I felt like baking today, so I produced 4 little pastry cases ( recipe the same like in blueberry tartlets plus some ground almonds) , filled them with fresh custard, topped with strawberries and some jelly on top to keep them fresh and shiny. It was a lovely and light dessert, will put some more different berries next time. Nice.
I just realized I’m being a bit boring here, all there is for the last few weeks are desserts. Should maybe get back to savoury stuff some time soon. Tonight though I went back to ” The Art of Pastry ” book and made a lime pie. Very pleased with it, I must say, it’s very light and limey, as expected.
The pastry base, baked in the newly purchased tin ( together with a new pair of jeans to cheer myself up ) was made with 225 g of plain flour, 115 g of butter, 2 egg yolks, 30g of sugar and a bit of cold water. Blind baked for 20 minutes.
The filling like this I tried for the first time ever, as I always associated condensed milk with things like toffee sauce and here they told me to whip it up with the egg yolks. And it worked a treat! 4 yolks, a 400g tin of condensed milk, a juice and rind of 3 limes, 2 tbsp of sugar I whipped together bit by bit, then added whipped egg whites and mixed in. I then baked it all for 20 minutes in 160 Celsius. It’s risen, but then sat down when cooled, still ended up with lovely, moist, light and fluffy texture. I finished it off with some whipped cream, bits of lime and mint. Will be making it again! 🙂
It’s Florek’s birthday today. I’ve cooked him a menu he asked for and even pulled off a proper Bento Box!!! The plan for green tea ice cream was far more ambitious, I did ask at work how to make it, I did go to Japan Centre on Picadilly to get the green tea powder, but eventually settled for Alex’s suggestion to simply mix the good quality vanilla ice cream with green tea powder. Yummmmmm!!!!!!! The fondant recipe is the same, today used Valrhona chocolate, picked by Florek in Waitrose.
It looked like this….
I love the way it looked in the latest issue of Good Food, so I made it tonight. Two small ones for us for dessert and a large one to take to work tomorrow to see what the Masterchefs of Dinings will make of it.
The pastry base I’m very happy with, it’s thin and crispy, just like it should be. Made with 200g of plain flour, 100g of butter and a bit of cold water, well worked and blind baked for 20 minutes. The filling is made of 90g of soft butter creamed with 180 g of caster sugar, 2 whole beaten eggs, 180 g of almonds- that’s in the ideal world, but Oluta only had a small packet of ground almonds, so topped it up with ground pecans, worked great! I used about 250g of overpriced blueberries, mixed most of them into the filling, the rest scattered on top and pressed in lightly. It baked in 190 Celsius for about 45 minutes. Finished off with icing sugar. Nutty and sweet.
I had promised my chocolate loving Florian, that I will attempt a dessert he used to love in Ubon times, the Chocolate Bento Box. That one was served in a posh little box with green tea ice cream on the side. The first recipe that Google coughed up was Fucking Gordon’s, but I decided to use it, it looked easy and I like the idea of being able to store it in the fridge overnight before cooking. As I’m busy massacrating my lawn, I think it will be handy tomorrow to have a dessert nearly ready.
For 5 fondants I used 100g of good, dark chocolate, same amount of butter, plain flour and sugar, plus 2 egg yolks and 2 eggs. First I prepared the ramekins, brushed them with melted butter in a similar way like for the souffle ( upwards) and dusted with cocoa.
I melted the chocolate and butter in a bowl above boiling water, then chilled while I whisked the eggs with sugar. The flour went in with the eggs and then the chocolate, all of that into the ramekins and in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
I baked them in 200 Celsius for 12 minutes. The smell in the kitchen was fantastic, but tomorrow I will keep them in for a bit longer. It’s supposed to be runny in the middle, mine today were a bit too runny, but tasted great. Florian finished his. 🙂
Another one from the great pastry book from Nikosia. I’m very pleased with it, though my Mum’s apple pie it isn’t. Different pastry, Mum always makes it kind of shortcrust, but my apples this evening were prepared with a lot of cinnamon and and … a zest of one orange. When the pie is warm, the orange peel comes through beautifully.
