SLIDER

mini lime meringue tarts

26 Feb 2018




Last weekend I met a friend for dinner and I always like to bring along something sweet to share so I decided to make some mini tarts. 



I used the passionfruit tart recipe from the Cook and Baker as my inspiration, then took the recipe from there. These little meringue tarts take a bit of time and effort but they are very tasty and look cute as well. 




It's lime season here so I decided to make lime meringue tarts. I made the tarts on one of the hottest days of the year so had all kind of problems rolling out my usually foolproof pastry recipe. I persevered and all went well in the end but I only made 12 tarts and put the remaining pastry back in the freezer for another day.



The tarts are best eaten the day they're made but if you store them in the fridge, they're still okay the next day. Don't store them at room temperature though as the pastry will soften. If making meringue isn't your thing you could always top the tarts with a dollop of cream topped with some grated lime rind.




Here's the recipe for you which makes 24 tarts. 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 20ºC.


Miniature Lime Meringue Tarts 
Almond shortcrust pastry
110g (4 oz) cold unsalted butter, diced
¼ cup icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
¼ cup almond meal
1⅓ cups plain flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
Cold water

Filling
2 egg yolks
1 tsp finely grated lime rind
200g condensed milk
120 mls lime juice

Topping
3 egg whites
180g caster sugar
Pinch of salt

Pastry
To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. Refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes.

Grease a 12 cup miniature muffin tin. Cut the pastry in half. Roll out the pastry quite thinly, cut into twelve 6 cm rounds then press the pastry gently into each tin before trimming the edges. Line each cup with a small square of baking paper and fill with baking beans. Chill for 30 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 190°C and bake the pastry shells for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool completely before removing the shells from the tray. Repeat the process with the remaining pastry. The shells can be stored in an airtight container until ready to be filled.

Filling
Lower the oven temperature to 170°C. In a small bowl, combine the egg yolks with the lime rind. Stir in the condensed milk followed by the juice. Mix thoroughly and return the mixture to the fridge for 10 minutes to allow the mixture to infuse. Pour the filling through a fine sieve into a jug before filling the pastry cases. Bake the tarts for 10-15 minutes or until the filling is just set. Allow to cool completely before refrigerating the tarts for at least an hour. Repeat with the remaining shells.

Topping
Preheat oven to 200°C. Bring a saucepan of water large enough to fit your stand mixer bowl to the boil. Put the egg whites, sugar and salt in the bowl of the mixer and whisk to combine. Reduce the heat under the pan so the water is just simmering, then place the bowl on the pan, making sure the water doesn’t touch its base. Whisk the eggs for five minutes by hand or using a hand mixer, until very warm, then put the bowl back on the electric mixer stand and whisk for about five minutes on a high speed, until the meringue is stiff and cool.

Place the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a 1.5 cm plain tube and pipe decoratively over the filling. You can leave the tarts as is or you can colour the meringue using a brulee torch or under the grill. I prefer to bake the tarts for 10 minutes or until the meringue is lightly coloured. Cool on a rack before returning to the fridge to firm up the filling.




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


Bye for now,


Jillian



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chocolate blackberry layer cake

19 Feb 2018



Last month I made 3 pots of blackberry jam but I'm not much of a jam eater so I needed to find a way to use up some of the jam. I gave a pot to my friend Jenny and whilst rifling through the pages of Ostro, I spied a photo of a chocolate layer cake with espresso frosting and blackberries and the deal was done.  



I used my own chocolate cake recipe and blackberry jam recipe but used the espresso frosting recipe from the book. I have a new wire cake cutter and used it to cut the cake into 3 fairly even layers.



I took the cake into work and it was demolished in record time. Here's the recipe for you which makes a 3 layer 18cm 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 20ºC.

Chocolate Blackberry Layer Cake
Cake
1 cup plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate soda
¼ tsp baking powder
½ cup strong hot coffee
40g cocoa, sifted
125g room temperature unsalted butter, chopped
¾ cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
⅓ cup buttermilk

Chocolate Espresso Icing
100g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
150g unsalted butter, softened
100 icing sugar sifted
1 tsp vanilla
30g cocoa, sifted
1 tbs strong coffee

To serve
⅓ cup blackberry jam
Fresh blackberries and chocolate curls

Method
Preheat oven to 190°C. Grease and line the base and sides of a 18cm tin with baking paper. Sift the flour with the baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Mix the coffee and cocoa together in a small bowl to make a paste, then set aside to cool. Cream the butter and sugar together with the vanilla until pale and fluffy. Add the egg then mix the flour into the mixture alternating with the chocolate mixture and the buttermilk. You should be left with a creamy smooth chocolatey batter. Pour the batter into the prepared tin, smooth the top then place the tin onto the middle shelf of the preheated oven. Bake at 190° C for 1-1¼ hours or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out dry. Leave the cake to cool completely before turning out onto a wire rack. When cool slice horizontally into 3 even layers leaving the best layer for the top layer. While the cake is cooling, make the icing.

Icing
Place chocolate in a microwave safe glass bowl. Cook in 30 second bursts until the chocolate starts to melt. Stir until smooth and all the chocolate has melted. Set to one side to cool. Cream the butter, icing sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the cocoa, the chocolate and the strong coffee and beat for a further 3 minutes or until the icing is light and fluffy.

