mandarin cake with yoghurt icing

mandarin cake with yoghurt icing

9 May 2016

A few weeks back, I saw a picture of a mandarin cake with yoghurt icing on shewhoeats instagram feed. It's Mandarin season in Sydney so inspired by the photos, I adapted this lemon cake recipe to make a mandarin cake and modified a Donna Hay recipe for the yoghurt icing. 



I took the cake into work and it was pretty good but I wanted to see if I could make the cake even better. I remade it during the weekend baking it in a loaf tin. I added an extra egg to the batter and changed the proportions a little. I think the second version was much better so much so that I'm keeping it all to myself.




For the first version I browned the butter before making the cake. The uncooked batter tasted amazing but I could barely taste the browned butter in the baked version so for the second cake, I just melted the butter. If you do want to make the brown butter version allow an 10-20g extra butter as you'll need to discard the solids created during the browning process.



The not too sweet tangy yoghurt icing is the perfect topping for this cake.



Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional gas oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. To make a large bundt cake or 23 cm cake just double all the ingredients but bake for the same length of time.



Mandarin Yoghurt Cake 
Cake 
½ cup plus 1 tbs caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tbl finely grated mandarin rind (2 large mandarins)
100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1¼ cups self-raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
⅓ cup Greek yoghurt
¼ cup mandarin juice

For the icing
100g Greek yoghurt
60g softened cream cheese
⅓ cup icing sugar, sifted

The night before, place the yoghurt for the icing in a muslin lined sieve. Set the sieve over a large bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Cake
Preheat oven to 180°C (conventional). Grease and line a small loaf or 16 cm cake tin with baking paper or you could use a small bundt tin.

In a large bowl, combine the caster sugar, the eggs and the grated mandarin rind. Gradually add the butter and mix thoroughly. Sift the flour with the baking powder and the pinch of salt and stir into the egg mixture in thirds, alternately with the yoghurt and the mandarin juice. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes. The top should be golden and when tested, a skewer comes out clean. Cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a rack.

Icing
In a bowl cream the softened cream cheese with the sifted icing sugar. Stir the prepared yoghurt into the icing sugar mixture. Mix well and using a palette knife, ice the cake. 



Store the cake in the fridge but remember to bring the cake to room temperature for maximum flavour. I hope you get the chance to make this cake because it's pretty quick and easy to put together and very tasty.

See you all again next week,

Jillian

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sunday special - egg, chorizo and gruyere breakfast bread

sunday special - egg, chorizo and gruyere breakfast bread

22 Feb 2016

Every January I go through my food magazines to cull the ever growing pile. I pulled out the April/May 2012 Donna Hay magazine and promptly bookmarked about 12 recipes I'd like to make.




With my new stove freshly installed, I decided it was high time to make something a bit special for my Sunday breakfast. I looked through the magazine and decide to make the egg, pancetta and gruyere bread recipe with a few minor changes. As I don't eat pancetta I swapped it for some chorizo I had in the freezer. The basil I had growing in a pot; the swiss cheese was already in the fridge so the only thing I had to buy were the truss tomatoes.



I decided to prepare the yeasted dough the previous evening and generally with a long slow prove you need less yeast so I reduced the quantity of yeast a little. The sugar in the dough recipe isn't necessary so I left it out completely.



This breakfast bread was one of the first things I baked in my new oven. I'm still working out the oven and which of the shelves to use, so the bread isn't as golden as I would have liked but it didn't alter the taste, which was delicious! 



Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.

Egg, Chorizo and Gruyère Breakfast Bread - adapted from Donna Hay Magazine
Servings: 4-6

Ingredients
1½ cups 00 flour or plain flour plus extra, for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
1tsp dry yeast
⅔ cup (160ml) warm water
½ tablespoon olive oil, plus extra, for drizzling,
4 eggs
½ small chorizo sausage, coarsely chopped
250g truss cherry tomatoes
1 cup (100g) grated gruyere cheese
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
⅓ cup basil leaves
Salt and pepper

The night before you plan to make the breakfast bread, prepare the dough. Place the flour, salt and yeast in a bowl. Add the olive oil and water and bring together to form a dough or you can do all this in a stand mixer with the dough hook. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place in a large bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and put into the fridge to prove overnight. The following day remove the dough from the fridge (which will have risen overnight) and bring to room temperature. 

Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to make a 25cm square. Transfer to a deep-sided 25cm-square baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and push dough into the edges. Crack the eggs onto the dough and top with the chorizo and tomatoes. Sprinkle with the cheese, chilli flakes and basil. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 12–14 minutes or until golden. 





This will make firm eggs so if you prefer runny eggs, I'd add them halfway through the cooking time. Also truss tomatoes look pretty and photograph well but they're not that practical as you have to fish the twigs out of the bread before you can eat it so next time I'd just use cherry tomatoes.

Believe it or not I've just had the stove installed for a second time so I'm hoping all will be smooth sailing for now. See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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christmas week 2015 - pavlova wreath with mascarpone cream

christmas week 2015 - pavlova wreath with mascarpone cream

18 Dec 2015

Welcome to Day 5, the last day of  of Christmas week. Every-one seems to love a pavlova, especially at Christmas time. When I decided to make a pavlova for Christmas week, I wanted to make it a bit special. I couldn't decide between a rolled pavlova or a pavlova wreath, which was inspired by this one from Donna Hay magazine. In the end I went with a pavlova wreath with mascarpone cream.






Pavlova is made from meringue using a ratio of 60g caster sugar for each egg white, flavoured with vanilla. A little vinegar and cornflour is added to the meringue to make the marshmallow like interior. I found 3 egg whites in my freezer so I only made a small wreath, about 8 inches in diameter. 
If you preheat the oven to about 180°C/350°F, it helps set the sugar and stops the pavlova weeping. I baked the pavlova at my oven's lowest setting of 125°C and after an hour let it cool in the switched off oven.



Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.



Pavlova wreath - serves 4
3 egg whites
3/4 cup (180 g) caster sugar
½ teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoons cornflour (corn starch)

Topping
½ cup cream
½ cup mascarpone
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs caster sugar
icing sugar
passionfruit pulp


Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper, drawing a 17 cm circle onto the paper. Turn the paper upside down.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add the sugar one tablespoon at a time until all the sugar has been added. The mixture should be very white, thick and glossy. Gently fold in the vinegar, cornflour and vanilla extract.

Place heaped spoonfuls of the meringue mixture around the inside of the circle to create ring. Remember the meringue will spread a little as it cooks. Lower the oven temperature to 120°C/250°F before placing the pavlovas in the oven.

Bake for 1 hour or until the meringue is very lightly coloured and the top is dry. Turn the oven off and leave the pavlova in the turned off oven to cool.

When the pavlova is cool, gently remove the paper from the tray and place on a cooling rack. Store the pavlova wreath in an airtight container until it's needed. Just before serving dust the wreath with icing sugar. Serve the wreath topped with the mascarpone cream and some passionfruit pulp.

Mascarpone Cream
In a medium size bowl combine the cream, mascarpone, vanilla extract and sugar and whisk until soft peaks form. Place into an airtight container and refrigerate until required.

Today is my last working day for 2016, so yay, then Sunday I'm driving north to Brisbane for the Christmas break! I may be back next week with a Plate 2 Plate post so see you again then.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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seasons greetings

seasons greetings

23 Dec 2013

Well, it's almost Christmas here in Brisbane and I'm just about cooked out for the year. I have a few traditional goodies to share with you though, recipes for fruit mince pies and gingerbread, items I pretty much bake every year.



