Raspberry Friands

I made these little morsels of sweet, buttery goodness to use up some egg whites. I like to use a mini muffin pan to make them bite sized, but feel free to use a normal friand tin.

Raspberry Friands
5 egg whites
150g butter, melted
3/4 cup (100g) almond meal
1¼ cups (200g) icing sugar mixture
1/3 cup (50g) plain flour
100g fresh or frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to moderately hot (200°C/180°C fan-forced).

Grease 24 mini muffin pan holes (1½ tablespoon/30ml capacity). Alternatively you can use a proper friand tin.

Place egg whites in a medium bowl; whisk lightly until combined. Add butter, almond meal, sifted icing sugar and flour. Whisk until just combined. Divide mixture among prepared pans; top mixture in each hole with a raspberry.

Bake in moderately hot oven for about 15 minutes or until browned and cooked when tested. Turn onto wire racks to cool, right way up. Serve warm or at room temperature, dusted with sifted icing sugar, if desired.

Pea & Ham Soup

Well it is finally that time of the year where i get to bring out the soup recipes. My two favourites are Pumpkin and Pea & Ham, and i practically live on them during the colder months. I like to do up big batches of them and freeze them into portions for lazy dinners and work lunches.

I love the comforting feeling that soup gives, plus they are big on flavour and dead easy to make.

This is my mum's recipe for Pea & Ham soup, and although yes, it may not look that appealing, it tastes brilliant.

Pea & Ham Soup
500g packet green split peas
1 tbs olive oil
2 brown onions, coarsely chopped
3 carrots, peeled, coarsely chopped
3 celery sticks, ends trimmed, coarsely chopped
800g smoked bacon bones
2.75L water
2 dried bay leaves
Pepper, to taste

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook, uncovered, stirring often, for 10 minutes or until the onion is soft. Add the split peas, bay leaves, bacon bones and water. Cover and bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 1 3/4 hours to 2 hours or until the bacon begins to fall off the bone and the soup thickens. Remove the pan from the heat.

Use tongs to remove the bacon bones from the pan. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Use your hands to pull the bacon off the bone. Discard the bone. Shred the bacon. Return the bacon to the soup and season with pepper.

Stir the soup over low heat for 4-5 minutes or until heated through. Serve with toasted bread or croutons.

Apple Crumble Muffins

I generally don't bake on weekdays, mainly due to lack of time. But as I was feeling a little guilty that my poor beloved had been going hungry during the day, I decided to whip up a batch of muffins. They could have done with a little more cinnamon, but overall they were quite nice.



Apple Cinnamon Muffins
300g (2 cups) self-raising flour
150g (1 cup) plain flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
400g can pie apple, coarsely chopped
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
375ml (1½ cups) milk
190ml (¾ cup) oil

Crumble Topping
1/2 cup self-raising flour
1/4 dessicated coconut
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup rolled oats
70g butter, melted

Grease 16 holes of 2 x 12 hole (1/3 cup capacity) muffin pans. Sift dry ingredients into bowl, stir in apple and sugar, then combined eggs, milk and oil; do not over-mix, batter should be lumpy. Spoon mixture into pans. Sprinkle muffins with the crumble topping.

Bake at 200°C for about 20 minutes or until browned and firm. Stand 2 minutes, remove from pan; cool on wire rack.

Topping - Combine all ingredients in a bowl and use a fork to stir. Add more melted butter if the mixture is too dry.

Lemon Meringue Pie

It has been a while since I have cooked a dinner for friends, so I decided this was the weekend to do it. I eagerly started planning a menu on Sunday morning, which had Italian/medit flavours. My favourite course to make is without a doubt, dessert, and this weekend it was to be Lemon Meringue Pie (ok, not so mediterranean, but the lemon complimented the flavours well).

I have tried a couple of different Lemon Meringue Pie recipes, but none have yet been to my taste.

I like a creamy filling, with a subtle lemon taste. Not over powering, or too sour.

So far, this has been my favourite Lemon Meringue Pie recipe, although I will continue my search for the perfect pie.

Sweet Pastry
380g plain flour
160g caster sugar
Pinch salt
160g cold butter, diced
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 180°C. Place the flour, sugar, salt and butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the eggs and process until dough just starts to come together.

Turn on to a lightly floured surface and gently knead until just smooth. Shape into a disc and cover with plastic wrap, then place in the fridge for 10 minutes to rest.

Roll out the pastry to a 15 x 40cm rectangle, about 3mm thick. Line a shallow rectangle 10 x 34cm (base measurement) fluted tart tin with a removable base with the pastry and trim any excess. Place in the fridge for 15 minutes to rest. Use a round tart tin if you prefer.

