passover week 2016 - passover maple syrup pecan pie

passover week 2016 - passover maple syrup pecan pie

14 Apr 2016

Last year I discovered a pastry recipe in Belinda Jeffery's book, Mix and Bake, that could be adapted for Passover. I made some little fig frangipane tartlets and they turned out quite well. Emboldened I thought I'd try making something a little larger this year and decided to make a pecan pie. I used maple syrup in the filling as corn syrup isn't Passover friendly. 



The pastry is very delicate but somehow I managed to get in into the pie tin. Don't even try to wrap it around the rolling pin before easing it into the pie plate as that technique won't work here. Either pat the pastry into the tin using your hands or roll it between 2 sheets of non stick paper and upend the pastry into the tin while holding your breath and crossing your fingers for luck!



The pie came out of the oven looking pretty good but the crust is so delicate if you look at it, it shatters. I was worried I wouldn't be able to successfully cut a slice but chilling it helped to firm the pastry.



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. 




Passover Maple Pecan Pie - makes a 20-23 cm tart

Crust
120g almond meal
Pinch of salt
3½ tablespoons Passover baking mix (equal quantities superfine matzo meal and potato flour)
75g very cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks (I'd reduce this to 60g next time)

Filling
½ cup caster sugar
2 tbs potato flour (this helps to set the filling)
3 eggs
1 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons melted butter
1½ cups (175g) toasted pecans

Method 
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. For the crust, put the almond meal, salt and Passover baking mix into food processor and whiz together until combined. Add butter and whiz some more until it forms coarse breadcrumbs. Press the crumbs into the 20 - 23cm flan tin or if you like, roll the pastry out between 2 sheets of non-stick baking paper before wrangling the pastry into the tin. It will crack so you'll need to patch it. Put the pie crust in the fridge to chill while you make the filling.

To make the filling, combine the sugar, the potato flour, the eggs, syrup and the melted butter. Chop approximately ¾ of the pecans, add to the mixture and stir to combine. Pour carefully into the prepared tin. Arrange the remaining pecans decoratively on the top. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour at 180°C or until the filling is well browned and just set. Remove to a wire rack and cool. Once the pie has cooled return it to the fridge and leave overnight to allow the pastry to firm. Serve with a dollop of cream for a job well done!




The verdict - the pastry is very brittle so next time I wouldn't bake this in a pie tin. Instead I'd use a fluted 20-23cm flan tin with a removable base that way it would be easier to cut and serve a neat slice. As the pastry is so delicate, the filling although delicious soaked into the pastry resulting in a soggy bottom. In the end, the pastry probably works better for little tarts than one large pie so I guess my search for the perfect passover shortcrust pastry continues.

If I can get a cake baked, cooled and styled in time I'll see you all again tomorrow with another recipe from Passover week. If not then I'll see you again next week for Part II of Passover Week.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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black bottom cake

black bottom cake

9 Nov 2015

Tomorrow, one of my workmates returns to work following a 6 week overseas holiday. We've really missed her, so to celebrate her return I've made a Black Bottom Cake inspired by a recipe for black bottom cupcakes in Belinda Jeffery's book, Mix and Bake.




I didn't have much time to bake on Sunday, so I was looking for something that wouldn't take long to make. The recipe looked like it fitted the bill. The cake has 2 layers - a chocolate cake layer topped with a chocolate chip studded cream cheese layer. I had some leftover chocolate ganache from a cake I made last weekend so I decided to ice the cake making a 3 layer version. I've not had a black bottom cupcake before and I haven't had a piece of the cake yet, so I can't wait to try it.





I put the cake into the fridge before topping it with the ganache layer. When I cut a piece of cake to photograph it looked pretty squidgy, which is always a good sign.



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.