I saw a recipe for a gingerbread star wreath in Country Style magazine and I was inspired to make one of my own. I made up a batch of gingerbread and baked the wreath using half the mixture. It looked lovely but I had my doubts about it's strength and when I tried to hang the wreath, it fell apart. What was I to do other than eat every single last gingerbread star from which the wreath was made? Having eaten half a batch of this gingerbread solo, I can assure you this is one delicious gingerbread recipe. 



With the remaining gingerbread I made some cute little gingerbread people which I decorated with Royal icing. Heres the recipe for you, very, very slightly adapted from here.

Gingerbread (adapted from Country Style Magazine December 2013)

125g (4 oz) butter, at room temperature 

½ cup lightly packed brown sugar 

½ cup golden syrup 

1 egg yolk

2½ cups plain flour 

1 20 ml tablespoon ground ginger 

1 teaspoon mixed spice

½ teaspoon ground white pepper 

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°C Lightly grease and line 2 baking trays. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add golden syrup and egg yolk and beat until combined. Stir in the flour, ginger, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Press dough into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to rest. 

Place the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll it out until it is about 4mm thick. Use cutters to cut out shapes. Place the shapes on the baking trays about 3 cm apart. Knead and roll out any leftover dough to repeat the process. For shapes to be used for hanging decorations, use a skewer to make a hole in the top of each shape. 

For gingerbread decorations, bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until brown. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

In the current issue of Donna Hay magazine there's a recipe for mince pies using a brown sugar pastry, a riff on this recipe. The recipe inspired me to add a little brown sugar to my usual pastry recipe.

Instead of a caster sugar topping I used raw sugar for some extra crunch and added some nuts to the filling.




They are delicious so I'm glad I made 16 of these little Christmas morsels.

Here's the updated recipe for you.

MINCE PIES (makes 16)
Pastry
125 gm (4 oz) butter

60 gm sifted icing sugar

30 gm brown sugar

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

1⅔ cup plain flour

⅓ cup corn flour (cornstarch)

¾ tsp baking powder

Filling

410 gm bottle or 1¼ cups fruit mince
1 green apple, peeled and grated 

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind

30 gm (1 oz) melted butter

1 tbl thick cut orange marmalade

1 tbl coarsely chopped almonds or toasted macadamias

Topping

1 egg white, lightly beaten 

Raw sugar

Shallow round based patty tins

Pastry

Cream the butter with the sugars. Add the egg yolk and beat well. Sift the flours and baking powder together and stir into the creamed mixture. You may need to add a little cold water to form a soft dough. Knead lightly on a floured board. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour

Filling

Put the fruit mince into a mixing bowl. Add the apple, the grated rind the melted butter, the marmalade and the chopped nuts and mix until well combined. You’ll need about half of the fruit mince mixture for this recipe. I put the leftover fruit mince back into the jar and keep it in the fridge to use later.

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F. Roll the pastry out thinly and cut into rounds. Line the lightly greased patty tin with the pastry. Cut the same number of slightly smaller circles to fit the tops of the pies. Put 1 - 2 teaspoons of fruit mince into each pie then moisten the edges with the beaten egg white. Make a small slit in each pastry lid or cut out with a small cutter. Top each filled pie with a lid and press edges of pastry well to seal. Glaze with the beaten egg white and sprinkle the raw sugar over the top of the pies.

Bake the pies in the preheated oven for 20 – 30 minutes or until golden brown. Brown sugar pastry colours quickly so you may need to cover the pies for the last 5 minutes of the cooking process to ensure the bottom crust cooks through. Cool the pies for 10 minutes before removing from the tray and placing on a wire cooling rack. When completely cool, store the pies in an airtight container. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.

P.S The lovely star is from Kylie at Paperboat Press.

Before I take a 2 week break from blogging, I'd like to wish all my blog readers and their families, a safe and happy time over the festive season. Looking forward to sharing some more recipes and chatting with you all again in 2014.

Until then,

Jillian

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chocolate brownie cookies with dulce de leche

chocolate brownie cookies with dulce de leche

11 Mar 2013

Last week when I did my grocery shopping, chocolate bars were on special so I loaded them into my basket. My basket was filled with butter, sugar, cream, eggs and blocks of chocolate. I can assure you it not's true, but the checkout operator must think that's all I eat.



