Recipes

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Pizza Wheels

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

These pizza wheels go so fast at any party we’ve had.

They can be made non-vegetarian by adding some chopped ham or salami.

I love them, and there’s not much more I really have to say about these – except how can you go wrong with a mini “pizza”?

Pizza Wheels

Recipe by Anita @ Leave Room for Dessert

Makes more than 40

4 puff pastry sheets
6 tablespoons tomato paste
1 red capsicum, diced
1 green capsicum, diced
grated cheese

Spread the tomato paste over the puff pastry sheets, leaving a 1.5cm gap from one end. Sprinkle capsicums then cheese over the pastry leaving the gap. Roll the pastry toward the gap and then press the end onto the roll to join the pastry. This can be covered and placed in the refrigerator until needed.

Cut 1cm slices of the roll and place on baking paper on a baking tray. Cook in a moderate oven (180C) for approx 10 minutes or until cheese has melted and pizza wheels have browned. Serve when hot.

Posted in Budget Meals, Party Food, Recipes, Snacks, Vegetarian | 11 Comments »

Mum’s Trifle

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

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For my Mum’s birthday a couple of months ago, I designed a trifle just for her.

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Although I don’t normally make trifles, I’ll make anything that my Mum wants for her birthday. So a trifle once or twice a year is not much to ask or give.

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I decided to make the trifle layered and served in a cylindrical shape – making an individual portion and a cuter chic-styled trifle. And what would make a trifle more modern than pretty pistachio macarons!

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The individual portion was frozen, and without enough time to allow it to thaw after removal of the acetate, it was eaten frozen – I hear it was lovely frozen. I ate a scoop from the bowl and thought all the flavours worked extremely well together.

Mum’s Trifle

Recipe by Anita @ Leave Room for Dessert

Serves: 10

Vanilla Sponge
4 eggs
150g (1 cup) self raising flour
150g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
40g (1/4 cup) cornflour
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Custard
4 egg yolks
125g caster sugar
20g cornflour
250ml cream
350ml milk
1 vanilla bean, scraped

2 punnets strawberries, cored and sliced in half

Vienna almond and nougat cream
100g nougat, chopped
150g Vienna almonds, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
600ml thickened cream
1/4 cup icing sugar mixture

Pistachio macarons, for serving – see my recipe here

Chocolate Sauce
100g dark chocolate
80ml cream
1 tablespoon Kahlua, optional

For the sponge, preheat oven to 180°C. Beat together the eggs and caster sugar for 4 minutes or until light, fluffy and increased in size. Beat in the vanilla essence. Fold in the sifted flour and cornflour. Pour into a baking paper lined tray. Cook for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin and then remove and allow to cool fully on a cooling rack.

For the custard, whisk the yolks, cornflour and caster sugar in a saucepan. Once smooth, whisk in the cream slowly, then the milk. Place mixture on medium heat and cook until the mixture has thickened or starts to boil. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl and let cool slightly. Place cling film over the custard – touching the custard so it prevents a skin forming.

For the Vienna almond and nougat cream, whip the cream with the vanilla and icing sugar mixture until thick peaks are formed. Fold through the chopped Vienna almond and nougat.

For the Chocolate Sauce, heat the cream in saucepan, until it just starts to bubble. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate. Add the Kahlua or other alcohol at this point, if using. Whisk or stir until smooth. This is best made just before serving.

To assemble:
Cut the sponge base to fit the serving bowl. Alternatively, cut 5cm diameter rounds from the cake (it may need to be cut in half depending on how tall the sponge is). Cut some acetate or projector film into 8-10cm high and approx 17cm wide (or enough to fit around the sponge/5cm cutting circles). Make the acetate into cylinders around the sponge or 5cm rounds and hold in place with sticky tape, with the sponge at the bottom of the cylinder.

If desired, you can brush the sponge with any liqueur you like.

Next, pour the custard on top of the sponge, smooth the top and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Place any individual portions in the freezer and set until the top of the custard is firm.

