passover week 2023 - chocolate and hazelnut meringue cake

passover week 2023 - chocolate and hazelnut meringue cake

29 Mar 2023

Here's the showstopper dessert for this year's Passover week, straight from the queen herself, Martha Stewart. As the cake recipe was already flourless, I just needed to make a few tweaks to the meringue topping to make it Passover friendly.

I will say a few things. Buy skinned hazelnuts and save yourself the bother of removing the skins. It's what I did and I was eternally grateful. I followed the recipe to the letter and ended up overwhipping the egg whites that lighten the cake batter, resulting in a grainy texture so I've changed the instructions a little to avoid that happening. Whilst it didn't affect the finished cake, it made it much harder incorporating the egg whites into the batter. No such trouble with the meringue topping however.

You can not cut a clean slice with this cake, no matter how careful you are, so accept this and move on. I took the cake over to a friend's house and she used a cheese knife when she served the cake and the cheese knife certainly did a better job than the regular knife I used at home.

Here’s the recipe for you which makes a 17cm cake. If you'd like to make a larger cake, just double all the ingredients and bake in a 23cm tin. The bake time should stay the same. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Chocolate and Hazelnut Meringue Cake – makes a 17cm cake
Ingredients
1/2 cup hazelnuts (60g)
75g unsalted butter
75g light brown sugar
3 eggs, separated
160g dark chocolate, melted and cooled,
2 tps vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Topping
60g roughly chopped dark chocolate
1½ tsp potato starch
2 egg whites
Pinch of salt
½ cup (110g) caster sugar

To serve
150 ml (⅔ cup) cream, whisked to soft peaks

Method
Preheat oven to 190°C, conventional. Grease and line the base and sides of a 17cm springform pan with baking paper. Set aside.

Spread hazelnuts in a single layer on a rimmed baking tray. Toast until fragrant and skins start to crack, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven; rub vigorously with a clean kitchen towel to take off skins. Let cool; roughly chop. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and brown sugar until pale and smooth. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until mixture is light and fluffy. Add melted chocolate, and the vanilla; beat until combined. Set aside.

In a clean mixer bowl, combine 3 egg whites and salt; using the whisk attachment, beat on high speed until soft peaks form. Stir one-third of the egg whites into chocolate mixture. Fold in remaining beaten egg whites just until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake 25 minutes on the middle rack of the oven. I like to rotate the tin halfway through the bake.

Meringue
Combine hazelnuts, chopped chocolate and potato starch in a small bowl, and set aside. Place remaining 2 egg whites and pinch salt in a clean mixer bowl; using a clean whisk attachment, beat on high speed until frothy. With mixer running, slowly add the sugar; continue beating until stiff peaks form, about 8 minutes. Fold in hazelnut mixture.

Remove the cake from oven. Dot the meringue evenly over the cake and swirl the meringue on one cake to make a decorative top layer. Return to oven and bake until meringue is lightly browned and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack; let stand 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen, and release sides of pan. Let cool completely before serving.

The cake, despite the over beaten egg whites in the batter, was a triumph and the recipe sounds more fiddly to make than it really is. I've made a flourless chocolate cake before using olive oil and I'm positive you could do the same with this cake to make it dairy free. As the cake is plenty rich enough already, I chose not to serve the cake with cream.

See you all again tomorrow with another bake for Passover week 2023.

Bye for now,

Jillian 

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passover week 2023 - passionfruit tart with a coconut crust

passover week 2023 - passionfruit tart with a coconut crust

28 Mar 2023

The use of nuts and eggs are pretty much the hallmark of Passover baking. With nut allergies on my mind, I decided it was time to make a coconut crust. I've made a few coconut crusts in the past but they're not without their issues. Some crusts collapsed, others leaked and one memorable one refused to budge from the tart ring.

I found a Liz Prueitt coconut crust recipe on Instagram and decided to give it a try. The first one I made, I didn't use baking beans and the base puffed up alarmingly. The amount of crust was too great for the tin and I also had trouble unmoulding it when baked. I revised the recipe; learned from my mistakes and lined the tin with baking paper and weighed the crust down when baking. Second time round was a success but what kind of filling was I to make? When I saw some passionfruit in the shops I decided to make a tried and tested passionfruit filling.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 4 cm deep 17cm tart. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Passover passionfruit tart with a coconut crust
Crust – adapted from a Liz Prueitt recipe
110g (1¼ cups) desiccated coconut
55g (¼) cup caster sugar
20g (30 mls) potato starch 
pinch salt
40g (approximately 1½) egg whites
½ tsp vanilla
10 mls water