Line pastry with baking paper and fill with baking weights. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove paper and rice and bake for a further 5-10 minutes or until firm to touch. Cool pastry in tin.

Filling
395g Sweetened Condensed Milk
3 eggs, separated
2 tsp grated lemon rind
½ cup fresh lemon juice
½ cup caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180°C. Beat together Condensed Milk, egg yolks, lemon rind and lemon juice. Pour into prepared pastry base.

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in sugar until sugar has dissolved. Spoon or pipe meringue over filling.

Bake 15-20 minutes until golden. Serve warm or cold.



Notes
Again, if the pastry is a little dry, add a touch of water after adding the eggs.
The pastry recipe makes double what you need. Cut the dough in half, and freeze to use for another time.

Buttermilk Pancakes

I love lazy Sundays, although this was not going to be one of them. I usually do a cooked breakfast on Sundays, with Crepes or Pancakes being my beloved’s favourite.

This weekend I decided to do Buttermilk Pancakes. These pancakes are beautifully fluffy and flavoursome. I top mine with a sweet vanilla bean mascarpone, ripe strawberries, and maple syrup.

Buttermilk Pancakes
2 eggs
2 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoons vanilla extract (i like to use vanilla bean paste)

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl whisk eggs. Add buttermilk and vanilla and mix well.

Make a well in the dry ingredients, and add the buttermilk mixture whilst whisking. Mix well until the batter is smooth. Leave batter for 15 or so minutes to rest.

Heat non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Pour one ladle of batter onto the pan and cook on the first side until bubbles that form start to pop. Flip the pancake over with a spatula and cook until golden brown. Repeat until all the mixture has been used.

Serve the pancakes with whatever topping you like.

Mint Slice Tart

I have a thing for tarts at the moment. This week I was still feeling like something chocolately, but with a bit of a kick. After trawling through recipe’s of chocolate tarts, it hit me: Chocolate Peppermint Tart.

I knew in my head the kind of tart that I wanted. Chocolate biscuity pastry, a layer of peppermint crème, followed by chocolate mousse, encased with a layer of slightly crisp ganache. I was after something reminiscent of the beloved Mint Slice biscuit.

So I played Frankenstein, mixing parts of recipes together and came up with the following. Rich, decadent, and a little (ok, a lot) naughty.

Chocolate Pastry
320g plain flour
60g cocoa
160g caster sugar
Pinch salt
160g cold butter, diced
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 180°C. Place the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt and butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the eggs and process until dough just starts to come together.

Turn on to a lightly floured surface and gently knead until just smooth. Shape into a disc and cover with plastic wrap, then place in the fridge for 10 minutes to rest.

Roll out the pastry to a 15 x 40cm rectangle, about 3mm thick. Line a shallow rectangle 10 x 34cm (base measurement) fluted tart tin with a removable base with the pastry and trim any excess. Place in the fridge for 15 minutes to rest.

Line pastry with baking paper and fill with baking weights. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove paper and rice and bake for a further 5-10 minutes or until firm to touch. Cool pastry in tin.

Peppermint Crème
2 cups icing sugar (sifted)
1/4 cup cream
25g melted butter
1 tsp peppermint essence (or to your taste)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, and spread a layer over the cooled pastry. Refrigerate until firm (about 30 minutes to 1 hour).

Chocolate Mousse
250g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
4 eggs, separated
185ml thickened cream
2 Tbl caster sugar

Melt chocolate in a double-boiler or heatproof bowl over a pan of low simmering water. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

Add the yolks, stir to combine and set aside (it will look a bit weird and gluggy but this is ok).

In a separate bowl, whisk cream until soft peaks and set aside.

In another bowl, whisk eggwhites with an electric mixer until frothy. Then gradually add the sugar and continue whisking until it forms soft peaks.

Add a little of the cream and stir into the chocolate mixture to soften it up and make it easier to mix.

Fold a 1/3 of the eggwhite mixture gently into the chocolate mixture, then fold in a 1/3 of the remainder of the cream. Repeat with remaining eggwhite and cream until all combined.

Spoon over cold peppermint crème in the tart case. Spread the mousse to the edges and smooth the top. Refrigerate until firm (about 2-3 hours).

To Finish
150g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
60ml pouring cream
20g unsalted butter, softened

Combine chocolate and cream in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until chocolate melts.

Remove from the heat, add butter and stir to combine.

Cool until it's a touch warm, then spread over the fully chilled chocolate mousse in the tart case and smooth top. Refrigerate immediately until set (about 30-40 minutes).

Notes
The pastry makes quite a bit (i had a bit under half left over). Freeze the left over portion to use again. I also felt the pastry was a little too dry to work with, so added a teaspoon or so of water after i added the eggs.
The peppermint crème was a bit too stiff to spread, so i added a little milk to make it a touch runnier.