Place the cut strawberries around the edge of the glass dish or acetate strips and the remaining ones in the middle.

Cover with Vienna almond, nougat cream. Smooth the top and place in the fridge to set for a few hours before serving. For individual portions, place back in the freezer (otherwise the acetate won’t come off easily).

To serve: Remove acetate from any individual trifles. Place pistachio macarons on top of the trifle and serve with the chocolate sauce in a pourer.

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Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Chocolate, Dessert, Recipes | 11 Comments »

Croquembouche (Piece Montée) – Daring Bakers Challenge May 2010

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

I’ve made two croquembouches’ so far, the original one from Masterchef and the chocolate swirl one, also from MasterChef. So, when I found out this month’s challenge was also a croquembouche I was both a bit indifferent, and also excited.

First of all, the slight disappointment was due to it not being something new. Although the excitement came from knowing how gorgeous the custard filled profiteroles with lovely crunchy toffee are. My family and I cannot resist croquembouche, although the next Christmas or event I make it for, I’ll just be pouring the caramel over the top and not building a cone shaped tower.

The other excitement came from trying the different recipes, I was hoping for a harder choux pastry, one which was a bit crunchy and kept its shape quite well. I think this choux pastry recipe may have succeeded in this, although I still need to learn my oven better, as they were cooked in 10-15 minutes, almost burning, so I couldn’t leave them in the oven to dry out longer, for fear of losing them.

For my own challenge, I decided to try making cute little caramel corkscrews. Using a spoon, I spun the caramel around a clean knife (sharpening) steel. And they worked! I had to keep heating and cooling the caramel though to make it the right consistency – which was quite difficult to figure out.

Unfortunately for the presentation, the lovely caramel strands around the outside started beading within 20 minutes and by the time we ate the croquembouche, a few hours afterwards, there were no strands to be seen. I’m not sure whether this was due to the humidity we had here, or whether the glucose added to caramel contributes to the stability of the caramel.

Overall, I was very excited making this again, and I think it made the perfect quantity (even though people asked – where’s the rest of it?). The different components themselves are relatively easy, and I will consider making it more often, now that I won’t be making trays and trays worth of profiteroles, and a large lasagna dish filled with custard.

Croquembouche (Piece Montée)

Recipe Source: Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and were originally created by famed pastry chef, Nick Malgieri.

Vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch) [I made a full batch – double this – although I think I could have made 1.5 batches – three times this]
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch / cornflour
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar – I used caster sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla

Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.

Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.

Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.

Pour cream [Crème Patissiere] into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28) [Mine made more than 50]
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preparing batter:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.

Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly. [A KitchenAid works so well for this]

Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.

After mixing in the first egg

As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.

It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

After mixing in the second egg

After mixing in the third egg

After the fourth and final egg

Piping:
Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.

Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.

Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

Baking:
Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes. [mine cooked in 15 minutes total]

Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.

Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your piece montée.

Hard Caramel Glaze: [I needed 1.5 – 2 times this recipe, as I stirred it too early]
1 cup (225 g.) sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice

Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately.

Assembly of your Piece Montée:
You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.

Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up.

When you have finished the design of your piece montée, you may drizzle with remaining glaze or use ribbons, sugar cookie cut-outs, almonds, flowers, etc. to decorate. Have fun and enjoy! Bon appétit!

Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Daring Bakers, Dessert, Egg Yolks, High Tea, Pastry, Recipes, Vegetarian | 34 Comments »

Vegetable Rolls

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

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Now, I don’t suppose you could call anything with puff pastry healthy. Although, you could say this is healthier than the normal sausage roll. These vegie rolls are packed full of vegetables, most of which you might not be able to guess while eating them. So, unsuspecting kids (and adults) will get a vegie fill when they go for these rolls at a party.

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I decided to make this recipe combining many vegetables I had on hand, so I’m sure it can be altered to what you have lying around.

