Category Archives: Desserts

Stephanie’s chocolate self-saucing pudding

July 19, 2014 5:46 pm / Leave a Comment /

Stephanie's chocolate self-saucing pudding

After reading Sarah McInerney’s article on chocolate self-saucing puddings (and it being a freezing cold night here in Sydney) I decided that I had to try Stephanie Alexander’s version.  I have been making the standard version, with no coffee since I was about 10 years old.  I have settled on her recipe from The Cook’s Companion but half way through prep I realise it doesn’t in fact have any coffee in the sauce and I cannot find any other recipe.  Perhaps it was an old recipe that she did for Sarah’s article back in 2011?

Chocolate self-saucing pudding was always a family favourite but this time I wanted to see if there was any benefit to cooking it in the combi on the ‘Cake plus’ setting like I used here with the choux pastry.  Why would there be I hear you ask?  Well, if this setting has a better control of the moisture in the oven during the baking process perhaps it will produce a better result?

What happened in fact was a quicker cooking time!  The recipe quoted 45 minutes, cooked on Cake Plus @ 160°C it took 35 minutes.  Perfectly cooked with a delicious crust and gooey sauce 🙂

Ingredients:  Serves 4-6

125g plain flour
scant pinch of salt
60g castor sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons Dutch cocoa
½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
½ cup milk
40g butter melted
1 egg
few drops of pure vanilla

Topping
180g brown sugar
2 tablespoons Dutch cocoa
1 cup boiling water

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 160°C Fan forced ‘Cake plus setting’  and butter a 750 ml pudding dish.  If you are not using a Miele combi then just Fan Forced.
  2. Sift flour, salt, castor sugar, baking powder and cocoa into a bowl, then stir in nuts if included.
  3. Combine milk, melted butter, egg and vanilla and mix into dry ingredients.
  4. Pour into pudding dish.
  5. To make the topping, mix brown sugar and cocoa and sprinkle over pudding batter.
  6. Pour boiling water carefully over all ingredients.
  7. Bake for 35 minutes until pudding feels firm when pressed lightly with your fingertips.  Use the ‘smell’ test, it will smell fabulous.  In a standard oven, cook for 45 minutes.

To serve, spoon out cake and its sauce while hot.  Serve with lots of fresh thickened cream….. Yum

Posted in: Baking, Chocolate, Combi Steamer, Desserts

Choux pastry

July 15, 2014 3:52 pm / 2 Comments /

Choux pastry

I have been doing a few pastry posts lately, but I haven’t done choux!  It is time to discover more joys of the combi steam oven with yet another treat.

This is a really old recipe from my first-ever French cooking classes in Melbourne that I talked about here.  I thought I would do Chocolate Profiteroles for our Bastille Day dessert and, they were delicious!

This is the first time I have done choux pastry in the combi. From my research I have learnt that it requires a ‘rising temperature’ and I do remember from my training all those years ago that it needs a dry oven.  The Miele combi has a ‘Cake plus’ setting that I have never really used.  It seemed to be just set at a ‘moderate oven’ which I thought you could just do manually yourself on the Fan Plus setting.  But after reading up about it somehow it seems to be fine-tuned to make a very dry oven with precise moisture control.  Sounds perfect for choux pastry and something new I have learnt about this appliance!

Ingredients:

150g plain flour
120g butter
pinch salt
300mls water
4 x 60g or 3 x 700g eggs

Method:

  1. Sift the flour with the salt onto a piece of baking paper.
  2. Place the butter and water into a saucepan over gentle heat and when the butter has melted, bring the water to the boil.
  3. Remove the pan off the heat and immediately tip in all the flour.
  4. Beat well until smooth and the mixture leaves the sides of the pan.
  5. Cool slightly, about 2-3 minutes
  6. Preheat oven on Cake Plus 170°C.  If your not using a Miele combi then just use Fan Forced.
  7. Whisk the eggs slightly and add a little at a time to the cooled dough.
  8. The dough should be smooth and shiny and just fall from the spoon but hold its shape.
  9. Using a piping bag and plain nozzle or just spoon the mixture into small balls on a lightly greased baking tray or tray lined with baking paper.  Put the tray into the oven and immediately increase the temperature to 180°C.
  10. Bake for 25 minutes until browned and crisp.
  11. Remove from oven and pierce the bottom or side of the profiterole and return back to the oven upside down to dry out for 4 minutes.  This will let the steam escape.
  12. Cool on a wire rack and store in an air-tight container.

