Mango-lemon cheesake

Mangose, mangoes, mangoes.. And most of them are ripe and yammi, so what to do on a hot day between a visit to the Safari and dinner with friends better than.. well, baking is probably not the best idea, but thankfully with air conditioning everything is possible.
To make the sweetness more barelable I used lemons, mainly because they grow in my yard, but you can replace it with lime for a more characteristic taste.

Ingredients

Bottom
8 graham crackers
75 g coconut oil (about 6 tbsp) or butter (3/4 stick)
1 tsp  sugar (optional)

Cream cheese - mango layer 
500 ml (2 cups) mango pure - obtained from 3 large mangoes
900 gr, 32 ounces of cream cheese (corrected! my mistake, I miscalculated the weight before..)
200 gr sugar (1 cup)
3 eggs + 2 yolks
1 tsp lemon zest (or lime zest), optional

Lemon layer
250 ml (1 cup) sour cream
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp sugar

Prepare a 9"-10" round cake pen, by greasing lighlty the sides with butter.
Preheat the oven to 160 C, 325 F.
Crumble the crackers, mix with the butter butter and press tightly into the cake form. I used a ziploc to cramble the crackers, but a food processor might speed up your work.
Use the botton of your cup measure to press the crackers evenly in the bottom, and the sides of the form.
In a food processor puree the mango.
Blend the cream cheese with the sugar, add the mangoe pure and the lime yest.
Blend in the eggs one by one, starting with the yolks, incorporating each egg before adding the next.
Reserve some mango pure for decoration.
Pour over the cracker layer and bake at 160C (325F) for 1 hour 15 minutes.
Meanwhile mix the sour cream with the sugar and lemon juice, remove the cake from the oven and spread the sour cream mix over the cream cheese layer.
Add small teaspoons of mango pure in rows or randomly, as many as you please and find virtually appealing.
With the thicked end of a chopstik "cut" through the middle of the dots to create hearts :).
Bake for additional 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven, let it cool, and refrigerate uncovered overnight, or at least 4 hours.

Bon appetit!

Upps.. Sorry. I couldn't find the bottom of my cake form in the mess and hurry, so I used a half size foil pan, I'm sure you can do better :D.

Finom túrós - light farmers cheese cake

OMG.. This roughly describes how we feel about this cake.
The whole family just LOVES it! It is light, not too sweet, full of eggs, cheese, butter and everything that's healthy.
On top of that, it's ready in less than an hour (unfortunately it is also gone in less than in hour :D), so what not to love about it? The 45 minute preparation time includes preps and baking, making it one of my favorites.
This time I spiced it up with sour cherry (Moreno cherry) compote to make hubby even happier, however, the original recipe doesn't ask for any.
Summery, fresh, healthy, and nothing else! Enjoy!

Pastry
300 g (2 cups) all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
100 g butter (1 stick)
1 egg
150 g (3/4 cup) sugar (I alway add 100g or less, that'd be 1/2 cup)
4 tbs sour cream
1 egg for eggwash

Filling
5 eggs
100 g (1 cup) powdered sugar (again, I tend to stay below the suggested amount)
1 tsp vanilla extract
500 g farmers cheese (unsalted old fashioned farmers cheese), again, they sell the 16 oz, 1 pound packages, and that's what I'll use
3 tbsp breadcrumb, or grits

Serving
1-2 tbsp powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).
In a medium bowl mix the flour with the baking powder and sugar, then with the butter and finally with the egg. Add as much sour cream as needed to get a soft, smooth, but workable dough.
Divide in two, and roll out in two sheets with the help of some parchment paper and/or flour, and place one sheet at the bottom of a 8"x10" (20cmx30cm) 2" high tray.

Spread the bread crumbs / grits on top of the pastry layer, evenly.

Mix the egg yolks with the sugar, vanilla extract until foamy, and finally add the cottage cheese. Optionally you can add some raisins, as well.
Meanwhile, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Do not over beat.
Mix it slowly, by first adding only a few tbsp to lighten the egg batter, and then mixing it in fully, but try not to "break" the egg whites.
Pour the filling into the tray, and cover with the second pastry sheet. This is the point when I dropped in the sour cherry.
Poke holes in the pastry (to make way for the steam and get a nice and even cake), dabble the top with the egg wash and bake the cake for 25 minutes on the middle shelf, or until light golden brown.
When ready cover with a kitchen cloth, let it cool and serve with powdered sugar sifted on top.
Have a happy Rooster year!

Bon appétit

Orange - coconut cake

Smelly problem arose in the house. I picked the oranges from one of our trees to let the new harvest enjoy the nutrients, but I had too many.

One full bag, and not so many enthusiasts to eat it. Luckily I stumbled upon this recipe on one of the Finnish blogs I check every now and then, and it looked like it should become a family favorite as hubby likes coconut and everybody likes a savory orange kick.