 
Filling
3 large passionfruit
20mls lemon juice 
4 eggs
120g caster sugar
3 tsp lemon rind
125 mls double cream

Topping
⅔ cup cream, softly whipped 

The pulp ½ passionfruit
1-2 tbs toasted coconut flakes

Base
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and line the base and sides of a 4cm deep 17cm tart pan with baking paper. Mix all the crust ingredients together in a medium sized bowl then press into the prepared tin. Cover the base with baking paper then top with baking beans. Bake in the preheated 180°C for 20 minutes before carefully removing the baking beans and paper. Bake for a further 20 minutes or until the base is golden brown, then set aside to cool.

Filling
Place the passionfruit pulp and lemon juice into a small food processor. Blitz to loosen the pulp from the seeds, then strain the mixture through a wire sieve. You should have 75mls of juice. If not, then top it up with a little more lemon juice. Place the eggs, sugar, the juice and rind in a bowl and whisk until just combined, then whisk in the cream. You can do this step the night before, resting the covered custard mixture in the fridge.

 
Preheat the oven to 150°C, conventional. Heat the mixture in a saucepan over a medium heat for 5 minutes or until just warm, then pour through a sieve into a jug. Pour the strained custard mixture into the prepared case (it’s best to do this step with the pastry case already placed on a baking tray on the centre rack in the oven) and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the filling is firm around the edges but with a wobble in the centre when the tart is jiggled. 

Cool the tart on a cooling rack for 1 hour, before unmoulding. Serve topped with cream, passionfruit pulp and a few wisps of toasted coconut.

Coconut and passionfruit are a match made in heaven and I can't tell you how good this tart was. This tart recipe is a definite keeper.

See you all again tomorrow with another bake for Passover week 2023.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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passover week 2023 - flourless lemon olive oil cake

passover week 2023 - flourless lemon olive oil cake

21 Mar 2023

Welcome to Passover week 2023. Passover means baking without flour, so naturally flourless cake recipes are the bomb. This Charlotte Ree flourless lemon olive oil cake caught my eye. The cake is made with hazelnut meal but as I didn't have quite enough hazelnut meal in the fridge I used a bit of almond meal in the recipe.

I did all my measuring the night before baking as well as lining the tin so I was able to put the cake together in no time. For decoration I used some candied lemon rind I had stored in the fridge plus a dusting of icing sugar.

Vanilla extract isn't kosher for Passover so if you'd like to make your own, here's a recipe from Ottolenghi.

Homemade vanilla essence - Ottolenghi
4 vanilla pods
500 ml water
125g caster sugar

Method
Cut the vanilla pods lengthways, remove the seeds inside and put everything into a pan. Add the water and sugar, bring to a boil and cook until there is about one third of the liquid left. Let it cool before pouring into a sealed jar or bottle. Once opened, I would store this in the fridge. Let the pods dry out and you can put them into your sugar container to make vanilla scented sugar

Here’s the recipe for you which makes a 17cm cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Flourless lemon olive oil cake

Ingredients

50g hazelnut meal

50g almond meal

3 tsp finely grated lemon zest

pinch of sea salt

100 ml extra-virgin olive oil

135 g caster sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

icing sugar, sifted, for dusting

cream or yoghurt, to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°C, conventional. Grease a 17 cm springform tin and line the base with baking paper.

In a small bowl, combine the hazelnut and almond meals, lemon zest and sea salt. Set to one side.

Place the olive oil, caster sugar and eggs in a large bowl and beat with hand-held electric beaters on high speed for 3 minutes, or until the mixture is pale and resembles thickened cream.

Reduce the speed to medium–low and add the vanilla, beating continuously. Once combined, add the nut mixture and stir gently with a spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 40–45 minutes. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes on a wire rack, then remove the cake from the tin and set aside to cool. 

Dust with icing sugar and sprinkle with a little extra lemon zest, then serve as is or with cream, yoghurt. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for 2–3 days.

The cake is just lovely, chewy and moist all at the same time and not particularly sweet. As the cake is flourless and dairy free, if served without cream or yoghurt, it's perfect for Seder night.

See you all again tomorrow with another bake for Passover week 2023.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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chocolate caramel bars with a salty sprinkle

chocolate caramel bars with a salty sprinkle

19 Mar 2023

When I first saw this Beatrix Bakes recipe in a magazine, I thought to myself, do I really need another chocolate caramel slice recipe? I've been tweaking my recipe for years and I think it's pretty much perfect. It's also really popular with my workmates.

