passover week 2024 - chocolate almond macaroon teacakes

passover week 2024 - chocolate almond macaroon teacakes

14 Apr 2024

Some recipes only need to be lightly adapted to become Passover friendly and this Claire Ptak recipe from her book, Love is a Pink Cake, is one such recipe. All I had to do was swap the cornflour for potato starch and I was done. The recipe is naturally gluten free and if you made the hot water ganache recipe from the Passover Sachertorte with apricot compote post, these little treats would be dairy free as well. 

The recipe is a bit fiddly but the teacakes are delicious and not too sweet. The original recipe was for 12 teacakes but I halved it to make 6. I doubled the marshmallow recipe though just to ensure there was sufficient marshmallow to go around. If you make 12 teacakes, I would make a 3 egg white marshmallow recipe just to be on the safe side.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 6 teacakes. 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 almond macaroon tea cakes - makes 6
For the almond macaroon base
25g flaked almonds, lightly toasted
37g almond meal
80g caster sugar 
2 tsp potato starch
1 egg white

For the marshmallow
2 egg whites
100g caster sugar
3 tsp golden syrup
Small pinch fine salt

For the chocolate ganache 
100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped 
120g cream

1 tsp maple syrup

To finish

25g flaked almonds, lightly toasted

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C conventional and line a large baking tray with baking paper.

Mix the toasted flaked and ground almonds, 50g of the caster sugar and the potato starch together and set aside. Put the remaining sugar and egg whites into a clean bowl and whisk together to form soft peaks. Fold the two mixtures together, then spoon 6 x 5cm circles of the mixture onto the lined tray and flatten slightly with the back of a spoon. Bake for 20 minutes, then carefully peel off the paper and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Marshmallow

Put all the ingredients into the metal bowl of your stand mixer and set over a saucepan of simmering water (do not let the water touch the bottom of the bowl or it will cook the egg whites). Whisk continuously by hand with a balloon whisk, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is very warm to the touch. If using a sцgar thermometer, whisk continuously for 2 minutes, or until it reads 70-75°C whichever comes first. Transfer the bowl to your electric mixer (fitted with the whisk attachment) and whisk quickly until stiff peaks are just beginning to form.

Put the mixture in a piping bag with a large round nozzle. Pipe large bubble shapes onto your cooled macaroons (or use a spoon).

Ganache

Put the chopped chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Heat 100g of the cream until just beginning to bubble, then pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for 10 minutes, then stir until smooth. If the ganache is a little broken or spilt, stir in the remaining cold cream and stir until smooth.

Position the wire rack of macaroons over a baking paper-lined tray, to catch any chocolate drips. Spoon the chocolate over the marshmallow macaroons, coating them evenly. Top with the flaked almonds, then leave to set for 15 mins before serving.

The teacakes do not have a long shelf life so I would serve them the same day they're made.

See you all tomorrow with another bake for Passover Week 2024.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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brown butter rye chocolate chunk cookies

brown butter rye chocolate chunk cookies

4 Mar 2024

Disaster struck the other day. The biscuit tin was empty and needed to be filled quickly. I looked through my copy of 'Love is a Pink Cake' by Claire Ptak and it opened up at the Brown Butter Rye Chocolate Chunk Cookie recipe. I checked my cupboards and apart from the condensed milk, I hadeverything I needed. Saturday morning I bought a tin of condensed milk and by lunch time I'd made the cookie dough and it was resting in the fridge.

American style cookies are sugar heavy and quite large so I reduced the quantity of brown sugar a little and I made slightly smaller cookies. I'm a firm believer that all cookies taste better using aged dough, so I refrigerated the dough overnight then baked the cookies on Sunday. The cookie dough was quite firm so I was worried they might be a bit dry when baked. The cookies rose up rather than out, so I tamped them down halfway through the bake time after which they baked into a perfectly round chocolate chunk cookie. I was meeting a friend for lunch so I waited until I came home and had half a cookie after dinner. It was so good I scoffed the other half before I went to bed.

I normally bake cookies for my biscuit tin so I rarely bring cookies into work. I just knew my workmakes, who are chocolate fiends, would love them so I took them into work with me on Monday. The cookies were chewy and delicious and they disappeared in a flash. I promised my colleagues I'd make another batch soon.

