Mini Caramel Apple Cheesecakes with Streusel Topping

I can't believe it's December already! I probably say this every year but where has the year gone? This year seems to have flown by in a flash. I'm sure there's a lot of festive cooking and baking going on worldwide but I'm still in autumn mode with apples. I saw this on pinterest and thought what a great idea. I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to bake these and made them to take to a dinner party. We were really full from all the food but still managed to enjoy one or two of these. It's a good idea baking them in muffin cases as it's a nice individual portion, looks cute and is easy to transport. I also took some to work as did J and both our work colleagues enjoyed them. It's a baked cheesecake filled with fresh apples, streusel topping and a generous drizzle of salted caramel sauce. These are great for the upcoming festive season as you can bake them in advance and they are sure to be a hit at any party. 

I'm sending this to Simply Eggcellent hosted by Dom from Belleau Kitchen as the theme this month is anything goes. This recipe contains 3 large free range eggs. 

It's also going to Recipe of the Week hosted by Emily from A Mummy Too.

 streusel topping 

 digestive biscuit base

 add cheesecake mixture 

 then chopped apples

 top with streusel topping 

 generous drizzle of caramel sauce before serving

  

Recipe adapted slightly from cookingclassy.com

Makes 18 mini cheesecakes

For the base
16 digestive biscuits
2.5 tablespoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
85g butter,melted

For the filling 
340g cream cheese
225g caster sugar
3 large free range eggs
3/4 cup creme fraiche
3 or 4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped into tiny pieces (if the chunks are too big, the apples won't cook fully)
3 tablespoons lemon juice

For the streusel topping
80g plain flour
40g oats
75g brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
57g butter

• First prepare the streusel topping by mixing all the ingredients together in a large bowl using your hands until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. 
• Cover and chill in the fridge. 
• Preheat the oven to 165C. 
• Prepare the crust by blitzing the digestive biscuits in a food processor or bashing them with a rolling pin in a ziplock bag. 
• Add the melted butter, sugar and cinnamon and stir until mixed. 
• Line 2 muffin tins with 18 cupcake/muffin liners. 
• Divide the mixture evenly between 18 cases and press down gently.
• Bake in the pre heated oven for approximately 5 minutes then remove from the oven and allow to cool.
• Make the filling by beating the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth. 
• Add the eggs one at a time followed by the creme fraiche and mix well.
• Pour the filling (use a measuring jug with a pouring spout) on top of the baked cheesecake crust until about 2/3 full.
• Peel, core and finely chop the apples then toss in fresh lemon juice.
• Place a generous spoonful of apples on top of each cheesecake. 
• Top with the streusel topping. 
• Bake in the pre heated oven for approximately 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. 
• Allow to cool completely then chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. 
• Just before serving, pour a generous amount of caramel sauce on top of the cheesecake. I used ready made caramel sauce but you can also make your own. 

Fruit, Nut and Seed Flapjacks

This week I've been busy baking breakfast food. I've already posted my banana, blueberry and apple muffins and I have another muffin recipe to share with you later. For a change, I decided to make some chunky flapjacks which are brilliant for breakfast on the go. I bought some packets of fruit, nut and seed mix from Aldi as healthier snacks during a recent road trip. However, we didn't get round to eating them so I thought I'd use them to make flapjacks. These are really crunchy and chunky and I loved the addition of the fruits, nuts and seeds.  

 adding the fruit, nut and seed mix 

 I used my individual loaf tray to get chunky flapjacks 

Makes 6 large, chunky flapjacks
150g butter
125g golden caster sugar
50g golden syrup
225g porridge oats
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
200g dried fruit, nut and seed mix

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a medium sized pan. 
• In a medium sized bowl, mix the oats, cinnamon and flour.
• Add the oat mixture to the butter mixture and stir.
• Add in the fruit, nut and seed mix and sitr well. 
• Spoon into the baking tray (you can use a shallow baking tin) and level the top with a spatula.
• Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until golden brown. 
• Cut into squares before serving (if you used a shallow baking tin). 

Peanut Butter m&m's and chocolate chip cookies

Yes it's another peanut butter recipe but I make no apologies for it as it's amazing. I found a bag of peanut butter M&M's at the back of the cupboard and instead of eating the whole bag myself (which was tempting) I decided to bake them into cookies. I found a great recipe online from Sally's Baking Addiction and knew I had to make it immediately. It has peanut butter, peanut butter M&M's, chocolate chips and oats. Absolutely delicious! The cookies were really tasty and it was hard to stop at one. Needless to say these did not last long! I'm going to try these again with some Reece's pieces and maybe chopped up peanut butter cups. 

 adding the chocolate chips and peanut butter M&M's 

 I put an M&M on top before baking and I love how colourful the cookies look 

 

Recipea adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

115g unsalted butter
100g light brown sugar
50g caster sugar
1 large egg
185g smooth peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
160g all purpose flour
300g peanut butter M&Ms

100g chocolate chip

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.
• Cream the butter and sugars for a few minutes.
• Add in the peanut butter, egg, vanilla extract.
• Add in the flour and bicarbonate of soda.
• Finally stir in the peanut butter M&M's and chocolate chips.
• Drop small scoops of dough spaced apart on the baking tray.
• Press an M&M on top of the cookie before baking.
• Bake for about 9-10 minutes or until golden brown. 
• The cookie will be soft but they will harden as they cool.
• Allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Apple, Plum and Almond Crumble Cake

My colleague brought in a huge basket of plums to work from her garden. We ate some of it but there was so many left I decided I'd take some home and bake something with it. I started thinking about flavour combinations and in the end decided on this apple, plum and almond crumble cake. The cake was declared one of the best bakes of the year. 