For the pastry I used 180g of plain flour, a pinch of salt, 90 g of butter and a bit of cold water to keep it together. Once combined I cooled it in the fridge and got cracking with the apples. I tossed the peeled and thinly sliced apples in a mixture of flour, sugar, cinnamon and orange zest. Most of the pastry went for the bottom, then in went the apples, then the rest of the pastry on the top, egg yolk and- which I remembered 40 minutes into the baking- caster sugar on top. I baked it in 200 Celsius for the first 30 minutes and for the remaining 15, in 150.
Served it with Waitrose’s finest vanilla custard.
Still working on it and dragging on about how good it is. 10 out of 10 today, really!
The pastry cases are lovely and crumbly, I used 75g plain flour, 50g butter and blitzed it. Then added 25g of sugar and pressed together for soft dough. With this amount of butter I didn’t bother buttering the tins, love the way they turned out after 30 minutes in the oven, the temperature was around 160 Celsius.
The toffee filling took 100g of condensed milk, 50 g of butter and the same amount of brown sugar, with a large spoon of golden syrup and simmered it for about 20 minutes.
Filled the pastry cases with it, while still warm and left to cool. Topped it up with sliced banana, squeezed some lemon juice on top, and finally whipped cream and a sprinkle of dark chocolate.
Very sweet and very rich.
As I thought yesterday, I ran to get some nuts and butter today and got cracking. As usual with the things I’m making for the first time ever, I compared a few recipes online and chose what I liked most of all of them.
And so I went for the nuts I like most- pistachios, pecans , almonds and hazelnuts. Having blitzed them not too finely I added lots of cinnamon and a bit of sugar.
When assembling the baklava I prepared the tray with baking paper, buttered it, then 5 layers of filo, each buttered, then a layer of nut mixture, 5 layers of filo, buttered thoroughly again, nuts and 5 layers of filo, all the same procedure, except that the last layers I slit slightly, it was supposed to make the slicing easier I think, but also the visual effect, when first peeked into the oven after 15 minutes made it worth while- it looked great, as the pastry puffed up slightly and started to become golden.
I baked it in about 150 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes and while that was happening, I made the syrup- simmered some water with sugar, about 10 cloves,lemon rind, at the end added a juice of half a lemon and a small spoon of vanilla paste. The syrup took about 20 minutes.
Having taken the lovely golden beauty out of the oven I pricked it in between the diamonds with a sharp knife and then spooned the syrup all over. I intended to let it all soak in before tasting, but I couldn’t. It’s lovely, nutty, sweet, but not heavy and not sickly like some shop bought baklava.
A good pat on the back. 😉
First ever, quite well executed, I have to say. Greg Wallace’s recipe, that I have actually followed step by step, as I have never made it before, hoping for an honest opinion from Florek, who loves everything that’s toffee.
For 2 portions I chopped about 40g of dates and simmered them in a little water until nice and mushy. About 40g of butter, 25g of brown sugar, one egg, 80g self raising flour and a touch of baking powder all made a nice, thick mixture, plus the dates. It was all baked in a bain marie for about 35 minutes in 180 Celsius. Mine had a slightly crispy bottom- wrong, apparently, will cover them with foil next time. While they’re baking, I made a nice and simple toffee sauce. 150 ml double cream, 75 g of brown sugar, 25 g of butter went into it. I heated up half of the cream and all the butter and sugar, stirring often, let it bubble for about 5 minutes until glossy and thick, then added the remaining cream. Very nice sauce and bloody simple.
The taste of the pud itself, I thought can be improved by a bit of cinnamon, maybe even a few chopped hazelnuts, to be done next time.
The photo does it justice today, does it not?
Presentation – wise, not as stunning as I was hoping it would be, but just had a look at other pictures on the net and it really is not too bad! And Florian just had the second helping. 😉
I baked the puff pastry in between two sheets of baking paper, with a heavy baking dish on top to keep it even. It worked quite well. I then sliced it in 3 layers.
The filling is a whipped double cream + vanilla paste, lemon zest and icing sugar with chopped fresh strawberries, all folded in. I grated some white chocolate as well and put in between the layers, as well as on top. And chilled for about an hour before serving.
Looking at the pictures I think I will click the Room for Improvement box as well, as the bottom layer of the pastry is not baked well enough. It tastes very nice though!