If you'd like to make my version of the cookies, here's the recipe for you which makes 12 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.

Brown butter rye chocolate chunk cookies

Ingredients

110g dark milk chocolate (50%)

112g unsalted butter
100g rye flour
87g plain flour
½ tsp fine sea salt
½ tsp baking powder
A slightly heaped ½ tsp of bicarb soda
135g soft light brown sugar
1 egg yolk
1½ tsp vanilla extract
40 mls sweetened condensed milk
flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

Method

Chop the chocolate into chunks, reserving 12 chunks to top the cookies. Set to one side.

In a small saucepan over a medium heat, melt the butter until it starts to sizzle and foam. The white milk solids should settle to the bottom of the pan and start to turn golden brown (if it goes black, you have gone too far and must start again). Swirl the pan a few more times then remove from the heat to cool slightly. Weigh out the flours, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate soda and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the brown butter (including any brown bits from the bottom of the pan) and sugar until well mixed. You can also mix by hand with a wooden spoon. Add the egg yolk, vanilla and condensed milk and mix well. Scrape down the bowl and mix again, then add the flour and mix until just combined. Finally mix in the chocolate chunks. You will have a fairly firm cookie dough.

Use a scoop or spoon to portion out 12 cookies (approx 46g) into a container that fits into your fridge or freezer. Chill or freeze for at least 30 minutes although I prefer to chill the cookie dough overnight.

Line a baking tray with baking paper. Towards the end of the chilling time preheat the oven to 190°C, conventional. Place the number of cookies you want to bake onto the lined baking tray, spaced well apart as they will almost double in size. Top the cookies with a sprinkle of flaky salt and bake in the oven for 8 minutes. 

Remove the tray from the oven, then top each cookie with a chocolate chunk before tamping the cookies to flatten them a little. Rotate the tray then bake for another 7-8 minutes or until the cookies have set and are golden around the edges. Let the cookies cool on the tray for 5-10 minutes before moving to a wire rack. Once cool, store in an airtight tin.

I thought Claires' blonde peanut butter cookies couldn't be bettered but these brown butter rye chocolate chunk cookies sure give them a run for their money. They were so good one of my work colleagues asked me for the recipe, a rare event.

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

Bye for now,

Jillian

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cherry bakewell slice

cherry bakewell slice

15 Jan 2024

I did a deep dive into the pantry at my Father's house and unearthed some cherry conserve. I put my thinking cap on and decided to make a Cherry Bakewell Slice. I'd already bookmarked the Bakewell Bars recipe from Claire Ptak's new cookbook, Love is a Pink Cake, so I set to work adapting it for the only tin I'd brought with me, a 16cm round springform pan.

Some recipes are easy to downsize. This recipe is about 1/3 of the original recipe but when making it, I thought the shortbread layer was a little too generous, so I've reduced the quantity a little.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 8-12 slices. 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.

Cherry Bakewell Slice - makes 8 - 12 slices

Base
60g unsalted butter, cold, cubed 
30g icing sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

75g plain flour
pinch salt
100g good-quality cherry jam

Topping
80g unsalted butter, softened
80g caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
pinch fine sea salt
1 egg + 1 tbs egg white or milk
50g almond meal (I used a mix of whole almond meal and blanched)
30g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder

Icing

1 tsp melted butter
100g icing sugar

15 mls fresh lemon juice

To decorate
fresh or preserved cherries

 
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan/180°C, conventional. Grease, flour and line the base of a 16cm springform tin with baking paper.

Base

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until the mixture has just come together into a ball. Press the pastry evenly into the prepared tin. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown, then remove from the oven. Let the base cool for 10 minutes before spreading the jam gently over the top.

Topping

Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy but not fluffy. Add the extract, salt, eggs and egg white (or milk), then beat well. Stir in the almond meal, flour and baking powder just to combine. Dollop this over the jam – don’t worry about spreading it evenly as it will melt into place in the oven and spreading it can cause the jam to get mixed in rather than remaining in its own layer. Return to the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until golden and set. Allow to cool for 20 minutes.

