pecan baci

pecan baci

16 Jul 2012

As I couldn't bake last weekend, there was nothing tasty to eat in my biscuit tin. With the gas back on, albeit temporarily, the first thing I wanted to do this weekend was bake. I decided to make some hazelnut baci but when I looked through my cupboards on Saturday morning I couldn't find any hazelnut meal, so I wondered how these biscuits would taste if I made them with pecans?



I whizzed up the pecans and sugar in the food processor and voila, I had pecan meal. Of course in the process of tracking down the other ingredients needed, I found the hazelnut meal lurking in a container.



I found a small quantity of milk chocolate whilst searching for the hazelnut meal and decided to use that instead of dark chocolate.



I know pecan is not a traditional ingredient in Italian cooking but these little pecan and chocolate biscuits are delicious, specially served with a cup of tea.

Here's the recipe if you'd like to make them.

Pecan Baci printable recipe
Baci Ingredients
50g plain flour
50g unsalted butter, softened
30g almond meal
30g chopped pecans
25g sugar
½ tsp cocoa
25g good-quality milk chocolate, chopped

Filling
30g milk chocolate, melted

Method
Place the chopped pecans and sugar in a food processor and process until pecan meal is formed. Don't over process or you'll end up with pecan butter! Place remaining baci ingredients in the food processor and pulse until well blended.
Shape into a log, wrap tightly with cling film and rest in the fridge for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 160ºC/325ºF. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Roll teaspoons of the mix into small balls working quickly with lightly floured hands, and place on a buttered baking sheet. Place back in the fridge to rest for 20 minutes then bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove the tray from the oven and allow the baci to cool for a few minutes before placing on a rack. Once cooled, spoon a little melted chocolate between the flat sides of two baci and gently stick them together. Store in an airtight container and they will last a week. Makes 15 filled biscuits

I hope you enjoyed your weekends. See you all again on Wednesday,

Jillian

Read more

sweet and spicy souvenirs - orzo with lamb meatballs

sweet and spicy souvenirs - orzo with lamb meatballs

11 Jan 2012

I was looking through my cupboards and realised I still have a few goodies I bought last year that have yet to appear on the blog.



I decided to make my new favourite recipe, orzo with lamb meatballs, which is based on a recipe from Gourmet Traveller magazine. I paired the meatballs with my new Cote Bastide linen tea towel, which I purchased from Sissy Boy in Amsterdam.



The tea-towel is very large so sometimes I only show the white linen part of the cloth in my photos.



The original recipe used pork, which I don't eat, so I used lamb mince instead. I also added an egg to the mixture which makes for nice light meatballs. The cumin and touch of chilli make these meat balls very yummy.

I hope you like them,

Jillian

Read more

sweet and spicy souvenirs - antique chopping board and spinach and ricotta tart

sweet and spicy souvenirs - antique chopping board and spinach and ricotta tart

12 Dec 2011

When I went overseas this year, I had a very short shopping list. It went something like this - antique wooden board and ceramic spoons. I found the bread board in Van Weerde at Herenstraat 17 in Amsterdam and posted it back home to Australia. Jeroen packaged the board so carefully it arrived without a single dint or scratch but you should have seen me struggling to get it back home from the post office.



I now have quite a collection of boards but none quite so large or distressed as this one. But what to cook? I work in a hospital and our waiting room is filled with out of date magazines. Whilst leafing through one of them I found this recipe for a spinach and ricotta tart. I knew I had some puff pastry and spinach in the freezer so I went down to the local fruit shop to buy the fresh herbs.



It's very quick and simple to make and my dinner was on the table in no time at all.

The finished product topped with some extra dill and mint. I only made one of the tarts so I had leftover filling and with a bit of smoked salmon it makes a very tasty sandwich filling. Next time though I think I'll crumble in some feta cheese to make the filling a bit more spanakopita like.

I had such a busy weekend. I went to 2 Christmas parties; I've arranged all the Christmas presents and written half of the cards and managed to complete most of my Christmas baking. You should have seen me up to my elbows in chocolate, butter and nuts. Can you believe Christmas is almost here?