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Vegetables Rolls

Recipe by Anita @ Leave Room for Dessert

Makes: 50

250g spinach, fresh or frozen (thawed and water pressed out)
2 large carrots (300g), grated
1 zucchini (200g), grated
12 mushrooms (200g), grated
4 cloves garlic, crushed
200g corn kernels, drained
1 egg, lightly beaten
250g ricotta
1/4 cup sweet chili sauce
1/2 cup bread crumbs
5 sheets puff pastry

1 egg beaten for glazing (or milk)
poppy seeds for sprinkling on top

Mix all the vegetables in a large bowl. Add the ricotta, egg and sweet chili sauce, mix to combine. Add the breadcrumbs and mix until fully combined.

Cut the pastry sheets in half. Spoon equal amounts of the vegetable filling down the middle or side of the pastry sheet – to form an even roll. Place a small amount of egg wash down the length of the puff pastry. Roll the pastry up firmly and sealing with a little pinch on the edge. Brush some egg wash over the top and sprinkle with poppy seeds.

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At this stage, either freeze as they are (with some baking paper or puff pastry plastic between the rolls) or, to eat straight away – preheat oven to 180°C. Cut each roll into 5 equal portions. Place on a baking paper lined tray and place in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until they are browned and cooked through. Serve with sweet chili sauce.

For Frozen rolls, allow to thaw enough to cut through with a knife. Cook in a preheated oven (180°C) for 20 minutes or longer, depending on how much they have thawed.

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Posted in Appetizers, Party Food, Recipes, Snacks, Vegetarian | 16 Comments »

Pistachio Macarons

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

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Happy Mother’s Day!

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Even though these lovely pistachio macarons weren’t made for Mother’s Day – they were made for my Mum – on her birthday. They were the decorations for the dessert I made for her (a while ago now), I hope to post it soon. For the main meal on her birthday, we made the most awesome beef bourguignon pie – using Julia Child’s recipe (here is the recipe, if you don’t have the book). It was AMAZING! It took a while to prepare, but was worth it – it doesn’t get any better.

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These home made pistachio macarons turned out just how I wanted. Cute little feet (the frill at the base of the macaron), slightly crisp on the outside, a lovely chewy centre and a wonderfully tasty pistachio flavour.

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These would be perfect for a kitchen tea, high tea, baby shower or petit fours after a meal.

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Pistachio Macarons

Recipe by Anita @ Leave Room for Dessert

Makes 46 sandwiched macarons

120g egg whites (aged for a day or two – covered in the fridge then brought to room temperature, or left at room temperature if the weather’s cool)
90g caster sugar
220g pure icing sugar
80g almond meal
80g pistachios

Pistachio butter cream
80g butter, at room temperature
160g icing sugar
50g pistachio

Process the icing sugar, pistachios and almond meal in a food processor until very finely ground, like dust. Sift and set aside.

Beat egg whites until frothy, add the caster sugar whilst continuing to beat the egg whites on high until it forms a glossy thick meringue. Beat and fold the icing sugar and nut mixture into the meringue until the mixture flows and when the mixture is piped, any peaks sink back after a few minutes. Pipe 3-4cm circles on lined baking trays. Leave at room temperature for 30 minutes or more to form a skin.

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Preheat oven to 150°C and cook macarons for 10 minutes or until slightly coloured, crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. Allow to cool and then fill with the pistachio butter cream or another filling.

For the pistachio butter cream, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Process the pistachios with the icing sugar until finely ground. Beat the pistachio sugar into the butter in batches. When all the pistachio sugar is incorporated it is ready to fill the macarons. If it isn’t spreadable, add a touch of milk and mix until smooth.

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Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Egg Whites, High Tea, Petit Fours, Recipes, Vegetarian | 20 Comments »

Vanilla Panna Cotta with Pomegranate and Pomegranate Syrup

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

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After being sent two lovely Royal Pom pomegranates from Catherine at Wordstom, I decided to try my hand (for a third time) at making a vanilla panna cotta with pomegranate, pomegranate syrup and lavender honey similar to the one served at Jonah’s at Whale Beach (I tried it at Taste of Sydney earlier this year – lovely!).