Black Bottom Cake
Topping
250g (8 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature
¼ cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
⅓ cup dark chocolate chips

Cake
¾ cup plain flour
½ tsp baking (bicarb) soda
pinch salt
2 tbs cocoa powder
½ cup caster sugar
½ cup warm water
1 tsp espresso powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tbs vegetable oil
½ tsp balsamic vinegar

Chocolate Ganache
30g (1 oz) unsalted butter, diced
50g (1 ¾) dark chocolate, finely chopped
1 tsp honey

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line a 16 cm spring-form tin with baking paper.

To make the topping, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until thoroughly mixed in. Stir in the chocolate chips and put the bowl into the fridge while you make the cake.

To make the cake, sift the flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa into a bowl. Stir in the caster sugar.

In another bowl, dissolve the espresso powder in the warm water. Mix in the vanilla extract, the oil and vinegar.

Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the wet mix and stir together until just mixed. Spoon the batter into the lined cake tin and level. Gently spoon the cheesecake layer over the cake mixture and place the tin in the preheated oven.

Bake the cake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the chocolate layer comes out clean. Cool the cake in the tin and leave on a cake rack to cool completely.

If you’re going to ice the cake, place the cake in the fridge while you prepare the chocolate ganache.




To make the ganache, put the butter in a heatproof bowl and place in the microwave. Cook on high for about 30 seconds or until the butter has melted. Add the chopped chocolate and honey to the hot butter and stir until all the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth and glossy. Let the chocolate stand for about 30 minutes until it thickens a little before pouring over the cooled cake. Allow the topping to set completely before serving.





The cake is languishing in the fridge at work so I'll let edit the post tomorrow and let you know how it turns out. 

P.S. The cake received a big thumbs up at work. I specially liked the cheesecake topping.

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

Jillian

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luscious white chocolate cheesecake

luscious white chocolate cheesecake

28 Sept 2015

I've made so many recipes from Belinda Jeffery's book, Mix and Bake, that the cover is starting to tear. That's always the sign of a much loved, much used and much trusted recipe book.





This cheesecake recipe intrigued me because it's nothing like the ones I make. Let's just say I'm biased and in general I prefer the European style cheesecake and this recipe is more like a traditional New York style cheesecake. I went out on a limb and went ahead and made the cheesecake knowing it was going to be hard to impress me.





I followed the recipe to the letter but the white chocolate seized a bit when I mixed it into the cheesecake batter. Next time I'd melt the white chocolate in the warm cream ganache style, cooling the ganache to room temperature before adding it to the cream cheese mixture. 



I decided to decorate my cake with a few raspberries and some finely chopped pistachios for added colour and crunch.





Instead of making one large cake I decided to make smaller cheesecakes. I halved the mixture and it made two 12 cm cakes so you should be able to make four cakes from this recipe. Here's the recipe for you, pretty much faithfully copied from Mix and Bake. 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.





Luscious White Chocolate Cheesecake from Mix and Bake by Belinda Jeffery. 

Serves 10-12

Ingredients
220 g good-quality white chocolate, melted and cooled to lukewarm
450 g cream cheese, at room temperature
¼ cup (55 g) caster sugar
3 tsp cornflour
3 eggs
3 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1½ tbs strained fresh lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
2 cups (500 ml) sour cream
1 cup (250 ml) thickened cream
Fruit for topping (I chose raspberries)
Icing sugar, for dusting

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 20 cm spring-form cake pan (or four 12 cm spring-form pans) and line base with baking paper. Wrap the outside tightly in a double layer of foil (this prevents any cake mixture seeping out or any water seeping in as the cake cooks in a water bath). Sit the cake tin in a large roasting pan and set aside.

Put the cream cheese and sugar in a food processor and whiz them together for 30 seconds until they’re very smooth. Add the cornflour and give the machine a quick burst to mix it in. With the processor going add the eggs through the feed tube one at a time, whizzing each one in well before adding the next. At this stage stop the processor to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula to ensure everything is mixed in.

