Monthly Archives: February 2014

Chocolate Tart

Posted on by

IMG_3251This is the best ever chocolate tart…and I mean EVER! A crispy shell forms on top and then opens up to a soft, but not gooey, chocolate centre before you hit the crisp pastry that lies beneath. It is absolutely divine served with vanilla ice cream – or you may prefer cream.
If you’ve never made your own pastry before now is the time to start. Don’t be daunted by it, it’s really quite simple. I use this recipe whenever a sweet pastry shell is required, it works time and time again. It can be made by hand but I prefer to use my food processor. The trick with pastry is to handle the dough as little as possible, you need to keep your hot little hands away from the buttery goodness. In the food processor you really don’t need to make any contact with it at all. If making it by hand, just work quickly and in a cool area. If you’re making pastry on a hot day you’ll need luck on your side.
I think I initially pulled the pastry recipe from a cookbook called The Food of France – it’s an excellent book. The tart filling is from Delicious. Wicked Desserts.
Serves 8

Ingredients
Sweet pastry
340g plain flour
pinch of salt
90g icing sugar
150g unsalted butter
2 eggs beaten
Chocolate tart filling
150g dark chocolate (55% cocoa)
120g unsalted butter, chopped and chilled
5 eggs
220g caster sugar
70g plain flour, sifted

Method
For the pastry, in a food processor whizz up flour, salt and icing sugar until well combined. Add the butter, make sure it’s chilled, and pulse until the dough reaches a consistency of breadcrumbs. Add the eggs and process until just combined, be careful not to over process it. If making by hand, combine flour salt and icing sugar. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the consistency of breadcrumbs. Stir through the eggs. At this point it is the same for both methods. Turn the dough out onto the bench and knead for about 15 seconds until smooth. Wrap the dough in cling film and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Tip: If you want to work quicker with your dough flatten the dough into a disc to chill it down quicker.
IMG_3243 IMG_3247While the dough is resting grease a 24cm loose bottomed tart pan and preheat the oven to 180°C. Make sure you get into all the grooves if using a fluted tin. Once the dough has rested remove it from the fridge and begin to roll it out on a floured bench top. Again, try to work quickly. Once it has reached the desired thickness, about 4mm, roll the dough up onto your rolling pin to loosely place over the tart pan. Ease the dough into the pan, try not to stretch the dough at all, and gently push it into place making sure the pastry comes into contact will the entirety of the pan. Trim the excess dough about 1cm above the edge of the pan, the pastry has a tendency to shrink which this will allow for. Place back in the fridge to rest for another 10 minutes, longer on a hot day.
Once rested remove from the fridge and fill with baking weights (or rice), using a sheet of baking paper as a barrier. This will ensure your pastry doesn’t puff and rise when you don’t want it to. Blind bake for 10 minus, remove the paper and the weights and bake for another 10 minutes. It is cooked once the pastry has taken on a matt look and there are no shiny bits left. Remove from the oven and it is ready to be filled.
To make the filling place the chocolate and butter in a double boiler to melt the chocolate and butter. Wait until half the chocolate has melted before stirring it. Remove from the heat and set aside. In another heatproof bowl whisk together the eggs and sugar and place over the simmering water. Whisk continuously until thick, this can take a while. Once you lift some of the mixture out main part and it drizzles back in leaving an indentation it is done. Whisk in the chocolate mixture and finally the flour.
IMG_3248Pour the filling into the pastry case and bake for 20 minutes or until just set – when you put your finger gently on top you shouldn’t get too much of a wobble.
Serve warm or at room temperature and definitely with vanilla ice cream, or cream if you must.

If you’ve liked this post please like it on Facebook, or even share it. Thanks! x

 

 

Buttermilk Pancakes

Posted on by

IMG_3257When I want pancakes, I want them now! I’m never organised enough to make pancakes as most recipes want you to rest the batter before cooking it. Not this one! These pancakes are fluffy and delicious – the only trick is to remember to have some buttermilk in the fridge to make them. I first made these on a new year’s day several years ago and they came out perfectly, even if we were feeling a bit seedy from the night before. Sifting through my parents assortment of cookbooks I found this one in Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion Vol 2.