I made some dulce de leche a few weeks ago for another recipe and the jar has been languishing in my fridge ever since. I found this recipe for chocolate brownie cookies in an old Donna Hay magazine and decided to make the cookies but to sandwich them together with the dulce de leche.



I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but I often have problems with recipes from the magazine. The batter was really runny so I refrigerated it for 30 minutes before scooping it out with my cookie scoop. I think an extra tablespoon or so of flour in the recipe wouldn't go astray.



I followed the recipe exactly and waited for the cookies to cool before dusting them with cocoa powder and filling them with lashings of dulce de leche which I topped with a few flakes of sea salt.



The cookies are nice and moist and fudgy but if there's a next time, I'd reduce the sugar in the brownie recipe. I'd forgotten how sweet dulce de leche is and as the cookies themselves are very sweet, the combination of the cookies with the filling is a bit of a sugar overload.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekends. I'll be back again on Wednesday with another Sydney wander, 

so see you all then,

Jillian

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french onion soup

french onion soup

20 Jun 2012

A few weeks ago the winter issue of Donna Hay magazine arrived in the mailbox. I looked through it and found loads of things I wanted to try. I've been on a soup kick since the weather started to cool down and when I saw the photo of French Onion Soup, that's what I decided to make. I used an old favourite recipe of mine with a few additional tweaks.




The magazine article featured some beautiful images of Paris so I looked through my own archives and added a few Paris pics of my own.



I didn't have 6 brown onions in the cupboard so I used a few red onions as well.



I cheated a little and used pre-made beef stock to cut down on the preparation time. I added a tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves just before adding the stock and a tablespoon of Chinese rice wine as well, because there was no Madeira or sherry in my cupboard.



Rather than using melty yellow cheese on the crouton, I used some leftover goats curd that was still lurking in the fridge. The goat's curd was wildly expensive so I wanted to make sure I used every last morsel.



You know, I don't think I've ever eaten French Onion soup whilst in France.



In fact apart from raspberry tarts, I think I mainly ate couscous and pizza when I was last there!



The soup was delicious and I really enjoyed the goats cheese crouton topped with fresh thyme and cracked black pepper. I've attached the original recipe for you minus the tweaks mentioned above.

French Onion Soup from Australian Cuisine by Maureen Simpson
printable recipe
Ingredients
6 medium sized onions, peeled and sliced
1 heaped tablespoon butter
2 level tablespoons plain flour
6 cups beef stock
6 slices French bread, cut 1 cm thick
freshly ground pepper
cheese

Put onions and butter into a heavy based saucepan and fry gently for about ½ hour, stirring from time to time.The onions should be soft, glossy and a rich golden brown. Keep the heat low so they don't burn.

Sprinkle in the flour, stir well then add the stock. Stir until boiling then lower the heat and simmer gently for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile put the bread slices onto a baking tray and bake in a moderate oven (190ºC) for 20 minutes or until crisp.

Season soup to taste with salt and lots of black pepper. Pour into 6 individual bowls.

Top with the crisp bread, sprinkle over the cheese and bake for a further 10 minutes in a moderate oven. Serves 6.

Another patch of cold weather is forecast so I might just have to pull out that stockpot again this coming weekend.

See you all again soon,

Jillian

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chicken cassoulet

chicken cassoulet

23 May 2012

Last year one of my friends purchased a subscription to Donna Hay magazine for my birthday. One of my favourite issues was last year's winter issue. I've made quite a few recipes from that issue, including this one for chicken cassoulet. I've got quite a thing for cannellini beans and quite a thing for my new Le Creuset black satin casserole. Since the casserole dish arrived last month, I've used it almost daily.



