dessert Archives - Page 40 of 57

Raspberry And Ginger Frangipane Tart

22|12|2014

I may need a few more Christmas-s in the southern hemisphere to reconcile with the fact that instead of sipping hot chocolate by the fireplace, I am actually filling up popsicle moulds in batches. And applying sunscreen before I hit the shops. We have barbecues and picnics planned all through the holidays Which does seem funny to me when I speak to my family at the other end of the world where my brother is going skiing instead.

The weather has been so warm this week that I haven’t enjoyed baking that much. But this tart has been worth it. I was literally waiting for berry season and now that it is here, I cannot have enough of them. A frangipane filling is my favourite filling in a tart. I added a spice component to the filling by adding including powdered and glace (crystallised) ginger. Nutty, spicy, buttery and very delicious. Combined with juicy red raspberries and pieces of finely chopped glace ginger, it provides a nice textural contrast to the tart. I used a store-bought sweet tart case as I was happy to avoid some of the heat in the kitchen. With the tart shell baking out of the way, this is a breeze to make.

Raspberry and Ginger Frangipane Tart
Serves 8

1 store bought tart case (18 cm)
100 g butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup almond meal
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 cup glace ginger
1 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)
1/4 cup flaked almonds

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (180 degrees C for fan-forced).
Place 3/4 cup of raspberries on the base of the empty tart case.
Using an electric mixer or a whisk, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until just combined. Stir in almond, flour, powdered ginger and glace ginger. Gently pour almond mixture into pastry case. Level top with a spatula. Top with remaining raspberries and flaked almonds.

Bake tart for 35 minutes or until golden. Cool in pan. Dust with icing sugar. Serve warm with ice-cream on the side.

White Chocolate And Raspberry Cake With Orange Buttercream

19|12|2014

I am pretty sure the question that is on most of our minds is “Where did this year go?’ And where is time flying now when there is so much left to do before it actually ends. Let me tell you where my year went. It went in breaking a few hundred eggs, melting a suitcase worth of chocolate (that’s right if I packed all the chocolate I melted this year in a suitcase, I wouldn’t be able to close it even if I sat on it. Err..is it only me or do you sit or half-stand on over-packed suitcases?) whisking, measuring cups of nut meals, layering, spreading, licking bowlfuls of sweet batter, sprinkling, drizzling, pouring and torching, cutting, slicing, eating and day dreaming of cakes and desserts. If I missed out on anything of pastry relevance, please feel free to add them because I have no doubt I would have done them all.

Did I do anything else? Apart from gaining those frightful calories? Yes, I brought myself a treadmill, ran a bit around the waterside near my previous house, ate salads and soups (other than cakes) and found people to eat my cakes. About 4 months in this year, I had family with me so I went on a cake baking/making spree. I could hear my cake pans weeping when they left.

Now since this was a year filled with cakes, the last one had to be a celebratory one…what do you think?

The cake is a simple moist, layer cake with an Orange Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting. It has got a lovely flavour on account on the tart raspberries alongside sweet white chocolate. The citrus notes are the best as they tie the whole cake together. You can bake them in two pans as well..you will get two broader layers and you will need to adjust the baking time a bit (it will take longer to bake). Don’t worry about being neat with the frosting. The whole idea is to play around with the cake and flowers. I adapted the recipe for the cake from Good Food. The original recipe was for a two layered cake. I adjusted the measurements for the ingredients to make a cake with 3 layers. You can get the recipe for the Orange Swiss Meringue Butter Cream here.

White Chocolate And Raspberry Cake with Orange Butter Cream

Serves 8-10

300 g butter, chopped into small cubes, plus extra for greasing
150 g white chocolate, broken into pieces
6 large eggs
300 g caster sugar
300 g self-raising flour
175 g raspberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 180 degree C (160 degree fan-forced). Grease and line the bases of 3 x 18 cm round cake tins. Put the butter and chocolate in a heatproof mixing bowl, set over a pan of barely simmering water and allow to melt slowly, stirring occasionally.

