Iced Spice Fingers

Today Rach was coming over for a nice early (11am) visit with Ethan so I thought I would whip up a batch up bickies for morning tea, biscuits are my craze at the moment & there will be a few more coming up soon. I don’t think starting at 7.30am on baking is a good idea as I must have been half asleep, they were nearly a disaster but somehow managed to turn out very nice indeed in the end by some miracle. Do you like the nice fluorescent shade of pink I managed to attain? Firstly after stage one I ran upstairs to do my morning exercise, bike & some sit ups (still trying to regain pre pregnancy bod) & 5 minutes in remembered that I forgot to add the egg & vanilla so ran down, took the mix out of the fridge & added them in completely the wrong order, it was so tough to stir these in that I actually broke my wooden spoon in half. After my exercise session I then realized that I forgot to preheat my oven but went ahead without waiting as I only had so much of a window while the little Miss was asleep. Next I made the icing with 2 tablespoons instead of teaspoons of flour & was worried that this would lend a floury flavour but no taste of flour at all. I guess the lesson is that even when it looks like you might have to bin the mix all can still turn out & exact measurements or following of the recipe is not really necessary even in the more unforgiving world of baking where I thought that precision was always the key!

Iced Spice Fingers

180g butter
100g brown sugar
265g (3/4 cup) golden syrup
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
450g plain flour
75g self raising flour
½ teaspoon bicarb of soda
3 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon & mixed spice
½ teaspoon ground cloves

Icing
240g (1 ½ cups) icing sugar
2 teaspoon plain flour
1 egg white
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 170c. Combine butter, sugar & golden syrup in a saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved and butter melted. Cool for 10 minutes, then stir through egg & vanilla.

Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl, pour over golden syrup mixture & stir to combine. Turn mixture out onto a lightly floured work surface & knead until combined. Wrap in plastic wrap & refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Using your hands, roll tablespoons of the mixture into 6cm lengths. Place onto baking paper lined oven trays & press lightly to flatten. Bake for 12 minutes or until browned. Cool on a wire rack.

For the icing, sift together sugar & flour. In a bowl lightly whisk egg white until foamy, gradually stir in icing sugar mixture, then add lemon juice & mix to combine. Halve icing, add a few drops of pink colouring to half & stir to combine. Spread icing over biscuits and stand until set.

Hot Strawberry Soufflés

Just look at these amazing, puffed up ramekins full of light and airy, fruity goodness. This is the first time I have made or eaten a soufflé other than the chocolate variety so I didn’t know what to expect, the recipe is from an old issue of Australian Table Magazine & was this weeks ‘low fat’ dessert offering for my parents. I served it with some amazing home made vanilla bean ice-cream which I whipped up in my fabulous new ice-cream machine that they bought me for my birthday (stay tuned for ice-cream recipes coming up!). I was quite surprised at how airy & light the end result was, in my experience chocolate soufflés seem much heavier & cakier even though they are still light, in fact it’s been a while since I’ve had one so I better make some again soon & compare the difference. The strawberry ones were nice for a change & good to know they are low fat however my pick would always be the heavenly gooey choc variety.

Hot Strawberry Soufflés

150g frozen strawberries, thawed
1/3 cup (75g) sugar
2 teaspoons kirsch, orange flavoured liqueur or brandy
juice of half an orange
4 egg whites
icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 220c. Grease 4 x ¾ cup ovenproof soufflé dishes. Place strawberries in a bowl with sugar, liqueur and orange juice. Crush lightly with a fork. Set aside.

Whisk egg whites until form but not dry. Stir a spoonful into strawberry mixture. Fold in remaining egg whites. Spoon into prepared dishes & level tops with a metal spatula.

Place in oven & immediately reduce oven temp to 190c. Bake for 10 minutes, until well risen. Dust with sifted icing sugar & place on heated plates. Serve with cream or ice cream.

Passionfruit Yo-Yo’s with White Chocolate Ganache

Here is a delicious recipe for Yo-Yo’s from a recent Gourmet Traveller, I think it was thier passionfruit special. Passionfruits are going for $1.50 a pop now so I used the tin of passionfruit pulp in syrup you can but from the supermarket instead, seemed to do the job without a problem & much less fiddly then pulping & processing too.

