Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake

Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake

Another July come and gone, which means another Christmas in July come and gone! This year has just flown by! And in some exciting news, at Christmas in July whilst there was already bubbles flowing, we also got to toast my new job! I am really happy and can’t wait to start!

Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake


As usual, our Christmas in July is a bring-a-dish affair. Lance smoked a leg of pork and I made two cakes. This was the spread – how good does it look? I can assure you that it tasted even better!

Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake


This is the first of the two cakes and wanting to use Christmassy flavours, I decided to spice up the Boston Blackout Cake from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. Quite literally. Red wine, wintery spices and citrus add a depth to the already rich chocolatey cake. It is made of three layers of cake held together by a mulled wine chocolate “custard” which is then covered in cake crumbs. It needs at least a few hours in the fridge to “set” the filling and cake, which makes it perfect for entertaining as it can all be made beforehand. Keeping with the wine theme, I’ve decorated it with some grapes for a fun look! Being a rich cake, this is best served with whipped cream, or even crème fraiche.

Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake

Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake

Cake

100g butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ginger
¼ tsp cloves
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 1/3 cups plain flour
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup red wine (I used Shiraz)

Custard

2 ½ cups sugar
1 tbsp light corn syrup
½ cup cocoa
60g dark chocolate
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ginger
Pinch nutmeg
Pinch cloves
1 cup red wine (I used Shiraz)
1 ½ cups water
1 ½ cups cornflour
¾ cup water (extra to the above)
80g butter
1 tsp vanilla
Zest of an orange

Start by making the custard so it can chill and set in the fridge. In a small bowl, mix the cornflour and ¾ cup of water together to make a slurry. Set aside.

In a large saucepan, add the sugar, light corn syrup, cocoa, dark chocolate, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Pour the red wine and water over the top and over a medium heat, stir to combine and bring to the boil.

When boiling, add the cornflour slurry and stir constantly to combine. When it starts to thicken, add the butter, vanilla and zest and mix well until it’s fully incorporated. Pour into a baking dish, cover the surface with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

For the cake, preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and flour three cake tins of (preferably) equal size.

the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy on a medium speed. Add the eggs, one at a time, and keep beating until fully incorporated. Scraping down the sides if necessary. Turn the mixer down to low and add the vanilla, spices, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb soda and salt. When combined, add half of the flour and turn the mixer up to medium again to mix well. Add the red wine. When fully combined, add the milk. Finally, add the second half of the flour.

Pour the cake mix evenly amongst the three cake tins and bake for 25 minutes, or until it springs back when touched and a cake tester comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in the tins, then turn out to cool completely on racks.

To assemble, pile the three cakes carefully, and cut a small ring around the outside. Blitz the offcuts in a food processor to get cake crumbs. Place on ring on your serving plate, then smear a layer of custard over it. Top with cake, then more custard, then the last layer of cake. Smother the whole thing in a layer of custard, smoothing the sides and top as best as possible. Gently pour and press the crumbs into the custard so they stick.

Refrigerate for 4 hours (or the day before), then remove from the fridge half an hour before serving.


Decorate with grapes if desired. Serve with whipped cream.

Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
Christmas in July - Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake

Monday, July 6, 2015

Entertaining without Gluten - Flourless Grapefruit and Basil Cake with Toasted Meringue Icing

Entertaining without Gluten - Flourless Grapefruit and Basil Cake with Toasted Meringue Icing
Entertaining without Gluten - Flourless Grapefruit and Basil Cake with Toasted Meringue Icing

I feel so blessed to be food allergy free. I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want. Makes eating out and just cooking in general so easy. I have quite a few family members and friends who aren’t so lucky. Whilst there is a variety of allergies I sometimes have to cater for, the most common one is gluten. Unfortunately for those friends, the gluten intolerance and allergy generates fairly full-on, sometimes hospital inducing reactions. It’s a little more serious for them than the discomfort that some gluten-avoiders get, so every single ingredient needs to be gluten free.

