Monday 5 May 2014

High Tea Saturday Part 2: Tomato Basil Mushroom Quiches

Sorry for the delayed post folks! Part 2 of our High Tea Saturday Adventure, consisted of some delicious Quiches! Quiche is one of those recipes that are made differently by everyone and differently every time it is made. The great thing about quiche is that it's so versatile and customizable! You can put practically anything you want in it. In our version of Quiche, we added tomatoes, mushrooms and some fresh basil.

Tomato, Basil and Mushroom Quiche
Ingredients:
Phyllo pastry
Tomatoes
Mushrooms
Basil
Eggs
Seasoning

Procedure:
  1. Preheat oven to 350F.
  2. Cut your phyllo pastry into little squares and place over each well in your muffin tin. Make sure the squares of phyllo are big enough that they hang a little past the edges of the wells in the muffin tin.
  3. Prep and chop your tomatoes, mushrooms and basil into bite sized pieces.
  4. In a separate bowl, beat your eggs and add in your tomatoes, mushrooms and basil and your seasoning of choice to taste. For seasoning, we used salt, pepper, garlic powder and oregano and thyme.
  5. Carefully pour your filling into each phyllo pastry cup.
  6. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
It is important to note that the reason why we didn't specify any exact measurements is because the amount of ingredients you use will depend on how many quiches you want to make, so we recommend just eyeballing the amount of ingredients you want to use. We made about a dozen mini quiches that day. Additionally, you can put almost anything in your quiches! We recommend getting creative! Suggestions could be some cheddar cheese (or any cheese of choice), bacon, pepper, garlic etc. The sky's the limit with Quiche!

Fresh baked mini quiches, straight out of the oven
Quiche is so simple and easy to make, yet it's packed with flavour and deliciousness! Give this refreshing twist on eggs a try!

Saturday 3 May 2014

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Red Velvet is one of those classic flavours that many of us are familiar with now. Red Velvet cupcakes are a staple in our kitchens (stay tuned!) and we're always trying to find new ways to make that more exciting. Today we decided to experiment with our good ol' Red Velvet cupcake recipe and turn it into something lighter, hence Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies were born!

Ingredients:
Yield: 16 brownies

Red Velvet Brownie:
1/2 cup of unsalted butter (softened at room temperature)
1 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup flour
4.5 TBSP cocoa powder
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Red food colouring

Cream Cheese Layer:
1 250g package of cream cheese
1 egg
4.5 TBSP white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure:
  1. Grease a 9x9 baking pan with butter or non-stick cooking spray. Cut some parchment paper out, and lay the parchment paper on the greased pan.
  2. Preheat oven to 350F
  3. Cream together butter and sugar. Once creamy and smooth, add the eggs and beat well. Add the cocoa powder and make sure it is well mixed. Add the salt, followed by the food colouring and vinegar. Make sure to mix between adding each ingredient. Add the flour last and just mix until everything is combined and well incorporated
  4. Reserve a little bit of the batter (1/4 cup will do) and put it in a bowl aside
  5. Pour the rest of the batter into the prepared baking pan
  6. Cream the cream cheese, egg, sugar and vanilla extract until well mixed. (Note: make sure the cream cheese is completely softened in order to avoid lumps in your cheesecake layer)
  7. Pour the cream cheese mixture on top of the red velvet brownie mixture and smooth out to the edges
  8. Using a spoon, dollop the remaining red velvet batter you put aside on top of the cream cheese.
  9. Using a butter knife or toothpick, swirl the batter into the cream cheese miture.
  10. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350F (or until inserted toothpick comes out clean)
  11. Make sure brownies are completely cool, cut and serve!
Note: It's best to make use of red food colouring PASTE (if you have it) as it will give you a richer and brighter red colour. We, however, didn't have any and made use of the regular liquid food colouring and they still turned out quite red, we just had to add a bit more until they were the colour we wanted. The amount you use is up to you and how bright or dark you want the red to be. Alternatively, you could also just leave out the food colouring all together if desired.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies
These brownies are a delicious and "lighter" twist on the classic red velvet cake/cupcake. They're fudgey, moist and very reminiscent of a red velvet cupcake (minus all the overly sweet calorie filled icing!) They are quick and easy to prepare, and will disappear before your eyes! Give this recipe a try, for when you're next craving the classic Red Velvet!