Passionfruit Yo-Yo’s with White Chocolate Ganache

Makes about 24 biscuits

180gm butter, softened
90g pure icing sugar
80ml (1/3 cup) passionfruit juice
225g (1 ½ cups) plain flour
100g (2/3 cup) cornflour

Ganache
90ml pouring cream
45ml passionfruit juice
2 pieces of lemon rind, removed with a peeler
180g white chocolate, finely chopped

For Ganache, combine, cream, juice & rind in a saucepan and bring just to the boil over medium-high heat. Place chocolate in a bowl, strain over hot cream mixture, whisk until smooth & refrigerate for 4 hours or until thick.

Beat butter & sugar in an electric mixer until light & fluffy, add juice & combine. Add flours & mix until just combined, then turn onto a floured surface, form into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap & refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 180c. Roll out pastry to 8mm thick & using a 3cm diameter cutter, cut rounds from pastry & place on baking paper lined oven trays. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until just golden, cool on trays for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Spread half the biscuits with a teaspoon of Ganache, sandwich with remaining biscuits & stand until set. Uniced yo-yo’s will keep for up to 1 week in an airtight container.

Note: To make your own passionfruit juice, blend passionfruit pulp in a food processor to crack seeds, then strain through a fine sieve. 12 passionfruits yield about 1 cup of juice.

Happy Birthday Michael!

Happy Birthday Michael aka Daddy! For the man who is not that into cake I let him choose his own cake, ie I read out a huge list of cakes from my books & he picked the one he liked best – he didn’t actually look through my books & do the hard work himself. So that is how we ended up with this very festive looking cake from the Kiddiefeast chapter of Nigella Lawson’s Feast. It looked fantastic, and tasted great even though it was very, very sweet. The buttercream filling is very rich & the chocolate icing just tops it off so you really can only have a small slice or risk feeling ill from sugar overdrive. I can imagine this one would go down well with the kiddies.

Birthday Custard Sponge

Cake
200g plain flour
3 tablespoons Bird’s custard powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
4 eggs
225g soft butter
200g caster sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk

Make sure everything you need is at room temperature before you start. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180c, and butter and line two 20cm sandwich tins.

Put all of the above ingredients except the milk, into a food processor. Process to a smooth batter, and then add the milk a tablespoon at a time to make a soft dropping consistency. Divide between the two cake tins & bake for 20 minutes. The cakes will have risen & feel puffy, this is because of the cornflour in the custard powder.

Let the tins sit on a cooling rack for 5 minutes & then turn them out on to a rack, peeling away the paper & cool completely.

Buttercream Filling
125g icing sugar
4 teaspoons Bird’s custard powder
75g soft unsalted butter
1 ½ teaspoons boiling water

Process the icing sugar & custard powder to get rid of any lumps, and then add the butter, processing again to make the buttercream come together. Feed the boiling water down the funnel with the motor running to make the filling easier to spread. Then sandwich the cooled sponges together with the cream.

Chocolate Icing
60ml water
2 tablespoons golden syrup
125g caster sugar
175g dark chocolate
1 pot hundreds & thousands

Combine the water, syrup & sugar in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve over a low heat. Let it come to the boil & then take it off the heat. Break up the chocolate into small pieces then add to the pan, swirling it around to cover in the hot liquid. Leave to melt for a few minutes, and then whisk the icing to make it smooth & shiny. Pour over the buttercream filled cake, letting it drip down the sides, and then sprinkle generously with the hundreds & thousands before the icing sets.

Chocolate Berry Torte

To finish off the bbq on the weekend & to celebrate James birthday, of course I had to finish with a cake. Today I chose this wicked chocolate Torte from Green and Black’s Chocolate recipes. It was sensational, note the small amount of flour which resulted in a thin intense cake which was rich, smooth & a perfect blend of chocolate and berries, as well as the suggested whipped cream I also served it with a berry coulis but forgot to serve with the extra berries!

Chocolate Berry Torte

Torte
25g plain flour
5 teaspoons cocoa powder
75g dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
25g unsalted butter
5 teaspoons double cream
4 egg whites
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons caster sugar
250g fresh blueberries or raspberries
125ml whipping cream, to serve

Icing
100g dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
50g unsalted butter
3 tablespoons double cream
1 teaspoon icing sugar

Preheat oven to 140c. Butter and line a 18-20cm cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Sift together the flour & cocoa & set aside.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over barley simmering water. Remove from the heat, add the butter & the cream, and stir well until the mixture is quite liquid.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form, add the sugar & continue to whisk until thick & glossy. Beat together the egg yolks & then gently fold in the flour & cocoa mixture. Add the melted chocolate & mix well. Spoon a few dollops of egg white into the mixture, stir, then gently fold in the remainder of the egg whites.