At a recent cousins catch-up Lance and I hosted, I needed to make a gluten-free cake. Now, because I am fine to eat everything, I don’t buy gluten-free flour, and I didn’t want to buy some especially for the occasion. Which led to a decision – make my own gluten-free flour out of things I do buy, like buckwheat flour, rice flour, chick pea flour, or go flourless? I decided to go flourless. This cake does call for gluten free baking powder, which I have as a default. You can leave it out altogether if you need it gluten free and don’t want to buy new baking powder. The cake is already a dense style, so it’s not especially missed, just make sure the whole thing is well beaten whilst mixing.

The pink grapefruit that we planted when we first moved in has had it’s first fruit-bearing season, and I wanted to make a citrusy cake to celebrate this fact. I love pink grapefruit so much! Tart and tangy and refreshing. So good! And seeing as our basil plant clearly hasn’t been informed that it’s actually winter now, and is still growing like crazy and given the success of a previous lime and basil cake (for a cousins catch-up on my side of the family), my flavour profile was decided. I didn’t have enough almonds to make an almond meal cake, so I adapted Nigella’s Lemon Polenta Cake, which uses a mixture of polenta and almonds, and is drizzled with a lemon syrup to make a wonderfully moist cake.

Just because I wanted to show off, I added a toasted meringue icing, also grapefruit and basil flavoured. The cake doesn’t really need the icing – but I figure, if you’re making a cake for an event, you might as well go all out, right? Go big, or go home!

Entertaining without Gluten - Flourless Grapefruit and Basil Cake with Toasted Meringue Icing
Entertaining without Gluten - Flourless Grapefruit and Basil Cake with Toasted Meringue Icing
Entertaining without Gluten - Flourless Grapefruit and Basil Cake with Toasted Meringue Icing
Entertaining without Gluten - Flourless Grapefruit and Basil Cake with Toasted Meringue Icing


Flourless Grapefruit and Basil Cake with Toasted Meringue

Cake

200g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
6 large basil leaves
2 cups almond meal
¾ cup fine polenta (cornmeal)
3 eggs
Zest 1 pink grapefruit

Syrup

Juice of the pink grapefruit above
½ cup icing sugar
6 large basil leaves

Preheat oven to 180C. Spray the sides of a 23cm springform cake tin with cooking spray and line the base with baking paper. I like to allow a little overhang, then clip the base into the ring to secure it.

In a coffee/spice grinder, finely grind the basil leaves with half of the caster sugar. Add the basil sugar, remaining sugar and butter into the bowl of a standmixer and beat on high until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, combine the almond meal, polenta and baking powder. Turn the mixer down to low/medium and add 1 egg, then 1/3 of the dry mixture. Alternate the egg and dry mixture for the remaining 2 eggs and polenta. When this is fully combined, beat in the grapefruit zest.

Scrape the mixture into the cake tin, and bake for around 40 minutes. The top will be a little golden, and will be pulling away from the edges a little. Place the cake tin on a cooling rack. Don’t remove the cake yet.

Just before the cake is done baking, bring the icing sugar and grapefruit juice to the boil in a small saucepan, stirring until the sugar fully dissolves. Remove from the heat and add the basil leaves. Stir well, then set aside to infuse for 5 minutes. Remove the leaves

When the cake is out, prick all over the top gently with a cake tester (or thin toothpick). Pour the warm syrup over the cake. Leave it to soak in and cool in the tin.

Whilst the cake cools, make the meringue icing

Entertaining without Gluten - Flourless Grapefruit and Basil Cake with Toasted Meringue Icing

Pink Grapefruit and Basil Toasted Meringue Icing

2 egg whites, at room temperature
½ cup caster sugar
Pinch cream of tartar
Juice of 1 grapefruit
Handful of basil leaves

Get ready by wetting a pastry brush and placing the eggwhites in a clean bowl of your standmixer, and attaching the whisk attachment. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of a pot large enough that the end will be submerged in the liquid, but not touching the bottom of the pan.

Place the grapefruit juice in a measuring cup and add water to make it up to 100mL. Add this, the sugar and the basil leaves to a medium pot and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Reduce the heat to medium and carefully remove the basil leaves.

Brush down sugar crystals with the wet brush. Continue heating the syrup until it reaches 115C, this will take around 10 minutes. Leave it on the heat, but start whisking the eggwhites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form.