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The Royal Pom pomegranates I was sent are grown in Australia, and the distributor Perfection Fresh, is Australian owned. Supporting Australian grown and owned produce and businesses is always a high priority. I also found out from the info I was sent that you can freeze the pomegranate arils for a year – so I’ve got some in the freezer, so we’ll see how they go.

With their lovely burst of flavour, you can see why I’ve already used pomegranates in this herb and fruit chicken dish.

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Now, I mentioned this was my third time at trying to make this dessert – well, that’s because I thought I could make my own moulds for the panna cotta. And I couldn’t.

I have previously, successfully made moulds from baking paper, which support chocolate, and using acetate – which supports mousse. Although the panna cotta mix is too liquid – if there is a hole at the bottom of the mould, it leaks out. If you manage to twist the acetate in a way that there is no hole, it will leak into every spot possible and won’t come off easily either…

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So I went and bought some cone moulds and although they certainly held the liquid, the panna cotta still stuck to the mould and needed a knife and a bit of patience for it to finally come out.

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I also needed Nick’s help in holding the panna cotta upwards, as the cone was either the wrong shape (too high), or I needed a touch more gelatine for the liquid I had used (or I should have left it longer – as ones that were taken out the next day stood up a lot better). Either way – the vanilla panna cotta tasted lovely and went very well with the burst of flavour from the pomegranate arils, and the pomegranate syrup. (Can you believe I had no honey in the house! – this would have worked very nicely with the rest of the dessert).

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Vanilla Panna Cotta with Pomegranate and Pomegranate Syrup

Recipe by Anita @ Leave Room for Dessert
Inspiration: the dessert from Jonah’s at Whale Beach

Serves: 6-8

600ml cream
200ml milk
1 vanilla bean, scraped
3 titanium strength gelatine leaves*
Oil for greasing

½ pomegranate, juiced [approx 75ml] (with a normal citrus juicer – wear an apron)
25g caster sugar

½ pomegranate, seeds/arils to serve
Honey or lavender infused honey, to serve

* the gelatine leaves I was using were titanium strength (5g each) – the packet said 1 sheet will set 250ml liquid (the same as 1 teaspoon of gelatine). As far as I know, 4 gold strength gelatine leaves set 250ml – you may need 12 gold strength gelatine leaves for this recipe. If you aren’t using a difficult mould like I did – less gelatine can be used (maybe 2 sheets) as this will produce a softer panna cotta.

Soak the gelatine leaves in water for 5 minutes, or until soft.

Place the cream, milk, vanilla bean seeds and vanilla bean in a saucepan and bring almost to the boil. Remove from heat. Whisk in the gelatine leaves until dissolved, then pour into a large bowl and stir to remove heat. Spray any moulds, that you want the panna cotta to come out of, with a bit of oil (if you are pouring into a glass, no oil is needed). Allow mixture to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, to reduce the heat before pouring into moulds. Allow to set for a few hours or overnight in the fridge.

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For the pomegranate syrup, mix pomegranate juice and sugar in a saucepan over medium/high heat. Reduce to half the volume or until at a flavour you are happy with (if left too long it will start to caramelise).

To serve, remove panna cotta from mould in the middle of a plate. Drizzle the pomegranate syrup around the panna cotta and scatter pomegranate arils. (Honey or lavendar infused honey can also be drizzled around the panna cotta).

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Posted in Dessert, Recipes, Vegetarian | 20 Comments »

Butterscotch Steamed Pudding – Daring Bakers Challenge April 2010

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

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The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

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In this month’s challenge we were asked to go a step further in the ingredients we use and use suet in the steamed pudding we were making. After deciding to make a steamed sweet sponge pudding, I decided on using a substitute for the suet – although after having trouble in the cold isle of the supermarket trying to find what I could use as a substitute, I gave in to using butter as my base.