Gently pour half the mixture into the prepared cake tin, dot half the berries evenly over it, then pour the rest of the mixture on top of the berries.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes and unmould on to a wire rack to cool.

To make the icing, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Remove from the heat, stir in the butter, cream & icing sugar. Immediately pour over the cake to coat it completely, smoothing the icing using a palette knife. Leave for 1 hour to harden.

Serve with whipped cream & remaining berries.

Ricotta Hotcakes with Honeycomb Butter

Over Easter I whipped up another fantabulous breakfast from Bill Granger’s Sydney Food to snack on over the break. More on the pancake theme which I have to say is my favourite breakfast item at the moment & the honeycomb butter is truly special.

Ricotta Hotcakes with Honeycomb Butter

1 1/3 cups ricotta
¾ cup milk
4 eggs, separated
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
50g butter

To serve
Banana
Honeycomb butter (below)
Icing sugar for dusting

Place ricotta, milk & egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix to combine.

Sift the flour, baking powder & salt into a bowl. Add to the ricotta mixture & mix until just combined.

Place egg whites in a dry clean bowl & beat until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites through batter in two batches, with a large metal spoon.

Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with a small portion of the butter and drop two tablespoons of batter per hotcake into the pan. Cook over low to medium heat for 2 minutes, or until hotcakes have golden undersides. Turn hotcakes and cook on the other side until golden & cooked through. Transfer to a plate & quickly assemble with other ingredients.

Slice one banana lengthways onto a plate, stack 3 hotcakes on top with a slice of honeycomb butter. Dust with icing sugar. Serves 6-8.

Note: Batter can be stored for 24 hours in the fridge covered with glad wrap before cooking.

Honeycomb butter

250g unsalted butter, softened
100g sugar honeycomb, crushed with a rolling pin
2 tablespoons honey

Place all ingredients in a food processor & blend until smooth. Shape into a log on plastic wrap, roll, seal & chill in fridge for 2 hours. Store leftovers in the freezer, apparently its great on toast too!

Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Icing

The other day I had people in and out so I baked this pleasing cake from Jamie Oliver’s Cook with Jamie. Whilst it turned out very nice in the end it wasn’t without some drama. Firstly I have an electric fan forced oven that usually cooks perfectly as per recipe instructions or if anything faster so I was surprised when after cooking for a bit over the recommended 50 minutes and a skewer coming out clean, I left it for 10 minutes then went to turn it out & it started dripping out!!! Maybe I should have left for 5 seconds as recommended, I thought he was just being fussy in the recipe. I was not happy so I quickly turned the oven back on & stuck it in for another 20 minutes or so by which time it was finally cooked. After all of that fussing it did break in half when turning out but I managed to patch it back together with the very yummy icing which tasted just like cheesecake & a not too sweet one at that. I also had heaps of icing left over & I iced the sides too.

Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Icing

285g unsalted butter, softened
285g light brown soft sugar
5 large eggs, separated
zest and juice of 1 orange
170g self raising flour, sifted
1 slightly heaped teaspoon of baking powder
115g ground almonds
115g shelled walnuts, chopped, plus a handful for serving
1 heaped teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of ground cloves
a pinch of ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground ginger
285g carrots, peeled & coarsely grated
sea salt

Icing
115g Mascarpone cheese
225g full fat cream cheese
85g icing sugar, sifted
zest & juice of 2 limes

Preheat the oven to 180c. Grease and line a 22cm square or round cake tin with greaseproof paper. Beat the butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one by one, and add the orange zest & juice. Stir in the flour & baking powder & add the ground almonds, walnuts, spices & carrot & mix together well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then gently fold them in the cake mix. Scoop the mixture into the prepared cake tin & cook for about 50 minutes until golden & risen. Check to see if cooked by poking in a cocktail stick, remove after 5 seconds & if it comes out clean the cake is cooked. If sticky it needs a bit longer so put back in the oven. Once cooked, leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn onto a wire rack to cool for at least an hour.

Mix all the icing ingredients together & spread generously over the top of the cake. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts & serve.

