passionfruit marshmallows - the 5 days of candies - xmas 2013

passionfruit marshmallows - the 5 days of candies - xmas 2013

19 Dec 2013

I've always loved marshmallows and I've had this recipe for passionfruit marshmallows bookmarked for ages. It’s passionfruit season in Sydney and as soon as I saw them appear in the fruit shop, I knew I had to dust off the recipe and give it a try. I didn't fancy beating the mixture for 10 minutes with my electric hand beaters so making the marshmallows gave me a reason to unpack the stand mixer that’s been languishing in it’s box for the past 4 months! 



I halved the recipe as it makes a large quantity of marshmallow and adapted the recipe slightly with the addition of some liquid glucose to prevent the sugar mixture from crystallising. 



I also decided to roll the marshmallows in toasted coconut instead of icing sugar. Rolling the marshmallows in the coconut was the most fiddly part of the process.



Here's the recipe for you.
Passionfruit Marshmallows
90 mls passion fruit juice

250 gm caster sugar
2 teaspoons glucose
½ cup water
1 egg white
2 cups toasted shredded coconut
Icing sugar

Method

Lightly grease and line an 8 inch square cake pan with baking paper and dust the base liberally with icing sugar. 

Combine the passion fruit juice and gelatine in a bowl and set aside. 

Combine caster sugar, glucose and water and in a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring, until sugar dissolves, then increase heat to medium and cook for 5-10 minutes or until syrup reaches 125°C on a sugar thermometer. 

Remove from heat, add passion fruit mixture to syrup and stir until gelatine dissolves. You may need to put the pan back on the heat for a minute to fully dissolve the gelatine. Meanwhile, using an electric mixer whisk the egg white with a pinch of salt until frothy. Gradually add the passion fruit mixture, whisking continuously on medium speed until mixture has doubled in size, then slowly decrease speed and mix until mixture is warm, about 10 minutes.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan, and using a lightly oiled spatula, spread evenly, then dust top with the toasted coconut. Stand at room temperature for 3 hours or until firm. Place the remaining coconut onto a large piece of greaseproof paper. Turn the marshmallow out the onto the coconut then using a sharp knife, cut the marshmallow into 2.5 cm squares and roll in the coconut to coat. Store the marshmallows in an airtight container in the fridge.

See you all again tomorrow for Day 5, the final day of of Christmas Candy Week,

Bye for now,

Jillian 

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peppermint bark - 5 days of candies - xmas 2013

peppermint bark - 5 days of candies - xmas 2013

18 Dec 2013

I put out a call to my friends for Christmas candy ideas and an old school friend who'd spent last Christmas in the States, suggested I make chocolate bark. Now I love after dinner mints and I admit I may have a box or two stashed away in my cupboard for a rainy day. Chocolate and mint go so well together and as Williams Sonoma has recently opened a store in Sydney, I couldn't go past recreating their peppermint bark. Now I've never seen their peppermint bark before nor tasted it so I relied solely on the internet for help. 

The recipe I used is adapted from here and it's more an assembly job than cooking. There's a bit of melting and some crushing but seriously that's as stressful as it gets. Good chocolate is important here so please don't skimp.



Here's the recipe for you.
Peppermint Bark
Ingredients

4 oz pack candy canes

250 g good quality dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

250 g good quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped

Peppermint extract

Instructions

Line the base and sides of a lamington tin with baking paper.

Place candy canes into a plastic bag and use a rolling pin or the back of a heavy knife to crush into pieces, about ¼ inch long. Separate the larger pieces by shaking the candy through a sieve. The cook gets to eat the crumbs.

Dark Chocolate Layer

Place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30 second bursts. Stir frequently until the chocolate has just melted; do not overheat as the chocolate can burn easily. When the chocolate has melted, add ½ tsp of peppermint extract and stir until thoroughly combined. Pour the melted chocolate into the prepared pan, and spread evenly over the bottom of the pan with an offset spatula. Place the pan in the fridge and refrigerate until the chocolate is firm, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the refrigerator while melting the white chocolate.

White Chocolate Layer

Place the white chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 15 second bursts at 50% power and stir frequently until the chocolate has just melted; white chocolate chocolate melts more quickly than dark chocolate. When the white chocolate has just melted, add ¼ tsp of peppermint extract and stir thoroughly. Pour the white chocolate directly over the semisweet chocolate layer. Use an offset spatula to quickly spread the white chocolate evenly. While the white chocolate layer is still soft sprinkle the larger candy cane pieces evenly over the top. Use the back of a large spoon to lightly press the candies into the chocolate. Allow the chocolate to rest in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes until just set. When the chocolate has set, remove from the pan before breaking into irregular pieces or use a sharp kitchen knife to cut into rectangular pieces about 2 by 4 inches. Store the bark in an airtight container.

P.S. Don't tell any of my friends this but they'll be getting some peppermint bark from me this Christmas.

