Pumpkin cheesecake with salted caramel and pecan nuts

Today we bring you a special recipe to celebrate Halloween! We and our friends bloggers have decide to make something special and fun at once. We decided to fill up the internet with Pumpkins!

Have you ever heard of a Hop Blog? We neither...or at least we didn't until a week ago or so. How can I describe it? Well, it's a sort of "flash mob" made by bloggers: many different blogs decides to post about a single topic all at once at a given hour of a given day. This Hop Blog is pumpkin-themed. So, at the end of our post you'll find a lot of links that are our friends' blogs. They all talk about the same thing, there's a lot of fuss about the pumpkin there! You can find a lot of great blogs about many different areas of interest, DIY, decoration, recipes, you name it! Don't miss this chance, hop from a blog to another!

We all know how truly and deeply american Halloween is, so...what's better than having a great cheesecake? We love cheesecake, and to adapt it to this occasion, we decided to add a little bit of pumpkin to it, along with salted caramel (yummy!) and the uber tasty pecan nuts.

Detail of our Pumpkin cheesecake, or "Pumpcheese cake" 

Ingredients: (for a 20 cm wide mould)

For the base:

• 1 pack of Digestive cookie
• 2 tbsp of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of well minced nuts (or the dried fruit you've chosen)
• 1/2 cup of melted butter

For the cake:

• 800 g.approx. of Philadelphia-like cheese
• 200 g. of sugar ( 150 brown + 50 white)
• 400 g. of mashed pumpkin*
• 1/4 cup of heavy cream ( 60 ml aprox.)
• 4 middle-sized eggs
• 1 tsp of Pumpkin pie Spice*
• 2 Tbsp of corn starch
• 1 1 tsp of vanilla

Pumpkin pie Spice

For the caramel topping: 

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of water
• 190 ml. of warm heavy cream
• 20 ml of unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp of salt
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla
• Pecan nuts to taste

Preparation: 

We'll use a springform cake tin some 20 cms wide. We'll start by greasing the pan and putting the baking sheet on the base to prevent the cake to stick to the pan.

Start with the base of the cake. To do so, mince the cookies and toss it all (the cookies and the rest of the ingredients) into our pan and press them with a spoon or a spatula until we get an uniform base. We want a base without edges and smooth. We put this aside.

For the filling, add the creamy cheese to our Kitchen Aid (with the leaf on) or our handheld mixer and mix it until you get a very uniform cream.

Next, add the mashed pumpkin and the sugar. Keep on beating at slow speed to avoid that the air enters into our cream.

Add the heavy cream and the corn starch. Add the eggs, one by one. We do not add another egg until the previous one is still not well incorporated.

Add the spices and the vanilla. Beat it all well (at minimum speed) and pour the mix into our mould, above the cookie base.

Next, we pop it into the oven at 150°C, we will cook it with above and below heat without fan for about an hour approximately.

When you take it off the oven, let it cool completely in a rack. To remove the cake from its mould it's better to avoid until it's cool. The best thing is to cook it the day before you eat it, in order to let the cake develop a great texture in the fridge. It's a very smooth cheesecake that will surely reminds you of a pudding.

Preparation of the salted caramel:

While our cake is in the oven, we can cook the salted caramel for our topping. To do so we take a pot, we add the sugar and the water and we heat it at medium-low heat until the sugar melts. Very important is to never stir.

When the sugar will have completely melted we rise the heat until we start seeing a golden brown colour (or about 8 to 10 minutes). Then we low a little bit the heat and we pour paying great attention and little by little the heavy cream (that we've previously warmed it up) and we stir energically with a wooden spoon. Be very careful on this step because the caramel cause painful burns (personal experience)

We turn the heat off and we add the butter, the vanilla and the salt, we stir it and there you have it! Let it cool and...try to resist the temptation to put the finger inside the caramel, because it burn!

We decorate our cake as we want, with the caramel, the pecan nuts and...let's enjoy it!

Do not forget to visit the other pumpkins!