Keep an eye on the thermometer, and when it reaches 120C, take it off the heat, increase the speed of the mixer to high and slowly pour the syrup in a thin, steady stream down the side (avoid it touching the whisk). When all of the syrup is incorporated, lower the speed to medium and continue beating until it’s cooled to room temperature and the meringue is thick and glossy.

Spread the meringue over the cake with a spatula, deliberately creating peaks and swirls. Fire up your mini-blow torch and gently brown the edges of the meringue swirls, being careful not to let it burn.

Enjoy!

Entertaining without Gluten - Flourless Grapefruit and Basil Cake with Toasted Meringue Icing
Entertaining without Gluten - Flourless Grapefruit and Basil Cake with Toasted Meringue Icing
Entertaining without Gluten - Flourless Grapefruit and Basil Cake with Toasted Meringue Icing
Entertaining without Gluten - Flourless Grapefruit and Basil Cake with Toasted Meringue Icing
Entertaining without Gluten - Flourless Grapefruit and Basil Cake with Toasted Meringue Icing

Monday, June 29, 2015

Pizza Party - Nectarine, Prosciutto and Radish Pizza

Pizza Party - Nectarine, Proscuitto and Radish PizzaPizza Party - Nectarine, Proscuitto and Radish Pizza

The pizza obsession I spoke of in my last post has created one of my favourite pizza flavour combinations so far - nectarine, prosciutto and radish. Sweet, salty and with a bite. Could there be a more perfect flavour combination? The nectarines go a little jammy on the bottom forming a lovely 'sauce'. For those of us who are in Perth, where nectarines (and stone fruit in general) aren't in season, this is also delicious with thinly sliced Beurre Bosc Pears, or Pink Lady or Fuji Apples. For those of you currently enjoying a Northern Summer - stone fruit away! As the prosciutto and capers are salty side, make sure your cheese is a less salty variety.


As with my last pizza post, this uses my chick-pea pizza dough, but use a pre-made base if you can't be bothered. The nuttiness of the chick-pea dough really does add a little something here.


Pizza Party - Nectarine, Proscuitto and Radish Pizza
Pizza Party - Nectarine, Proscuitto and Radish Pizza


Nectarine, Prosciutto and Radish Pizza

1 nectarine, sliced
6 thin slices Prosciutto, roughly torn
1 tsp capers
4-5 radishes, thinly sliced
50g brie, sliced as best you can
half of this pizza dough (or your own bases)
1 tsp cornmeal
Basil leaves to serve

Preheat your oven to 170C and prepare your dough, leave to rest while you slice all the ingredients.

Sprinkle the cornmeal onto a baking tray to stop your pizza sticking.

Roll out the dough into a rough rectangle, to fit your baking tray. Spread the nectarine slices across the bottom of the dough, then layer the prosciutto, capers, radishes and brie over the top in a vaguely even kinda way.

Pop in the oven for 20 minutes, or until the edges of the base are golden and the cheese melted.

Scatter basil leaves to serve.


Pizza Party - Nectarine, Proscuitto and Radish Pizza
Pizza Party - Nectarine, Proscuitto and Radish PizzaPizza Party - Nectarine, Proscuitto and Radish PizzaPizza Party - Nectarine, Proscuitto and Radish Pizza

Monday, May 4, 2015

Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie


Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie


Sometimes I feel like presenting my cooking or recipes to people is like a Maths test. Not in the sense where x butter + y flour + z eggs and sugar = cake kinda way and people question my x, y and z’s. But in the sense that a question I get asked most frequently is – how did you come up with that? I’ve said that people refer to my cooking as quirky, rather than conventional and I feel like my little recipe pre-amble is my chance to “show my working”. So I try to present where my thinking starts, winds and ends up at the finished dish. I think a little background shows that it’s not quirky for quirky’s sake, there’s a lot of thought going into the flavour combinations, the textural elements, the overall nutritional content and purpose of the dish. So, on that note, this is my maths for what is a pretty novel, healthy and absolutely delicious breakfast. Something delicious enough to be a dessert, but healthy enough to start your day with, guilt free.


