Snickers Cheesecake

This was a special request from the youngest of my three baby sisters, she turned 21 a few weeks ago and I wanted to make her a special birthday cake, one of her favourite chocolate bars is Snickers and she loves Oreos –YUM! I have made it for another special occasion since and it was well received, I really perfected it second time around and am feeling rather proud of myself that I have mastered baked cheesecake and using a water bath!

Ingredients:
Crust
1 packet of Oreo cookies
25 grams butter, melted

Cheesecake
500 grams cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 tablespoon cornflour
4-5 full sized snickers bars, cut into 1/2 - 1cm slices
1/4 caramel sauce
1/4 cup peanuts

Method:
Preheat oven to 170ºC and grease a 20cm round springform tin or PushPan.
If using a springform tin you will need to wrap the bottom and sides with tin foil to protect it in the water bath, if you are using a PushPan the rubber seal means that this step can be omitted.
Pulse cookies in a food processor until crushed. Pulse in butter.
Press into an even layer in pan. Bake until firm, 5 to 8 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Place a roasting pan filled with 2-3cm of hot water on oven's centre rack, this is your water bath.
Beat cream cheese until smooth.
Add sugar and beat for approximately 1 minute, until well combined.
Beat in eggs one at a time.
Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl before beat in vanilla and cornflour.
Place Snickers evenly over crust.
Pour batter over the Oreo crust and place in water bath.
Bake until cake is set around edges but still jiggles in centre, about 50-60 minutes.
Remove cake from roasting pan and if you need to remove foil.
Place cake on a rack to cool.
Once cool, cover and chill in the fridge until firm – at least 4 hours or up to 1 day.
When ready to serve, drizzle top with caramel sauce and top with chopped peanuts and the remainder of your Snickers pieces.

Cookies and Cream Marshmallow by High Tea With Dragons

Hi everyone!  It’s Kirsten from High Tea with Dragons here - I’m beyond honoured to be guest posting on Baking Makes Things Better today!

Marshmallow is one of my absolute favourite treats to make and once you get the hang of it, is unbelievably easy too!  If you haven’t tried making marshmallow before then you’re missing out - homemade marshmallow is totally different from its store-bought cousin; it’s super soft, packed with flavour and melts away in your mouth.

This recipe for cookies and cream marshmallow is perfect for beginners – the flavours come from a little bit of vanilla bean paste (or vanilla essence) and crushed Oreo cookies, not additional sugar syrups like some more complicated marshmallows.  This marshmallow is absolutely delicious – the crushed Oreos are a crunchy surprise when you bite in, perfectly balanced by the smooth vanilla marshmallow.  I’m sure you’ll love it – enjoy!

Note: While the mixture itself takes around 30 minutes to prepare, keep in mind that marshmallow needs to set for 24 hours before you slice and dust it.

Ingredients:
500g sugar
4 teaspoons glucose syrup
2 tablespoons gelatine powder
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
¾ cup Oreo cookies, crushed
½ cup icing sugar (to dust)
½ cup corn flour (to dust)

Method:
Grease and line a rectangular tray with baking paper.  Lightly spray top of baking paper with non-stick spray.
Place 200ml of water in a bowl and sprinkle with gelatine.  Set aside.
Place sugar, glucose and 200ml of water in a large saucepan.  Place on low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved.
Increase heat to medium-high and insert sugar thermometer.  Boil for 3-5 minutes until the mixture reaches 120°C.  Remove from heat and carefully add gelatine mixture.  Whisk until gelatine dissolves and no lumps remain.
Place egg whites in a large bowl and beat with a whisk attachment on high until foamy. Gradually add hot sugar syrup while mixing.  Continue to beat on high until white and glossy – about 5 min with stand mixer, 10 with hand mixer. Fold vanilla bean paste/vanilla essence through mixture.
Add crushed Oreos and gently fold through mixture until evenly spread.  Pour into prepared pan and allow to set for 24 hours.
In a small bowl, sift together icing sugar and corn flour. Dust large knife with icing sugar mixture and slice marshmallow into squares.
Roll each square in icing sugar mixture, ensuring all sides are coated, and place on cooling rack. Leave to dry for at least 3 hours. Store in an airtight container.

