Caramel Milk Tart

Wow long silence. Exams. Excuses. Excuses. I have been baking but not blogging so over the next few weeks expect a few!

Anyway first up here is a custard tart with a caramel crumble topping.

Ingredients:
Pastry:
250g plain flour
50g icing sugar
125g cold butter
1 egg
A splash of semi-skinned milk

Filling:
600ml milk
2 tsps vanilla extract
1 knob of butter
2 eggs
2 tbsps of cornflour
1.5 tbsps of plain flour
75g caster sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Caramel:
130g caster sugar
3 tbsps water

Method:
Rub cubes of butter into the flour and icing sugar until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add the egg and work together before adding a splash of milk so that the pastry forms a scruffy ball. Wrap in clingfilm and leave to chill for 2 hours.

Grease a 24cm tin and roll the pastry to 0.5 cm thickness. Put pastry into the tin and prick the base then freeze for 20 mins.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Then fill the pastry case with baking beans on a layer of grease-proof paper. Then bake blind for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and then bake for another 10 minutes.

For the filling heat the milk with vanilla extract and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and then stir in the butter until it melts. In a bowl mix the eggs with cornflour, flour and sugar and then when the milk has cooled gradually whisk into the egg mixture. Tip back into the pan and place over a low hear until thickened, whisking constantly. Pour in to pastry case and dust with cinnamon and nutmeg. Bake for 20 minutes.

Melt the sugar in a non-stick pan with water over a medium heat until lightly golden then pour onto a sheet until it cools. Then smash the caramel into pieces and crumble over the top.

New York Cheesecake

*WARNING: This will ruin your post-Christmas healthy eating attempt*

I have made a cheesecake in the past, a Passionfruit cheesecake which was refrigerated rather than baked. You can find the recipe here: http://girlbaking.blogspot.com/2013/07/passion-fruit-cheesecake.html

While the ingredients will make your heart stop, the end result is delicious. 

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

85g plain flour

40g ground almonds

50g caster sugar

85g unsalted butter

For the filling:

850g full-fat cream cheese

270g caster sugar 

2 medium eggs, 1 egg yolk

420ml whipping cream

50g plain flour 

1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract

Grated nutmeg

Method:

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius fan. Grease a 23 cm tin.

Mix the ingredients for the pastry together in a bowl and press the mixture onto the bottom of the tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly golden, the set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius fan. 

Combine the cream cheese and sugar. Add the eggs, yolk and cream and lightly mix. Fold in the flour with the vanilla extract and nutmeg. 

Bake in the oven for around 1 hour. The cheesecake should have slightly risen at the edge and should wobble slightly when moved. Leave the cheesecake to cool and   then remove from tin.

Cover with tin foil and leave the chill overnight. 

I served it with berries and some chocolate Flake, sprinkled on the top. 

Happy Baking! Gx

Decorating the Christmas cake

Once your cake is done, it is time to decorate it. And as it is Christmas Eve now is the time! 

Cover in apricot jam and then roll out on a surface covered in icing sugar around 500g marzipan.

Then drape over cake and smooth

Then roll out a layer of fondant icing (around 750g) again on a surface covered in icing sugar. The drape over the cake and smooth.

Once you have done this, decorate as you wish. I went for something quite minimalist and piped a simple decoration with a white water icing, but obviously you can go much bigger! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!