There are numerous ways you can serve profiteroles.  Filled with the classic Crème Patissiere, whipped & sweetened cream, chocolate custard or ice-cream.  I personally just like whipped cream and a really, rich warm chocolate sauce drizzled over 🙂

Chocolate sauce:

180g dark chocolate, broken
1/2 cup cream
Dash of alcohol, Kahlua, Grand Marnier etc of your choice

Place broken chocolate pieces and cream into a bowl, cover tightly with glad wrap and steam @ 100°C for 1 minute.  Stir to combine and drizzle over filled profiteroles.

Delicious and always a favourite!

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in: Baking, Chocolate, Combi Steamer, Desserts

Pear tarte tatin

July 8, 2014 9:15 am / 4 Comments /

Pear tarte tartin

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love a good pear tarte tatin!  I certainly know Wendy does in the UK so I thought that I would do a recipe for her so that she can cook it in her combi oven.

Probably one of the most popular French desserts and certainly up there with our all time favourites.   There is just something about the texture of the soft, caramelised pears with the flaky puff pastry that makes it sooooo delicious!

Remember, puff pastry is better cooked in a combi steam oven so this is going to be the best tarte tatin you have ever made.   Honestly, I have never baked one before that had such beautiful puffed pastry as this had so I have added another pic below, just to prove it to you all. 🙂

Ingredients:  Serves 6-8

4-5 large brown (Winter) pears
60g unsalted butter, chopped
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp. lemon juice
Frozen sheet of puff pastry, thawed or rolled from a block.

Method:

  1. Peel, quarter and core pears
  2. Melt butter in a heavy-based frying pan that will fit into the combi.  Try something like the base of my Le Creuset 26cm shallow casserole.  It needs to be large enough to hold almost all of the pears in one layer but check it will fit first.
  3. Add sugar, stir to melt then add pears and lemon juice and simmer over a very low heat for approximately one hour.
  4. Turn as the pears start to caramelise being careful that they don’t burn.  You may need to cover occasionally but you will see that by the time they are ready they will be darker and well caramelised.  Checked they are cooked with a skewer.
  5. Move around until they fit into one single layer and are soft and a gorgeous colour.  The pears should be arranged attractively so when inverted they are in a circle.
  6. Preheat oven to 200°C Fan Forced and put in the oven rack
  7. Cut pastry into a circle slightly larger than the pan.  If your pan has a lid like mine then that was the perfect size.  Remember when cutting puff pastry use a sharp knife.
  8. Lay the pastry over the pears and tuck the edges in around the fruit.
  9. Change from Fan Forced to bake in Combination mode 200°C + 30% steam for 20 minutes until golden brown.
  10. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes
  11. Turn onto a heat proof serving plate.

Aviary Photo_130492474663098417

Serve with vanilla ice-cream or thick cream – yum!

 

 

Posted in: Combi Steamer, Desserts, Pastry

Favourite orange & poppy seed cake

July 4, 2014 10:04 am / Leave a Comment /

Orange & poppyseed cake

This is my favourite cake for a crowd.  The buttermilk makes it moist and the orange flavouring and poppy seeds make it special.  It would easily serve 20 and if you warm it just a little before serving and accompany it with syrup and cream it is the perfect cake for a posh lunch or afternoon tea 🙂

Ingredients:  Large cake serves 10-20

225g unsalted butter
1½ cups sugar
4 eggs separated at room temp
Grated rind 2 oranges + extra 1 for syrup below
1½ tsp vanilla
2¾ cups Self Raising flour, sifted
1 tsp bicarb-soda
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup poppy seeds

Orange syrup:  Prepare whilst the cake is cooking.

Place 3/4 cup water, juice half a lemon, 1½ cups sugar and grated rind 1 orange & lemon in a small saucepan.  Bring to boil and simmer 5 minutes.

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to conventional 180°C, lower shelf position or 160°C Fan forced
  2. Grease a large 26cm fluted ring tin with melted butter and dust with flour.  This produces a nice crust.
  3. Cream butter and sugar and beat well.  Add yolks one at a time.
  4. Mix in rind and vanilla
  5. Fold in sifted flour and bicarb alternatively with buttermilk then poppy seeds
  6. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff but not over whipped
  7. Fold gently into mixture with a large spoon or whisk and pour into tin.
  8. Bake 55 min until cooked when tested with a skewer.  Cool in tin 5 minutes
  9. Pour over a little of the lukewarm syrup over the hot cake and reserve the remainder for serving on the side.  If I make the cake ahead of time I just brush some syrup over an hour or so before serving and put the strands of the zest over the top.  Sometimes I dust it with icing sugar just before serving.