When the butter and chocolate have melted, remove from the heat and allow to cool for 1-2 mins, then beat in the eggs and sugar with an electric whisk. Fold in the flour and raspberries.

Gently pour the mixture into the tins and bake for 20-25 mins or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool in the tins for 10 mins before turning out onto a wire rack. Once cooled, place a layer of cake on a cake stand or serving plate. Spread 1/3 of the frosting. Repeat with remaining layers and frosting. Spread frosting on the sides and top. Decorate with fresh flowers, berries or chocolate shavings. Frosting recipe here

Chocolate And Coconut Friands (Financiers)

17|12|2014

Friands are mini cakes made with a nut meal (almonds) and egg whites. These ones are flavored with chocolate and coconut and served with a dusting of icing sugar.

It’s been an emotional week for us, waking up to tragic news from home and around the world almost every day. Watching the horrific incident unfold on television, not very far away at Martin’s place (a place that is dear to every Sydneysider, a street on which, possibly every visitor to Sydney might have walked) made me think several times how much we take life for granted. I can only get a sense of the grief and pain, the families of the hostages might be feeling at this time for the loved ones who they won’t see or hear again. I was constantly praying and thinking about the three young children who might not even be able to assess why their Mum wouldn’t return home like any other day to put them to bed and kiss them goodnight. As if this was not disturbing enough, the barbaric killing of school children in Peshawar came in the News. Children? Young lives who have not even seen the world. Can so much hatred exist in an human heart? As a mother, I couldn’t stop the tears flowing from my eyes. I held my children close to me and shuddered.

This was otherwise meant to be a happy time for everyone. Sharing, caring, giving..receiving..spreading joy and gratitude. I made these friands during the weekend as a gift to a dear friend. They were delicious and simple to put together. I am a friand-oholic as you might already know by the number of recipes I have dedicated to them. If you walked in to my home, at different times in a month, you would probably find a different flavour each time. I was a muffin lover until I discovered ‘the friand’. Now if I come across a new flavour or recipe of muffin, I will instantly have this urge to make a friand with those flavours. They are so easy to incorporate new ingredients in to. I had not made chocolate friands before so I wanted to test out by adding cocoa and coconut to the batter. As I suspected they turned out great. They make a delicious gift too as they can remain in room temperature for 2-3 days (unless you are adding fresh fruit to it).

Friands are very Australian. There would barely be a cafe or a bakery in Australia where you would not find them. Sharing these today makes me feel one with my fellow countrymen at this time when we could all do with some festive cheer.

Chocolate And Coconut Friands (Financiers)
Makes 10

1 cup almond meal (ground almonds)
1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
3/4 cup plain flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
5 egg whites
125 g butter, melted
1/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
Icing sugar/extra dessicated coconut, to dust.
Fresh red currants/berries, to serve

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease a 12- capacity muffin pan or mini bundt cake pan. Place the almond meal, icing sugar, flour, baking powder, eggwhites, butter, cocoa powder and coconut in a bowl and whisk until combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 20–25 minutes or until the friands are golden and cooked through.
Remove from oven and release friands after 2 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar.

Raspberry Rhubarb and Chocolate Baked Alaska

10|12|2014

As a little girl,I had my favourite ice cream flavours and choices like most other children. Generally, restaurants we went to had a frozen dessert called Cassata on the menu which is the one I would always ask for. I later on figured out that it was inspired by the Cassata Siciliana, a true Italian beauty. The bright colours of the ice-cream layers and candied fruit would of course appeal to any child. When I grew up, the pastry chef in me was totally drawn to the layered structure and anatomy of the Italian classic. Perhaps you might have guessed by now that I find the whole layer thing of a cake or dessert very exciting. Then I came across the Baked Alaska. Though this one was a layered ice-cream cake too, the components were different. More specifically, it had a meringue coating. So this one naturally ranked high among my list of favourites. To make and to eat. And most of all, the reveal…as you slice through it’s very core.

