passover week 2022 - strawberry and cream cakes

passover week 2022 - strawberry and cream cakes

27 Mar 2022

Yes these may look very familiar because I made the non Passover version last year. The non-P cakes barely rose and contained such a small amount of flour I knew they could be easily converted to a Passover friendly version. 

 

 

To make up for the lack of raising agent, I separated the eggs and used the beaten egg whites to lighten the batter. That made the baked cakes a bit more delicate than their non-P counterparts but I don't think that's a bad thing. As you can't buy kosher for Passover cream cheese here, I went with a simple vanilla bean flavoured whipped cream topping.

Here’s the recipe for you which makes 6 small cakes. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20ml 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 strawberry and cream cakes – makes 6  adapted from here

Cake 

60g Passover baking mix (equal quantities Potato starch and superfine matzo meal)

¼ tsp sea salt flakes

70g almond meal

125g unsalted butter at room temperature, plus extra for greasing

125g caster sugar 

1 tsp finely grated lemon rind

1 tsp vanilla essence 

2 eggs, separated

40-60mls milk

100g strawberries, washed hulled and cut into 1 cm dice sprinkled with 2 tsp caster sugar

Topping 

250mls cream

Seed of ½ a vanilla bean

1 tbs caster sugar

3 strawberries, halved lengthways

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC conventional. Grease and line the base of 6 Texas muffin tins with baking paper. Dust with superfine matzo meal. 

Sift the baking mix into a bowl and then stir in the salt and the almond meal. Set to one side.

Place the butter, sugar, lemon rind and vanilla in a large bowl and beat with a wooden spoon or hand mixer until light and creamy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing. Don’t worry if it looks a little curdled at this stage, it will come together again later. 

Add the sifted dry ingredients in three batches, alternating with enough milk to make a smooth batter. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a flexible spatula to make sure the batter is evenly mixed. In a clean dry bowl whip the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold in the egg whites followed by the diced strawberries.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tins, levelling the tops with a small metal spatula or spoon to ensure they are smooth and even. The batter should come about three-quarters of the way up the sides of the tin. Place the muffin tin on the middle shelf of the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the cakes are golden and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean.

 

 

Remove the tin from the oven then run a knife around the cakes. The cakes are delicate so allow the cakes to cool for 15 minutes before easing the cakes out of the moulds with a small knife or an offset spatula. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.

 

Topping

Whip the cream with the vanilla seeds until soft peaks form then sweeten to taste. Spoon or decoratively pipe the cream onto the top of the cakes. Place the halved strawberries on top of each mini cake, pressing just lightly to embed them into the cream. Any leftovers will keep, refrigerated, for up to two days.

 

These were just as tasty as their non-P version and disappeared in a thrice.

That's the last bake for Passover Week 2022. I'll see you all again next week with a little something for Easter.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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curd cake with plums

curd cake with plums

20 Mar 2022

 

With the ongoing conflict in Ukraine I thought I'd share a Ukrainian recipe with you. Olia Hercules is a British based chef and food writer who was born in Ukraine and she shares the recipes of her homeland. Today's recipe is adapted from her recipe for curd cake with caramelised apples.

 

 

The cake should be made with dry cottage cheese which is hard to find in Sydney and expensive, so at Olia's suggestion I made the cake with ricotta. Ricotta is a little bland compared to cottage cheese so I added a little bit of lemon rind to get that tang I associate with cottage cheese.

 

I went out and bought apples to make the cake but as it's plum season here, I decided to use plums instead. I thought I'd bought black plums so was a bit surprised and disappointed when I sliced the plums and found they had yellow flesh. All was forgiven when the plums turned this delicious shade of pink when cooked.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 7 inch square or round cake. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60 g eggs. My oven is a conventional oven so if you have a fan-forced oven you may need to reduce the temperature by 20°C. 

 

Curd Cake with Plums inspired by this Olia Hercules recipe
Topping

20g melted unsalted butter
¼ cup brown sugar
3-4 plums, halved pitted and sliced

 

Cake
115g room temperature unsalted butter
135g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ tsp grated lemon rind
350g ricotta cheese or good-quality cottage cheese
2 eggs, separated
80g fine semolina or polenta
pinch of salt

Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional. Grease, flour and line the base of a 17.5 cm/7 inch square square or round cake tin with baking paper. Pour the melted butter into the base of the tin followed by the brown sugar. Evenly spread the sugary slurry over the base of the tin then decoratively arrange the plum slices over the sugar, overlapping the slices.

Place the softened butter, 115g of the caster sugar, the vanilla extract and lemon rind into a food processor and process until well combined. Add the ricotta and the egg yolks and process until smooth. Transfer the mixture to another bowl and then fold in the semolina or polenta (the latter will result in a cake with more texture).