Delicious warm with extra syrup and whipped cream 🙂

Posted in: Baking, Cakes and Biscuits, Desserts

Chocolate baklava

June 10, 2014 3:18 pm / 2 Comments /

Chocolate baklava

I took my family to Alpha restaurant in Sydney for a joint birthday celebration in April and this is one of the desserts we chose.  Although I have made baklava on numerous occasions I had never made a chocolate version before.  Everyone loved it so I thought it fitting to make my version for our Greek dinner party.

My version is somewhat different than the typical baklava.  More lemon and less sugar, it doesn’t have that overly sweet hit at the back of the throat that you can get with a lot of middle eastern, syrupy sweets.

My original recipe came from our ancient Greek cookbook from the 80’s that we had in Melbourne.  It really is authentic but I always cut back on the quantities of oil and sugar in the recipes to fit with our tastes.  Eating a plate of something swimming in oil or burning your throat just because it’s ‘authentic’ in my opinion is crazy.  My children and friends just love my baklava and that’s what is important to me.

Served with just plain vanilla ice-cream I think that this chocolate version will also become a favourite!

Ingredients:

375g packet fresh Filo pastry
350g melted, unsalted butter
300g chopped walnuts
250g dark choc chips
1/4 cup sugar
1½ tsp ground cinnamon

Syrup:

3/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup honey
2-3 strips lemon rind plus juice 1 lemon
1 stick cinnamon
2-3 whole cloves plus extra for ‘pinning’ the top layers together.

Method:

  1. Mix all syrup ingredients together in a medium size pot.
  2. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

For the baklava:

  1. Chop walnuts and chocolate chips together briefly in a food processor.  This helps break up the chocolate and bind it with the walnuts.  Don’t over-process, you don’t want the nuts to be dust.
  2. Add the sugar and cinnamon and set aside.
  3. Melt butter slowly without boiling.  Cool slightly.
  4. Open filo pastry packet and lay on the end of damp tea towel.  Cover with the other end to stop the pastry drying out while you work.
  5. Line a tin 23cm x 32cm with double layer of baking paper that can extend up the sides for you to use as a handle to remove when cold.
  6. Brush the bottom of the pan with melted butter and start laying your filo on the base.  Depending on the exact size of your tin I brushed half a sheet of filo, folded it over to half and it almost fitted into the base of my tin.  I was about 2cm short on one side but layered them alternatively over this ‘gap’.
  7. Layer about 4 of these doubled, halved sheets on the base and then start layering with spoonfuls of the nut and chocolate mixture.  It shouldn’t be thick, just evenly covered.
  8. Cover each layer with two folded layers of filo and repeat until all the choc/nut mixture is used up.
  9. Now butter and layer the remaining sheets for the top.
  10. Butter the top well and with a sharp knife cut right through the whole thing into diamond shapes.
  11. Pour remaining butter over, stud the centre of each diamond with a whole clove to keep it together and bake in a slow, fan forced oven @ 130°C for 50 minutes then 150°C for 15-20 minutes more until golden brown.
  12. As soon as it comes out of the oven, pour over the syrup that has been strained to remove the whole spices.
  13. Set aside to cool.

Serve with vanilla ice-cream.  Delicious!

Posted in: Baking, Cakes and Biscuits, Chocolate, Desserts, Party Food, Pastry

Sticky date puddings

April 28, 2014 5:17 pm / 2 Comments /

Sticky date pudding

Somehow this classic slipped under the radar last Winter.  I don’t know how as I cook it regularly and I am sure I had it for at least one posh dinner party.

I prefer to cook these puddings in individual dariole moulds as they give a better height.  You can also use a large muffin tray, if it fits into your steam oven or ceramic dishes as I used in the Lemon & Coconut Delicious here.  Remember, the heat is absorbed better through metal so you may need to adjust the overall cooking time depending upon what you decide to cook them in.

As with all good things, favourites never go out of fashion!  Try it also with the addition of some finely chopped glace ginger.