When I examined the recipe closely, it does vary a little from the classic recipe. Topping the slice with toasted nuts and sea salt is something I've done before, however the base and filling are a little different.

The base is a classic shortbread base without the addition of the usual coconut or almond meal. The caramel uses hard to find dark corn syrup with a little brown sugar rather than the usual golden syrup. I couldn't find dark corn syrup anywhere, so I used light corn syrup and added a little golden syrup. Molasses probably would have been better, but I didn't have any of that either. The recipe is butter heavy, so much so that I didn't have enough butter in the fridge to make a full batch. I made a half batch of the base and the chocolate topping but used the full amount of filling because can you really have too much caramel?

Here's the recipe for you which makes twelve (approximately) 2-inch x 3.5-inch bars. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Chocolate caramel bars with a salty sprinkle

Base
180 g unsalted butter 

220 g plain (all-purpose) flour
50 g icing (confectioners’) sugar
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

Caramel filling
380g sweetened condensed milk
50g dark brown sugar
75g corn syrup

25g golden syrup
100g unsalted butter
2g fine sea salt
1 tsp vanilla paste

Topping
25g pecans or natural walnuts
100g dark chocolate (60–70% cocoa), coarsely chopped
10g unsalted butter
pinch sea salt flakes

Method

Preheat the oven to 160°C, conventional. You will need a 17cm/7-inch square tin. Cut two pieces of baking paper as wide as the tin and long enough to cover the sides, with some excess paper overhanging. Spray the tin with cooking oil spray and lay one piece of paper across the base of the tin and up the sides, then place the second piece on top (to form a crosshatch). The paper will allow you to lift the slice out of the tin easily.

Base

Melt the butter and leave to cool a little. Put the flour, icing sugar and salt in a heatproof mixing bowl and stir to combine. Pour the butter into the dry ingredients and mix with your hands to form a sticky paste. Press the mix into the prepared tin and smooth it out with an offset spatula.

Bake for 45 minutes until the base is a tan biscuity colour. If any bubbles form under the base while baking, just prick them with a skewer to gently deflate them. Place the pecans (for the topping) on a baking tray and toast them, at the same time as the base, for about 20 minutes, or until deep golden brown.

Clean the mixing bowl. Choose a saucepan that will allow you to nestle the bowl on top, without it touching the water below. Fill the pan with 5 cm of water and bring to a gentle simmer on the stovetop.

Caramel filling

Put all the filling ingredients in the cleaned bowl. Place the bowl on top of the pan of simmering water over a medium–low heat, stirring well occasionally, until the butter has fully melted and emulsified. The consistency should be thick and gloopy and the colour just a shade darker – this will take about 10 minutes. Set aside at room temperature. 

Take the pecans out of the oven and cool to room temperature. As soon as the base is ready, remove from the oven and immediately scrape the caramel filling over the top. If the base cools too much, it will recede from the sides of the tin, which will leave the edges of the baked filling without a base underneath it (still delicious though!)

Return the filled base to the oven and bake for 15–20 minutes. If it starts to brown too quickly, reduce the oven slightly and continue to bake. When cooked, the middle will feel set and a little rubbery (be careful when you touch it – it’s caramel hot) and the sides should be starting to blister and turn light brown. Remove and leave to cool completely for 1–2 hours at room temperature.

Topping

Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of just-boiled water. Stir thoroughly and then pour over the top of the caramel. Smooth lightly with an offset spatula or simply tilt the tin to distribute the chocolate. Crush the walnuts with your hands over the top and sprinkle over the salt flakes.

Cool the slice until the chocolate is set to your liking – glistening and runny (about 15 minutes) or firm (about 45 minutes). Take hold of the excess paper on the sides, then shimmy and lift the slice out of the tin and place onto a chopping board. Peel the paper away from the sides. Dip a serrated knife in hot water, dry and chop into 12 bars.

Keeps for one day at room temperature in an airtight container, then refrigerated for 1–2 weeks. Best eaten at room temperature.

I haven't had any of the slice yet and I'm not bringing it into work until Tuesday, so I'll let you know next week how my workmates found it. (edit - my colleagues loved, loved, loved this version and one colleague even asked for seconds!)

