Bailey’s Cheesecake

For my birthday I took a great risk in converting my earlier featured recipe of the Irish Strawberry Cheesecake into a Bailey’s Cheesecake – hoping it would turn out well because I didn’t had any other desserts.

For this recipe I used:

About 250g Cookies (I used very light Tea Biscuits)
80g Butter
3 Spoons of Nutella
500g Greek yoghurt
150g Cream
3 shot glasses of Bailey’s
100g Sugar
1 Pack of the grounded Gelatine

Crush the cookies in a plastic bag. This is best done with a Rolling pin.

Meanwhile melt the butter with the Nutella in a little pan until everything has melted together.

Mix the cookie crumbs and the liquefied butter/Nutella thoroughly stomp the mix into a spring pan. Make sure the base is nice and tight squashed together.

Put the base into the fridge.


Mix the Yoghurt, Sugar, Baileys and Cream until the Sugar has dissolved.

Pour a little bit of hot water into a bowl, add the grounded Gelatine and whisk sturdy until the Gelatine has dissolved fully. It is important to stir until the Gelatine has cooled down or you will have lumps.

Get the spring pan out of the fridge and pour the topping onto the base. Put it all back into the fridge and wait until hardened.

My Tip: Don’t use too much Gelatine! I wanted to make super sure that the Cheese part is not too runny and used 2 packs of grounded Gelatine – the topping was way too rubbery and reminded me of a massive Bailey’s Gummibear… (not that I ever had one…..)

You can then decorate the cheesecake as you wish – with chocolate or anything else you can think of. Enjoy....

Bananacake / Bananabread

Today I had to get rid of my Bananas. I don’t know how you feel about this but if they are too yellow or already have brown spots I simply cannot eat them.

I like them when they are a bright yellow with maybe a hint of green, then they taste the fruitiest I think.
Not too green of course or you get that weird furry sensation on your tongue.

So today it was time again for the - in my opinion - easiest cake recipe in the world:

Simply throw it all into your kitchen machine, into a cake form – bake- ready.

Ingredients:
150g Butter
3 Eggs
200g Sugar
2 spoons Vanillasugar
125 ground Hazelnuts (if you don’t have any handy you can also use chopped Walnuts or any other nuts. If you have a nut allergy, maybe you can use coconut or simply leave them out)
250g flour
2 spoons Baking powder
3 Bananas

My Tip: if you wish you can add little chocolate-bits to the dough. Dark Chocolate works best.

Mash the bananas slightly with a fork and add all the other ingredients into a bowl while mixing with a mixer. How handy is a proper kitchenmachine:
it is doing the job for you and you simply have to measure & add the ingredients and can in the meantime also entertain your Toddler. Fantastic!

Grease a loaf tin form and cover with breadcrumbs or flour.

Add the dough and bake for ca. 50 minutes at 180°C in a fan oven.
Finished – it can’t get any easier!

If you wish you can melt white chocolate and cover the cake with it – once cooled and put on a plate. It looks just lovely when the chocolate even runs down at the sides a little bit.

I personally love my Banana cake just plain and simple with eventually Chocó inside but not on the outside.

Only since I am here in Ireland I know that my Banana cake is here called Bananabread.

I tasted this kind of “bread” at an office occasion once and was a bit sceptical. I simply thought it is the typical Irish Soda Bread with some Banana in it or so….. different countries have different tastes....

How relieved was I when I figured out it is simply just what I know as MY banana cake :)

Zucchini / Courgettes with Sweetcorn & Bratwurst

The other day I was longing for a dish my Mum always made. Except of good German sausages I got everything here in Ireland and it nearly tasted exactly like being at "Mum’s Restaurant".

I even found „Bratwurst“ (sausages) here in Ireland (at Aldi) that taste almost exactly like at home. Not exactly but ... in fairness.... they are almost there ... very, very close anyway ;)

For this recipe you need:

1 spoon of Rapeseed oil
3 sausages
5 big potatoes
3 little Zucchini / Courgettes
1 tin of sweet corn
fresh Thyme
white sauce – either self-made or „cheated“ = package sauce

A bit of milk or cream

Spices as you wish

The amount of ingredients I used is for 2 hungry adults and 1 little eater. If you need to cook for more – simply use a bit more of everything, or half it if you cook just for yourself.

 

Cut the sausages, potatoes and zucchini in little cubes and fry them in the heated oil. Don’t let them get too crispy, just on a little flame until they are soft.

Okokok..... I cheated with the sauce ;)

Add fresh Thyme (or any other herbs you prefer), a bit of salt and pepper.

As my sausages were very very well spiced I did not add any salt – thankfully! 

The sausages were really salty.... good that I had a glass of water handy!

Frozen Zucchini from our summergarden

Add a lid on the pan and let everything simmer for about 20-25 Minutes until the potatoes are soft; which depends on how big or small you had cut them previously.

 

Make the white sauce with about 300ml water (or whatever is stated on the package) and add some milk. You can also add some cream to it if you wish. 

hmmm.... fresh Thyme

To make the sauce a bit creamier I usually mix low fat milk with a dash of cream – for a better taste yet healthier (dare I say slimmer?).

Then add the sweet corn (after it had been put into a sieve to remove the liquids) into the pan and let it simmer for further ca 5 Minutes.

 

Try the dish and add more spices as per your liking. If the sauce has gone a bit too thick, simply add a bit more milk – ready.