Icing
In a small bowl, whisk together the melted butter and icing sugar. Add sufficient lemon juice to make a smooth, thick paste. Spread this glaze over the cooled Bakewell slice, decorate with cherries and then slice into 8-12 pieces.

I found 2 versions of this recipe online, one with icing and one without. I found the icing made the slice a little too sweet so I'm looking forward to trying the second version where the slice is topped with flaked almonds.

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

Bye for now,

Jillian

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big sur cookies

big sur cookies

11 Dec 2023

For my birthday a friend kindly gave me a book voucher and I used the voucher to buy a copy of Claire Ptak's new book, Love is a Pink Cake. As you know, I just love baking with fruit and nuts and the book is filled to the brim with recipes I can't wait to make.

The biscuit tin was empty so for my first bake, I adapted Claire's recipe for Big Sur cookies. I had everything in my house to make the cookies, apart from the granola, but I had unsweetened muesli so I used that to make the cookies and instead added a little extra brown sugar to the batter. Once the batter was made, I portioned it into 2 tbs balls of cookie dough which I then froze but for how long? 

The recipe didn't state a time, so for the first batch I froze the dough for one hour and when I checked at both 7 and 10 minutes the cookie dough was still raw. In the end the cookies took about 12 minutes to bake. For the second batch of cookies, the dough had been frozen for days. I let the dough balls come to room temperature for 30 minutes before baking and they were still raw at 15 minutes and in the end took 19 minutes to bake. Use the cooking time as a rough guide and look for signs of doneness - still soft in the centre and lightly coloured around the edges.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 18 large cookies or 36  smaller cookies. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, 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.

Big Sur Cookies - makes 18 cookies or 36 small ones

Ingredients
150g (1 cup) wholemeal flour 
140g (1 cup) plain flour
1 tsp fine sea salt
1½ tsp baking powder 
135g (½ cup) soft light brown sugar
225g unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g (7oz) white chocolate, chopped into chunks
400g (3¼ cups) granola
Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

Method
Whisk the flours, baking powder and salt together and set aside. Cream the butter and brown sugar just until smooth and combined but do not aerate or make fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix well, then mix in the flour until just combined. Add the white chocolate and granola and mix again, just until it all comes together.

Line 1 or 2 trays with baking paper, then use an ice-cream scoop to portion out 18 balls of cookie dough onto the baking sheets. (I used 2 tbs of cookie dough for my cookies). Chill for 30 minutes, then flatten to a thickness of 1.5cm and freeze for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 170°C fan/190°C/375°F. Defrost the cookies for 5-10 minutes before baking. Sprinkle with the flaky sea salt and bake for 7-10 minutes. They should be just starting to colour, but still soft in the centre. 

Cool on the tray for 10 minutes before placing on a baking rack to cool completely and then store in an airtight container.

Easy to make, not too sweet and the perfect dunking cookie to go with a nice cup of tea. 

See you all again next week for Christmas week 2023.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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lemon meringue pie bars

lemon meringue pie bars

12 Nov 2023

When I opened my copy of 'Love is a Pink Cake' by Claire Ptak and saw a photo of the lemon meringue pie bars, I knew I had to make them. I've been making lemon squares for at least 20 years and love lemon meringue pie, so this recipe seemed to combine the best of both worlds. My friend Liane, who passed away last year, loved my tart lemon squares and I just know she would have loved this lemon meringue version.

This is not the original recipe, which you can find here. I made a half batch of the lemon meringue bars which I baked in a 7 inch square tin. I used my own tried and true shortbread base and cut down the sugar in the filling substantially because I wanted the filling to be quite tart. I also lined the base with lightly greased non-stick foil rather than baking paper and while it worked well, it retained heat so the edges were a little too brown. I just trimmed the edges a little but next time, I'd reduce the bake time by 5 minutes or so.

Here's my version of Claire's recipe for lemon merigue pie bars which yields 8 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.