How are you going with your Christmas preparations?

Jillian

Read more

Sweet and spicy souvenirs - salted chocolate caramel tartlets

Sweet and spicy souvenirs - salted chocolate caramel tartlets

23 Nov 2011

Today's sweet and spicy souvenir comes from E. Dehillerin in Paris. I was looking for some straight sided tart shells and came home with 4 of them. I don't think anyone has ever bought such a small quantity from there because the sales staff kept asking 'is that all?'



But what to make? Well actually I knew exactly what to bake - these little chocolate caramel tartlets based on this recipe by Valli Little.



Instead of chocolate pastry, I decided to make some chocolate flecked pastry by grating about 40 grams of chocolate into my shortcrust pastry recipe. You have to be careful not to overwork the dough or you'll lose the flecks.



My favourite part of the whole process - the caramel. I sprinkled a little bit of pink sea salt over the caramel before topping it with the chocolate custard mixture.



I was going to gussy up this picture but I decided that simple was best, which pretty much sums up my approach to styling.

Here's my almond shortcrust pastry recipe.

Pastry
¼ cup icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
¼ cup almond meal
1¼ cups plain flour
110 gm (4 oz) cold unsalted butter, diced
1 egg, lightly beaten
cold water
40 grams of dark chocolate, grated

To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and a little cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade.

Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; gently knead in the dark chocolate until just combined. Flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. Refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F. Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface (I use greaseproof paper) and roll out thinly with a rolling pin. Grease eight 10 cm tartlet tins. Cut out circles of pastry large enough to fit the tart shells. Line the tins with the pastry and trim the edges of the tart tins with a sharp knife. Lightly prick the pastry surface with the tines of a fork and return to the fridge for another 30 minutes.

Line the tart shells with muffin liners and fill with pastry weights or uncooked rice. Bake for 15 minutes or until the tart shells are golden then remove paper and weights. Place the tart shells on a wire rack to cool.

How did they taste? YUM!

See you all again next week,

Jillian

Read more

sweet and spicy souvenir - blackberry frangipane tart

sweet and spicy souvenir - blackberry frangipane tart

7 Nov 2011

Today's sweet and spicy souvenir is a little storage jar from Habitat in London. Habitat went into receivership when I was in London so I made a pilgrimage to the Tottenham Court Road shop just in case it isn't around next time I come to London.

As I warned you, I've been on a bit of a pastry kick of late. Don't know why. Here's a blackberry tart I made for work a few weeks ago. I felt a bit guilty not sharing the mulberry tart with my workmates and as I had some leftover pastry, I remade the recipe substituting blackberries for mulberries. This recipe by Tana Ramsay is close to the one I used.



I love making frangipane tarts because they're so easy and every-one loves them. If you don't feel like it, you can skip the pre-baking of the pastry case and the tart will still turn out fine.



The tart was all gone before I could snaffle a slice but that's always a good sign.



I hope you all had good weekends. Apart from a trip to the movies to see Midnight in Paris, my weekend was quiet. As I've got a hectic few days coming up, I like to think of it as the calm before the storm.

See you all again on Wednesday,

Jillian

Read more

sweet and spicy souvenirs - labour and wait measuring spoons

sweet and spicy souvenirs - labour and wait measuring spoons

24 Oct 2011

Here's another purchase from my trip, some porcelain measuring spoons from Labour and Wait.



Labour and Wait had lots of things I wanted to buy but with limited space, anything I bought had to be small. These spoons filled the bill.



Last month, I ran out of home made chutney so I put the new measuring spoons to use. The chutney recipe I use has loads of spices in it - cayenne pepper, ginger, dried mustard and turmeric.



I've been making this recipe for years and serve it as an accompaniment to curries. It's called Delhi chutney and it's a spicy chutney made from apples, dates, mangoes and onions. I've tried to track the recipe down for you on the web without any luck at all. I can find mango chutney and apple and date chutney but nothing that combines all three ingredients.



The recipe makes quite a chunky mix and like a good wine, the flavour matures the longer you store the chutney. I'm planning to serve the chutney with a chicken korma curry that's on the menu for this week.