Place the egg whites with a pinch of salt in a clean dry bowl and whisk until they form soft peaks. Add the remaining 20g of caster sugar and keep whisking until the sugar has dissolved. Now take a large spoonful of the egg white mixture and fold it quite vigorously into the butter and cheese mixture to loosen it up. Add the rest of the egg white mixture and fold in gently. Pour the mixture over the plum slices in the cake tin and bake for 30 minutes, or until the cake has puffed up and is still a little wobbly, but not liquid. The cake will continue to set as it cools. 

Leave the cake in its tin to rest and cool down before turning out, then slice and serve.

 

Some unsweetened tea with lemon goes perfectly with this, which is exactly what I did. It was indeed the perfect accompaniment to this very tasty cake, somewhat reminiscent of my Mum's cheesecake. 

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

Bye for now,

Jillian

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chocolate hazelnut ricotta cake

chocolate hazelnut ricotta cake

11 Mar 2022

 

I've had this Ottolenghi and Helen Goh recipe bookmarked ever since I purchased Sweet. This recipe is adapted from the Baked hazelnut ricotta cheesecake recipe in the book. 

 

They describe it as a cheesecake but really it's just a cake that's has ricotta as an ingredient, hence the name change. I decided to make a single cake rather than the small cakes in the book so changed the proportions a little and added a little bit of baking powder to ensure the cake rose. This is my second time making the water ganache. The first time I made it the mixture seized but this time it worked like a charm.

 

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

 

Ottolenghi chocolate hazelnut ricotta cheesecake – makes one 17cm cake

Ingredients

150g toasted skinned hazelnuts

20g (1½ tbs) plain flour

80g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

50g almond meal

½ tsp baking powder

113g (4oz) room temperature unsalted butter, cubed

125g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs, separated

200g ricotta cheese 

pinch salt 

 

Water ganache  

50g 70% dark chocolate roughly chopped into 2 cm pieces

20g sugar

20g light corn syrup or glucose

35mls water

¼ tsp vanilla bean paste

20g unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into cubes. 

 

To serve 

Icing sugar 

 

Method 

Preheat the oven to 180ºC, conventional. Grease and line the base and sides of a 17cm cake tin with baking paper, which should rise 2cm above the sides of the pan, then set aside. 

Roughly chop 25g of the cooled nuts and set aside—they will be used to garnish—and place the remainder in the bowl of a food processor, along with the flour. Process until finely ground, then tip into a medium bowl. Place the chocolate in the food processor, pulse to form large crumbs and add these to the hazelnuts and flour. Add the almond meal and the baking powder mix together and set aside; the texture is a bit rustic here, which is what you want.

Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment in place. Beat on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes, until light and creamy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Turn the speed to low, add the chocolate-nut-flour mixture and continue to mix until just combined. Remove the bowl from the machine and stir in the ricotta and salt. Transfer the cake mixture to a separate large bowl and set aside. 

 

Wash and dry the bowl of the electric mixer very well before adding the egg whites to it. Beat the whites on medium-high speed until stiff and then use a large spatula to fold the egg whites, in two or three batches, into the cake mixture. Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin, leveling the top. Bake for 45-50 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through, until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out more or less clean; it might have a few crumbs attached but should not be wet. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely. Remove the cake from the pan, peel away the paper and set aside. If you are making one large cake and it is a bit cracked on top, don’t worry; just turn it upside down leveling the base of the cake if needed. 

To make the water ganache, place the chocolate in a medium bowl and set aside. Put the sugar and corn syrup in a small saucepan and place over medium-low heat. Stir to combine and, when the sugar has melted, increase the heat to medium and bring to a boil, stirring gently from time to time. Continue to boil for about 5 minutes, until the color is a pale amber. Remove from the heat and carefully pour in the water; don’t worry if the mixture seizes. Return the pan to the heat, add the vanilla bean paste and stir gently and continuously until it returns to a boil.

Remove from the heat and wait for a minute before pouring the water-caramel over the chocolate. Allow to stand for 5 minutes and then whisk to combine. Add the butter, a couple of cubes at a time, whisking after each addition. Continue until all the butter has been added, whisking to combine until the mix is smooth and shiny. I needed to warm the mixture over a double boiler to ensure the butter melted. Set aside to cool and thicken before using. 

 

Just before serving sprinkle the top of the cake with icing sugar then spoon the ganache over half the cake, letting it drip down the sides. Sprinkle with the reserved hazelnuts and serve. 

 

The cake will keep for 3 days covered in the fridge. Bring back to room temperature just before serving. 

The cake was very well received at work with one colleague saying it tasted like a light and fluffy Ferrero Rocher.

