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Hello, my Insiders,
It’s my favorite cooking time of the year!
I always have a very lengthy list of recipes I want to try come the holidays, as well as a stable of tried-and-tested dishes that come out every December. And there is NEVER enough time to get to all the new things, so my list gets longer every year. On the up side, I will never run out of holiday recipes to share with all of you, so there’s that!
This journal issue features a recipe I’ve been tossing around for a couple of years, though the exact form has taken a while to get right. Creme brulee cheesecake bars are a combination of two incredibly popular desserts, and they were born go together on one plate. The real beauty of this recipe is that it’s made as a ‘sheet cheesecake’ (aka a big rectangle), so the filling-to-base ratio is more balanced and you can slice the finished cake into dainty little bars or triangles. Little portions are perfect to end a huge meal when you want a fancy dessert but no one can fit in a full custard or a big slice of cheesecake.
Elsewhere in today’s journal, there’s an Insiders missive from the archives, about how to plan a Christmas meal so your brain doesn’t hurt (because it’s meant to be fun, even if it’s also always a bit stressful!). Plus a couple of things with cranberries, Christmas side dishes and a new organization tool I’m loving enormously.
See you in a couple of weeks with some last minute Christmas ideas.
Emily x
Crème Brûlée Cheesecake Bars
These Crème Brûlée Cheesecake Bars combine everything you love about silky cheesecake with the crackly caramel top of a classic crème brûlée. They’re decadent yet simple, with a buttery graham cracker base (or use digestives, if you’re in Aus or the UK!), a creamy steam-set filling, and that irresistible shattering sugar crust to finish.
If you want a dessert that looks impressive and can be served in a multitude of ways, these cheesecake bars are absolutely worth adding to your repertoire.
From the Archives:
I wrote the following a couple of years back for Insiders members; even though it’s not strictly about steam oven cooking, it’s fundamental to how I plan and prepare for big event meals (mostly Christmas, but it’ll apply to any big gathering where you need to feed people). Learn how I plan Christmas menus so my brain doesn’t hurt, apply the same and enjoy your most organized Christmas dinner ever.
More archive stuff – two cranberry things I love very much! Sous vide cranberry sauce is the ultimate and requires very little effort. I recommend everyone who plans on serving cranberry sauce for Christmas dinner gives it a try. And, a casual, beautifully bejewelled morning or afternoon tea cranberry cake; I will eat this loaf all year round but December is when it feels most ‘right’ to bake it.
The Season Flip
Christmas upon Christmas upon Christmas! Here are a couple of side dishes; one for hot climate Christmas and the other for cold.
Southern Hemisphere
This gorgeous cranberry and pistachio-studded brown rice salad has been on the site since the early days, and many of you are familiar with its brilliance. If you’re yet to discover it, make the recipe and take it to a Christmas event. Everyone will dutifully put it on their plates and assume it’s going to be boring, until they eat it and ask you for the recipe.
Northern Hemisphere
A creamy, cheesy mess of garlicky roasted Brussels sprouts with a crunchy lid, this one of those ugly but incredibly delicious baked side dishes I never want to be without.
A Thing I'm Loving
My fellow organization-loving nerds, have you discovered the Skylight calendar yet? I have just bought one and I cannot overstate how much I love it. My sister has had one for ages and I kept thinking it was a bit of a fad, but I take back my skepticism.
My house is busy, there are three kids and two adults and many, many events and appointments to keep track of. The Skylight does all that in a super easy to manage way, and the kids can now see what’s going on for themselves, which is a great mental-load reducer for me. It really beats my Google calendar entries that are manually transferred to the fridge planner every month, and constantly need updating.
But the most exciting thing? The meal planning feature! I am yet to fully dig into this but first impressions are excellent and I can see myself using it to quickly add the week’s meals and keep on top of shopping lists at the same time.
Ask Me Anything (AMA)
Here’s your opportunity to ask me anything you like related to combi steam cooking!
I encourage you to submit questions, and do my best to answer as many as possible. I cannot always get to every single question, but I carefully curate ones which are relevant and represent a variety of topics. Sometimes I’ll respond here in the journal newsletters so everyone can learn something new, other times I’ll respond to your questions via direct email. We all learn from each other, and I often learn new things based on questions from all of you!
If you have an AMA question, please email it to [email protected]. Make sure you include the phrase INSIDERS AMA in the subject line so I can collate and read all your submissions.