A lot of people know I am a huge fan of self saucing puddings, so I was extremely excited to find out how this differed in taste or texture to the ones I normally make. Personally I enjoy the cake-like fluffy texture of a self-saucing pudding to the more chewy textured steamed pudding. I also find it’s a lot easier to see whether a self-saucing pudding is ready to be eaten – as the steamed pudding has a cover to take off before you can test it.

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I thought many recipes I looked through needed some photos on the covering and tying of the handle for top of the pudding, as I found some descriptions a bit confusing. Although my mum found this helpful video tutorial (a How-To) for pudding assembly.

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A big thanks to Esther for hosting this challenge and taking me outside my comfort zone (even if I didn’t get around to using suet…).

Butterscotch Steamed Pudding

Recipe adapted from Steamed Treacle Sponge Pudding by Delia Smith

Serves: 6-8

175g butter
175g brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 eggs
175g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons custard powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream (you could use more milk here if you don’t have cream)

Grease a 1.2L pudding dish. Place a steamer, bowl, or egg rings in a large saucepan (large enough to fit your pudding dish, with gaps at the side) and fill with enough water to come half-way up the sides of the pudding dish. Place on low/medium heat.

Cream the butter and the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla essence. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between additions. Beat in the sifted flour and baking powder.

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Pour mixture into greased pudding dish, smooth the top. Place a sheet of aluminum foil over a piece of grease-proof paper (approx 40cm x 30cm). Make one pleat (approx 2 cm) in the centre. Place the pleated paper and foil on top of the pudding (grease-proof paper side on the inside near the pudding, the foil on the outside). Turn the edges over, making a tight seal on the dish. Tie a piece of string around the dish – under the lip, keeping the foil tightly against the dish. Tie another piece of string (from the string under the lip) over the top to create a handle. (Watch this video).

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Place the pudding on top of the steamer in the saucepan. Heat on low for 2 hours, checking the water comes halfway up the dish. Once cooked remove from saucepan, sit for 5 minutes, then turn out.

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Nothing a bit of sauce won't cover up :)

Nothing a bit of sauce won't cover up 🙂

For the sauce, combine all ingredients in a saucepan over medium/high heat and continue to stir until the sauce thickens. Pour over the steamed pudding and serve.

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Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Daring Bakers, Dessert, Recipes | 27 Comments »

Vanilla Mousse Tart with Strawberries and Macaron

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

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In an effort to make sure I am fully prepared for my trip to Melbourne for a cooking class this weekend, I decided to make my own pâte sablée, mousse and macarons. The other things I was planning to make, like Italian meringue and glazes, were left behind due to time restrictions, so I hope I have enough experience to help and not hinder the others attending the class. I only mention this, as it is a level 2 class – and I haven’t done level 1. I look forward to telling everyone about the course when I get back and have some lovely photos.

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I was ecstatic with the results for my macarons. They had cute little “feet” (the little raised area on the bottom), they had a nice smooth top of the shell, there was no hole under the shell, and they came off the baking paper easily. (Well this is after I made the stupid mistake of trying to cook them in the oven with something else – I won’t tell you what it was [as it caused a very humid oven], but I would suggest cooking a tray at a time, with nothing else in the oven).

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The vanilla mousse tart was lovely and paired very well with the fresh strawberries and mixed berry sauce.