The cake is lightly spiced with chunks of apple which added a lovely freshness to the cake. The crumble topping added a lovely layer of texture and flavour with the ground almonds and oats. The plums were tart but still retained their shape and moisture after baking and paired well with the toasted almond flakes. The cake is delicious on its own but would go well with some custard or cream. 

I'm entering this to several blogging challenges this month. Firstly to the Rix Aga Inspired Recipe Competition where the theme is plums. 

Simple and in Season hosted this month by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary for Ren from RenBehan.com. It's definitely plum season as these came fresh from my colleague's garden.

Shop Local hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This challenge was created to highlight produce from local sources. The plums in this recipe came from a colleague's garden. 

The No Waste Food Challenge which is run by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This month, it's guest hosted by Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than... The plums were bountiful and would have gone to waste otherwise.

Update 19th January 2015

This recipe has been published in House of Fraser's 'The Blogger's Recipe Book'  I was pleased to have been invited by the team at House of Fraser Home Department to participate in this project. They've compiled an assortment of recipes from bloggers and it features both sweet and savoury recipes. There are lots of familiar bloggers in there and a few new ones that I've not come across on my blog travels. I'm not sure if the book itself will be for general sale but once I know I will update this post again. 

 The recipe book 

 My bio 

 My recipe

 adding chunks of apple to the batter 

 place the cake batter in the tin 

 top with the crumble 

 arrange the sliced plums on top 

 after baking for about 40 minutes - the middle will still be wobbly 

 add a sprinkle of almond flakes and continue baking until brown 

 fresh from the oven 

 you can see the chunks of apple at the bottom of the cake on the right side 

 

An original recipe by bakingaddict

For the cake

4 eggs = 259g (use the same amount of butter, flour and sugar) 

259g butter

259g caster sugar

259g self raising flour

2 red apples - peeled, cored and chopped

1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

0.5 teaspoon ground nutmeg

For the crumble topping

90g butter

90g plain flour

90g light brown sugar

50g ground almonds

60g oats

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the topping

Handful of plums - cored and sliced

approximately 35g almond flakes

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition.
• Sift in the flour and mix well.
• Stir in the apple chunks by hand and pour into a 23cm round cake tin which has been lined. 
• Make the crumble topping by rubbing the butter and flour together with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. 
• Stir in the sugar, ground almonds, oats and ground cinnamon.
• Pour the crumble topping on top of the cake batter and smooth the top with a spatula.
• Arrange the plum slices on top of the cake.
• Bake for approximately 40 minutes then remove from the oven - the middle will still be wobbly at this point but the outside of the cake should be cooked.
• Sprinkle the flaked almonds on top of the cake and bake for another 15 - 20 minutes or until the almonds are toasted and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. 
• If the almonds brown quickly, cover with foil and continue cooking until the cake is cooked. 

Cashew Butter and Honey Breakfast Muffins

If you read my blog regularly, you will know that I love peanut butter. I know that there are other nut butters available such as almond butter or cashew butter but I've never tried them until now. 

Meridian Foods make nut and seed butters in their factory in North Wales. They are an excellent source of protein and energy as they are 100% nuts and they don't contain any palm oil. They have a wide range of nut and seed butters as well as other products which you can read about here. 

I had a look at their website for recipe inspiration and decided to give these breakfast muffins a go. They were quick and simple to put together and made for a substantial breakfast. You can actually taste the cashew butter which I was honestly surprised by as I thought it would be lost in the muffin. I think adding some real cashew nuts will add to the flavour and provide a different texture to the muffin. 

 mixing the dry ingredients 

 mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients 

 ready to go in the oven

 yum! 

Recipe from Meridian website

Disclaimer: I was sent a selection of nut butters from Meridian for review purposes. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own. This is not a paid post.  

Mixed Fruit Muesli Slice

This month Random Recipes hosted by the dashing Dom from Belleau Kitchen is 40. So he's asked us to choose our 40th book and turn to page 40. I dutifully counted along my bookshelf and No 40 is....

The Australian Women's Weekly Little Squares & Slices. I've not actually made anything from this book yet so I was really pleased that I finally had a chance. With a little trepidation as you just never know what you'll get with random recipes, I turned to page 40 and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Tropical Muesli Slice. I did not have any dried tropical fruit so I used mixed dried fruit, dried cranberries and a handful of dried pineapple slices that I had leftover from something else. It's a really simple recipe but I still managed to burn mine as I left it in the oven for too long! Fortunately, it still tasted good and was devoured heartily at work this morning. Everyone actually quite liked the burnt bits and it was extremely more-ish. It's highly addictive and the recipe is so versatile as you can use any dried fruit/nut or chocolate. 

 oats, self raising flour, dried cranberries, dried pineapple slices, mixed dried fruit, brown sugar, honey, butter 

 slightly burnt but still delicious! 

125g butter
75g soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
135g rolled oats
75g self raising flour
250g mixed dried fruit including dried cranberries (alternatively you can use a tropical mix as suggested in the original recipe - 225g sliced, dried tropical fruit and 25g dessicated coconut)

• Preheat the oven to 160C.
• Melt butter, sugar and honey in a medium sized saucepan. 
• Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining ingredients. 
• Press firmly into a square baking tray and bake for about 35-40 minutes until golden brown.
• Allow to cool completely before slicing