Simple Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

1  whole chicken (approx. 1 kg)

2 clove of garlic, crushed

1 red onion, sliced

Olive oil

For marinating

10g salt

3g ground cinnamon

3g garlic powder

2g ginger powder

2g ground dried tyme

2g ground dried oregano

3g ground black pepper

2g ground dried parsley

2g brown sugar

Directions

1.    In a bowl, mix all the marinating ingredients together. Rub the chicken with the mixture. Cover the chicken, and place in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours.

2.    Preheat oven to 260 degrees C.

3.    Stuff the chicken cavity with the garlic. Place the chicken with breast side down in a roasting pan that is greased. Drizzle a little olive oil on the back of the chicken.

4.    Roast the chicken in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 230 degree C, and continue roasting for 15 minutes.

5.    Baste the chicken with pan drippings, reduce heat to 200 degree C and continue roasting for 30 minutes, finally reduce temperature to 180 degrees C and roasting for 15 minutes

Banana Muffins

Ingredients

75 grams butter (melted)

250 grams self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 pinch of salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

115 grams caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon honey

2 large bananas (ripe)

2 medium eggs

125 ml milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C.
2. Leave melted butter to cool.
3. Mash the banana well.
4. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl. Add the sugar and mix well.
5. In a second bowl, beat together the eggs, vanilla extract, honey, butter and milk with a fork.
6. Add the mashed bananas to the egg mixture and stir.
7. Make a well in the dry mixture and add the egg mixture. Stir roughly with a fork. (Do not stir too much as the batter is meant to be thick and lumpy!)
8. Grease a muffin tray well and fill each space with the mixture till 3-quarter full.
9. Bake in oven for 20 to 25 minutes.
10. Once the muffins are golden brown and firm, remove them from oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes in the tin and then 5 minutes on a wire rack.

New York Style Cheese Cake

Ingredients

45 g melted butter

16 graham crackers, crushed

30 g all-purpose flour

230 g sour cream

10 ml vanilla extract

896 g cream cheese

300 g white sugar

160 ml milk

4 eggs

3 tablespoons of lemon juice

finely grated lemon zest from 1 lemon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 165 degrees C.
2. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan.
3. Mix graham cracker crumbs and melted butter in a bowl until evenly moistened. Press crumb mixture into the bottom and about 1/2-inch up the sides of the springform pan.
4. Whisk flour, sour cream, and vanilla extract in bowl. Set aside.
5. Stir cream cheese and sugar with a wooden spoon in a large bowl until evenly incorporated, 3 to 5 minutes.
6. Pour milk into cream cheese mixture and whisk until just combined.
7. Stir in lemon zest, lemon juice and sour cream mixture; whisk until just incorporated.

8.    Whisk in eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.

9.    Pour mixture into prepared springform pan.

10. Bake the cheesecake in the water bath in the preheated oven until the edges have nicely puffed and the surface of the cheesecake is firm except for a small spot in the center that will jiggle when the pan is gently shaken, about 1 hour.
11. When the cheesecake is done, turn off the oven with the oven door ajar for few minutes. Run a thin knife around the edge of the cheesecake.
12. Leave the door open and continue to leave the cheesecake inside the oven for at least an additional 30 minutes to set before taking it out from oven. This prevents any cracks from forming on the top of the cheesecake.
13. Let the cheesecake cool down totally before putting it into the fridge, approx. 3 to 4 hours. The cheesecake will get soggy if you put it into the fridge before it cools down.

Tips to avoid surface crack on cheese cake

1.    Avoid over-beating the batter. Over-beating incorporates additional air and tends to cause cracking on the surface of the cheesecake.

2. Add eggs as the last item and stir the mixture gently.
3. Bake the cheesecake in water bath to keep the oven moisture high and the heat gentle. (A water bath is using a larger pan containing water in which to place the smaller cheesecake baking pan. Ensure that the water poured onto the larger pan is very hot).
4.  Do not overbake the cheesecake. When the cheesecake is perfectly done, it will still be a 2 to 3 inch wobbly spot in the middle of the cheesecake. It will continue to set after the oven is turned off and will smooth out as it cools.
5. Cheesecake will shrink as it cools. Ensure that the side of the baking pan is generously greased before pouring in the batter as this will allow the cake to pull away from the pan as it cools and shrinks instead of pulling apart from the middle.
6. Few minutes after the oven is turned off, gently loosen the entire side of the cheesecake from the pan with the tip of a knife to allow the cake to pull away from the pan.
7.  Do not bake the cheesecake at too high a temperature as the egg proteins will ovecoagulate from too much heat which will eventually shrink when cooled and causing cracking usually in its center or tiny craks all over its top. If you heat it up too fast or cool it down too fast, you will also get the cracks. It is recommended to bake the cheesecake at 165 degree C at the highest.

Tips for firm crust

1. Although it is very tempted to add more melted butter to moisture the crumb mixture evenly, by doing so might result in overly-moist crust which will break off easily when you enjoy the cake later on.