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Vanilla Mousse Tart with Strawberries and Macaron

Recipe by Anita @ Leave Room for Dessert

Pâte Sablée:
1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup icing sugar
1/8 cup almond meal
62g butter, chilled and chopped
pinch salt
1 tablespoon milk (less or more may be required) (an egg is often used to bind the pastry, although with such a small amount, I thought it might be too sticky)

Vanilla Mousse:
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tablespoons caster sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/3 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon gelatin
2 tablespoons water
2/3 cup cream

Macarons:
1 egg white (30g) (I normally “age” my egg whites, covered at room temperature or in the fridge overnight)
2 tablespoons (22g) caster sugar
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon (55g) pure icing sugar
1/4 cup + 1 teaspoon (40g) almond meal

Macaron filling:
a few tablespoons vanilla mousse mixed with a few teaspoons of mixed berry jus

Mixed Berry Sauce:
60g mixed berries (fresh or frozen, thawed)
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup water

Strawberries to serve

Pâte Sablée:
Process the flour, icing sugar, almonds and salt in a food processor. Place the butter in with the flour and process until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add enough milk for the mixture to just come together into a dough that just holds together. Form the dough into a disc and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Remove from fridge and roll out to a few millimetres thickness (enough to fit two small round tart tins – around 12cm diameter). Place the dough in the tart tins, pressing lightly to fill the tin. Cut off excess dough. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 180C. Cook pâte sablée for 10 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool before filling.

Vanilla Mousse:
Add gelatine to water. Bring the milk almost to the boil in a small saucepan. Whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla essence until lighter in colour. Pour the milk into the egg yolk mixture, whisking continuously. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook on low/medium heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and stir in gelatine. Allow to cool.

Whip the cream until light peaks form. Fold half of the cream into the cooled custard mixture. Fold lightly into the remaining cream. Spoon the mousse into the cooled tart shells and allow to set in the fridge for a few hours. (Leave some of the mousse for the macaron filling).

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Macarons:
Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl with electric beaters on medium. Once the egg whites become frothy, slowly add the caster sugar, while continuously beating. Continue beating the egg whites until the mixture becomes a thick, glossy meringue, which holds it’s shape. Sift in the icing sugar combined with the almond meal on top of the meringue. Fold and beat the almond meal mixture into the meringue, just until any peaks you create in the mixture sink back. Don’t overbeat the mixture once it is flowing nicely (underbeating can also cause the biscuits to be too meringue like or have a peak on them).

Spoon mixture into a piping bag and pipe circles (3-4 cm diameter) onto a baking paper lined baking tray (make sure this is flat or the mixture will run). Let the macarons sit at room temperature for 30 min or more to allow the top to form a skin (this will help the macaron to rise from the bottom and not split the lovely shell).

Preheat oven to 150C (my oven is fan-forced, although you’ll need to check what temperature works for your oven). Place baking trays in the oven (one at a time, depending on your oven – if mine has two trays in there, the macarons do not colour evenly). Cook for approximately 10 minutes, or until lightly coloured, with a lightly crisp shell and soft on the inside.

Once cooled, you can fill them with the berry mousse filling.

Mixed Berry Sauce:
Puree the berries with some of the water. Strain through a sieve and add to a small saucepan with sugar and remaining water. Cook on medium or high heat until the mixture has become thicker and reduced to 1/2 or 1/3 cup. This may take 10 minutes (more or less depending on the size of your saucepan).

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Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Dessert, Pastry, Recipes | 19 Comments »

Orange and Poppy Seed Cake – Guest Bloggers: Sarah and Jeremy

Thursday, April 8th, 2010


Sarah is a lovely friend, who had given some thought to starting up her own food blog. Although with University, placements, study, work, sport, seeing family and friends, cooking and (my most dreaded task) cleaning, there’s not a heap of time to create and manage a blog. Wow, she does do a lot, I don’t know how she fits it all in.

I suggested to her that if she ever wanted to post anything I’d be happy to have her guest blog on my site. And here they are, my first guest food bloggers – please welcome Sarah and Jeremy. They have chosen a lovely orange and poppyseed cake, which is a bit different to the one I normally make, which has a vanilla flavoured cake with a small hint of orange in the frosting. This cake has lovely strong orange flavours throughout and is perfect for parties or even taking to work. I’ll pass over to Sarah and Jeremy now… (sorry it’s taken me so long to post it)

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Hi! We are Sarah and Jeremy, and Sarah works with Anita. We have been promising this guest blog for ages and have finally got ourselves organised. We have gone with something simple and relatively easy that stores well and is different from Anita’s usual fare. We hope that you enjoy!

