Caramelised Banana Cheesecake

Last week I was chatting to a girlfriend about caramel cheesecakes. Everyday since that chat all I could think off was caramel cheesecake. So when twingroup rolled around it was my perfect excuse to make one. I am normally a fan of quick and easy but effective and delicious. This recipe is a bit more involved than what I would normally do as there are several parts to it and it does span over 2 days as there's a lot of time needed to let the cake chill. But for all the time and effort required, I promise you, definitely worth it.

I had never made it before so I looked online at several recipes and used bits that I liked from 2 recipes. One was from Yummly and the other by Anna Olson at the recommendation of my Mom. My mother simply adores her.

So after many hours of fun fun fun here is my version of a Caramelised Banana Cheesecake.

For the pastry
13 digestive biscuits
1/2 cup pecan nuts
1/4 cup melted butter

For the caramelised banana
3 firm bananas
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice

For the cheesecake filling
500g cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg, beaten
1 extra yolk
2 egg whites,lightly beaten

For the caramel sauce
1 1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice

PASTRY
1. Wrap a greased 23cm springform tin in foil. It will be immersed in a water bath later. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Blitz pecans and biscuits until fine. Then add melted butter and blitz until well combine.
3. Press onto bottom of pan (not up the sides) and bake for 12 minutes and see aside
to cool.

                    

BANANAS
1. Melt butter and add brown sugar until melted and bubbly. Add lemon juice and sliced bananas.
2. Warm bananas through the hot caramel until well coated. Pour onto cooled crust and set aside.


CHEESECAKE FILLING
1. Beat cream cheese until fluffy. It must be soft to begin with or you'll get a lumpy filling.
2. Add sugar then sour cream and eggs.
3. Combine well and top the caramelised banana in the springform tin. Put tin in a deep baking dish and pour hot water half way up the tin.
4. Put in oven for 30 minutes at 180 degrees and then another 30-40 minutes at 160 degrees. The cake should be puffed but still jiggly. Remove from water and completely cool before letting it chill in fridge overnight.







CARAMEL TOPPING
1. In a pan combine water, sugar and lemon juice. Don't stir. Let it boil until it reaches a golden colour.
2. Remove from heat and add cream. Be careful as it will be quite sputtering and bubbly. Return to heat for another 5 minutes or so to let it reduce a little. Stir occasionally.
3. Let caramel sauce cool. I cool it in the fridge until it thickens but can still pour and flow.
    4. Pour sauce on cake and chill completely.

FINALLY
1. Loosen and remove pan. The sauce will start to slowly ooze down the sides so think about what you use as a plate or serving dish as if it's not deep or big enough caramel will ooze everywhere (learn that the hard way)

2. Have the strength to share cake with friends because it really is delicious!!

Hot Cross Buns

My boys have just memorised the words to the old Hot Cross Buns nursery rhymes. They love the song and it's quite hilarious to hear them sing it. It's almost Easter Time (according to the shops anwyay) as Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns are now on display. Actually it's been on sale since February so really the shops are not a good indication of how close Easter is because if we go by their displays Halloween is in September and Xmas is in October.

Anyway, the boys had their first taste of the infamous buns last week and they loved it. This morning on their way to daycare they asked if I could get them some for when they got home. So I dropped them off and went to the bakery that made the best ones in my town only to be dreadfully disappointed that they were shut. So I got home, looked up a recipe on taste.com and to my amazement actually had all the ingredients in the pantry and decided to bake some.

This is my 1st attempt. It's not the best hot cross buns in the world but it's quite gorgeous especially served warm with butter melting through it.

Hot Cross Buns

Buns
4 cups plain flour
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 x 7g dried yeast sachets
2 teaspoons mixed spice
pinch of salt
1 1/2cup sultanas
50g butter
300ml milk
2 eggs beaten

Flour paste
1/2 cup flour
4-5 tablespoons water

Sugar glaze
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons caster sugar

1. Combine flour, sugar, yeast, mixed spice, salt and sultanas in a large bowl. Make a well and set aside.

2. In a small saucepan melt butter and heat milk just to lukewarm. Add warm milk and beaten egg to dry ingredients. Mix it until combined and turn out dough onto lightly floured surface.
***I used a mixer with a dough hook but a flat knife is good enough for the mixing***

3. Knead dough until smooth, 10 mins max. Don't overwork it or you'll have buns of steel. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and set aside to rise and double, about an hour or an hour and half.


4. Punch dough down to original size and knead until smooth. Cut into 12 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball and place on a baking paper lined tray a couple of cm apart. Set aside for half hour so dough can plump up again. Heat oven to 190 degrees.

5. To make flour paste simply add flour and water and stir to a nice thick consistency. Not too thick that it can't get piped, thick but flowy is what you want. Add a little more flour or water if needed to reach the consistency you need. Put flour paste in a piping bag or a plastic bag that you can snip the edge off. I used a plastic bag with a small nozzle shoved in the end.

6. Pipe paste on buns. Of course make the cross pattern but I also did a few initials for the twins as they love anything that they can identify as being specific to them. Pop in oven for 20-25 minutes.

7. Meanwhile dissolve sugar and water and let boil for a few minutes. Let it boil until the mixture looks a little thick but take it off the fire before the colour starts to change to toffee shades.

8. When buns are out of oven and still warm glaze with the mixture. It will give that extra sticky yumminess and beautiful glossy finish.

9. Shove in face whilst still warm with melting butter all through the crumbly bun.