The traditional Baked Alaska has a layer of sponge housing one or two layers of ice-cream and covered all around with uncooked meringue. The cake is frozen till it is hard so it can withstand a few minutes in the oven while the meringue is being toasted. The fascinating thing is that the ice-cream does not melt as the sponge and meringue prevents the heat from reaching the centre. So scientific and interesting, isn’t it? My version is a slightly simpler. The layers are one on top of the other, then covered in meringue which is then browned with a blow torch.

The bottom layer is my go-to chocolate cake recipe. I have used half the batter for this cake. You could bake the other half and freeze it for later use. The recipe is quite a flexible one so you can make your favourite chocolate cake recipe or a ready mix or a store bought cake as well. The next layer is a rhubarb-raspberry sorbet that has been on my mind since last summer. The topmost layer is a raspberry and pistachio semifreddo. So you can see that you do not need to take out your ice-cream machine to make this. The individual layers can be made way ahead and assembled the night before you plan to serve it. I have used used a swiss meringue to cover the dessert for stability but you could go with any meringue recipe you are comfortable with. I have got the dome shape from an old plastic pudding container in which I made this. A round cake pan would just work as well.

Needless to say, all the individual elements of this dessert can be made independently as a stand alone dessert. They are as delicious together as much as they are by themselves.

Raspberry Rhubarb and Chocolate Baked Alaska
Serves 8-10

For the chocolate cake (we will be using half the batter for this recipe)

1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
2 tablespoons plain flour, sifted
1 1/3 cups, firmly packed) brown sugar
3/4 cup milk
125 g butter, cubed
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, sifted
3 eggs, lightly whisked

Preheat oven to 160 degree C. Grease the base and sides two 15 cm round cake pan and line the base with non stick baking paper.

Place the two flours together in a bowl. Place the sugar, milk and butter in a large saucepan. Add the cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into the pan. Place the pan over medium-low heat and use a whisk to stir until the mixture is smooth (don’t boil the mixture). Remove the pan from the heat and set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.

Add the flour mixture in slow additions gradually whisking to mix. Add the eggs and continue to mix till well combined. Pour into the prepared oan. Smooth surface with the back of a spoon. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of a cake comes out clean. Set aside for 10 minutes before turning the cakes onto a wire rack.

For the Raspberry-Pistachio Semifreddo
1 egg
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 cup thickened/heavy cream, whipped
1/4 cup pistachios, toasted and roughly chopped
1 cup frozen raspberries

To make the semifreddo : Grease a 6cm-deep, 15 cm round cake pan or pudding basin/mold. Line with baking paper, allowing a 5cm overhang on both long ends.
Place eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl. Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water over low heat. Whisk for 4 to 5 minutes or until thick and creamy. Remove from heat. Whisk for 4 to 5 minutes or until cool.

Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Gently fold in cream, pistachio and raspberries. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Cover and freeze for 4 hours or until firm.

For the Raspberry-Rhubarb Sorbet
250 g rhubarb, washed, trimmed and roughly chopped into chunks
250 g raspberries (fresh or frozen, I used frozen)
1 cup castor sugar
1 tbsp lime juice
1 cup water

Place rhubarb, raspberries, sugar, lemon juice and water in a pan and gently cook until soft, around 15-20 minutes.
Allow to cool then blend mixture to smooth in a food processor.
Freeze in an air tight container stirring every hour to prevent ice crystals forming until set, around 4 hours.
Thaw for 30 minutes and spoon on top of the Semifreddo.

For the Meringue
3 egg whites
3/4 cup castot sugar
cream of tartar, a pinch

To make the meringue, place the egg-whites, sugar and cream of tartar in a heatproof bowl that is placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk continuously till the sugar dissolves (about 2-3 minutes). Remove from heat and whip up the mixture with a electric or hand mixer to stiff peaks.

To Assemble, turn the frozen semifreddo-sorbet once it is solid, onto the cake and firmly press together. Place this back into the freezer for a couple of hours. Just before serving, remove from freezer and coat with meringue. Using a blow torch, brown the meringue all over. Top with berries. Serve. The Baked Alaska will be rock solid so it is best to wait a for 10 minutes before slicing it.