Orange and Poppyseed Cake

Recipe adapted from Family Circle cooking book

1 large orange
⅔ cup milk, warm
½ cup poppy seed
250g unsalted butter
1½ cups caster sugar
3 eggs, slightly beaten
3 cups SR flour
Extra ⅓ cup milk, cold
Icing sugar for dusting

Place poppy seeds and warm milk in a bowl and soak for an hour. (or until your orange is cooked, cooled and puréed – as explained below).

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Place whole orange in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. It is ok if the water does not completely cover the orange (as seen in the picture), just turn it occasionally and let it cook a little longer (until the rind is soft).

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When the orange is soft and easy to prick with a fork, turn the heat off and leave the orange in the hot water for a further 20 minutes.

Drain, and rinse under cold water. Cool for 1 hour. If pushed for time, we sometimes cut up the orange and place in the freezer until cool).

Cut the cooled orange into eighths (do not peel); remove seeds and blend until smooth.

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Cream the butter and sugar.

Beat in puréed orange – the mixture will look lumpy.

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Beat in the eggs.

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Sieve in flour and stir in poppy seed and milk mixture.

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Spoon mixture into greased 24cm ring tin – fluted is good. This is a large cake mixture, so you will need a large ring tin (we use a silicone ring tin, which makes it really easy to turn out).

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Bake at 180˚C for 45 min, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove from oven and immediately, whilst the cake is still in the tin, brush with half the extra milk using a pastry brush. This extra milk makes the cake lovely and moist.

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Leave cake in tin for 5 min before turning out.

Brush with remaining milk and leave to cool.

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When cool, lightly dust with icing sugar.

This cake is best kept in the fridge, but freezes really well. We regularly put a quarter of this cake in the freezer for a future date, and just allow it to defrost in the fridge.

Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Guest Bloggers, Recipes | 17 Comments »

Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Bun (Bread) and Butter Pudding

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

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Here’s an idea for those who have ended up with too many choc chip or traditional hot cross buns after Easter. In case you didn’t freeze them, or aren’t going to warm them under the grill over the next few days, try this version of a bread and butter pudding – where the bread is the hot cross buns – or in my case, chocolate chip hot cross buns.

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This is a great Easter dessert that should keep everyone happy. Happy Easter everyone!

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Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Bun (Bread) and Butter Pudding

Recipe from Anita @ Leave Room for Dessert

9 chocolate chip hot cross buns (bought or made – see the recipe I use here)
50g butter, softened
5 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
500ml milk
500ml cream
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
Icing sugar to dust or melted white chocolate drizzled to serve

Grease an oven-proof dish with some of the butter. Cut the hot cross buns into two or three slices (leaving the tops intact). Spread the cut slides with the butter and lay them reassembled in the baking dish.

Heat the milk, cream and vanilla essence in a small/medium saucepan until almost at the boil. Whisk the caster sugar with the eggs in a large bowl. Slowly pour the warm cream and milk mixture into the egg and sugar mix, whisking constantly, until combined.

Pour the egg and milk mixture into dish with the hot cross buns. Let it sit for at least 30 minutes to allow the mixture to be soaked into the buns. (It can be stored in the fridge at this stage for a few hours, or until ready to cook). Make sure you press the buns down into the mixture a few times to make sure the top soak in the liquid (as they float to the top).

Preheat oven to 170C. Place the dish with the pudding mix into a larger dish and fill the larger dish halfway with warm/hot water. Cook for 1 hour or more until the custard is cooked (insert a knife into the custard to see if it is cooked – it will come out quite clean if cooked, or will have liquid custard if more time is needed. Alternatively move a bun to the side to check the bottom of the dish see if the custard is still runny liquid).

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Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes. Enjoy with ice cream or Easter eggs.

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Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Chocolate, Dessert, Recipes | 14 Comments »

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