Pumpkin time | . | Topper para cupcakes de calabaza | . | Calabaza en tacha | . | DIY: Calabazas pintadas | . | Calabazas, castañas, boniatos y bomboncitos | . | Blog hop Halloween | . | Calabaza tré chic | . | Bizcocho de calabaza especiado | . | Pumpikinized Portraits | . | La noche de Halloween, la leyenda de la calabaza | . | La magia de las calabazas | . | En otoño, calabazas… |. | Happy Halloween la calabaza scrappi | . | Pumpkin Cake with Ginger-Mascarpone Frosting |. | Detalles con calabaza | . | Smoothie de calabaza, piña y manzana |. | Y a ti, ¿te dan calabazas? |. | Globeando | . | Cheesecake de calabaza con caramelo salado y pecanas | . | Un cupcake para Hallowen: Pumpkin spiced cupcakes | . | Jugando con calabazas | . | La calabaza y la luz | . | Calabazas para Halloween : sello handmade & freebie | . | Kreativity | . | Adoptar tradiciones: calabazas de halloween  | . | calabaza + miel | . | Bruna Bruneta: Contes macabres

fruit and sesame smoothie

With the summer and good weather, surely many of you will try to refresh yourself by drinking sparkling or sugary drinks, but you will surely be aware that beside of those drinks there is a delicious and fruity alternative: we're talking about smoothies. This drink is nowadays very popular in America and Europe because it is considered to be an healthier version of the famous milkshakes. A smoothie is fresh fruit mixed with soya (or regular) milk or yogurt and ice. Occasionally it may also contains peanut butter or even chocolate. The final result is similar to a fruity granita or an italian ice, but more creamy, and that's why it's called "smoothie". It may have a milkshake-like texture, but it differentiates from it because smoothies have no ice cream in their recipe making it lightier. We published also other recipe about healthy and fresh drinks, like our carrot and lemon juice here.

Smoothies are often confused also with frappè, that is a Greek drink very popular in the Mediterranean and easter European area. Frappes are made with coffee espresso, and it is characterized by its foamy consistence, similar the one of a cappuccino.

In the lasts years, with the increasing of the interest in healthy food, smoothies have become more and more healthy, containing super light ingredients. They've become an authentic icon of healthy food lovers. We can find the word "smothee" for the first time in a 1940 advertising for a food mixer. The modern concept of smoothies has been developed in the health addicts world of 1960s California, and from then on it has been a symbol of an healthy and tasty drink without added sugar. It is now much loved by the ones who criticises the omnipresence in America of the commercial sparkling drinks containing lots of sugar.

Today we'll bring you our own version of a classical New York-style smoothie that you can change the fruit we've used according your tastes, and of course you can decide to use peanut butter. We decided to to a different and lightier version, using the tahin sauce instead of the peanut butter. The tahin sauce is made with toasted sesame, and it's very frequently used in the eastern mediterranean cultures, as it's essential to prepare the famous hummus. We decided to change the cow milk with rice milk, which makes it perfect for those with a lactose intolerance, for the vegans and so on!

C'mon, try this recipe, not only because they're so popular right now, but also because they're so healthy, simple and easy to do, and they're perfect for any time of the year too! These drinks will make your sons enjoy all the taste of the fruit and their so important vitamins. This recipe will take no longer than 5 minutes of your time, you'll see! ;)

Ingredients: 

• 1 frozen banana (better if it's a platano de Canarias)
• 250 mixed berries
• 2 spoonful of tahin
• 150 rice milk

Preparation:

Mix in a food processer all the ingredients until you obtain a mix that it's at the same time thick and soft. We suggest you to peel the banana or the platano de Canarias before you freeze it, and to wash the mixed berries or the strawberry before you freeze them.

You can use directly fresh fruit, without freezing it, but in this case you can change the half of the milk with icecubes, to keep the texture and the freshness we're looking for. If you prefer you can add also add some honey, even if the fruit it's pretty sweet anyway. It's also perfect with a couple of dates, too!

Greetings,

AnGie

La ricetta degli Onion Rings per il 4 Luglio!

Per festeggiare il 4 luglio, vi portiamo una ricetta gustosissima e parecchio americana: gli anelli di cipolla, o onion ring. E' una ricetta facilissima, veloce e rapida da fare, e sarà molto apprezzata dai vostri ospiti. Per fare questa ricetta ci siamo inspirati nel magazine di Jamie Oliver, finalmente uscito anche in edizione italiana. Ci è piaciuto molto come hanno cambiato la ricetta originale, e allora abbiamo deciso di cambiarla ulteriormente. In questa ricetta gli anelli di cipolla vi verranno più croccanti e saporiti del solito. La prima volta che questa ricetta fu menzionata fu in un numero del 1910 del Daily Times, un giornale locale pubblicato a Middletown, NY. Anche la catena di ristoranti Pig Stand afferma di avere inventato la ricetta degli anelli di cipolla, anche se negli anni Venti. Non sappiamo quale delle due versioni sia l'autentica, quello che è sicuro è che è una ricetta americana fino al midollo. La seguente ricetta è perfetta per 5 o 6 persone, pertanto adeguate le quantità secondo il numero di ospiti e...il loro appetito!

