Another fantastic centrepiece for a party, a pumpkin filled with Pumpkin Parmesan Dip looks great and is versatile for crackers and veggies alike. You can adjust the amount of parmesan, or even substitute for a cheese you prefer – I can’t imagine there’ll be too much difference to the end result.
My kids are particularly antsy about raw garlic – they can pick it out of anything – so if you prefer, you can saute the garlic for three minutes at 100C. I only do that if I’m making it, especially for my children.
I decided to put the dip into a bowl and hover the bowl inside the mouth of the pumpkin. I don’t know if that’s necessary or if you can just put it in the pumpkin, but I decided it would be easier in this instance to keep cool, and that the pumpkin itself was reusable for a number of days and other recipes if not. Also, if you’re particularly skilled at carving (I’m not!) a fake candle inside, under the dip could look very pretty too.
Pumpkin Parmesan Dip Recipe:
Amazing Pumpkin Parmesan Dip
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 600g
To cook the pumpkin, add 400 – 500 g chopped raw pumpkin to the internal steamer. Fill water to the 1-litre mark. Thermomix 15 minutes/Varoma/speed 4. Once finished, leave to drain and cool for a while before making the dip
Ingredients
1 garlic clove
50g parmesan
100g cream cheese (I use full fat)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
400 – 500g cooked pumpkin
Instructions
Thermomix Instructions
Add 1 clove garlic 5 seconds/ speed 5
Add parmesan 10 seconds/speed 10
Add cream cheese, paprika, salt and cooked pumpkin 30 seconds/ speed 4
Scrape down sides 1 minute/ speed 10
Set aside to firm up again, and serve
Regular Instructions
Finely chop the garlic, or crush it and add to a food processor
Grate parmesan and add to the garlic.
Add cream cheese, paprika,salt and cooked pumpkin
Mix following your food processors instructions till it’s all well blended and smooth.
There are a lot of sweet-teeth in my family, so when Father’s day rolled around, it seemed fitting to make a delicious cheesecake filled with a family favourite – marshmallows. I mean, what could possibly go wrong, right!
In retrospect I should have cut the marshmallows in halves or quarters, just to make them more bite-sized, but it didn’t make it taste any the worse.
I love that this cake is no-bake, I love that you can make it a day ahead for the best firmness, and I love that it’s delicious!
This is a very forgiving recipe. So long as you don’t over whip the cream. It’s really easy with two bowls, but I only have one and it’s not a huge faff – just make sure to clean the bowl properly before adding the cream.
Ingredients
10 – 15 Marshmallows (1 cup mini marshmallows)
250g Digestive Biscuits
75g Soft Butter
400g Double Cream
500g Cream Cheese (at room temperature)
100g icing sugar
Instructions
As compared to the picture above, chop the marshmallows into chunks. A regular marshmallow in four pieces or so would be fine. Alternatively, pop them in the Thermomix and chop on speed 4 for 5 seconds.
Clean out the bowl (doesn’t need to be washed)
Add the biscuits and the butter to the bowl and mix till it resembles wet sand. (30 seconds speed 5)
Sprinkle over the base of a cake tray, and press down so that it creates a firm and solid base for your cheesecake.
Put it in the fridge for a couple of hours and make sure to wash and properly dry the bowl.
When the base is ready, whip the double cream to stiff peaks. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t turn to butter. Add the cream cheese and icing sugar and mix (with the butterfly) (speed 2, 30 seconds).
Put the marshmallows on the base of the cheesecake, then pour over the cheese mix. (If you have a deep dish layer marshmallows, cheese, marshmallows, cheese).
Smooth the top and put in the fridge till you’re ready to serve. You can eat this same day, but next day is even better!
I use a springform tin, gliding a knife around the edges to loosen first, then releasing and serving on the base.
We’ve had a really busy week here to the point that it was late last night that I realised that Valentines day was TODAY. My kitchen was still stacked full of boxes, and while I’ve managed to make a little progress, I focused today on making space to bake a chocolate cake for our Valentine’s day dinner. As it turns out, however, the oven in our new house is gas, and has no markings! I’ve never baked in a gas oven before, and this didn’t seem to be the day to start experimenting!
Fortunately I had Saturday Kitchen on while I was unpacking and sorting, and Nigella Lawson came on and made her Hazelnut Chocolate Cheesecake, which looked simple and delicious. Below is an adaptation on her recipe. The basic recipe is the same, but I’ve Thermified it. This recipe, however, you’ll be able to make any even the most basic of food processors.
In Nigella’s recipe (If you read this, Nigella, I hope you don’t mind the first name basis!) she tops it with crushed hazelnuts, but I’ve topped it with cocoa powder, then decided that wasn’t striking enough, so sprinkled icing sugar over it. The icing sugar absorbs into the cake quite quickly though, so only dust with icing sugar when you’re ready to serve. The cocoa doesn’t absorb as easily. I think it would be lovely with fresh raspberries and strawberries in the summer too – or maybe some orange if you like the chocolate and orange combination.
This is absolutely delicious and it’s terribly rich, so a little goes a long way.
And lastly, before I get to the recipe, there is probably a much healthier way of doing this – by making your own hazelnut and chocolate sauce using this recipe here. But we’ve just moved house, and I was looking for a quick fix and I don’t feel (too) sorry.
Hazelnut Chocolate Cheesecake
Recipe Type: Desert
Author: Nigella Lawson, Thermied by Luschka
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 10
A rich and delicious desert, perfect for a special occasion, great when you’re short of time and even better if made in advance.
Ingredients
250g digestive biscuits (substitute for egg free alternatives)
75g soft butter
400g Nutella
500g cream cheese (at room temperature)
60g icing sugar
Instructions
Remove cream cheese from the fridge and bring to room temperature.
