock, chicken stock, veal stock, vegetable stock, broth or bouillon cubes
1 sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf
freshly ground white or black pepper
Sea salt or coarse salt ground pepper
butter

Preparation:
1. Peel the onions and cut into rings.
2. Wash the roulades and pat dry with kitchen paper.
3. Clean the carrots, peel and cut half of it into thin strips.
4. Sprinkle roulades with salt and pepper, brush with mustard and top with two slices of bacon, onion rings and carrot strips.
5. Roll up and fasten with toothpicks or roulade needles.

Procedure:
1. Wash tomato with hot water and quarter them.
2. The fat can be extremely hot, fry the roulades on all sides, add salt and pepper.
3. Dice the remaining carrots.
4. Remove the roulades from the pan and pour off most of the fat.
5. Fry the diced vegetables and herbs (onions, carrots, garlic, celeriac, thyme, bay leaf) in butter. Let contents of the pot thicken with tomato paste.
6. Scrape off the browned bits with a wooden spoon from pan bottom.
7. Bring the sauce to a boil and place the roulades.
8. Then add in chopped tomato.
9. Let boil and let simmer for about 1 hour and 50 minutes.
10. Pour sauce and season to taste.

Serve with rice or pasta.

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Food Friday, Yummy Sunday

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Posted by gmirage1 on Dec 25, 2011 in Baking, Cupcakes, Featured | 17 comments

Winter is getting the better of us. We’re becoming much like squirrels…we only get out of the house when need be. That is to go to school and buy food. That is why I am so thankful for the corner shop that sells vegetables and fruits in bulk, they also have meat that I can get for less – well, compared to grocery prices. Most importantly, eggs in abundance. I can get 30 eggs for 4euro whereas 10 eggs at the grocery shops cost 2euro already. The eggs are important for hubby and I, building up muscles from protein, for the macarons that we so love to make and for the cupcakes…for the same reason as the macarons.

There are a number of red velvet cake and cupcake recipes around but I wouldn’t go test each of them as they did here. Though I got to be thankful I know now which recipe I should follow next. These cuppies were made some months ago, unearthed from archives and posted oh so late. ^_^ I anyway hope you enjoy these eye candies. This is from one of my favorite bakers, Stephanie Jaworksi of Joy of Baking.

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Food Friday, Yummy Sunday

Chilli con Carne

Posted by gmirage1 on Dec 10, 2011 in Chili | 25 comments

 I am not much a fan of spicy food, hubby is and the kids took that from him. Wasabi peanuts? Go ahead, they’ll munch on those as they would popcorn. If there’s one chili dish to exempt, it would be chili con carne and when I cook it, it’s not really that spicy. Actually I am missing the chilli hotdog that hubby and I like from 7-11, a 24-hour store back home. Being often out late due to the nature of our work (publishing), 7-11  has become a favorite hangout when we get hungry in the middle of the night.

For the recipe I follow this one I found online sans the yogurt and coriander garnish. I also had to put less spicy ingredients, the kids and hubby could spice theirs later. I dropped in red beans too and since I removed the yogurt, I topped it with cheese instead.

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Food Friday

Gnocchi, Tuna and Ricotta

Posted by gmirage1 on Dec 3, 2011 in Italian, pasta | 9 comments

I’ve recently found a food fondness (alliteration not intended) that has been long forgotten. Gnocchi, those thick, soft dumplings I like eating with tuna sauce reintroduced itself in our kitchen after a year of absence. ^_^

I think I’ve been overlooking that particular shelf…hmm more of I can’t see it for the height of me. Yep, I sometimes ask someone to help me get the item from up the shelf. I’m 5’3″ and shelves are made for taller people. hihi.

So as simple as this recipe gets you’ll need:

a can of tuna
a can of tomato sauce
ricotta
a pack of gnocchi (you can make them too)
garlic
onion
olive oil
basil leaves
pepper
quattro formaggi (optional)

If you bought gnocchi, simply follow the cooking instructions.  If you’d like to make them on your own, here’s Mario Batali’s Gnocchi recipe. There are gnocchis that have ricotta already so if you get those then opt the ricotta out.

Saute garlic and onion on olive oil.
Pour tomato sauce and let simmer.
Stir in ricotta and tuna flakes.
Flavor with pepper and set aside.
Pour sauce mixture over gnocchi, garnish with basil leaves and cheese.

Serve as is or with baguette.

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Food Friday