I'll be back tomorrow with day 4 of Christmas Candy Week.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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Nanaimo bars

Nanaimo bars

9 Dec 2013

Most days during our lunch hour, we play the trivia quiz that's in the local newspaper. A week or so ago the question was asked, 'what's the top layer of a Nanaimo bar'. Having spent some time working in Canada I was the only one who knew the answer. When asked what they tasted like, I couldn't answer because I'd never made or tasted one. I was told that it was time to put this to right and to make some Nanaimo bars to bring in to work, so I did. 



Nanaimo bars are pretty easy to make so I whipped up a batch last week in between my Christmas baking. The base is made from graham crackers which you can't find easily in Australia and I wasn't in the mood to make them from scratch. I looked online and found a suggestion that Arnott's Granita biscuits were a good substitute so I added them to my shopping list. Everything else I had in my baking cupboard, which is full to bursting at the moment.



All baked, filled and iced.



Sliced into squares, ready to eat with a nice strong cup of tea. Here's the recipe for you, adapted slightly from this Canadian Living recipe.

Nanaimo Bars

Ingredients
1 cup graham cracker crumbs

½ cup shredded coconut
⅓ cup finely chopped walnut pieces
¼ cup dutch process cocoa
¼ cup caster sugar
⅓ cup butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten

Filling
¼ cup butter

2 15 ml tbsp custard powder
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups icing sugar
2 – 3, 15 ml tbsp cream

Topping
125 g dark chocolate, chopped

1, 15 ml tbsp butter

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C.  Line an 8-inch square cake tin with baking paper.

In a bowl, mix together the graham crumbs, coconut, walnuts, cocoa and sugar. Drizzle with butter and egg; stir until combined. Press the crumb mixture into the lined cake tin. Bake at 350°F/180°C until the base is firm, about 10 - 15 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack. 

Filling
In a bowl, beat together the butter, custard powder and vanilla. Beat in the icing sugar alternately with the cream until smooth, adding a little more cream if too thick to spread. Spread over cooled base; refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

Topping
In a heatproof bowl over saucepan of hot (not boiling) water, melt chocolate with butter. Spread over filling; refrigerate until almost set, about 30 minutes. With the tip of a knife, score into bars; refrigerate until chocolate is set, about 1 hour before cutting into bars. Store the bars in an airtight container.

I liked them but how did my test audience like them? They really liked the base but found the filling a bit too sweet. I do plan to use the base recipe again either to make another slice with a caramel filling or just topped with the chocolate topping. 

Now next week is Christmas week on the blog. I've been cooking like mad and most of the goodies have now been made; some are still to be photographed and none of the recipes have been written up for the blog. It's going to be a busy week for me.

The end of the year is in sight -  just 8 more working days for me for 2013.

See you all next week,

Jillian

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chocolate pecan bars - inspired leftovers

chocolate pecan bars - inspired leftovers

2 Dec 2013

A few weeks ago I looked in my freezer and found I had 2 batches of leftover chocolate pastry just sitting there waiting to be used. I decided to use the pastry as the base for a slice but I needed to find a filling recipe. I went to my go-to resource, the internet, to track down a recipe for salted caramel pecan bars.

I wanted the bars to be a bit like a pecan pie in texture. I clearly didn't read the recipes carefully enough because that's not what I ended up with!




The recipe I used had a huge amount of sugar in it and I was tempted to halve it immediately but didn't. I should have because I found the filling way too sweet. My salt flakes also went AWOL so in the end they were just plain old chocolate pecan bars. They disappeared in a flash though so the test audience didn't find the sweetness a problem.

Here's the recipe for you, with the filling adapted from Southern Living.
Chocolate Pecan Bars

Filling 

1 cup roughly chopped pecans 

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar 
¾ cup unsalted butter  
2 tbsp cream 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
salt flakes 

50 grams dark chocolate, melted 

Chocolate Pastry  

225 g (8 oz) plain flour 

25 gm (¼ cup) cocoa  

125 g (4½ oz) unsalted butter chilled and cubed  

85 g (3 oz) caster sugar  

1 egg, beaten   

Place the flour, cocoa, butter and sugar in a food processor and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Gradually add the beaten egg until the dough starts to gather around the blade of the processor. Remove the dough and bring together into a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes. You won’t need all the pastry so freeze the leftovers for later use.

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Bake the pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan 7-8 minutes or until toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through. 

While the pecans are toasting, roll the dough on a lightly floured surface until 3 - 4mm thick. Line the base and sides of a slice tin (7 x 11 inches) with baking paper. Roll out approximately half of the pastry and fit to the base. Lightly prick the base with a fork and bake in a moderate oven 350°F/180°C for 10 – 15 minutes or until the edges have lightly coloured and the base is dry. The base will shrink a little as it cooks. Remove the tin from the oven and set to one side while making the topping.  

Combine sugar, butter, and cream in a medium-size heavy saucepan; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla and pecans. Pour the mixture over the base, spreading to coat. 