Ingredienti:

- 3 cipolle bianche o dorate

- 100 g di farina comune

- 300 ml di latticello

- 300 g di farina di mais

- 1 cucchiaino di pimenton (un prodotto spagnolo, potrete sostituirla con la paprika)

- olio d'oliva o di girasole

- sale e pepe al gusto

Preparazione:

1) Tagliate le cipolle in anelli di circa 3 o 4 millimetri di spessore, fate questo la notte prima e lasciateli in frigor di cucinarli, per lasciarli seccare per bene.

2) Preparate tre ciotole, nella prima mettete la farina, nella seconda metterete il buttermilk o latticello*, e nella terza metterete farina di mais assieme a sale e pepe e anche un po' di pimenton, o paprika se non trovate questa delizia spagnola. Nel frattempo, mettete un po' di olio in una padella e riscaldatela per bene.

3) Ora passate gli anelli di cipolla nella prima ciotola con la farina, poi per quella che contiene il latticello ed infine in quella che ha la farina di mais. Ora friggete glionion ring nella padella per circa un minuto, o finchè non saranno perfettamente dorati. Ricordatevi di rigirare gli anelli di cipolla per friggerli in maniera omogenea. Toglieteli poi dalla padella ed infine lasciateli asciugare un po' su dei tovaglioli e...mangiateli con la salsa che preferite!

Buon finesettimana e felice 4 luglio a tutti i nostri amici italoamericani!

Saluti,

Angie 

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* Puoi trovare il buttermilk nei grandi centri commerciali, ma puoi comunque fartelo a casa in un attimo: spremi un limone in un po' di latte e lascialo riposare per circa 10 minutu. Fatto! In questo modo avrai il tuo latticello in un attimo!

Onion rings in 3 steps to celebrate 4th of July

To celebrate the 4th of July, we'll bring you a super tasty and traditional american recipe: onion rings. It's a very simple, easy and fast recipe, and it will be most appreciated by your guests for the 4th of July. We've drawn inspiration for this recipe from Jamie Oliver magazine, we loved how they changed the original recipe, and so we've moved just a little bit forward, modifying this recipe just a little bit more. In this recipe onion rings will result crispy and tastier than the usual ones. The first time this recipe was mentioned was in a 1910 Daily Times issue published in Middletown, NY. The restaurand chain Pig Stand affirms anyway to have invented the original recipe in the 1920s. We do not know which one version is the truthful one, what is sure is that is a very american recipe. The following recipe is perfect for about 5 to 6 people, so if you have more or less people, then modify the quantities according your guests' appetite! 

Ingredients:

- 3 golden or white onions 

- 100 g all purpose flour 

- 300 ml or so of buttermilk (you can easily do it at home)

- 300 g of cornstarch

- 1 Tbsp of sweet pimenton (a spanish product, you can replace it with paprika)

- sunflower or olive oil

- salt & pepper to taste

Preparation: 

1) Cut the onion into rings into 3 or 4 mms slices the night before you cook them in order to let them dry well. 

2) Prepare three bowls, in the first one put the all purpose flour, in the second one put the buttermilk*, and in the third one put the cornstarch along with salt and pepper and the sweet pimenton (or paprika if you can't find this spanish delight). Meanwhile, put a pan on high heat with enough oil to fry.

3) Pass the onion ring through the first bowl containing all purpose flour, then for the butermilk one and at last dip them into the cornstarch. Fry the onion rings until they becomes golden brown, for about one minute or so. Remember to turn them upside down to fry them homogeneously. Take them out of the frying pan and let them dry a bit over a kitchen paper and eat them with your favourite sauce. 

Happy 4th of july to all americans and friends of America worldwide!

Greetings,

Angie 

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* You can find buttermilk in big retail stores, but you can easily do it at home squeezing a lemon into some milk and let it rest for about 10 minutes or so. In this way you'll have your own buttermilk almost immediately!