Ingredients:

1 cup pitted dates, chopped
1 tsp bicarb-soda
250ml boiling water
60g butter, softened
¾ cup castor sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
½ tsp vanilla
1¼ cups self-raising flour

Method:

  1. Grease 8 x ½ cup dariole moulds or 10 smaller size.  If you want a quick, foolproof way to turn them out then cut little circles from baking paper to line each base.
  2. Place dates and soda into a bowl.  Pour boiling water over and set aside to soak for at least 15 minutes.
  3. In another bowl combine butter and sugar and beat until soft and well combined
  4. Add eggs & vanilla gradually, mixing well between each addition until you have a nice, smooth mix
  5. Fold in flour, dates and liquid
  6. Mix together well to incorporate the dates and pour or spoon into prepared moulds
  7. Place into the solid steamer tray and cover with a greased piece of baking paper that can just sit over the top of them all.  No need to cover individually.
  8. Steam @ 100°C for 16 minutes for the larger size or 15 minutes for smaller puddings.  Test with a skewer.

Let them sit for a few minutes before running a sharp knife around the sides and turning out onto individual plates.

Serve with warm Caramel Sauce below and whipped cream or ice-cream.  Garnish with some toasted walnuts for texture.  There is enough sugar in the sauce, they don’t need to be caramelised.  Enjoy 🙂

Caramel Sauce:

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup cream
40g butter

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan.  Stir over low heat until the sugar and butter are dissolved.  Simmer without stirring for 3 minutes or until thickened.

 

 

 

 

Posted in: Desserts, Steam Oven

Peach and amaretto trifle

March 24, 2014 9:46 am / Leave a Comment /

Peach & ameretto trifle

This trifle is a far cry from the trifle I grew up on but, as is often the case, we occasionally have a secret desire to eat Nan-nan’s trifle.  Her trifle was made from Swiss roll cake, sliced and layered around the base of the bowl.  It was then topped with what we thought was a really good mixture of sweet sherry and fresh orange juice so you didn’t get knocked over by too much grog. No jelly or fruit, just a lot of  boiled custard and topped with whipped cream.

Now I like to create different types of trifles and this one was developed out of an idea I had to use all the poached peaches from the steam oven.  Everyone knows that peaches and amaretto work so well together so I am sure this will become a family favourite too.

Ingredients:  Serves 4

½ x 200g packet Amaretto biscuits, roughly crushed
2-3 poached peaches, skins removed and sliced
150ml thickened cream, whipped
Extra amaretto biscuits to garnish
2 tbsp. Peach Schnapps or alcohol of your choice

Custard:

3 egg yolks
150ml cream
150ml milk
1½ Tbsp castor sugar
½ vanilla bean, halved lengthways and seeds scraped out or use ½ tsp vanilla paste
2tsp cornflour

Method:

  1. For custard: heat milk, cream & vanilla pod together until hot.
  2. Beat egg yolks with sugar and cornflour until pale and fluffy.
  3. Pour milk over and whisk well to combine.  Scrape the vanilla seeds into the cream mixture and discard pod.  If using vanilla paste you can also add it now.
  4. Return to saucepan and stir over a medium heat until it just comes to the boil.  This will cook the flour.  Simmer for 1 minute stirring well.
  5. Pour into a glass jug to cool a little.
  6. Meanwhile crush amaretto biscuits slightly and place into base of 4 glasses.
  7. Drizzle with the alcohol of your choice, I used a peach schnapps.  Not too much, about 1tsp over biscuits in each glass on each layer of amaretto.
  8. Alternate with sliced chopped peaches, custard and more amaretto.
  9. Top with a large dollop of whipped cream and some extra peaches.
  10. Refrigerate until required.  Add the biscuit to garnish just prior to serving.

 

Posted in: Desserts, Dinner parties

Steamed peaches, nectarines or apricots

March 22, 2014 4:53 pm / 3 Comments /

Steamed peaches

As I mentioned in a previous post the flavour of everything is better in the steam oven because all the nutrients are retained in the food and not lost in the boiling or poaching liquid.

This really shines through when steaming fruit.  Such an effortless way to serve fruit as a delicious breakfast or dessert.  I keep the added sugar content to a minimum, preferring to just use a little honey if necessary.  Let the natural flavours be the star 🙂

Timing is for medium size fruit so if your fruit is larger or smaller then always cook less rather than more.  Fruit will also stay in shape cooked in the steam oven as seen here with the rhubarb.  Also a great way to use up fruit that has passed its prime.  Remember to also steam your fruit for using in puddings and crumbles.  See my basic Stewed apples here too.

So healthy, quick and with no added sugar.  In stone fruit season there is no excuse not to have some in the fridge everyday!

Ingredients & Method

Just ripe peaches, apricots or nectarines, halved and stones removed

Place in the solid steamer tray.  No need to add any sugar.

Steam @ 100°C for 3-5 minutes.  Ripe apricots for 2 minutes.

Cool before transferring to your serving plate.   Simple and delicious.