Chocolate Truffle Tarts

After all the apple cooking I have done of late, I finally got sick of cooking with the one fruit & decided I needed an intense chocolate fix. Megan was coming over for lunch so I hit her with these Chocolate Truffle tarts. As the name suggests it is pretty much a truffle though in tart form & with the added bonus of an oreo base & lots of luscious raspberries hidden in the tart & the cream it is served with. Very rich & delicious though you would struggle to eat more than one without feeling sick! A quick note, the recipe was to serve four yet I made eight & still had some chocolate mix leftover which with extreme willpower I threw out instead of just eating up. The recipe comes from a recent Delicious magazine.

Chocolate Truffle Tarts

150g chocolate cream biscuits (Oreo’s are what I used)
120g unsalted butter, melted
300ml thickened cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g good quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped
300g raspberries
1 tablespoon icing sugar
½ cup cocoa powder, to dust

Lightly grease the base & sides of eight 8cm x 2cm loose bottomed tart pans. Process biscuits in a food processor until fine crumbs form. Add melted butter & process until well combined. Press biscuit mix firmly over bases of tart pans to cover. Chill while you make the filling.

Heat 200ml cream in a pan with the vanilla over low heat & bring to just below boiling point. Remove from heat, add chocolate & stir until melted. Transfer to a bowl & cool completely.

Using a fork, crush half the berries in a bowl. Spread over biscuit bases, then cover with chocolate mixture. Cover and freeze for 2-3 hours until firm. (Remove from freezer 30 minutes before serving.)

Combine icing sugar & remaining berries in a bowl. Crush with fork until sugar dissolves. Press mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl & discard seeds (I omitted this step being quite happy to have my berries seeds & all). Whip remaining 100ml cream & swirl through berry puree. Dust tarts with cocoa & top with berry cream

Apple Latkes

Another apple recipe from Nigella Lawson’s Feast. It appears under the Festival of Lights chapter, another celebration I know nothing about though the book informs me is properly called ‘Hanukkah’, its of the religion Judaism & they make a lot of latke’s. The variety I’m trying are sweet rather than the more traditional savoury variety. The recipe is supposed to make about 20 x 5-6cm latkes, as I was making just for the 2 of us for brekky I made about 10 giant ones. Having never had these before I thought they would be more like an apple flapjack however I was very wrong, they tasted very much like a doughnut & very wicked, absolutely delicious!

Apple Latkes

1 egg
100ml Greek yoghurt plus 75ml semi-skimmed milk or 175ml natural yoghurt
150g plain flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon bicarb soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons caster sugar
250g apples (about 2)
vegetable oil for frying
maple syrup or icing sugar & ground cinnamon for serving

Beat the egg with the yoghurt and milk or just the yoghurt if you’re using the plain normal variety, then set aside. Combine the flour, baking powder, bicarb of soda, cinnamon & sugar in a bowl. Peel, quarter & core the apples, then grate them.

Pour the egg-yoghurt mixture into the flour bowl, tip in the apples & fold together.

Pour enough oil to come to about 5mm up in a frying pan and put on the stove to heat. Dollop spoonfuls of the batter into the sizzling oil, a rubber spatula will help you scrape the batter off the spoon & press down the little latkes in the pan. Don’t worry about making them perfectly round. Fry for a minute or two, until golden brown on the underside, flip then fry for another minute on the uncooked side. Remove to a tray lined with kitchen towel to blot excess oil & continue to cook until all the batter is gone.

Damp Apple & Almond Cake

Over the next couple of weeks I will be bombarding you with apple recipes as my Granny Smith tree out the back has a huge crop for a change, here is the first, a very interesting flourless cake from Nigella Lawson’s Feast. It appears under the Passover section and seeing how I don’t even know what or when Passover is & therefore am unlikely to ever celebrate it, what better time to make this cake then right now. I prepared the apples the day before & with that done the cake is incredibly easy to make, you just chuck everything in the food processor & whiz, no sifting, beating separate ingredients, etc.
The end result was a very moist (damp) cake indeed though in no way did it taste undercooked. The flavours all blended in beautifully & you couldn’t even really taste the apple flavour, it had a nice tang & reminded me almost of orange cake, strange as there was nothing orange flavoured to be found in the ingredients at all. Definitely repeatable.