Ingredients

1 cup, (2 ½ dl) pastry or all purpose flour (NOT bread flower)
1 cup (2 ½ dl) grits
1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup sugar

1 cup oil (any oil that is tasteless, and light)

1 cup orange juice

10 gr, 2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
orange zest, from 2 oranges
1 tsp vanilla extract
coconut for decoration

Juice for moisturizing 
1 cup apple juice 

1 tbsp lemon juice 
130 gr sugar (1/2 cup). I tried. If you ask me CUT the sugar at least in half, and I might not add any sugar if it is served without the unsweetened whipped cream. If you plan to serve it with the whipped cream, try with the full amount of sugar. You decide. There will be a second try, trust me :).

Serving

unsweetened whipped cream (optional), decorated with few mint or basil leaves

Line the bread pans with baking sheets. In my case the old fashioned brean pan worked better than the silicon, the cake came out higher and less burned on the surface.

Preheat the oven to 350 F, 180 C.

Mix eggs with the sugar, and add the oil, orange zest, orange juice, until well combined. Add the tsp of vanilla, and pinch of salt (optional, but whenever I add vanilla to a batter, especially with grits, salt comes automatically).

Mix in the dry ingredients lightly, aiming for an even batter. No need to overmix.

Place the batter in two bread forms,  and bake for 40-50 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. I turned the heat a bit higher at the beginning, hence the little bit burned top, and in my oven 40 minutes would have been enough, so keep an eye on it.

While the cake is baking, bring the orange juice with the sugar to boiling point, and boil it for couple of minutes until sugar is properly dissolved. Let it cool slightly.

When the cake is ready pour the juice on top of the cake as it comes out of the oven.

Let it cool slightly, then cool for at least 2 hour in the fridge before serving.

Enjoy by itself or with whipped cream if desired.

Bon appétit!

Edible piparkakku gift box or "cake"

The piparkakku seems to be everybody's favorite. The teacher talked about the piparkakku house for weeks after she eventually ate them :).
Today was her birthday, so we baked, and glued, and decorated, and I thought I'm going to share some home made present tips, for piparkakku lovers.
It is a lovely surprise "cake" for those who don't like creamy stuff, and it is long lasting too, so you can prepare it well in advance.
At school all the kids thought it is a cake and were looking forward to be cut and shared :).

Ingredients
Prepare the dough from piparkakku recipe. You need about 1.5 times portion. If you bake double, you'll have some cookies as well to put in the box.
Take two sheets of white paper, draw the template and cut out the pieces of the house .
You'll nee three sizes of rectangles:
- bottom and top: 16 cm x 24 cm, times two
- side walls: 8 cm x 14.5 cm, times two
- back and front walls: 8 cm x 24 cm, times two
- 4 small bars, two shorter ones that fit the short edges, and two longer ones that fit the longer edges of the top

Assembling 
1/3 - 1/2 cup sugar, for gluing them together with caramelized, hot sugar.

Roll out the dough about 4 mm thick. Use parchment paper on top and beneath to make your life easier.

Bake the shapes, adjust the edges while hot, if needed, by placing the paper templates on top of the cookie and cutting them around quickly before the cake hardens. 
Decorate with icing, and let them dry overnight.

Heat the 1/3-1/2 cup sugar, let it melt and caramelize until gets some light golden color. Reduce the heat, and start gluing the sides. I had to use a spoon to pour melted sugar along the lines where I needed to glue the parts together because I didn't find a large enough bowl to dip the part's edges in it.
If you have larger bowls and want to use those to dip the walls in the caramel and glue them right away, you might need to melt more sugar.
Glue first the two longer side walls perpendicular to the bottom. Hold them for ~30 seconds straight, don't shake or move them unless you have to, and if you have to, do it VERY fast right after you placed them on the bottom part, because the sugar will harden immediately.
Next the two smaller side will go in between the two longer ones. Try them on first before dipping them, or pouring any sugar anywhere.
I placed them first neatly in, and only then poured sugar from the top and inside to glue them together with the bottom and the side walls.
They might not fit perfectly, in that case use a bread knife to "saw" tiny parts off. They will be maximum 1-2 mm, so you really need to SAW them, rather than start cutting, or you'll brake the pieces.

Measure the thickness of the walls, and on the BACK side of the top cover  glue the four bars, leaving a space about the size of the walls between the bars and the edge of the box top.
I forgot to take a picture of the back side of the top, so I made you an image. The bars are same thickness, I just had issues adjusting it to look exactly the same in the pic. The bars are needed to stop the top from sliding off the box.
You can also glue small bars to make corners. Just have something to stop the top sliding.

I can promise, it's going to be a BIG hit :).