It's snuck up on me, but Easter isn't too far away which means that Passover is just around the corner. Next week is Passover week on the blog, a full 5 days of tasty treats made without flour and artificial raising agents but with loads of eggs, nuts, butter, fruit and vanilla. I hope you enjoy what I've made for you.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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ricotta and orange olive oil cake

ricotta and orange olive oil cake

13 Mar 2023

Sometimes what I bake is determined by what's in my fridge. I bought some ricotta to make baked pasta shells with a spinach and ricotta filling and didn't want the leftover ricotta to go to waste. I looked through my recipe books and came across this Julia Busuttil Nishimura recipe from her latest cookbook, Around the Table. When I realised I had all the ingredients on hand, the decision was made.

The cake is designed to be served without adornment but I felt like gilding the lily, so I topped the cake with some whipped ricotta cream then served it with some orange syrup.

Here’s the recipe for you, adapted from a Julia Busuttil Nishimura recipe. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Ricotta and Orange Olive Oil Cake 

Ingredients
165g caster sugar
Zest of 2 oranges
2 eggs
60 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
100ml extra-virgin olive oil
165g fresh full-fat ricotta
165g self-raising flour

Ricotta Cream
100g ricotta, well drained
100 ml whipping cream (35% fat)
20g caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla paste

Orange Syrup
⅓ cup (75g) caster sugar
⅓ cup water
1 strip orange peel

½ (used) vanilla pod (optional)
40ml orange juice

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and line a 17cm round cake tin.
Place the sugar and orange zest in a large bowl. Rub the orange zest into the sugar until it is damp and fragrant. Whisk in the eggs until combined. Add the orange juice and pour in the olive oil. Add the ricotta and whisk it all together, then gently mix in the flour until just combined.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and continue to cool on a wire rack. 

Ricotta Cream
Whip the ricotta with half the sugar until very smooth and creamy. Gently whip the cream with the remaining sugar and the vanilla seeds or paste until soft peaks form. Fold a third of the ricotta into the whipped cream mixture, then fold the whipped cream mixture back into the ricotta mixture until just combined.

Orange syrup
Place the sugar, water, orange peel and vanilla pod (if using) in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until just combined. Bring to the boil, then simmer for a few minutes until thickened. Carefully add the orange juice and stir to combine. Set aside to cool slightly. Remove the peel before using.

To serve

Once the cake has cooled completely, top with the ricotta cream and serve with the orange syrup. The cake will keep in an airtight container for 3 to 4 days.

Easy to make and as expected, the cake was beautifully moist and packed with the flavour.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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sticky date and ginger cookies

sticky date and ginger cookies

6 Mar 2023

Each month I travel between Brisbane and Sydney and if I'm very lucky, I get a cup of tea and a cookie on my flight. Recently I was given a sticky date and ginger cookie by the Byron Bay Cookie Company, and it was so delicious I thought it would be nice to recreate the cookies at home.

I turned to the internet and combined 2 recipes to come up with these cookies, the ingredients from here and the method from here. The cookies are chock full of ginger, dates and walnuts and as they baked, they filled the house with the scent of sugar and spice.

Here's the recipe for you, which makes 28 cookies. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Sticky date and ginger cookies
Ingredients
200g dried dates (1 1/3 cups packed)
175g unsalted butter
¾ cup (150g) soft light brown sugar
15 mls maple or golden syrup
½ tsp vanilla bean paste
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2¼ cups (335g) plain flour
1 tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
½ tsp flaked sea salt

75g walnuts
75g stem or glace ginger
1 tbs plain flour

Method
Finely chop 100g of dates. Put the chopped dates, the butter, sugar, syrup and vanilla in a saucepan. Place the pan over a low heat, stirring until the butter has melted, the sugar has dissolved, and the dates have softened. Take off the heat and stir through the bicarb soda; the mixture will froth and bubble. Set aside to cool.

Sift the flour, baking powder, spices and salt into a large bowl. Add the cooled date mixture and stir well until a dough has formed. Roughly chop the remaining dates, walnuts and ginger. Place in a small bowl and stir through the tablespoon of flour until the fruit is well coated. Knead the fruit mixture into the dough until incorporated. Turn out onto a floured bench, roll into a 5cm diameter log then wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least an hour, but preferably overnight, until dough is quite solid.

Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Line two baking trays with baking paper or silicone mats. Using a sharp knife, slice the dough into 1 cm thick discs. Place the discs onto lined baking trays slightly spaced apart and bake at 180°C for 12-15 min or until slightly brown but still soft (they will harden as they cool). Once completely cooled, store the cookies in an airtight container.

Just perfect served with a cup of tea.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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