Damp Apple & Almond Cake

Apple Puree
3 tart eating apples (or 4 small as I found I needed)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons caster sugar

Cake
Almond oil/flavourless vegetable oil to grease tin
8 eggs
325g ground almonds
275g caster sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
50g flaked almonds

To Decorate
1 teaspoon icing sugar

Peel, core and chop the apples roughly. Put them in a saucepan with the lemon juice and sugar, and bring pan to a bubble over medium heat. Cover the pan and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes or until you can mash the apple to a rough puree with a wooden spoon or fork (You should have about 285g of puree). Leave to cool.

Preheat oven to 180c. Oil a 25cm springform tin with almond oil or a flavourless vegetable oil & line bottom with baking parchment.

Put the cooled puree in the processor with eggs, ground almonds, caster sugar & 1 tablespoon of lemon juice & blitz into a puree. Pour & scrape with a rubber spatula into the prepared tin, sprinkle with the flaked almonds on top & bake for about 45 minutes. Check after 35 minutes as oven temperatures vary. Put on a wire rack to cool slightly, then spring open. This cake is best served warm though is still good cold. Before serving, sieve some icing sugar over the top.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake with Sour Cream icing

A very simple & yum Chocolate cake from Nigella Lawson’s How to be a Domestic Goddess, good for those that don’t like anything fancy about their cake. I'm trying to make & consume as much chcolate as I can before the very soon to be birth of junior Miss Vicious as I have heard some terrible tales about having to completely cut out chocolate from your diet when feeding as my good friend Rachel has had to do, that would be an absolute disaster! So this cake was very easy to make, & the icing in particular is spectacular, the sour cream really did lend it a lovely subtle tang, though as with most of her recipes I found there was way too much icing so a hell of a lot was consumed straight out of the bowl – Fantastic! Also I don’t know if ‘golden’ icing sugar is anything special – I just used the regular kind?

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake with Sour Cream icing

Cake
200g Plain Flour
200g Caster Sugar
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon bicarb of soda
½ teaspoon salt
200g soft unsalted butter
40g best cocoa
150ml sour cream
2 large eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 x 20cm sandwich tins, buttered & lined

Icing
80g milk chocolate
80 dark chocolate
75g unsalted butter
125ml sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon golden syrup
300g golden icing sugar, sieved (plus more if needed)
½ teaspoon hot water

Preheat the oven to 180c/gas mark 4.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a large bowl. Then, using an electric mixer, add the butter. In a wide-mouthed measuring jug, whisk together the cocoa, sour cream, eggs and vanilla, then slowly add this cocoa mixture to the ingredients in the bowl, beating until thoroughly mixed.

Pour the batter into the prepared tins and bake for 30 minutes; when they’re ready the cakes should be starting to shrink back from the edges of the tins. Leave for 10 minutes in their tins on racks, then turn out to cool.

To make the icing, melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave, or in a bowl over hot water. Let cool a little, then stir in the sour cream, vanilla and syrup. Add the sieved icing sugar and a little hot water, blending until smooth. When you’ve got the texture right – thick enough to cover but supple enough to spread, adding more icing sugar or water as required – you can ice the cakes.

Cut four strips of baking parchment and make an outline of a square with them on a flat plate. Sit one cake on top of the paper pieces, spread with icing, sit the second cake on top and use the rest of the icing to cover the top and sides. Leave spatula-smooth or swirl with a knife as you wish.

Serves 6-8.

Summer Fruitcake with lemon mascarpone cream

As well as pasta, I have been quite fond of cakes these past few months & I think if I wasn’t working I would be hard pressed not to make one very single day, now that would be a very bad thing. Luckily I am still slaving away so usually only manage to sneak one in a week. This week I had some friends coming over for lunch & had this recipe from Delicious magazine that takes advantage of the abundance of summer fruit in our shops now so I was dying to try it out. As well as berries it also used peaches, the sweetness & slight tartness of each working beautifully together. Also the almonds gave this cake so much more, I was lucky any even got baked the mixture was so irresistible. I found I had to cook it about 10 minutes or so longer than required & the end result was still a lovely moist cake full of fruity goodness and don’t skip the lemon cream, its goes really well too.

Summer Fruitcake with lemon mascarpone cream

250g unsalted butter, softened
250g caster sugar
6 eggs
½ cup (120g sour cream)
200g raw almonds
180g plain flour, sifted
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g raspberries
150g blueberries
2 small peaches, peeled & sliced
Icing sugar to dust

Lemon Mascarpone Cream

200g mascapone

150ml thickened cream

Juice & rind of 1 small lemon

Preheat oven to 180c. Grease a 24cm springform pan & line the base with baking paper.