Sprinkle in the lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla extract and salt and whiz them in briefly. Add both the sour and thickened cream and pulse them in with on/off turns of the processor only until they’re just blended in. Scrape in the cooled melted chocolate and pulse it in too until the mixture is smooth. Scrape the cheesecake mixture into the prepared cake tin. Pour enough hot water into the roasting pan to come up about 3 cm up the side of the cake tin. Carefully transfer the whole lot to the oven.

Bake for 45 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the cake in the oven for 1 hour without opening the door.

Remove the cake tin from the water bath and unwrap the foil liner. Cool the cake completely in its tin on a wire rack. Once cool cover the tin with plastic wrap and refrigerate the cakes for 6 hours or preferably, overnight. The cake keeps well for up to a week in the fridge; however if you’re storing the cake for any length of time, remove the outer ring of the tin once the cake is firm to stop any discolouration from the tin.

When you’re ready to serve the cheesecake, sit the pan on a very hot, damp tea towel to help loosen it a bit and run a fine palette knife around the sides of the cake. Invert the cake onto serving plates and remove the tin and paper. If there’s a bit of moisture mop it up gently with kitchen paper. Decorate the top with fruit – I think it looks best when the fruit tumbles down the sides a bit and looks higgledy-piggledy to serve rather than carefully placed.



Dust with icing sugar just before serving. For clean sharp slices, cut the cheesecake with a hot, dry knife.

The verdict? I still prefer my European cheesecake but this one is pretty good. The cheesecake is silky smooth and light but I found it a little bland as all that cream masks the flavour of the cream cheese. The recipe contains very little sugar so I thought a little more sugar wouldn't have gone astray either. It's very easy to make though. The hardest part of the recipe is waterproofing the tins and getting the cooled cheesecake off the base. In the end I put a wet cloth into the microwave and heated it for 45 seconds and once I applied the cloth to the base, it did the trick.

Last week was busy and I'm still a bit tired from the drive up to Brisbane and back. I'm looking forward to the ong weekend and the all QLD Rugby League Grand Final.

See you all again next week with something from my kitchen.

Bye for now. 

Jillian

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crisp blood orange thins

crisp blood orange thins

24 Aug 2015

I looked in the biscuit tin yesterday and there were only 2 biscuits left in there. With a biscuit crisis on my hands it was time to bake. But what to make? I looked through my copy of Mix and Bake and decided to make some crisp lemon thins but as it's blood orange season, I thought I'd use blood oranges instead of lemons. I picked up a bag of blood oranges at the fruit market so expect to see all things blood orange on the blog for the next few weeks.



Blood oranges are a bit zingier than regular oranges so I thought they'd work well in this recipe.




I made the biscuit dough in the food processor and honestly weighing and measuring the ingredients took longer than it took to make the biscuit dough. I thought about icing the biscuits but instead made some blood orange salt to sprinkle over the dough before baking.





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. 

Crisp Blood Orange Thins - adapted from the Very Crisp Lemon Thins recipe from Mix and Bake by Belinda Jefferey

Makes 40-50

Ingredients
1½ cups (225 g) plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp salt
160 g caster sugar
1 tbs finely grated blood orange rind
150 g unsalted butter, chopped
30 mls strained blood orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract

Blood Orange Salt (optional)
1 tsp finely grated blood orange rind
1 tsp salt (I used salt flakes)

In the bowl of a large food processor combine all the dry ingredients with the grated orange rind. Add the chopped butter and whiz until the dough starts to come together. Mix the orange juice with the vanilla. Slowly add a little of the blood orange juice to the dough until a soft dough forms around the blade. You may not need to use all the juice.

Remove the dough from the food processor and gently form the dough into 2 logs. Wrap each log in baking paper and place in the fridge for 2 hours or until the dough has firmed. While the dough is chilling, prepare the orange salt if using. In a small bowl combine the rind with the salt and put to one side.

