black bottom cheesecakes

I would like to think that cheesecake is one of the easier treats to make... well, there may be lots of people out there begging to differ. I can only say what works easier for me.

Some people claim that cookies are easy, but it's hard for me to get a consistent result for different recipes, sometimes they are too soft / too cakelike, sometimes they are off the taste slightly... they hardly turn out too hard for my case though. So, I can't claim cookies are easy for me.

Some people claim that cupcakes are easy, but for me, I tend to cut down the sugar too much (I seem to have this problem, bcoz I like my cake to be less sweet) and the cupcakes turn out not fitting the taste of people around me.

For cheesecakes, most of the times (well, most), they turn out delectable and they go down well with most  of the people around me, so I don't have to end up finishing most by myself :).

This black bottom cheesecake recipe is a nice twist from conventional crusted cheeseke. The chocolate taste from the bottom compliments the cheesecake portion well. The cake texture also goes well with the smoother texture of the cheesecake. 

Black Bottom Cheesecake

cream cheese filling:

8 ounce cream cheese, room temperature

1/3 granulated white sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract
chocolate chips (optional)

chocolate bottom:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup granulated white sugar (I used 1/2 cup)

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven at 175 degree C, line muffin pan.

2. With electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar, egg, and vanilla extract and beat until creamy. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, mix together sifted flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In a seperate bowl, mix together water, oil, vinegar and vanilla extract. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients until smooth. 

4. Divide the chocolate batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups. Top each with cheesecake batter evenly. Sprinkler chocolate chips on top of each muffin.

5. Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 mins. The cheesecake should have set and chocolate cake portion springy to touch. 

6. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool.

This recipe is adapted from Joy Of Baking

I really like to simplicity of this recipe. Yes, there are 2 portions to make but both are not complicated. The result is mouthfuls of rich wholesome taste - wonderful mix of chocolate and cheese, goes really well with coffee too.

peach yogurt muffin

Hubby and I went for dinner at an Italian restaurant near Tanjong Pagar MRT a couple of weeks ago and the restaurant manager there had been so kind to give us a jar of Italian preserved peach after the dinner to bring home. That jar of preserved peach is softer than the standard off-the-shelf preserved peach in a tin and they go really well with plain yogurt or vanilla ice cream.

Last weekend, I was contemplating what to bake for snacks when I saw the jar with half finished peaches in the fridge. I immediately thought that the peaches would be lovely if used in place of the blueberry in the blueberry yogurt muffin 1 recipe.

Again, the muffin came out moist, soft and tasty. And oh, I like the slightly caramelised look of the peach on top of the muffin, makes them look extra attractive, I think.

blueberry yogurt muffin 2

I was flipping through a recipe book titled The Delicious Cookbook by Matthew Drennan given to me by one of my colleague/friend and discovered a dog-earred page with raspberry muffins recipe. I must have intended to try out the recipe in the past.

I was immediately attracted to the recipe when I saw that for a total portion that will make 12 muffins, the recipe uses only 2 tablespoon of oil! Better still, the recipe also uses yogurt, which I like.

With 2 punnets of blueberries left in the fridge, I tried adapting the recipe to make blueberry muffin instead. This time round, I got slightly bolder and tried replacing some of the flour with wholemeal flour and since I am not exactly a very stick to the rules baker, I converted the metric (gram) in the original recipe into 'cup' in the recipe below that I used for these muffins.

Blueberry Yogurt Muffin

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1/2 cup wholemeal flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp oil

3/4 cup natural yogurt

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp honey (I added this bcoz the particular brand of yogurt I bought is very sour)

1 cup blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree C. Line muffin tray with paper cups.

2. Sift all dry ingredients in a bowl, then make a well in the middle.

3. Put all wet ingredients in another bowl and whisk until mixed, pour into the well in the flour mixture. Mix together working from the center, blending the flour into the egg mixture a little at a time. Mix well.

4. Fold in the blueberries and mix lightly.

5. Bake in the oven for 20 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

The muffins came out beautifully. They were tasty, totally not oily and bcoz of the wholemeal flour, has a different texture from the blueberry yogurt muffin 1 (BYM1) that I tried few days ago. Surprising, with so little oil used, these muffins were actually quite moist, though not as moist as BYM1. BYM 1 has a very fluffy texture and is slightly more delicate in taste compared to BYM 2.

Which one do I prefer? If I have to choose, I think maybe BYM2 for breakfast and as regular bake since the recipe is definitely much more healthy and maybe BYM1 when I need a 'pamper myself' moments :).

blueberry yogurt muffin 1

I bought 3 punnets of blueberries last Friday (way too many, I got carried away), getting ready to try out this blueberry muffin recipe I found on Gourmet Girl1's blog during the weekend. I was attracted to the simple steps and the low oil to flour ratio of the recipe.

I was keen too to try out the lovely small muffin paper cups I bought from Daiso recently. Surprisingly, the new relocated Daiso store at Plaza Singapura carries quite a range of baking materials.

Blueberry Yogurt Muffin (made 18 standard muffins)

3 cups cake flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 cup yogurt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 cups blueberries

1. Preheat oven at 175 degree C.

2. Sift all dry ingredients and set aside. Toss blueberries with 1 tbsp of flour an set aside.

3. Whisk all wet ingredients and mix well.

4. Add wet ingredients to the flour mixture and mix til just barely combined. Add blueberries and mix lightly. Do not over mix.

5. Top with baking sugar and bake for 20 mins.

I used 2/3 of the portion stated since it was my first try and I also cut the sugar down to 1/2 cup for the 2/3 portion. I skipped the sprinklering of sugar on top as well since I just wanted something basic for the muffin.

The muffins turned out to be really moist, soft and delicious. Both hubby and I found the sweetness just nice for our taste bud, so the reduction of sugar worked for us. And because the paper cups I used were smaller than standard size, I yielded many more small muffins. I brought about a third for my cousin's twin daughters when I met them later that day.

I love these blueberry muffins and I think I will definitely be making them again in near future.