Chocolate Mint Cheesecake

Intro
I first typed this recipe up back in December but have been wracking my brains for a story to go with it. Bottom line: there is no story. It is just a really lovely no-bake recipe that I have made several times in recent months alone.

Its also very nice with a thick blueberry 'sauce' on top instead of the mints. Simmer a couple of handfuls of blueberries with a splash of water and about 2 tablespoons of sugar. Once its thickish (use cornflour if need be) allow it to cool and then spread it over the filling.

Recipe
Base

• 90g plain sweet biscuits
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• 45g butter

Filling

• 250g cream cheese
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teasp vanilla essence
• 1 teaspoon gelatine
• 2 teaspoons cold water
• 1 cup cream
• 6 chocolate after dinner mints
• 1 tablespoon water

Method
Crush the biscuits finely in a food processor or with a rolling pin and plastic bag. Add melted butter and cocoa to the crumbs then press into 18cm flan dish with a removable base. Place in the fridge to firm up.

Beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth with a electric cake mixer. Put the cold water in a teacup, sprinkle gelatine over the top and then place the cup in hot water until the gelatine dissolves. Add this to the cream cheese mixture and beat well. Whip the cream and fold it through the cream cheese mixture. Spoon it into the crust. Dissolve the mints in the extra water in the top of a double saucepan. Cool it a bit then spoon this over the cream cheese mixture and lightly swirl through. Refrigerate until set.

Rhubarb Crumble

Intro
When I was 9 Mum and Dad bought our first house. It was an ex-State House across the road and down the street from the State House flat we had been renting for 8 years or so. This was a huge big deal and I clearly remember carrying a coffee table down the street with my friend who lived directly across the Street from our new home!

The only bad thing, in my child-eyes, was that the entire backyard was a paddock of silverbeet and rhubarb! We walked around the neighbourhood giving away armloads of the wretched stuff but ate more than can be imagined possibe too. It took me years to get over my aversion to silverbeet but I still remember the fragrant crumble that Mum made for dessert made week after week after week ...

Recipe

• 1 cup brown sugar
• half cup flour
• 2 cups crushed weetbix
• eighth teaspoon nutmeg*
• eighth easpoon cinnamon
• 4 ounces butter
• fresh rhubarb stalks
  

*At least - I use closer to 1 teaspoon of each spice. A few chopped walnuts are nice too.

Crumble
Combine all dry ingredients into a bowl, rub in the butter with fingers.

Top and tail rhubarb stalks and cut into 1 inch long pieces.Place into a casserole dish and sprinkle with sugar (about 160grams to every 500g rhubarb). Spinkle crumble over top and bake at 350 degrees for minutes 40 mins. Serve warm with vanilla icecream or thickened cream.

Yummy cold for breakfast.

Rice Pudding

Intro

I heard myself growling the boys last week: "Havn't you already had your glass of milk today?" and was appalled. Milk is nation building stuff for Kiwi's in more ways than one. Our entire economy for decades and decades has rested on dairy produce and for as many years, probably, our young bodies were built up with pints and pints of calcium rich milk; not that modern tasteless 'skinny' trim milk you buy today but real, full cream milk. 

We were not a wealthy family growing up, in fact looking back I think we were quite poor but I don't recall being hungry. Dad worked three jobs while doing his apprenticeship and Mum was a stay-at-home Mum raising 4 children - and she wasn't even 21! Breakfast was Weetbix and milk - hot milk in winter. Winter evening meals always started with thick homemade vegetable soup made from the roast bone from an earlier meal and heavy with root vegetables, dried peas and alphabet noodles. It filled us up and made sure we got the nourishment growing bodies needed before the main course which was probably light on expensive meat. Every meal was finished with a milky pudding of some sort - rice pudding and bread and butter pudding being the favourites - which also ensured full tummies. 

In my Mum's school days every kid got given a free quarter pint of milk and an apple every day at school but by the time she had kids herself the 'scheme' had changed and milk was heavily subsidised so as to be affordable for everyone: 4 cents a pint - cheap as chips even on our limited budget and we had 6 - 8 pints delivered to the gate every day. Thats 28 - 35 litres of milk a week and I yell at my kids for not making 4 litres last the week out .... 

Recipe

Combine together in a baking dish:

• 1 cup short grain rice
• half cup sugar
• 2 pints whole (full fat) milk (1200 mls)
• 2 oz butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1/4 cup sultanas

Bake in a moderate oven (180 degrees celcius or 375 degrees fahrenheit) for 50 - 60 minutes. Serves 8. PS Of course you could half the recipe but why would you when its so nice cold for breakfast :) 

Variation: use a can or 2 of coconut cream for some of the milk, add chopped dried apricots.

Apple Cake

Intro

This is one of the first desserts I can remember cooking for my family when I was a kid. Mum and Dad both worked and that meant that each of us kids in turn were responsible for preparing the family meal. Not surprisingly we are all pretty good cooks now. 

I got this recipe out of a Good Housekeeping cookbook my Mum was given by her Grandmother when she got married in 1963. I cooked it a lot when I was a pub cook in Gympie, Queensland. I used to multiply the recipe up and make it in a huge slab. I discovered that a good handful of flour = 1 cup and that I could cream butter and sugar much more quickly with my hand if I was in hurry. I would make whole cakes with my hand as the measurer and beater which was heaps more effective than a standard wooden spoon (in the absence of commercial mixers). When it was baking you could smell the cinnamon right through the pub and the bar staff would bring orders out for cake and cream. 

Recipe

Sift together

• 2 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• half teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons sugar

Rub in

• 4oz (125g) butter

Lightly beat together and add to the dry mixture:

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk

Pour into a greased tin, and cover with:

• 3 or 4 sliced apples (peeling is optional)
• 1 tablespoon of mixed peel
• 2oz (60g) butter dotted over
• quarter cup of sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Bake 180 degrees for 35 minutes or until done. Serve with whipped cream and / or icecream. This freezes well in portions, reheats well in the microwave and can be made entirely in the kitchen whizz if time is short (including slicing the apples).

Chocolate Pudding

Intro

This recipe dates from about 1991. I had a friend called Fran Lewis who used to bring this dessert whenever her and Pete were invited for dinner. Eventually she gave me the recipe and its now my kids all time favourite dessert. Its a microwave pudding so you can be eating it just 15 minutes after walking into the kitchen. Connor is the King of cooking this and he started making it when he was about 10.

Recipe

• 60g butter (2ozs)

In the microwave melt butter on high power for 30 seconds. Use a wide bottomed dish or bowl that you will cook the pudding in. Pull it out and lightly stir in the following - don't over mix it or the pudding will be tough.

• half a cup sugar
• 1 egg
• half a cup milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Scrape the batter off the sides of the bowl with a rubber scraper so it sits neatly on the bottom of the dish. Set aside.

In a small bowl mix together:

• half a cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa

Sprinkle evenly over the batter. Gently pour one and half cups of boiling water over the back of a spoon onto the batter. Cook for 6.5 minutes at 100% power. Stand for 2 minutes.