Lemon meringue pie bars - makes 8 

Shortbread base 
150g plain flour
40g icing sugar
pinch salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract
110g unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes

Lemon filling
25g plain flour 
¾ tsp baking powder
150g caster sugar
2 eggs 
2 lemons, zested and juiced (you need 85g lemon juice)

Meringue topping
2 egg whites
100g caster sugar 
3 tsp golden syrup
Pinch of salt 
3 tsp vanilla extract

Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C, conventional and grease and line a 7x7in tin with baking paper or non-stick foil. Do not cut the corners of the paper to fit the tray, just line as tightly as possible so that the paper comes above the edge of the tray on all sides. If using foil, lightly grease the foil.

Put the flour, icing sugar and salt into a food processor and pulse briefly to combine, then add the vanilla and the cubed butter and pulse until it comes together in a ball. Press the mixture evenly into the prepared baking tray, then bake for 20 minutes or until lightly golden.

To make the filling, put the flour, baking powder and caster sugar into a large bowl and use a whisk to combine. Add the eggs and lemon juice and whisk again. Strain the mixture into a clean bowl and stir in the lemon zest.

As soon as the base is baked, remove from the oven, carefully pour the filling over the base and return to the oven. Immediately lower the temperature to 170°C, conventional and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the top is set; it should be slightly firm and lightly golden. Remove from the oven and allow the slice to cool completely.

Meanwhile, put all the ingredients for the meringue topping into a heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of boiling water (do not let the water touch the bottom of the bowl or it will cook the egg whites). Whisk continuously until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is very warm to the touch. If using a sugar thermometer, whisk continuously for 2 minutes, or until it reads 70-75°C, whichever comes first. Transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment to whip the mixture into stiff, glossy peaks.

Put the marshmallow into a piping bag fitted with your favourite nozzle. Pipe or spoon the meringue onto the cooled lemon filling. You can either cover the entire tray or slice into 8 bars first and then pipe each one individually, as we do at the bakery. If you have a blowtorch, torch the top of the meringue, or if you're brave you can pop it under the grill for 30 seconds or so to get the same effect.

These are best enjoyed on the same day but will keep at room temperature for 24 hours.

As expected these were very good - melting shortbread base, tart lemon filling and fluffy meringue. If you look closely, you'll see the meringue has split a bit. This has nothing to do with the recipe but with the cook whose arms gave out after 7 minutes of whipping the meringue using electric hand beaters. I reckon the meringue needed 10-15 minutes of whipping to be stable. Memo to self - remember to use a stand mixer next time.

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

Bye for now,

Jillian

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claire ptak marble cake

claire ptak marble cake

28 Aug 2023

Hi all, I've have been travelling all over the place the past 10 days or so. I've just been to Dungog and back to see my brother and his new puppies, hence the delay in posting today's recipe.

I whipped this cake up just before I drove to Dungog and photographed it whilst up there. The icing was a little damaged en route which you might be able to notice in one of the photos.

The recipe comes from Claire's Ptaks new book, Love is a Pink Cake. It's a simple buttery vanilla and chocolate marble cake topped with a delicious white chocolate glaze, which in my opinion makes the cake. 

Here's the recipe for you which is adapted from Claire Ptak's cookbook, Love is a Pink Cake, which makes an 8 x 4 inch loaf 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.

Claire Ptak Marble Cake 
Ingredients
175g unsalted butter, very soft, plus extra for greasing 
175g caster sugar
2 eggs
1½ tsp vanilla extract
175g plain flour 
1 tsp baking powder 
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
⅓ cup buttermilk 
50g cocoa powder 
80g boiling water 

Icing
120g icing sugar 
1½ tbs hot water
60g white chocolate, melted and cooled

Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C conventional and grease and line a small loaf tin, about 8 x4 in, with baking paper. Make sure the paper comes up the sides of the tin.

Put the butter and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and cream together well, but not as fluffy as you would for a layer cake. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt  together in a large bowl. Mix in half of this flour mixture, scraping down the sides as you go, until barely combined. Keep the mixer going while you add the buttermilk. Add the remaining flour and mix until just combined, then scrape down the bowl and give it one last mix.
Spoon one third of the mixture into a bowl and set aside. Whisk together the cocoa powder and boiled water until smooth. Allow the mixture to cool a little then stir it into the reserved cake mixture until it's incorporated.

Spoon a third of the plain mixture into the base of the prepared tin, then alternate dollops of chocolate mixture and plain mixture to look like a checkerboard. Run a knife through the batters in a swirling motion to create a marble effect. Less is more here, so resist the temptation to over-swirl.

Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes, or until springy and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin completely before icing.

To make the icing, place the sifted icing sugar, hot water and cooled melted white chocolate in a small bowl and whisk together until smooth. Remove the loaf from the tin by running a small knife around the sides of the tin, then tilting the tin on its side and coaxing the loaf out, using the baking paper as a handle. Remove the paper and turn the loaf upright on your wire rack. Drizzle over the icing and let it drip down the sides, then carefully transfer to a serving dish.

My cake barely rose and I'm not sure if that's the way the cake should be but I suspect my baking powder might have passed it's use by date. I'm going to whip up another one for my neighbours with fresh baking powder and see what happens. It was delicious anyway, barely risen or not.

See you all again some time next week with, fingers crossed, some travel photos. I have a new laptop and all new editing software, which I'm hoping I'll learn to use in the next few days. Wish me luck.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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Blonde Peanut Butter Cookies

Blonde Peanut Butter Cookies

23 Jul 2023

For my birthday a friend kindly gave me a book voucher and I used the voucher to buy a copy of Claire Ptak's new book, Love is a Pink Cake. As you know, I just love baking with fruit and nuts and the book is filled to the brim with recipes I can't wait to make.

When I returned from one of my flying visits to Brisbane, the biscuit tin was empty so for my first bake, I adapted Claire's recipe for Big Sur cookies. They were delicious but by Saturday the tin was empty and needed to be refilled. For my second bake I made a batch of the blonde peanut butter cookies from the book. I had to buy some some caramelised white chocolate first, which I love so no hardship there, but everything else was already in the cupboard.

The batch made sixteen 30ml cookies and I baked half and froze the rest. My cookies took way longer than 10 minutes to bake though, more like 15 minutes so use the time as a guide only. I reduced the sugar in the recipe, as is my wont, from 250g to 150g and they were plenty sweet but that may have affected the baking time.

If you'd like to make a batch of these cookies, here's the original recipe for you which makes 12 large cookies or 16 medium size 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. 

Blonde Peanut Butter Cookies - makes 12 cookies 
Ingredients
115g unsalted butter 
250g (I reduced the sugar to 150g) soft light brown sugar
155g crunchy peanut butter 
1 egg 
1½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon juice
100g plain flour 
75g wholemeal flour
½ tsp baking powder 
½ tsp fine sea salt
150g blonde chocolate or white chocolate, chopped 
Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

Baker's tip: If you can't find blonde chocolate, you can bake white chocolate (at least 30% cocoa solids) in the oven at 100°C fan/120°C/250°F/gas 2, stirring every 15 minutes until golden and nutty. Spread into a tray to set, then break up and use as chips.

Method
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar and peanut butter together. Add the egg, lemon juice and vanilla and beat well.

Whisk together the flours, baking powder and sea salt in a separate bowl, then add these dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture along with the chocolate and mix until combined.

Scoop individual portions of cookie dough onto a tray. If using spoons, pat each portion into a little ball then flatten to about 2.5cm (1in) thick. Use a fork dipped in water and press the tines down into the tops of the cookies in a hashtag pattern. Cover and chill or freeze for at least 1 hour. (You can bake them straightaway, but the cookies will be slightly flatter, or freeze them for up to a month, baking off as and when you want them.)

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 190°C, conventional, and line a large baking sheet with baking paper. If you are baking from frozen, allow the cookies 5-10 minutes out of the freezer before placing in the oven. Arrange the cookies evenly on the sheet, leaving enough space between each one so they have room to expand during baking.

Sprinkle with a small amount of flaky sea salt and bake for 8 - 10 minutes (my cookies took 16 minutes) until the centre of each cookie is slightly soft and underbaked but the edges are turning crisp and golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for 5-10 minutes before enjoying.

My brother dropped by unexpectedly for afternoon tea and immediately ate 2 of the cookies and said they were good. I've just eaten one of the cookies and I can concur, these are really good cookies and best of all, just perfect for dunking. I'll definitely be making these cookies again.

These cookies were just fabulous and I'll definitely be making these again.

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

Bye for now,

Jillian

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