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

Bye for now,

Jillian
 

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lemon yoghurt and olive oil cake

lemon yoghurt and olive oil cake

1 Mar 2022

Last weekend I had a date with my friend's 2 year old twins. The girls are both cake connoisseurs so I knew I needed to bring along something that was quick to make, not too sugary and would stand up to their scrutiny. 

 

 

Aran Goyoaga is the Queen of Gluten Free baking but I didn't want to make a gluten free cake. I find rice flour a bit chalky so I decided to adapt her glazed lemon yoghurt and olive oil pound cake recipe by putting the gluten back in. I changed the technique a little and also changed the proportions as I wanted to make a smaller cake. As expected the cake turned out perfectly and the girls loved the cake though I suspect it was the icing they were really keen on.

 

Here's the recipe for you which makes a small loaf cake. If you'd like to make a gluten free version please refer to Aran's original recipe or just swap the plain flour with a gluten free flour blend. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60 g eggs. My oven is a conventional oven so if you have a fan-forced oven you may need to reduce the temperature by 20°C.
 

Lemon yoghurt and olive oil cake – adapted from an Aran Goyaga recipe
Ingredients 

Cake
100g (⅔ cup) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch table salt
65g (⅔ cup) almond meal, any lumps broken up
135g (scant ⅔ cup) caster sugar
3 tsp finely grated lemon rind
2 eggs
80g extra-virgin olive oil

2 tsp vanilla extract
75g whole-milk yoghurt

Icing 

10g melted butter
120g (⅔ cup) sifted icing sugar
2 to 3 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
20g finely chopped pistachios, for topping

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and line the base and sides of a small loaf pan with baking paper.

Sift the flour, the baking powder and salt into a small bowl. Stir through the almond meal and set to one side. In a large bowl, rub together the sugar and lemon rind until fragrant. Add the eggs to the bowl and stir to combine. Drizzle in the oil and the vanilla extract and mix until incorporated. Add the flour in batches alternating with the yoghurt and stir until a smooth batter has formed. 

 

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes, then using the baking paper remove the cake from the tin and place onto a wire rack. Let the cake cool completely before icing. 

 

Icing
In a small bowl, whisk together the butter, icing sugar and lemon juice until smooth and lump-free. The icing should be pourable but not runny. Pour the icing over the top of the cake, letting it run over the edges. Wait a few minutes for the icing to set before sprinkling with the pistachios. The cake will keep at room temperature for 3 days.

 

 

 

I've already made this cake twice now and I took the second loaf into work. It was moist and delicious with a perfect crumb and no-one knew just how little effort was involved in its making. 

 

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

 

Bye for now,

 

Jillian

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sourdough cinnamon rolls

sourdough cinnamon rolls

21 Feb 2022

Now that I have an active starter I've been converting some of my favourite bread recipes into sourdough recipes. I thought I'd start with these cinnamon rolls adapted from a Sarah Keiffer recipe. I wasn't sure how much sourdough starter I'd need to use with a sweet enriched dough so I searched the internet and found a suggested figure of 30% starter to flour. I also tweaked the quantity of filling and icing a little bit because I figured you can't have too much of a good thing.

These cinnamon roll always rested overnight in the fridge so they take the same amount of time to prepare as the yeasted version. The only additional step is making sure your starter is bubbly and active and ready to use. I normally feed my starter the night before I prepare the dough so it's ready to go in the morning.

As this was my first time making a sweet roll leavened with sourdough I was a bit concerned the finished rolls might have tasted a bit too sour. I did bake an off cut and without any icing and scant filling, there was a discernable tang but once filled and topped with cream cheese icing, they tasted delicious.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 8 or 9 rolls. 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.

Sourdough cinnamon rolls
Dough
2 large eggs, at room temperature
50 mls milk warmed to 29°C
30 mls honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
255g plain flour
90g sourdough starter, fed and active
½ tsp salt
75g room temperature unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Filling
50g unsalted butter at room temperature
100g brown sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tbs almond meal
Pinch salt

Icing
30g unsalted butter at room temperature
60g cream cheese at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
90g icing sugar, sifted
Pinch salt

Method
Place all the wet ingredients into a jug and stir to combine. Place the flour into the bowl of a stand mixer and using a wooden spoon or spatula mix in the wet ingredients. Cover the bowl and sit for 20 minutes.

Add the sourdough starter and salt to the bowl, then using the dough hook, mix for about 5-6 minutes until the dough starts to come together and all clumps have disappeared. The dough should start to pull from the sides of the bowl but it will not completely remove from the bottom. With the mixer on low, add the butter one piece at a time, waiting to add each until the previous is absorbed. When all the butter has been added, increase the speed to medium and beat the butter into the dough until all the little butter pieces are incorporated and the dough is very smooth and elastic - this could take around 8-10 minutes. The dough should feel tacky.