Serves 6 (just)

Ingredients
3 eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk
60g butter, melted
300g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp bicard soda

Method
In a large mixing bowl, beat egg yolks well, then whisk in the buttermilk and melted butter.
Sift flour, salt & bicarb soda over the buttermilk mixture and fold through.
In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites to soft peaks. Fold through the batter until fully incorporated, being careful to not beat out too much of the air.
Heat a large frypan over a medium heat. Coat the pan in melted butter to get a crispy edge to the pancakes and bake in batches of 2. If you want to keep the already cooked pancakes warm put them in the oven turned up to 100°C. Alternatively, if you have a BBQ hotplate you might even be able to get them all cooked in 2 batches.
Serve with your choice of toppings. I can’t go past fresh berries and maple syrup…yum!
If you’ve got a few guests for breakfast why not also serve some bircher muesli – easy to prepare ahead of time.

If you’ve enjoyed this post please like it on Facebook, or even share it. Thanks! x

Dumplings

Posted on by

IMG_3812
Chinese New Year has just gone, so it’s a great time to add these to your repertoire (if I had been more organised I would have put this up sooner). I don’t typically like dumplings. I find them smooshy, gooey and watery…plus I can never be to sure what’s in them when I buy them, just like when I buy a meatpie…what’s in there?! When I make them myself I know what’s going in them! They are the best dumplings I have ever had, if I do say so myself! They can be steamed or cooked pot-sticker style. I prefer to pot-sticker them as I like the texture of the crunch on one side and softness on the other side.
Although this recipe is for chicken dumplings you can substitute the chicken for other meats. Pork or chicken & prawn or pork & prawn all work very well.
I planted some Wombok this year especially for dumplings. I was surprised that it came up so well. However, it had to be picked pretty quickly once it was ready and I’m sad so say it once made it into one batch of dumplings and the rest went to seed in the veggie patch…there are just not enough hours in the day!
IMG_3113_fotor
Makes 24

Ingredients
2 cups flour
3/4 cup boiling water
1 chicken breast, minced
2cm cube piece of ginger, finely grated
1 Wombok (chinese cabbage), shredded
4 spring onions, finely sliced
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp chinese rice wine
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Dipping sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 red birdseye chilli, finely sliced

Method
Make the dough first as it will need to rest (if you don’t want to make the dough you can always buy gow gee wrappers from the supermarket). Combine the flour and water (make sure it is just boiled) in a food processor until just combined. Remove the dough and knead by hand for a couple of minutes. Wrap in cling wrap and set aside while you make the dumpling mixture.
For the dumpling mixture all that needs to be done is combine all the ingredients. Make sure the ingredients are all covered in the sauces. Be careful the mixture isn’t too sloppy as this will make the dumplings very difficult to handle – plus they’ll taste a little sloppy.
IMG_3907Now the dough needs to be rolled out, make sure you flour the bench sufficiently along the way. I find it’s easiest to divide the dough into two and roll it into a log with a diameter of about an inch. Then chop into rounds that about about 10g each. One by one roll the dough into thin rounds. Place a round of dough in the palm of one hand and scoop 1 tbsp of dumpling mixture into the middle. Enclose the mixture by folding over the dough and pinching the edges together. You can also make pretty patterns! Place the dumplings on a floured tray (the sloppier the dumpling mixture the more likely they are to stick to the tray).
If you want potstickers heat the vegetable oil in a  frypan that has a lid. Arrange the dumplings in the pan on their sides and cook on a medium heat for about 4 minutes, or until they start to brown on the underside. Pour in 1/2 cup of water and cover with the lid. Once the water has evaporated remove the lid and continue to cook for a couple of minutes. Remove from the pan to a platter. Combine the soy and chilli and serve with the potstickers (the earlier you do this more the soy will take on the chilli flavour – we like to do this early!).

If you don’t want to eat all the dumplings at once place the dumplings in the freezer on a tray. Make sure the dumplings aren’t touching each other. Once they are frozen you can put them in a container or plastic bag. Defrost before cooking according to the above method.

If you’ve enjoyed this post please like it on Facebook, or even share it. Thanks! x