In order to beat the traffic, I get to work early and eat my breakfast at my desk while I check through my emails. It’s usually some form of oats with cultured dairy (yoghurt or buttermilk), fruit and nuts & seeds. Carrot Cake Bircher muesli is a firm favourite, but requires a bit more prep than I can usually be bothered with, so that’s more a once every few months deal. My most regular staple is cold-brewed coffee overnight oats. Caffeine + whole grain awesomeness in one bowl. Soak it overnight, then add some fruit (usually bananas, prunes or berries) crunchy nuts and/or seeds before eating. It is so good and portable….but you’re left with dishes. That’s absolutely fine at work, where there’s a kitchen to do the dishes. But I needed a no-dishes portable breakfast. Something still full of healthy whole grains, the fruit and nuts and….the coffee. All in one. Enter the breakfast espresso jelly cookie.

I decided to stick with the elements of my coffee oats and layered based on wanting different textures. So we have two different ‘cookies’, the bottom is a chewy oat and banana cookie – making up the oat and fruit content of my breakfast. The middle is coffee jelly. This idea came from using excess sangria jelly in my granola to delicious effect. And the top is a nuts and seed granola ‘cookie’ to emulate the nutty crunch of my topping on my oats. I threw in some chocolate because…well, why not? My palate is decided not ‘sweet’, especially in the morning, so feel free to customize by adding ¼ cup of sugar to the espresso jelly (I have my long blacks without sugar normally). The honey in the cookies is more than sufficient for me.

And, if you don’t need the portability, serve with honey whipped ricotta or yoghurt. (Or ice cream!!)

Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie
Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie


Healthy Espresso Jelly Breakfast Sandwich Cookies

(Makes 12 formed cookies)

Espresso Jelly

6tbsp ground coffee beans
500mL freshly boiled water
5 tsp powdered gelatin


Lightly spray a lamington tin with cooking spray. Put the coffee beans into a plunger and pour over the boiled water. Leave for 5 minutes, then plunge and pour into a bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin over the top of the coffee and whisk in until dissolved. Pour into the lamington tin and put in the fridge to set for at least 4 hours.

When set, cut into rounds with an egg ring. Chop the excess bits up and serve them with normal oats.

Banana Oat Cookies

3 small very ripe bananas
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp chia seeds
½ cup water
2/3 cup shredded coconut
1 2/3 cup rolled oats


Preheat oven to 165C

In a small bowl, mix the chia seeds and water and set aside to form a gel.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas until smooth, then mix in the spices and honey. Add the chia seed mix, stirring to combine evenly. Then add the oats and stir to coat.

Line a baking tray and lightly grease an egg ring.Place a few tablespoonsful of mixture into the ring and press in tightly with the back of a spoon. Gently lift off the ring, and form the rest of the cookies.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until starting to turn golden on top. Remove, gently flip over the biscuits and bake for a further 10 minutes, until that side is also golden. Cool for 10 minutes on the trays, then on racks.

Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie
Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie
Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie
 

Chocolate Nut Brittle Biscuits

1 ½ tbsp. cacao powder
3 tbsp cacao nibs
1/3 cup pistachios, roughly chopped
1/3 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1 cup pumpkin seeds
2/3 cup almonds, roughly chopped
1 tbsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp pepper
3 tbsp honey
3 tbsp olive oil

Heat the oven to 165C

Mix the nuts, seeds and cacao nibs together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the oil, cacao powder, pepper, salt, vanilla, honey and oil. Make sure it is well combined. Pour the nut mix into the wet mix and stir to thoroughly coat everything.

Line a tray with baking paper, and lightly grease an egg ring. Place a few tablespoons of mixture into the ring and press it in tightly, pressing down with the back of a spoon. Gently remove the ring, and repeat for the rest of the mixture.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until caramelised and 'solid'. The mixture will spread a little, but still retain the basic round shape. Cool on the trays. Trim the edges to neaten your sandwiches.

Layer one oat cookie, espresso jelly then a nut brittle cookie on top. If you assemble, wrap and store in the fridge. They will last a few days. The cookies will last up to a week separate at room temperature in air tight containers. Store the jelly in the fridge.

Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie
Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie

Showing Your Working - Healthy Espresso Jelly Sandwich Breakfast Cookie

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Pizza Party - Pulse flour pizza with Ras el Hanout Mango Ricotta

Pizza Party - Pulse flour pizza with Ras el Hanout Mango Ricotta
 
 
Sometimes you need pizza. There’s no way around it. And it has to be real pizza. A real dough base, not just the usual cheat method of using a Lebanese loaf and spreading on your toppings. And then you need a beer and to sit outside in the fresh air and sunshine with your pizza and your husband and reflect on how good life can be. That despite being bone tired from a long and hard crabbing session that was mostly fruitless (although eating the crab hot out of the pot that night with fresh bread and butter still made it feel worthwhile), an afternoon of good food, good weather and good conversation is all it takes to get over the exhaustion.
 
This is a pretty simple dough that was made a bit more exciting (not to mention good-for-you) through the addition of two types of pulse flour. I had a little bit of lentil flour left over from my Secret Cake Club baking, and added some chick pea flour to total half the flour. You could use all chick pea flour seeing as that is pretty easy to get, but making your own lentil flour is pretty easy if you’ve got a coffee grinder. In which case, you could also use all lentil flour. As with my baking experimenting gone awry, the addition of a little arrowroot powder ensures the dough binds properly. The molasses in place of the normal sugar adds a smokey sweetness to the nuttiness that the beans bring. Leave it to proof for half an hour while you make the sauce and chop some veges and it’s a pretty quick way of getting a real pizza base in your life.
 
This makes two just-bigger-than single serve pizzas, by themselves enough for around 3 serves. Or 4 serves if you have a side salad. The toppings are fairly easy to change in and out of the sweet and spicy cream cheese sauce. Mine were what were to hand. Although the sauce and lentil base is flavoursome enough that the toppings play textural counterpoint as much as anything. Fresh greens on top are one of my favourite things to do with pizza, you could probably get away with just that.
 
Pizza Party - Pulse flour pizza with Ras el Hanout Mango Ricotta
Pizza Party - Pulse flour pizza with Ras el Hanout Mango Ricotta
 

Pulse Flour Pizza Base

½ cup lentil flour
½ cup chick pea flour (or one cup of chickpea flour)
1 tbsp arrowroot powder
1 cup plain flour
2 tsp yeast
1 tsp molasses
½ teaspoon salt
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cornmeal
 
Pizza Party - Pulse flour pizza with Ras el Hanout Mango Ricotta
Pizza Party - Pulse flour pizza with Ras el Hanout Mango Ricotta
 
 

Ras el Hanout Mango Ricotta Sauce

150g smooth ricotta
1 mango
2 tsp ras el hanout
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp tamarind puree
 
Pizza Party - Pulse flour pizza with Ras el Hanout Mango Ricotta
 
 Pizza Party - Pulse flour pizza with Ras el Hanout Mango Ricotta

Toppings

¼ roast chicken, meat shredded
¼ zucchini sliced into thin rings
½ red capsicum, sliced into thin strips
Snow pea shoots
 
Mix the flours together in a large bowl with the salt and yeast. Make a well in the centre and add the olive oil, warm water and molasses. Stir the liquids together first, then slowly bring in the flour until it becomes a shaggy mess. Knead for around 5 minutes until it forms a smooth ball. Pop in an oiled bowl and cover loosely with plastic wrap and set aside to double in size.
 
Meanwhile, mince the garlic, dice the mango and mix all of the sauce ingredients together until well combine. Slice your toppings as desired. Heat your BBQ or oven to 160C
 
Punch down the dough to remove some of the air, then divide the dough into two. Roll the each ball of dough out to around 2cm thickness. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of cornmeal on two baking trays and lay the pizza bases on top. Cover with toppings and bake in the oven, or on a lidded BBQ for 15 minutes or until base is golden at the edges and the cheese mixture is browning.
 
Pizza Party - Pulse flour pizza with Ras el Hanout Mango Ricotta
Pizza Party - Pulse flour pizza with Ras el Hanout Mango Ricotta
Pizza Party - Pulse flour pizza with Ras el Hanout Mango Ricotta
Pizza Party - Pulse flour pizza with Ras el Hanout Mango Ricotta
Pizza Party - Pulse flour pizza with Ras el Hanout Mango Ricotta