For lemon mascarpone cream, beat ingredients in a bowl to combine. Cover & refrigerate until ready to serve.

Place butter & caster sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer & beat until light & fluffy. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Whisk in sour cream. Process almonds in a food processor until fine crumbs, then fold into the mixture with the flour & baking powder. Stir in the vanilla then pour in half the batter into the cake tin and sprinkle with half the fruit. Repeat layers of batter & fruit. Bake for 40-45 minutes (cover loosely with foil if it starts to brown), until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in center. Cool in pan for 15 minutes then place on a rack & dust with icing sugar. Serve with lemon mascarpone cream.

Raspberry Frangipane Tarts

Raspberries again, today in Frangipane tart form, recipe courtesy of Matthew Moran as featured in an old Delicious edition. The tarts were absolutely scrumptious & apart from the number of steps you need to take, all in all very simple. I have only one complaint with the recipe, it is supposed to make 8 & there was at least half of the pastry left over which is not too much of a problem as I froze it, but then there was also heaps of filling left over too which if I had of known I would have prepared extra shells to start with, as it was I was a bit stuffed by the time I got to that stage & threw the rest out, what a waste! Also take car not to overfill as I did as it all came spilling over the edges & Michael now has a nice mess in the oven to clean out for as in my current state I am not allowed to do much, I am lucky I am still allowed to cook occasionally!

Raspberry Frangipane Tarts

150g Raspberries
Icing sugar, to dust

Shortcrust pastry
90g icing sugar, sifted
2 cups (300g) plain flour
185g chilled unsalted butter
1 extra large egg

Frangipane
180g icing sugar
180g unsalted butter
3 eggs
1 ½ cups (180g) almond meal
1 ½ tablespoons dark rum

Sift the icing sugar onto a cool work surface (or large bowl as I used) & add the plain flour. Chop the chilled butter, then use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour & icing sugar until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Make a deep well in the centre of the dry mixture and add the egg. Gradually bring the dry ingredients into the centre, then combine with your hands to form a smooth ball. (Alternatively, process ingredients in a food processor until well combined). Enclose in plastic wrap & chill for 20 minutes, then divide pastry into 8 portions.

Roll out 1 pastry portion to 2.5mm thick on a lightly floured surface. Lightly flour the rolling pin. Drape over the tart case & press into base & sides, the cut off excess. Repeat with remaining pastry & pans. Chill for 30 minutes.

For the frangipane, cream the butter & sugar until pale & thick (don’t over do or it will rise & collapse in the oven). Add the eggs one at a time, mixing continuously and adding some almond meal between additions. Slowly add the rum to the mixture until all ingredients are combined.

Preheat oven to 180c. Divide the frangipane mixture among the tart cases & smooth top. Press 6 raspberries gently into each tart & bake for 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned & cooked through. Cool in pans for 5-6 minutes, serve warm dusted with icing sugar with left over raspberries & vanilla ice cream

Butter Cut Out Cookies - Christmas Treats Part 3

Lastly for the Christmas boxes were some iced butter cut out cookies, recipe from Nigella Lawson in both How to be a Domestic Goddess & Feast. To save time I made the dough for these a few days ago & stuck it in the freezer, very good idea because by the end of the gingerbread men & the 60 or so of these I had to cook and ice I was exhausted, nothing was too difficult, it was just a lot to get through. I think they look really cute in my rustic hand made way & make a nice addition to the gift boxes, the tasted nice too. Can’t wait to see if everyone likes their goodies…

Butter Cut Out Biscuits

175g soft unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
400g plain flour, pref Italian 00, plus more if needed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
300g icing sugar, sieved, and food coloring

Biscuit cutters

Preheat oven to 180c. Cream the butter & sugar together until pale & moving towards mousiness, then beat in the eggs and vanilla. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder & salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and eggs, and mix gently but surely. If you think the finished mixture is too sticky to be rolled out, add more flour but do so sparingly as too much will make the dough tough. Halve the dough, form into fat discs, wrap each half in plastic wrap & rest in the fridge for at least an hour. Sprinkle a suitable surface with flour, place a disc of dough on it (not taking out the other half until finished with the first) and sprinkle a little more flour on top of that. Then roll it out to about ½ cm thickness. Cut into shapes, dipping the cutter into flour as you go, and place the biscuits a little apart on baking trays lined with baking paper.