Bake at 350°F/180°C for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly. Remove the tin from the oven and lightly sprinkle with the salt flakes. Allow the slice to cool before removing the slice to a wire rack. Carefully remove the slice from the paper and using a sharp knife cut into bars. Decorate the top of the bars with squiggles of melted chocolate.



Note

I melted the chocolate in the microwave using a small sandwich bag then snipped off one of the corners to use as a piping bag. 

I don't know about you but Christmas madness has descended on my corner of the world. I'm buying gifts; baking treats; writing Christmas cards and I have a weekend of Christmas get togethers. 

Enjoy the rest of your week,

Jillian

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dutch apple tart 2013

dutch apple tart 2013

25 Nov 2013

I've been planning to remake this Dutch apple tart for some time. I went over to my friend's place for dinner last weekend and as it's my custom to bring dessert, I dusted off my cute little spring form tin and set to work. I had to scale back the recipe a little to fit the tin and made a few changes to the original recipe which I thought would improve the finished product.



I've bought a few new styling props the past month or so. Can you spot my new finds?



I almost had a disaster on my way to dinner. I had to take evasive action to avoid a collision resulting in a slightly squashed tart. We managed to find a piece that was undamaged for me to photograph and the rest was eaten.




The tart does take some time to put together. I made the pastry on Saturday night and put the tart together early on Sunday morning so the tart had time to cool before our trip across the Harbour Bridge.



Here's the recipe for you which I adapted from here.

Dutch Apple Tart (makes one 23 cm/9 inch tart)

Pastry

1 cup plain flour and 1 cup self raising flour, sifted together

180 g (6½ oz) unsalted butter

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 egg, beaten

Few tablespoons milk

Extra sugar

Filling

8 large green apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped

50 g sultanas (golden raisins)

⅓ - ½ cup caster sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon (or more to taste)
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

One 20 ml tablespoon lemon juice (or more to taste)

Three 20 ml tablespoons custard powder

Pastry

In a food processor combine the flours and the sugars.

Add the butter and process until the mixture forms breadcrumbs

Add 3/4 of the egg to the flour mixture and reserve the rest. 

Add the vanilla extract and a few tablespoons of milk if needed and process until a soft dough forms around the blades. 

Remove the dough from the processor, knead lightly to form a ball, flatten it out slightly before wrapping the dough in plastic and placing in the fridge for 1 hour.

Filling

In a large bowl, combine the apples, the sultanas, the sugar, the spices, the lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of the custard powder. If the apples are very tart, you may need to add a little more sugar. Mix well and allow the flavors to blend, stirring occasionally. Set to one side while lining the tin.

Method

Butter a 9-inch round spring form cake pan and line the base with baking paper. Roll out ¾ of the pastry and line the base and sides of the tin with the pastry.

Spoon 1 tablespoon of the custard powder over the pastry base. Gently spoon in half the apple filling, leaving the juices behind. Sprinkle the remaining custard powder over the apples before adding the rest of the filling.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the remaining dough. Cut the dough into 1 cm strips and layer them over the apple pie to form a lattice. Brush the remaining egg over the lattice then sprinkle the top of the tart with a little extra sugar.

Bake the tart at 180°C / 350°F on the middle shelf, for about 1 hour 15 minutes. I covered the top of the tart after 30 minutes to prevent it over browning. The apples were still a little uncooked so I left the tart in the switched off oven for a further 30 minutes.

Allow the tart to cool completely before unmoulding from the tin. Serve with cream or ice cream or both. I had a small piece of the apple tart last night and it was scrumptious.

If you have any leftover dough, you can roll the dough out, cut into strips and brush the cookies with any leftover egg, then sprinkle with sugar and bake the cookies for about 10 minutes while the tart is in the oven. When they came out of the oven, they tasted just like the biscuits my Grandmother used to make.

I'll be back again later this week with my last travel post from Tasmania.

See you all again soon,

Jillian

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the heritage highway - tasmania

the heritage highway - tasmania

20 Nov 2013

When I last wrote, I was in Hobart but about to make my way north to Launceston. I travelled back to Launceston along the Heritage Highway. First stop was Oatlands, home to many beautiful Georgian buildings. 





Oatlands is also home to the Callington Mill, a working mill. Unfortunately I didn't have time to take a tour of the mill but I took plenty of photos instead.



The Mill was restored in 2010 and it's a thing of beauty.


I'm sure I've been to Oatlands before but I didn't remember it being this charming.




I came home with a memento of my visit but I still haven't decided what to make with my bag of flour from Oatlands.




Back in the car for the short drive along the highway to the village of Ross, home to this beautiful bridge.



It was a lovely day, the first time the sun shone all day during my trip.




Ross has lots of sweet buildings along it's main street.



Like the old Holden Garage and the Ross Post Office.





Isn't this house painted the prettiest shade of green?



From Ross I drove to Hadspen, for my last night in Tasmania. I'll bring you photos from Hadspen and Evandale in my final Tasmanian post some time next week but before then I have a little bit of baking to share with you.

See you all again soon,

Jillian

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