Meanwhile, add digestive biscuits, butter and 40g Nutella to the food processor and mix till it resembles wet sand.[b] (30 seconds speed 5)[/b]
Sprinkle over the base of a cake tray, and press down so that it creates a firm and solid base for your cheesecake.
Put it in the fridge – Nigella says overnight, but an hour works fine.
When the base is ready, add the cream cheese, Nutella and icing sugar and mix (with the butterfly) (speed 2, 30 seconds)
Pour over the base,smooth the top and put in the fridge till you’re ready to serve.
I use a[url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heart-Shaped-Springform-Great-Baking/dp/B004Z69LXW/”] springform tin[/url], gliding a knife around the edges to loosen first, then releasing and serving on the base.
Once released, decorate the top and serve.
Notes
I think a little Frangelico liquer would be amazing with this, as would orange essence or even rum essence. For a ‘prettier’ presentation, try making it in individual ramekins.
There’s a pretty varied number of ideas, recipes and versions of yoghurt (yogurt in the US) available on t’internet, which can sometimes be really both intimidating and off-putting. I’ve tried a number, and have finally found one I return to again and again. You can find this on the Thermomix Forums too, but read on for more information and options. (See the bottom of this post for non-Thermomix recipes)
This is a thick Greek-style yoghurt. I like to whizz up some frozen fruit and mix it with the yoghurt to make the fruity flavoured breakfast favourite that I’d otherwise be spending a fortune on.
When I was in Australia, I found 60 minutes made a good yoghurt. Now I find it makes it a bit grainy and find 50 minutes is perfectly sufficient. I’m not sure if there’s a difference in the milk or if it’s moisture in the air, or what, but try different timings and see what you prefer.
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1000g full cream milk – low fat milk will result in a runnier yoghurt
50g Greek Yoghurt/from previous batch
Instructions
Add the milk to a clean Thermomix bowl
Cook the milk for 50 – 60 mins/90/speed 2.
After 60 minutes, remove the lid and let the milk cool to 37C. This can take 30 – 60 minutes depending on the temperature in the room.
When it’s 37C, add 50g natural yoghurt
Mix 4 seconds/speed 4.
Cook for 10 minutes / 37C/speed 2.
How you now go about preparing your yoghurt depends on your equipment. I use an Easiyo, so fill the cylinder to the red mark with boiling water. (I normally do this before the final 10 minute cook above, leaving it to cool a little, then when the 10 minute cook is done, the water is a good temperature). Fill the pot with the milk and leave over night.
Alternatively you could just use a decent Thermos-style insulated flask, leave the yoghurt overnight, and that should work the same way.
The important thing is not to move the yoghurt while it’s doing it’s thing. Just pop it in a corner, and leave it for 12 – 24 hours.
3.2.2925
I use this Easiyo Yoghurt Maker. I suppose I use it because I have it, but it’s easy enough to make yoghurt without it. That said, I like it. I’ve never had a failure using this, either with the Easiyo starter or just with my own yoghurt. The good thing is people buy these, try them out, then sell them. eBay is full of 99p offerings. I got mine free on Freecycle. It’s very simple to use.
Once the yoghurt is made, I transfer it into Fill n Squeeze pouches, ready for my children to enjoy. The yoghurt freezes really well, so I can take a pouch out of the freezer every evening, ready at my daughter’s table for her to have in the morning. We also use it for daytrips and so on, so I get less requests for ice cream! The reuseable pouches save a fortune, and I’m just thrilled not to buy my girls sugar-and-sweetener-filled yoghurt ‘treats’.
We also use these ice lolly moulds for making frozen yoghurt ‘ice-cream’. Literally, frozen yoghurt, sometimes with fruit. My baby especially loves these and would have them for every meal. There are so many shapes, forms and moulds on the market, but these are a perfect child size – about two or three tablespoons full – so there’s little to no wastage. Each ‘ice cream’ comes apart so you only have to take out one at a time. They’re pricey, except when they’re on sale, and the little connectors snap sometimes when frozen, but they are the best we’ve found for our purposes so far.
Here are some of our favourite toppings for plain yoghurt:
Nuts and honey
Muesli
Raisins and grated apple
Pureed apple and cinnamon
1/2 a pureed banana and 1/2 banana slices
Pureed berries
Vanilla pods or essence (buy the proper stuff though, not artificial flavouring)
Crushed pineapple and coconut
Chopped and dried mixed fruit
Sliced or pureed banana
Chocolate buttons or chips with a squirt of chocolate ice cream sauce or melted chocolate (for a treat)
Lemon zest (lemon juice might curdle your yoghurt)
Nuts, raisins, honey and chopped mint
but of course, there’s a world of other options to explore.
If we find ourselves with excess yoghurt, I love making cream cheese from it. While I’ve never had a problem with bought cream cheese, the home made stuff is amazing. Well worth making!
And if you’re making your own cream cheese, you’ll find you have plenty of whey left over. Don’t discard it! There’s a lot you can do with left over whey.
Don’t have a Thermomix? Try these recipes instead:
I decided to put the dip into a bowl and hover the bowl inside the mouth of the pumpkin. I don’t know if that’s necessary or if you can just put it in the pumpkin, but I decided it would be easier in this instance to keep cool, and that the pumpkin itself was reusable for a number of days and other recipes if not. Also, if you’re particularly skilled at carving (I’m not!) a fake candle inside, under the dip could look very pretty too.
There’s a pretty varied number of ideas, recipes and versions of yoghurt (yogurt in the US) available on t’internet, which can sometimes be really both intimidating and off-putting. I’ve tried a number, and have finally found one I return to again and again. You can find this on the Thermomix Forums too, but read on for more information and options. (See the bottom of this post for non-Thermomix recipes)
