Mirror glaze

Yesterday I shared a recipe of the frozen mango cheesecake with passionfruit. It's a perfect recipe also if you want to cover it with a mirror glaze like I did. Any kind of cheesecake or mousse can be covered with mirror glaze as long as it's freezing cold and has a smooth surface.
I made this cheesecake in a chocolate mould shaped like an egg as I couldn't find a silicone mould which would have been more ideal. I still wanted to try. I covered the mould with cling film to make it easier to remove from the mould. However if you have a silicone mould it's much better cause the cling film already made the surface of my cake a bit uneven.
I also was not quite as amazed with the colour of my egg as I have been previous times I've used this shiny glaze. I recommend to use quite vibrant colours because the finish will be much better. Also add a bit of edible glitter to make it shine and sparkle as I did in my red dome shaped (version shown at the bottom of this page).

Here's how to make a mirror glaze:

You will need:
300g granulated sugar
200g sweetened condensed milk
150ml water

2tbsp of gelatine powder
125ml water
350g white chocolate 

Mix these into a saucepan:

300g granulated sugar
200g sweetened condensed milk
150ml water

Place these into a pot and heat up on medium heat, stirring occasionally.

In a separate bowl:
2tbsp of gelatine powder
125ml water

while the condensed milk mixture is heating, mix the gelatine powder with the water and let it swell up for a few minutes.

Once the condensed milk has come to a simmer take it off the heat and add the gelatine lump. Mix well.

Chop some white chocolate 350g and por the hot mixture onto the chocolate and allow to melt 5 mins and mix well with a whisk.

Add the colour of your choice and let it cool a bit until body temperature (37°C).

Place your frozen cake or smaller cakes onto a rack with a baking tray underneath. Pour the glaze onto the cakes and let it set in the fridge.

Here's a mirror glaze with a more vibrant colour

Cheesecake with mango and passion fruit

One day I got these silicone moulds shaped like flowers from a friend of mine. I immediately wanted to try to make something with them. At first I wasn't sure I liked them and if I would use them much as I thought they were a bit kitsch...but seeing the end result really changed my mind. I found this recipe on Linda Lomelino's blogg call me cupcake and it was really easy to make and delicious. I mean how can you not love cheesecake, passionfruit and mango, right?

I hadn't thought about sharing this recipe but as easter is right around the corner I thought this would be the perfect dessert. You can make it into one big cake like Linda Lomelino did, or make it into smaller individual cakes depending on which moulds or cake forms you use.

For the cookie base:
150g Digestive cookies
60g melted butter

Cheesecake filling:

300g Philadelphia cream cheese
250g Ricotta
4 dl whipping cream
1,75dl sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
250g mango

Decoration:
3 passionfruit

Place the biscuits into a blender and grind until smooth.
Mix the cookies with the melted butter.
Press the cookie mix into the bottom of your cake form (one where you can easily get the bottom off).
Place into the fridge for 20 minutes.

Or like in my case, I pressed the cookie mix onto a oven tray covered with parchment paper into small individual circles using a round form. I then placed this into the fridge to harden, like above, while I prepared the cheesecake mix.

Whisk together the cream cheese, ricotta, cream, sugar and lemon zest. It should start to thicken but still be pouring consistency.
Pour the filling into the moulds or into the cake pan with the cookie bottom.

Peel the mango, remove the pit and cut into chunks. Place into the blender and blend until it's a puré.
Pour the mango puré onto the cheesecake filling and by using a spoon, gently mix it in like a swirl. Not mixing it in completely.
You could also pour the puré into small individual half globes and freeze until hard and press into the cheesecake filling to make small domes that will be revealed when you cut into the cheesecake.

Cover the cake/cakes with clingfilm and place into the freezer for 6hrs.
Take out the cake approximately 30 mins before serving. Pour te passionfruit onto the cake.

This is super easy to make and can be made in advance.

Today I also tried placing this filling into an egg shaped mould and covered it with a vibrant mirror glaze.

I'll post more on that soon!

Easter Shakshouka

Shakshouka....what? Shakshouka...shake what?

How can you not already love Shakshouka even if you never ever heard of it before? The name already implies that it's something fun, exotic, spicy and interesting and the word itself already makes you want to do a little dance.
Shakshouka is a one pan dish of eggs cooked in a tomato sauce, packed with spices originating, from North Africa and is also very popular in the Middle East. It's usually made with tomato sauce, red chili peppers, onions, cumin and other spices. I like to add Ras el Hanout which is a spice blend (usually containing cumin, cardamom, clove, ginger, cayenne, coriander, paprika etc.) made in these countries and is perfect for this.
The first time I had Shakshouka was in Tel Aviv, Israel, which is also the first place I got hooked on Ras el Hanout.

Normally the Shakshoukas are made with a red tomato sauce, but as Easter is coming up I thought of making my own version using yellow tomatoes, yellow and orange bell peppers and of course yellow chillies.
I love how this dish turned out and I'm sure you will love it too. It can be served as breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner or midnight snack....so t's just perfect and it's also so easy to make (especially if you were to use canned tomato sauce).

Ingredients:

3-5 eggs (depending on the size of your pan and how many people you are. I only used 3)
1 yellow bell pepper (200g when whole)
1 orange bell pepper (200g)
200g mixed yellow tomatoes
3 yellow chillies (30g)
1-2 garlic cloves
2 spring onions (20g)
1 tsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp Ras el Hanout
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp flake salt
20g Kale (optional)
cilantro
flatleaf parsley

Take a few tomatoes and a slice of pepper aside for garnish and to get a bit of texture. I also saved one of the chillies for later. This step is completely optional as you could just chuck everything in the pan at once and pop in the blender to make the sauce, but I really like to chop some fresh peppers, tomatoes and chillies on top not only for texture but because it just looks prettier too.

Chop the bell peppers, chilies, tomatoes, onion and garlic roughly. In a pan with olive oil sautée the ingredients until a bit soft. Add the spices and place into a blender.

While the blender is doing its work, Finely slice the kale and sautée until a bit soft. Even some of these I saved for later and fried them as a crunchy topping only because I love the variety of texture and love a bit of crispiness and crunch.

Season with salt. To balance off the spiciness and bitterness add the maple syrup (can be replaced with sugar).

Once you are happy with the taste, pour the mixture back into the pan.  Add the sautéed kale. Let the mixture simmer a bit.
Using a spoon make som wells into the sauce to crack the eggs into.
Carefully cover the whites with the sauce. This will make the whites cook faster. Cook the eggs in the sauce on low heat. Add the rest of the finely chopped bell peppers and halved cherry tomatoes.
Once the egg whites are cooked and the egg yolks are still runny turn off the heat.
Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and flatleaf parsley.
If you saved some of the kale add this too.
To add a bit more kick...add the rest of the chili.
Serve the shakshouka from the pan.
A bit of bread can be a nice condiment to scoop up all the goodness.

You could mix all the ingredients together to make it easier but as I said I really like mine with a bit of texture. The Kale is completely optional and if you like you can use some spinach instead to add some greens.

Happy Shakshouka Easter!