To assemble
Place one cake layer on a cake plate. Spread a layer of blackberry jam over the cake layer then top with ⅓ of the icing. Carefully place the second layer on the top and repeat the process. Top with the final layer and ice with the remaining chocolate icing. Top with the chocolate curls and blackberries and refrigerate. Serve at room temperature.



Here's the finished product bedecked with chocolate curls and blackberries. It does look very pretty if I say so myself.

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

Jillian
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peach raspberry and ricotta crumble cake

12 Feb 2018



When I was home in Brisbane at Christmas I found a recipe in a magazine for a peach raspberry and ricotta crumble cake. As the cake recipe contained 3 of my favourite ingredients - peaches, raspberries and ricotta - I knew I had to make it. As soon as I was back home in Sydney I made the cake and it languished in the freezer waiting for my colleagues to return to work. A few weeks back I defrosted the cake and photographed it before taking it into work to share with my colleagues.



When making the cake I found the cake batter a bit dry compared to my usual fruit cake recipe so I added an additional egg and some extra milk to the batter. My cake also refused to brown so I baked it a bit longer than suggested hoping it would take on some more colour but it didn't really. I guess that's why you sprinkle the cake with icing sugar before serving.



Here's the recipe for you, adapted from a Gourmet Traveller recipe. 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 20ºC.



Peach Raspberry Ricotta Crumble Cake 

Ingredients
110g greek yoghurt
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup raw caster sugar
90g softened unsalted butter
15g almond meal
Finely grated zest 1 lemon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
optional - 1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
3 small ripe peaches or nectarines, halved and thinly sliced
60g raspberries plus extra to serve
100g firm ricotta, crumbled
Icing sugar, sifted for dusting

Method

Grease and line the base and sides of an 18cm cake tin with baking paper. Preheat oven to 180°C (conventional). Place the yoghurt and bicarb soda in a large jug. Stir to combine then set aside to foam for 3 minutes.

Place the flour, sugar, butter, almond meal, lemon rind, vanilla, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a food processor and process until crumbly. Transfer 1/2 cup of the mixture to a separate bowl and set aside. Add the eggs and the yoghurt mixture to the food processor and pulse until smooth. If the batter seems a little thick add the milk. Spread half the mixture into the cake tin and scatter with half the peach slices, half the raspberries, half the ricotta and half the reserved crumb mixture. Spread the remaining cake mixture over and smooth the top. Top with the remaining fruit, ricotta and crumb mixture and bake until golden and an inserted skewer comes clean, about 1 - 1¼ hours (cover with foil if browning too quickly).




Cool in the tin for 15 minutes then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Just before serving, dust the cake with icing sugar. Serve extra raspberries on the side and a dollop of cream if desired.




The cake was well received at work and I already have plans to add a layer of ricotta and crumble to my much loved plum cake recipe.

See you all again soon.

Bye for now,

Jillian
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apple crumble slice

5 Feb 2018



I had dinner with friends during the Australia Day Long Weekend and as is customary, I brought along dessert. My friends' son dislikes overly sweet, creamy or chocolate flavoured desserts so I normally bring along something lemon flavoured or containing apple. I don't like to bring the same dessert twice if I can help it, so I had to come up with something new and in a hurry.




I decided to make an apple crumble slice inspired by a picture I saw online. I used the apple filling from the Country apple cake recipe which uses canned apple slices, with the addition of some sultanas I'd soaked in tea to plump them up. If you can't buy pie apple, you'll need to stew about 1 kilo of green cooking apples before making the recipe and you could toss the sultanas into the warm apple, avoiding the soaking process.The topping and crumble came from the lemon curd shortbread recipe found in the Cook and Baker cookbook. I put the slice together and baked it hoping the elements would work together. 




There was probably too much filling for the tin but I squeezed it all in any way. The filling amount would work perfectly in an 8 x 12 inch slice tin but you'd need to increase the shortbread mixture by 50%. 

Here's the recipe for you. 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 20ºC.

Apple Crumble Slice - makes 8 slices

Ingredients
2 cups plain flour
pinch salt
150g caster sugar
185g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Apple Filling
800g tin pie apple
⅓ cup caster sugar
1 tsp grated lemon rind
¼ cup sultanas soaked in tea for 20 minutes, then drained
Icing sugar for dusting

Method
Tip: You can make both the dough and the apple filling in advance and keep refrigerated for up to 2 days.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Sift the flour with the salt and set to one side. In a large bowl cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Mix in the flour to form a soft dough. Press just over half the mixture into the base of a 20cm x 20cm lightly greased tin lined with non-stick baking paper. Wrap the remaining dough in plastic wrap and store in the fridge. Bake for 20–25 minutes or until a light golden brown.

To make the apple filling, combine the pie apple, the sugar, the lemon rind and sultanas in a large bowl. Spoon the filling over the cooked base in an even layer. Sprinkle or grate the remaining mixture over the apples and cook in the oven for 35– 40 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool in the tin, dust with icing sugar and cut into slices to serve.




I cut it into 8 slices so I could take a few photos before driving across the bridge for dinner. Thankfully I did because the slice was devoured in record time. The ingredients may be simple but when baked, the slice was absolutely delicious. The base was buttery, the filling tart with lemon. It's not overly sweet so if you like sweet desserts you might want to increase the amount of sugar in the filling but I liked it just the way it was. I can't wait to make it again.



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

Bye for now,

Jillian
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