Preheat the oven to 170°C/325ºF. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Unwrap the dough then using a serrated knife, slice each log into 5 mm slices. Place the rounds onto the baking trays leaving some room to spread. If you like, you can sprinkle the top of each biscuit with some of the orange salt. Go easy with the salt though, you just need a tiny sprinkle otherwise the biscuits will be inedible.

Place the trays in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the biscuits are crisp and the edges are golden brown. I usually rotate the trays half way through the cooking time. Cool on the tray for about 10 minutes before removing the biscuits from the tray onto a cooling rack. When cool, store the biscuits in an airtight container.





These thin crisp little biscuits are perfect served with a nice cup of tea.





I hope you all had great weekends. It was a lovely day on Saturday so I went out shopping and came home with 2 new pairs of shoes and some summer clothes. Roll on summer!

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

Jillian

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lemon iced anzac biscuits

lemon iced anzac biscuits

13 Apr 2015

With the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing just around the corner I thought it was time to make some Anzac biscuits.



I love Anzac biscuits, but I wanted to jazz them up a little bit but not too much. Using a Belinda Jeffrey recipe as my base, I added a little lemon rind to the mix then drizzled the biscuits with a simple lemon icing.



When I was growing up, I think Anzac biscuits were the first biscuit I ever made. It's such a simple mix and melt recipe that you really can't go wrong. The lemon rind is a very gentle addition to the recipe and one I don't think the original Anzac's would have minded.



Here's the original recipe for you. I halved the ingredients and made a batch of 16 biscuits. Four were consumed for quality control reasons and the rest I took into work. There are only 3 left in the bickie tin so I think that means they're not bad at all. This recipe makes chewy biscuits and Belinda suggests ways to make a crunchy version.


For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. My oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.

Anzac Biscuits - make 16

Ingredients
½ cup regular rolled oats (not quick-cooking oats)
⅓ cup shredded or desiccated coconut 
½ cup plain flour 
⅓ cup golden caster sugar
½ tsp grated lemon rind
60g (2 oz) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 tablespoon boiling water 
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Lemon Icing
25g (scant 1 oz) unsalted butter
½ cup sifted icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice 

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and set them aside.

In a large bowl, thoroughly mix together the oats, coconut, flour, caster sugar and grated lemon rind. Put the chopped butter and golden syrup into a small saucepan over low heat (or you can do this step in the microwave) and stir occasionally until the butter has melted. Remove the pan from the heat. Mix the boiling water and bicarb soda in a cup and add to the butter mixture. Pour the butter mix into the oat mixture and stir until thoroughly combined. 

Scoop out tablespoons of the mixture onto the lined oven trays, leaving about 2 inches as the mixture spreads. Flatten the biscuits a little.  

Bake the biscuits in the preheated oven for 14-18 minutes, or until they're a deep golden brown but still soft. I always rotate the biscuit tray halfway through the cooking time so the biscuits cook evenly. Leave the biscuits to cool on the trays for a few minutes, then carefully transfer them to wire racks to cool completely. If desired, you can ice these with lemon icing. The uniced biscuits keep well in an airtight container for up to a week.

Lemon Icing
For the icing, melt 25g of unsalted butter in a small bowl. Add ½ cup of sifted icing sugar. Gradually add a tablespoon or 2 of lemon juice to form a thick icing. Beat for 1-2 minutes over hot water until shiny and runny. Drizzle the icing over the cooled biscuits. Allow the icing to set before serving the biscuits. You may have some leftover icing.



I hope you all had a great weekend. I did a bit of shopping for my trip to Singapore and Japan, which is now less than 3 weeks away. How did that happen?

See you all next week with a new Plate 2 Plate post.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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passover week - passover 3 nut cake

passover week - passover 3 nut cake

30 Mar 2015

Welcome to this year’s Passover week. As usual, I’ll be doing a mix of tried and true recipes adapted for Passover and some new to me recipes. I'm travelling on Friday so I might not have time to post so Passover week may stretch out into next week.  