Another busy weekend with lots of baking, Sunday lunch with a friend and a successful shoe shopping trip. 

See you all again on Wednesday,

Jillian

Read more

Sweet and spicy souvenir - Mulberry Frangipane Tart

Sweet and spicy souvenir - Mulberry Frangipane Tart

19 Oct 2011

Today's souvenir is a confiture jar I picked up in Paris at BHV but what to match it with? Last week one of my workmates handed over a small container of mulberries. When I was growing up, every-one had a mulberry tree in their back yard. We didn't, but the branches from the next door neighbour's tree conveniently overhung the back fence. I love mulberries and my fingertips were often stained with the tell tale mauve evidence of my pilfering.



I was meeting friends for lunch last Sunday and it was my task to bring along the dessert, so I pondered for a moment and decided to make a mulberry frangipane tart. I made up my own recipe but based it loosely upon this one here. I didn't have enough time or mulberries to make my own mulberry jam but bought some French blackberry jam instead.



I get up really early each Sunday to get my baking underway before a 9.15 a.m. cycle class. It's pretty early but the light is so nice then.



I topped the tart with slivered almonds. I'd planned to sift some icing sugar over the tart before serving I but forgot to take it with me.



I took a little slice home with me to taste, as I'd not made this before.



When it was time to taste my slice, it was pretty nice and soon after, I received an sms from my friend thanking me for the yummy tart. I'm sure I'll be making this tart again next Mulberry season.

Bye for now,

Jillian

Read more

sweet and spicy souvenirs - cinnamon scented lamb and a ladle

sweet and spicy souvenirs - cinnamon scented lamb and a ladle

5 Oct 2011

When I was in London I spied a slightly retro looking enamel ladle in Pedlars at Selfridges. It was so appealling, before I knew it it was wrapped in aqua tissue paper and had found it's way into my backpack where it stayed until I returned to Sydney. But what food to match it with????




Well I found this simple looking recipe by Neil Perry in the weekend paper and went on a search for shoulder of lamb.



I prefer to slow cook dishes in the oven rather than on the stove top so I cooked the lamb at 160C for about 1 and 1/2 hours and it was delicious. I also oven roasted the eggplant slices for 40 minutes at 200C to try to reduce the fat content of the dish. If possible, I prefer to make casseroles or stews the day before I serve them. 



Casseroles taste so much better on the second day but it also means I can remove any excess fat from the dish. As suggested, I've made the recipe using beef but it's nowhere near as nice as the lamb version. I'm yet to try making the dish with chicken but I will.



I hope your week has gone well. I'm back from my 4 day trip to Brisbane so I'm working a 3 day week this week. I have to say, so far I'm really liking it!

Thanks to Juliana for coming up with an idea for the title for today's post. I'll be back to see you all again next week,


Jillian

Read more

sweet and spicy souvenirs - home made cookies

sweet and spicy souvenirs - home made cookies

12 Sept 2011

I bought a few bits and pieces when I was overseas and today I'm going to feature one of my purchases, a cookie stamp. I actually bought my stamp at Merci but you can buy it online in Australia.



I had some leftover chocolate pastry in the freezer and tried out the stamp using the instructions that came with the stamp but I found I was left with very thick cookies. I played around and found I preferred to roll the dough out thinly first before using the stamp. I had a round cutter which pretty much matched the size of the cookie and although it was an extra step, I thought it was worth it.



I used this recipe from Canadian Living but only used half the dough and left out the cinnamon. I made 18 cookies from the dough and I'll show you what I did with the remaining half later in the week or next week.



The uncooked dough is delicious and the cookies disappeared in the blink of an eye. I kept 2 at home for the cook and I've only just eaten them. They're pretty nice and were still fresh after a week. I'll definitely make these again.



I can't believe another weekend has been and gone. Spring momentarily left us in Sydney and I shivered all weekend. I was back to using my electric blanket and wearing fluffy bed socks.

I hope you enjoyed your weekend,

Bye for now,

Jillian

Read more