Bake for 8-2 minutes, by which time they will be lightly golden around the edges. Cool on a rack and continue with the rest of the dough. When they’re all fully cooled, you can get on with the icing. Put a couple of tablespoon of just not boiling water into a large bowl, add the icing sugar & mix together, adding more water as needed to form a thick paste. Color as desired. Makes 50-60.

Gingerbread Men - Christmas treats Part 2

The next item for my goodie boxes was gingerbread men, I didn’t have a recipe so kept my eye out & ended up using the recipe from Not Just Desserts. I found the dough very crumbly but don’t worry be patient & they end up holding together & giving a nice crisp cookie, once again though my decorating skills needs some perfecting!

Traditional Gingerbread recipe

350 grams plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda (or baking powder)

2 teaspoons ground ginger

100 grams unsalted butter

175 grams brown sugar

1 egg

3 tablespoons golden syrup

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Line baking trays with baking paper. Sift flour, bicarb and ginger into a large bowl.Rub in butter until mixture resembles breadcrumbs then rub in the sugar. Beat egg and syrup together and stir into flour mixture, mixing lightly to form a smooth dough. Rest in the refridgerator for 30 minutes.

On a floured surface rollout dough to 4-5mm thickness. Cut into shapes and transfer to baking tins. Bake for 12-15 mins or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly on trays. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely then ice.

Icing

200 grams of icing sugar

1 egg white

1 tablespoon lemon juice.

Beat the egg white until soft peaks form and gradually beat in the icing sugar followed by the lemon juice. Ice the biscuits and decorate with silver/coloured cashous for buttons.

Coconut Bread

This morning for brekky carrying on with my sweet theme I made this recipe from Bill Granger’s Sydney Food. It is described as ‘never to be replaced’ on the menu at Bills. It is a Jamacican bread intended to be served with salt-fish relisg. Lime marmalade goes well too & it keeps well sliced in the freezer. Can be served toasted, buttered & dusted with icing sugar. Sounds very different & was incredibly easy to prepare. The end result was delicious, though to me it is more of a cake then a bread, much in the same way banana bread is really a cake. I had a piece nice & warm from the oven which was perfect & then tried one buttered & dusted with icing sugar, this was good too but to be honest I don’t think it needed the extra’s. I’m yet to try it toasted, sure will be great too.

Coconut Bread

2 eggs
300ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 ½ cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup caster sugar
150g shredded cocnut
75g unsalted butter, melted

To serve
Butter
Icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180c. Lightly whisk eggs, milk and vanilla together.

Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl, add sugar & cocnut and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and gradually stir in the egg mixture until just combined. Add melted butter and stir until mixture is just smooth, being careful not to overmix.

Pour into greased and floured 21 x 10cm loaf tin & bake for 1 hour or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Leave in the tin to cool for 5 minutes and remove to cool further on a wire rack. Serve in thick slices, toasted, buttered & dusted withicing sugar. Makes 8-10 thick slices.

Lemon Souffle Cakes

This morning for brekky I felt like a sweet treat as I do most days now, having gone from a savoury person to a sweet person during my pregancy. It used to be I would always choose a delicious savoury treat before heading anywhere near a sweet yet nowadays all I want is sugar & chocolate, I could seriously eat sweets for dinner these days & I have to sheepishly admit I might have done once or twice too! So for inspiration I looked to Bill Granger who as I have said before seems to have the most mouth watering breakfats rcipes. Today’s recipe was from Sydney Food. The pancakes were light as promised & the citrus tang was fantastic, the only ptoblem was the recipe said it was for 4 though Michael & I ate the whole batch – their really weren’t that many and Bill even claims they are low in fat so cant be all bad to eat that many!

Lemon Souffle Cakes

¾ cup buttermilk
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon vamilla essence
25g unsalted butter, melted
¾ cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons caster sugar
a pinch of salt
2 egg whites

To serve
200g strawberries, halved
1 tablespoon honey
icing sugar

Place buttermilk, egg yolks, lemon juice & zest & vanilla essence in a bowl & stir until combined. Add in the melted butter & mix well.

Sift flour, baking powder, caster sugar & salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the center & gradually stir in the buttermilk mixture until the dry ingredients are just moistened, being careful not to overmix.

Place ht egg whites in a dry, clean bowl & beat until soft peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter, using a large metal spoon.