 

 

 

Posted in: Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts, Gluten free, Healthy eating, Steam Oven

Cinnamon Ice-cream

February 20, 2014 4:48 pm / Leave a Comment /

Cinnamon ice cream

I have been making ice cream for about 30 years, long before it was fashionable to make your own.  I think I have the first ever ice cream machine from the 1980’s that contained the compressor.  I remember it cost a fortune back then.  It is still going strong (albeit weighs a ton and is super noisy).

I love the fact I can just throw a few things together and produce rich, silky smooth and delicious flavours or light and refreshing sorbets.  Ice-cream machines are now readily available and not that expensive compared to the 80’s.  The compressor models are still costly, but worth the investment.

I thought this ice-cream would be delicious as part of our Mexican fiesta lunch.  I served it with the Mexican wedding cookies here.  Try it, the double hit of cinnamon gives it that extra hit and everyone loves cinnamon.

Remember, if you are churning it more than 2 hours ahead of time you will need to remove it from the freezer to soften a little before serving.  I always found that churning about 5 hours ahead was the best so I could get it all cleaned up and out of the way before my guests arrived.

Ingredients:

6 egg yolks
120g castor sugar
300ml milk
450g cream
1 cinnamon stick, broken
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Method:

  1. Beat egg yolks with sugar & ground cinnamon until well combined
  2. Heat milk and cinnamon stick until just coming to the boil.  Set aside to infuse for about 20 minutes.
  3. Bring the milk back to the boil and remove immediately from the heat.  Strain into beaten egg mixture and whisk well until smooth.  Disregard cinnamon stick.
  4. Return back to the saucepan and stir over medium-low heat until the bubbles have disappeared from the top of the custard.  Be careful, it cannot boil or it will curdle.  Keep stirring until it just thickens a little so that you can wipe your finger through the mixture on the back of the spoon and see where its been.  You are better to under cook it than scramble it!
  5. Remove from heat and pour into a fresh container.  Set aside to cool.
  6. Whisk in cream and refrigerate until ready to churn.
  7. Follow your manufacturers instructions for this.  If possible churn approximately 4 hours before serving time.  Remove from machine and place into a covered container in the freezer.

Enjoy 🙂

Posted in: Desserts, Gluten free, Ice-cream & sorbet

Light mango cheesecake

January 5, 2014 2:28 pm / 2 Comments /

Mango cheesecake

We were having our American friends for a casual dinner so I thought I would try a new version of a favourite old recipe I use to make when my children were small.  It was a really light cheesecake that had a packet of jelly crystals in it and evaporated milk instead of cream.  Old fashioned I know but delicious and all Americans love cheesecake.

This is as light as they come, a little difficult to serve as it’s very soft and better made the day before if possible.  Not a good one for a buffet as it’s too delicate.  The original recipe had the biscuit base up the sides of the tin but I always find that has ‘too much biscuit’ so I changed it to the base only and increased the butter a little.  If you are worried about it being difficult to serve by all means increase the quantities of the base and put it up the sides.  It will then be easier to cut.

You can substitute different flavours as easily as changing the flavour of the jelly.  Try it with a strawberry or raspberry jelly and fresh berries that you need to puree then pass through a sieve to remove the pips.  As long as you have the same quantity of fruit you can do any flavour!  For this mango version use a very ripe mango for the puree and make sure you garnish all options with fresh fruit.

A good choice after all our Christmas eating!

Ingredients:  Serves 10

155 g plain sweet biscuits, finely crushed
80 g butter, melted

Filling:

1 packet mango jelly crystals
3/4 cup boiling water
250 g light Philadelphia cream cheese
1/4 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup mango pulp (approx. 1 small ripe mango)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup evaporated milk, chilled in the refrigerator overnight or freezer for an hour or so (170 g)

1 ripe mango extra for garnish

Method:

  1. Melt the butter and combine with the crushed biscuits.
  2. Place into the base of a 23 cm springform tin.  Press down on the base only with the bottom of a glass and put in refrigerator while you prepare the filling.
  3. Dissolve jelly crystals in boiling water and set aside to cool.
  4. Beat the cream cheese and sugar together.  Gradually beat in mango pulp and lemon juice.  Stir in cooled jelly and mix until smooth.
  5. Whip evaporated milk until thick (it beats up if it is really cold) and fold into jelly mixture.
  6. Pour onto biscuit base and refrigerate until set.  This will take a few hours or you can prepare the day before.
  7. Cut into wedges to serve and garnish with thin slices of fresh mango 🙂
Posted in: Desserts