Scrape the dough into a greased bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes. Place your fingers or a spatula underneath the dough and gently pull the dough up and fold it back over itself. Turn the bowl and repeat this folding again. Continue 6 to 8 more times, until all the dough has been folded over on itself. Re-cover the bowl with plastic and let rise for 30 minutes. Repeat this series of folding 3 more times, for a rise time of 2 hours and a total of 4 foldings. Put the covered bowl into the fridge to thoroughly chill. I normally refrigerate the dough overnight and fill the rolls the following day.

The following day mix the filling ingredients in a small bowl to form a smooth paste then set aside. Roll the cold dough out onto a lightly floured work surface to about an 8 x 12 inch rectangle. Using an offset spatula or a butter knife spread the filling over the dough, leaving about a 1-inch (2.5-cm) border along one short side. Starting on the short side covered in filling, tightly roll the dough up into a log until you reach the end that doesn't have any butter or filling. Pinch the clean end of dough to the log to seal closed. Using a serrated knife trim the edges and then cut the dough into 8 or 9 roughly equal pieces.

Grease and line the base of a 9 by 13-inch (23 by 33-cm) pan or a 26cm round pan with baking paper. Place the rolls in the pan and cover with plastic wrap to prove somewhere warm (around 25°C) for 2 to 3 hours until increased in size by at least 50%. The dough will relax and puff up during this time. They're ready to bake when the dough feels very soft and light—give the dough additional time to prove if necessary.

While the rolls are proving, preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Bake the rolls on the centre rack for 30-35 minutes until lightly browned on top and cooked through in the centre.

While the rolls are baking, make the cream cheese icing. Cream the butter, cream cheese and vanilla together either with a wooden spoon or with a hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add the icing sugar and a pinch of salt and mix until completely combined. 

When the rolls are golden, transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Using an offset spatula or table knife, apply a thin layer of the cream cheese icing, using about one-third of the mixture. Let the rolls cool for another 15 to 20 minutes then top with the rest of the icing and serve.

These rolls didn't last very long. Thankfully I still have one stashed away in the deep freeze for a rainy day. 

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

Bye for now, 

Jillian

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marzipan plum cake

marzipan plum cake

As it's plum season here in Sydney I made my annual plum cake. You, dear readers, really seem to like plum cake and this recipe is one of my most visited. This year I thought I'd mix it up a bit and try out a new recipe.

 

I used a Mikkel Karstad recipe as my inspiration and topped the cake with plums instead of the apples used in the original recipe. Good quality marzipan is hard to find in Sydney so I decided to make some using this Trine Hahnemann recipe from her book, Scandinavian Baking. I wasn't sure whether to use raw almonds or blanched almonds to make the marzipan so I used half and half.

The cake is made entirely in a food processor so it's really easy to whip up. 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. If you'd like to make an 8 inch cake then refer to the linked recipe for quantities but extend the cooking time because plum cakes take a long time to bake.

Plum and marzipan cake - adapted from a Mikkel Karstad recipe from Copenhagen Cult Recipes by Christine Rudolph and Susie Theodorou.
Marzipan
100g almonds

20g icing sugar, plus more to dust

Method
Whizz the almonds in a food processor until they become a paste. Add the icing sugar, whizz again, then add 10ml of water and whizz for a final time. This makes about 130g marzipan.

Ingredients
6-8 plums, pitted then quartered
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbs raw sugar
125g unsalted butter, softened
125g soft brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
125g marzipan, chopped
2 eggs

¼ cup plain flour
Pinch salt
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tbs raw sugar, for topping the cake
Crème fraîche or double cream, to serve

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and line the base of a 17cm tin with baking paper. In a bowl, toss the plum slices with the cinnamon and sugar, then leave for at least 20 minutes. 

Meanwhile, add the butter, sugar and vanilla to the marzipan in the food processor and process until smooth. Gradually add the eggs, then the flour, salt and lemon rind. Spread the batter into the prepared tin and top with the plum slices then sprinkle over the extra tablespoon of raw sugar. Bake for 1 hour or until set and the fruit has caramelised. If the fruit is browning too much, cover with foil and cook the cake until set in the centre.

Cool for 1 hour then serve warm or at room temperature with crème fraîche or cream. 

There is no rising agent in the cake so it's quite dense. I took the leftovers into work and it was declared ' sensational'. Whilst still warm it's a bit more pudding than cake but as it's so delicious, I just know I'll be making this cake again. 

 

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

 

Bye for now, 

 

Jillian

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