Melt a small portion of butter in a non-stick frypan over medium heat and drop 2 tablesppons of batter per cake into the pan. Cook iuntil golden brown on the underside & looking dry at the edges, flip & cook the other side.

Toss the fresh strawberries with honey & a light dusting of icing sugar. Dust the cakes with icing sugar & serve with berries.

White Chocolate & Berry Muffins

When I saw these luscious sounding muffins on Exclusively Food, I knew I just had to make them soon. I used strawberries as they were readily available, next time would like to try with either raspberries or blueberries or combinations of all 3. They were absolutlely delicious straight out of the oven. However I must warn you I spooned the batter straight into a greased muffin tin instead of lining with patty cases & when I tried to tip them out there was a bit of a mess, ie breakage. Luckily not all of them fell apart & I quickly prised the rest out carefully with a knife, so I think I would go the cases next time. Absolutely drool worthy as promised.

White Chocolate & Berry Muffins

Fresh or frozen berries can be used. If using frozen berries, add them to the mixture while they are still frozen.

Makes 12 muffins.

320g (2 cups) self-raising flour
148g (2/3 cup) caster sugar
1 cup chopped white chocolate
2 teaspoons lemon juice
250ml (1 cup) milk
125ml (1/2 cup) mild vegetable oil
1 large egg
200g berries

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius (fan forced). Line a muffin tray with 12 muffin cases.Mix self-raising flour, caster sugar and white chocolate together in large bowl.Whisk lemon juice, milk, oil and egg in a medium bowl until combined. Gently stir in berries.Gently stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Stop stirring once the ingredients are combined (do not over mix). The batter should be quite wet.Spoon mixture into muffin cases. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. To check whether muffins are cooked, press lightly on the centre of a muffin; if it springs back, it's ready.

Serve muffins warm or at room temperature, dusted with icing sugar. Muffins can be reheated in the microwave. They are best eaten on the day they are baked.

Apple & Pine Nut Cake (Torta di Mele e Pinoli)

Today I made this cake from Australian Table July 2006, to take over to a friends house for brunch. I peeled my apples as they were a bit old & didn’t know how the skin would go in this state. The cake was very unusual, the pine nuts gave a very interesting flavour, the apples of course made it nice & fruity. A good cake if you don’t feel like anything overly rich or sweet.

Apple & Pine Nut Cake (Torta di Mele e Pinoli)

1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup caster sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
125g unsalted butter, melted
4 medium unpeeled golden delicious apples, cored & thinly sliced
¾ cup pine nuts
grated rind of 1 lemon
icing sugar, to dust
Mascarpone, to serve

Preheat oven to 180c. Lightly grease a 20cm springform tin & dust with flour.

Sift flour & Baking powder together into a bowl. Stir in sugar. Make a well in centre & add beaten egg & melted butter. Stir, gradually incorporating flour to make a thick batter.

Fold in ¾ of sliced apple & ½ cup of pine nuts & lemon rind. Spoon into prepared pan. Arrange remaining apple on top of cake & sprinkle with remaining nuts. Bake for 1 hour and 5 minutes, cover with foil if browning too much, until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a serving platter to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar & serve with mascarpone.

Orange Cake

Yesterday I made this simple yet tasty cake from the latest Spring edition of Donna Hay magazine. Once again I didn’t read the recipe properly, I think this pregnancy thing is screwing with my mind! I only saw the orange zest & not the orange rind so the orange flavouring was a little light, still tasted good though & very quick to throw together though reminder to self – check recipe first & put butter out to soften well before you need to beat it – I seem to forget this every single time I’m baking a cake.

Orange Cake

15g unsalted butter, softened3/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 ½ cups plain flour, sifted
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder, sifted
1 tablespoon milk
2 tablespoons finely grated orange rind
4 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest

Orange icing

1 ¼ cp icing sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons orange juice

Preheat oven to 170c. Place the butter & sugar in a bowl of an electric mixer & beat for 8-10 minutes or until light & creamy. Gradually add the eggs & beat well. Add the flour & baking powder & mix well. Add the milk, orange rind & juice & mix until smooth. Spoon the mixture into an 18 x 8 cm loaf tin lined with baking paper & bake for 5 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool on a wire rack.

To make the icing, combine sugar & juice in a bowl & mix to form a smooth paste. Use a palette knife to spread the icing over the cake & serve topped with orange zest.