I've adapted the cassoulet recipe slightly. I don't eat chorizo so instead I chop up a few slices of beef pastrami and put that into the mix. I also use chicken thighs and drumsticks instead of a whole chicken because they're the parts of the chicken I like the best.



I make the casserole the day before serving so the flavours have time to develop and I can remove the layer of solidified fat from the surface before reheating the casserole in the oven. Sometimes I top the cassoulet with a layer of sour dough crumbs and thyme leaves which I bake until the crumbs turn golden brown.



Here's the original recipe from Donna Hay Magazine, June/July 2011 issue 57 
Chicken and Chorizo Cassoulet 
printable recipe
1 x 1.7kg chicken, cut into 8 portions
plain flour (all purpose) for dusting
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 chorizo, sliced
1 brown onion, peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cups (500ml) chicken stock
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
2 bay leaves
6 sprigs thyme
1 x 400g can cannellini (white) beans, drained and rinsed
Sea salt and cracked black pepper
Crusty bread, to serve

Dust the chicken in the flour and shake to remove excess. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over high heat. Add the chicken and cook, in batches, for 6-8 minutes or until browned.  Remove from pan and keep warm.

Add the chorizo, onion, garlic, carrots and celery to the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes or until softened. Add the tomato paste and cook for a further minute. Return the chicken to the pan and add the stock, tomatoes, bay leaf and thyme. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and cook, covered, 30 minutes. Remove the lid and continue cooking for 20-30 minutes more, or until the sauce has thickened. Add the beans, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Serve with bread.

Guess what I'm having for my dinner tonight? 

See you all again next week for some more food and a shopshoot. 

Bye for now,

Jillian

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plum tarte tartin

plum tarte tartin

16 Apr 2012

I know it sounds ridiculous, but until recently I'd never made or eaten a tarte tartin. The latest issue of Donna Hay magazine had a whole feature devoted to tarte tartin so during the easter break I gave it a go.



As it was Passover I couldn't use puff pastry so I used my Passover shortcrust pastry instead. It was dry and crumbly but I managed to cover the plums. I figured as the pastry would eventually be upside down, it wouldn't matter too much if there were cracks in it.




Now these plum tarte tartins weren't the prettiest dish I've ever made but boy were they tasty.



I've been really busy this past week, so I've not had time to write out the recipe for you but it's based on this one from the Donna Hay website. Instead of strawberries, you use halved plums which are placed in the base of texas muffin tins then topped with pastry and baked until the pastry is golden.



As they're so easy to make I can see tart tartins will be a regular fixture on my winter menu.

I hope you all had great weekends. See you again on Wednesday,


Jillian

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sweet and spicy souvenirs - rice pudding with oven roasted rhubarb

sweet and spicy souvenirs - rice pudding with oven roasted rhubarb

21 Sept 2011

When I went on my holidays, I had a wish list of things I wanted to buy - an antique wooden bread board, some ceramic spoons, a french milk bottle and some confit jars - all the things that are hard to find in Sydney or else just too expensive.

Well I managed to track down most of those goodies and I posted the items home to Sydney from Amsterdam, London and Paris. Everything arrived home in 1 piece and you should have seen me struggling home from the post office with all my parcels. In my new Wednesday feature, which hasn't got a title at this stage, I thought I'd match food with my new purchases. As always if you have any bright ideas for a title, I'd love to hear them.



I bought these sweet little ice cream bowls from Le Petit de Atelier in Paris and as it was too cold to contemplate ice cream, I thought I'd match the bowls with some rice pudding using the basic recipe mentioned in the article.



I had some oven roasted rhubarb with strawberries left in the fridge, so I combined the two to make my new favourite winter pudding.



I managed to carry the bowls across Europe without any breakages, then disaster struck as I was doing the washing up. I dropped one of the little ice cream spoons and naturally it broke. I tried gluing it back together but it looks a bit dodgy. What a pity I can't just pop back to Paris to buy a replacement spoon.

I'll see you all again next week. Bye for now,

Jillian

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