Nigella's Chocolate Hazelnut Cheesecake

In my mind, there is only one type of cheesecake, and that's baked. Fridge cheesecake is simply not a thing, never mind a cake. It's a tart of some sort, and that's final. That is why it is with great reluctance that I call what I made this afternoon Chocolate Hazelnut Cheesecake. But if Nigella insists, as she does in her new cookbook Nigellissima, then I guess I have to oblige.

And so, I present to you what is easily the most calorie-laden, but wonderfully indulgent dessert. For those of you who have undertaken New Year's resolutions to lose weight, look the other way.

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250g digestive biscuits (I used trusty ol' Tennis Biscuits)
75g soft unsalted butter
1x400g jar of Nutella of equivalent chocolate hazelnut spread, at room temperature
100g chopped toasted hazelnuts
500g cream cheese, at room temperature
60g icing sugar, sifted

Break the biscuits into the bowl of a food processor, then add the butter and a tablespoon of Nutella. Blitz until the mixture starts to clump. Add 25g of the toasted hazelnuts and continue to pulse until you have an almost sandy mixture.

Press into the base of the dish you are using with either your hands or the back of a spoon. Place in the fridge to chill while you get on with the filling.

Beat together the cream cheese and icing sugar until smooth and soft, then scrape the rest of the Nutella out of the jar and into the cream cheese mixture and continue beating until combined.

Smooth the Nutella mixture over the biscuit base and scatter the remaining chopped hazelnuts in top to cover. Put the tin in the fridge for at least four hours or overnight.

Final verdict: It's a ridiculously quick and easy dessert to make. It's also incredibly rich, so I advise you have a sliver at a time.

Enjoy!

Gnocchi

I made gnocchi. From scratch. You can too. It's not difficult.

 Boil 1kg of potatoes until they are soft. Mash them up. Add 2 cups of plain flour, 30g of butter and 2 beaten eggs. Mix together to form a dough. You might have to add some more flour at this point to get it to the right consistency. Roll out the dough and cut into 3cm pieces. Put the gnocchi in boiling water for about 3 minutes or until they come to the surface of the water. You'll have to do this in batches. I made a regular tomato sauce to go with it but a cream, gorgonzola and chive sauce is also really good, just a bit more calorie laden.

If you are wondering why there's feta sprinkled over the gnocchi, it's because I'm Greek. We put feta in everything.

Rustic pizza. Yum.

I haven't blogged in ages. Blame it on exams. Good news is that I have one left on Friday and then I'm on holiday for a just over a month. Oh, I can't wait. 

It's been ice cold here in P-Town, so I spent most of the day under my duvet drifting in and out of sleep and rereading To Kill A Mockingbird. I got up just to make supper which, thanks to Food & Home, was the most delicious rustic pizza. In the article, they just added a tomato sauce and buffalo mozzarella to the pizza base. I decided to go all out on the toppings though. The top one had olives, pepperdews, mushrooms and spring onions while the bottom one had sundried tomatoes, feta and avo. I say had because it's all sitting in my happy stomach right now. Ha.

I made a cake

For some odd reason, I have never been able to bake a cake that doesn't end up getting chucked in the bin. The other day I made this sticky lemon cake and what do you know, it was a success. Yes! This cake is very similar to the Greek cake, revani. The biggest difference is that revani is made with semolina. It's a light, fresh alternative to something rich and chocolatey. Not that there's anything wrong with that either.

Ingredients

175g unsalted butter, at room temperature

250g caster sugar

2 lemons

3 eggs

75g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

150g ground almonds

150g natural yoghurt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Grease a 20cm cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. Set aside.

2. Cream together the butter and 150g caster sugar in a large bowl. Grate the zest from both lemons, add to the bowl, and mix together. Gradually beat in the eggs, one at a time. If the mixture shows signs of curdling, add 1 tsp of flour.

3. Mix the flour, baking powder, and ground almonds together. Sift into a seperate bowl, then fold into the butter and eggs with a metal spoon. Stir in the juice of 1 lemon and the yogurt. Pour the mixture into the tin.

4. Bake for 40 minutes or until the centre of the cake is just firm to the touch. Do not open the oven door for the first 20 minutes.
5. Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. Heat the remaining sugar and the juice from the remaining lemon in a saucepan. Pierce the cake several times with a skewer, then drizzle the syrup over the cake. Leave to cool before removing the cake from the tin.

Honeyed feta filo pies

Today, I officially became a Good Greek Girl- I made tiropita (cheese pie) for the first time. After having the most divine tiropita in Rhodes (remember this post?), I thought that I would give Jamie Oliver's version a bash. I loved the aromatic thyme leaves in between the layers of filo pastry and the contrast between the creamy, salty feta and the sweet honey was just delicious.

Here's the recipe for all you eager beavers:

Serves 4

300g feta cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons Greek extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for brushing
4 teaspoons runny honey, plus extra to serve
2 teaspoons dried oregano
8 sheets of filo pastry
4 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked
a few teaspoons toasted sesame seeds, to serve
olive oil

Mix the feta, extra virgin olive oil, honey and oregano in a bowl and put aside. For each person you'll want to lay a sheet of filo in front of you and brush it with a little extra virgin olive oil. Scatter over a few thyme leaves, then lay another sheet on top. Cut across the width so that you've got the base for 2 parcels. Keep going until you've made 8 bases.

Divide the feta mixture into 8, then spoon one portion on the centre of each pastry base, using the back of the spoon to flatten the filling into a nice little rectangle shape. Fold in the two long sides, then fold the bottom up over the filling and bring the top down over that so that it forms a nice neat parcel, almost like wrapping a Christmas present. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry non-stick pan in a medium heat for a few minutes until golden brown, then put to one side.

At this point you have two choices. You can drizzle over some extra virgin olive oil, lay your parcels on an oiled baking tray and bake them in an oven preheated to 200 degrees Celsius until golden and crisp. Or you can fry them. If you want to do it that way, add enough olive oil to come 0.5cm up the side of a large frying pan and put it on a medium heat. Keep an eye on it and don't move the pan about too much, as hot oil is dangerous. Once the oil is nice and hot, carefully add your parcels and cook them for about 1 to 2 minutes on the folded side, until golden through the layers. Then flip them over and cook them for another minute, until golden brown on both sides.

Carefully remove the parcels from the oven or pan using a fish slice. Put them on kitchen paper to drain. Serve with a good drizzle of honey and a pinch or two of toasted sesame seeds on top.


Enjoy!

*I decided to put my pies in the oven- it's just a much healthier option. Also, instead of brushing the pastry with olive oil each time, you can use a combination of melted butter and a bit of olive oil. It's a cheaper option, as olive oil is pricey and you need quite a bit of it for this recipe.