*For more amazing recipes, check out Kirsten’s blog High Tea With Dragons.  We love it.  Thanks for sharing this recipe with us Kirsten!  -Melissa and Courtenay xx.

Oreo Truffles

These are super easy to make – it’s basically just the same recipe as my Mint Chocolate Truffles, but using Oreo biscuits instead.  These truffles are super delicious, however I only got to try a couple because I actually made them as a present and gave them away (much to Simon’s disappointment).

Makes: between 25 – 40 truffles, depending on how big make them

Ingredients:
450g Oreos (reserve two for decoration)
250g regular cream cheese
375g dark chocolate melts
150g white chocolate

Method:
Place the biscuits in a food processor and grind them up.  Add the cream cheese and mix well.  It does not matter if there are bits of biscuit still intact.  Place the mixture in the freezer until it has hardened (approx. 20 minutes).

Line a tray with non-stick baking paper or tin foil.  Spoon out little balls of the mixture and place on the tray (if the mixture is too soft and will not roll into balls easily, place back into the freezer to harden some more).  Place the tray back into the freezer for at least another 10 minutes.

Melt the dark chocolate.  Using a fork, dip each frozen truffle into the chocolate and allow to set (If the chocolate is taking ages to set, put the truffles back in the freezer for a while to make the mixture really cold).  Personally, I have a system going where I get all my forks out and dip each truffle in the chocolate so they are half covered. Then, once the chocolate has set I take them off the forks and hand dip the other side.  To prevent the truffles from rolling around while the chocolate on the other half is setting I find placing them on teaspoons does the trick.

Grind up the to reserved biscuits.  Once the dark chocolate has set, melt the white chocolate and drizzle it over the truffles (I find using a squeezy icing bottle with a small round tip makes this easy and tidy work).  Sprinkle the ground up biscuit over the white chocolate and allow the chocolate to set.

Store in an airtight container in a cool, dark place.  To prevent the chocolate sweating, do not store in the fridge or freezer – however this means that the filling will be soft.

Oreo Cupcakes

And yes – they are as good as their name suggests!
These came about as Imogen (my youngest sister) sent me the picture below and suggested I make them for her when she was home over the holidays for her birthday.


Unfortunately the picture didn’t come with a recipe so I adapted one of mine to make a rich chocolate cake.

1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ cups flour
1 egg
½ cup milk
110g dark chocolate (to combine with milk)
150g butter (melted)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
½ cup boiling water
20 Oreos
20 mini Oreos (for decoration)

Line cupcake tin with cupcake papers. Twist Oreos and place the side with the cream on the bottom of the cupcake papers (cream side up). Save the tops of the Oreos (you will need them for your icing).
Place all ingredients for cupcakes in a bowl EXCEPT the water. Ensure that you have melted the butter and you have melted the chocolate in the milk and they are well combined. Add water last - do not mix until it is added.  Mix  well to combine all the ingredients.

Bake in a 180°C oven (fan bake) for 15 minutes (or until skewer can be removed cleanly or the they spring back when touched).

To frost – place 12 Oreo tops in a food processor and pulse until they resemble fine crumbs, set aside and make a vanilla buttercream icing. Once your frosting has reached a consistency you are happy with add in the Oreo crumbs and combine. Top the cupcake with a mini Oreo to finish.
* If you want to be really fancy (like me, in the pictures below) you could make extra vanilla buttercream and separate it before adding the Oreo crumbs. This frosting can be injected into the center of cupcakes.

Oreo Cheesecake

This is a very rich and creamy cheesecake – perfect for anyone who loves Oreos!

Serves 15

350g Oreo original cookies
80g butter, melted
375g cream cheese, softened
½ cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup cream
3 teaspoons gelatine, dissolved in ¼ cup boiling water
200g white chocolate, melted, cooled slightly
For decoration: Strawberries or extra Oreo cookies, broken

Place 250g of the Oreo cookies in a food processor and process into fine crumbs.  Add the butter and process to combine.  Press the mixture in to a greased 18cm x 28cm slice pan (or 20cm round spring-form tin) and chill.
Beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth, then beat in the cream.  Stir through the gelatine and white chocolate.
Roughly chop the remaining biscuits and stir through the filling.  Pour the filling over the cookie base.  Refrigerate for 3 hours or until set.  Cut into triangles and decorate with strawberries and the extra Oreo cookies before serving.