Now you will need to do some preparation for this year’s recipes.  

• Passover certified brown sugar and Passover vanilla extract will need to be sourced as well as some Tate and Lyle golden syrup. 
• You’ll also need superfine matzo meal and potato flour (starch) to make the Passover baking mix. To make the Passover baking mix, thoroughly combine equal quantities of superfine matzo meal and potato flour (starch) which you’ll use instead of flour.  
• If you can’t source Passover icing (confectioner’s) sugar you can make some by blitzing sugar in a food processor or just leaving it out.  
• To make caster sugar you’ll need to whiz regular sugar in the food processor.  
• This year, you may even need to candy lemon rind and make condensed milk from scratch, so you've been warned! Recipes and instructions to follow over the next few days.

The first recipe is one that’s new to me. It’s the Three Nut Cake from Belinda Jeffrey's Mix and Bake and as the cake only uses a small amount of flour I thought it would be pretty easy to make a Passover friendly version. 

You need to use a lot of nuts and coconut for this cake and I’m warning you it produces a pretty chewy result. The pastry is quite crumbly, so don’t fret if you can’t cut a perfect slice of cake because I couldn’t either.  

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.   

Three Nut Cake – makes a 17 cm cake. 

This quantity of pastry is sufficient for a 23 cm cake. If you make a 17 cm cake, you'll only need to use half the pastry for this recipe. You can wrap the remaining pastry in plastic wrap and store in the freezer for another cake or use the pastry to bake some tart shells. If you'd like to make a 23 cm cake, just double the filling quantities and proceed. The original recipe used one less egg yolk but as the Passover baking mix absorbs more liquid than regular flour I think the extra egg yolk will be needed. The baking time will remain the same and please be careful not to overcook the cake as it will dry out, so start testing at about 25 minutes. 

Ingredients 

Crust 
120g almond meal 
2½ tablespoons caster sugar 
3½ tablespoons Passover baking mix 
75g very cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks 

Filling 
60g toasted hazelnuts 
50g toasted pecans 
¼ cup Passover baking mix 
½ cup shredded or flaked coconut 
1 egg 
1 egg yolk 
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar 
½ teaspoon Passover vanilla extract 

Decorations 

Sifted icing sugar 

60 gm Passover dark chocolate, melted  

Method 
1) Heat oven to 180°C/350°F. Have a 17cm springform tin ready. There is no need to grease or line the tin.  
2) For the crust, put the almond meal, sugar and Passover baking mix into a food processor and whiz together until combined. Add the butter and whiz some more until it forms coarse breadcrumbs.  Press the crumbs into the base of the cake tin and about ⅓ up the sides of the tin. Put in the fridge to chill.  
3) For the filling, coarsely grind the hazelnuts, and then the pecans in the food processor. Sift the Passover baking mix into a bowl then add the ground hazelnuts, the ground pecans and coconut and whisk everything together.  
4) Either in a stand mixer using the whisk attachment or using electric hand beaters beat together the whole egg, the egg yolk and brown sugar until it is light and fluffy. 

5) Gently fold the nut mixture and vanilla into the egg mixture until it’s well combined.  
6) Pour the batter into the chilled crust and level the top before baking in the 180°C/350°F oven for 30-40 minutes or until the top of the cake is just dry but an inserted skewer comes out with moist crumbs. Start testing at about 25 minutes.
7) Cool on wire rack before releasing the springform tin and removing cake.  

8) To serve lightly dust the top of the cake with homemade icing sugar and decorate with a little melted chocolate if desired and a good dollop of cream.  

The cake keeps in the freezer for up to 3 weeks. If you are a margarine user, (I'm not) you could substitute it for the butter in the pastry converting this into a pareve dessert with maybe some vanilla bean scented almond milk ice cream on the side or whipped coconut cream.

See you all again tomorrow for another Passover baking treat.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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