Showing posts with label fathers day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fathers day. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Fathers' Day Part Two - Malteser Cake


Due to popular demand, this is the recipe for the Malteser Cake I made to go along with the Chocolate Beer Ice Cream for Fathers' Day. Maltesers are my dad's favourite chocolate, so when my brother spied this recipe online, he forwarded it to me - knowing it'd be perfect. I've only slightly adapted it. The big difference is that mine was a flatter, fudgier texture cake (almost like a brownie) so it's only two layers. And I used two types of brown sugars and added malt to the cake as well. I am also not the best decorator in the entire world. But it was ridiculously delicious! Enjoy!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Malteser Cake
sightly adapted from here

Cake
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup milk
125g unsalted butter
3/4 cup SR flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tbsp malted milk powder

Icing
185 g butter, room temperature
3/4 cup malted milk powder
2 cups icing sugar
1-2 tbsp milk

Ganache
300g dark chocolate
1/2 cup cream
30g butter
450g maltesers for decoration

Preheat oven to 160C. Grease a 20cm cake pan with butter and dust with cocoa

Place brown sugars, milk and butter in a glass bowl and melt in the microwave, stirring every minute until mixture is completely smooth. Allow to cool slightly.

Whisk flours and cocoa powder together in a large bowl, then whisk in the butter mixture until smooth. Then whisk in the egg.

Pour into cake pan, bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Set in the pan to cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make ganache: place chocolate, cream and butter in a glass bowl over a pot of water (do not allow bottom of the bowl to touch the water) heat to a simmer and stir the mixture to melt together and create a smooth mix. Take off the heat, set bowl aside to cool for an hour or so until spreadable.

To make icing: beat the butter with an electric beater until soft and creamy. Beat in the icing sugar and malt powder, adding extra milk as needed to make a smooth mix. Add 2 tbsp of the ganache.

To assemble, cut the cake in two (when completely cool - don't be impatient like I usually am!!) then spread the icing mixture on the bottom layer, then carefully lay the top back on. Spread the ganache over the entire cake and decorate with Maltesers. If they pop off, dip in more ganache and stick back on.


 



Sunday, September 1, 2013

Fathers' Day - Chocolate Beer Ice Cream


One of the funniest memories I have of my dad was from when I was in high school. As part of the Home Economics course, students used to occasionally sell their cooking to the teachers and staff at the high school. It used to raise money for the department and school, so my mum who worked in the high school library would often bring home various things they'd cooked. Generally, the food was pretty good.

One time, they did a proper fundraising drive and took orders for various individual sized pies by the dozen. Mum bought a dozen chicken, a dozen beef and a dozen apple pies that went into the freezer and as needed, would get taken out and heated in the oven. I came home late one night and felt like a chicken pie for dinner and going through the freezer, couldn't find any. Mum told me not to be ridiculous, they'd left one there for me. She came over to have a look and lo-and-behold, there was no chicken left, only apple. You could tell by the pastry shape cut and stuck to the top pie crust. Mum was completely flummoxed. Where had it gone? Which was when dad piped up, "I think I'm eating it."
"What do you mean, you're eating it? I just gave you dessert!"
"Yeah, it's a chicken pie."
"No, it's apple pie and ice cream."
"No. It's a chicken pie. With ice cream. I did think it was weird when you gave it to me."
"So why didn't you say something?"
"I don't know, it's good, so I ate it."

Now whenever I see chicken pies on a menu, I think of dad and his unusual dessert and can't help but laugh. So in honour of Fathers' Day, I'm making him this beer ice cream. I think it'll go better with chicken pies than vanilla ice cream! It's malty and rich and all sorts of delicious! Happy Fathers' Day!!


 



Chocolate Beer Ice Cream
adapted from here
355mL chocolate stout
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp cacao nibs, lightly crushed in a mortar & pestle
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
6 large egg yolks
2 cups thickened cream

Simmer 235mL of the chocolate stout in a frypan until it has reduced by half, set aside to cool slightly. Put the remaining beer, vanilla, cream and crushed cacao nibs in a bowl, stir to mix. Add the reduced beer and mix well.

Prepare an ice bath, and place a large bowl in it with a fine mesh sieve over this.

Whisk the sugar, salt and eggs in a large saucepan until smooth. Then whisk in the cream & beer mixture. Slowly heat the mixture to medium high, constantly stirring until the mixture thickens. About 10 minutes.

Pour the cooked mixture through the sieve into the bowl in the ice bath and stir constantly until the mixture cools. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours until cold.

Churn in ice cream maker as per manufacturer's instructions, then freeze again until firm. At least a few hours. I did mine overnight due to time restraints.