Winter Comfort Food with Apple & Ginger Tart Tatin

What can be more comforting than a warm apple tart? I’m not a big pie fan, one two many layers of pastry for my taste but hubby loves pies so the Tart Tatin is a good compromise and really easy to make. Don’t believe any of those Masterchef challenges that make it look hard, it really isn’t and if you use store bought puff pastry it’s even quicker.

I have used sweet short crust pastry and have offered my recipe here if you prefer to make your own make your own. With slightly more than half fat to flour in this recipe it ensures a nice rich melt in the mouth pastry. The recipe,will make 1 large tart or 4 mini tarts.

Ingredients
6 large apples, peel, cored and quartered
10ml water
100g butter
100g castor sugar
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 large sheet of puff pastry or recipe noted above

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Over a low heat dissolve the water and sugar in a medium sized frying pan (oven proof), cast iron if you have one.
Add the butter and gently heat until starting to caramelise. Stir in the grated ginger.
Add the apples and cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, shake the pan now and then to coat them in the caramel.
Remove from the heat and arrange the apples to fan round the pan.
Lay the pastry over the apples then tuck the pastry round the apples and down the inside of the pan.
Place tart in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden.
When the tart is cooked remove pan from the oven and allow tart to rest for 5 minutes.
Running a knife round the edge to dislodge any pastry that has stuck and invert the tart onto a plate.
Serve with cream, ice cream or yoghurt.

Chocolate Pear Galette with Praline Crunch

You will have seen this picture before, it’s the recipe I submitted for the food blogger feature in the Taste Magazine in April. I said I would reveal the recipe on my blog for those not in NZ after the magazine was no longer being sold in store so here it is. I will keep my fingers crossed that one day I can write and style more recipes for magazines. In the meantime you might find me on Stuff.co.nz Life & Style

Ingredients
180g plain flour
110g butter
50g sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp cocoa
2-3 pears
Praline Topping
50g hazelnuts
1/2 cup water
1 cup castor sugar
additional sugar for dusting
A little milk for glazing the pastry
Method

Method
To prepare the praline put the water & sugar for the toffee in a pan on a low heat until the sugar has dissolved then turn up the heat.
The sugar liquid should boil and start to turn golden brown, once it does turn off the heat and add the hazelnuts to the pan.
Pour mixture out onto a grease tin to cool. Once set, blend in a food processor or bash with a mortar & pestle!
For the pastry, place the flour, cocoa & butter in a bowl.
Work the ingredients together until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
Add the egg and gently knead the dough together and divide into 4 equal portions, shape them into balls and flatten.
Rest dough in fridge for an hour before rolling out.
Preheat oven on ‘bake’ to 180C .
Prepare the pears by coring them, slicing them into halves and then into 1 cm thick wedges.
Roll one piece of dough into a circle the size of a ‘side plate’.
Arrange pear wedges in a circle from the centre of the dough leaving 4cm free at edges.
Fold dough into the centre, pleating as you go, it doesn’t have to be perfect, galettes are rustic.
Brush the pastry with a little milk and dust the whole galette with sugar.
Repeat with the rest of the dough. Alternatively you can make one large galette.
Sprinkle praline mixture over the top of each galette and place on a non stick baking tray.
Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown (a larger galette will take approx 35 minutes).

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

I much prefer cupcakes to muffins, the texture is much lighter and they are a little treat you don’t feel guilty about having whereas the muffins sold here are dinosaur sized and leave you waddling around for hours afterward. I know you don’t need to eat a whole one at once but that is easier said that done when it is sitting in front of you. I’d like to say this was my invention a lemon meringue cupcake but I did first try them at the fabulous cupcake shop Delish in Forest Hill, Auckland and just knew I had to make my own. It’s a gorgeous little shop which sells many varieties of cupcakes as well as products to make and decorate you own cupcakes, they even take online orders.

Ingredients – cupcakes

• 125g butter
• 125g sugar
• 125g SR flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp milk

Method

1. pre heat oven 160C
2. Place 10-12 cup cake cases into a small cupcake tray, this help hold the shape of the cup cake.
3. Place butter & sugar in a bowl and beat with an electric whisk or good old fashioned wooded spoon until light and fluffy.
4. Add one egg at a time and whisk in between both additions.
5. Sift flour into mixture and fold gently through with a metal spoon so not to loose all the air that has been beaten in.
6. Spoon mixture into cases, about 2/3 full. I was offered a great tip from someone who read my blog and suggested using an ice cream scoop to get a consistent size, brilliant.
7. Bake in oven for 25- 30 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out of the sponge clean.
8. Allow to cool before removing from tin. Hollow out the centre and fill with ½ tsp lemon curd.

Making the curd and meringue means you use all of the eggs, yolks in the curd and white for the meringue. You will find a lemon curd recipe here, you will only need half the quantity.

Ingredients – meringue

• 2 free range egg whites (keep yolks for curd)
• 100g castor sugar
• 1/2 tsp white vinegar

Method – meringue

1. Pre-heat oven to 120C and line a baking tray with grease proof paper.
2. Place egg whites in a large bowl and whisk till fluffy
3. Gradually add the sugar 1 tbsp at a time, whisking in between each addition until firm peaks have formed.
4. Add vinegar and whisk again.
5. Spoon all meringue into a piping bag with a large nozzle and pipe onto the baking sheet enough meringue crowns for the top of the cupcakes.
6. Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes or until crispy but not brown.
7. Place crown on top of the cupcake and serve

Lemon Almond Bread

It’s Sunday morning and a rather late start to the day for me after a lively night with Friends. I’ve still managed to get my morning swim in before breakfast, albeit a slow crawl across the pool as the others keep lapping me. I’m starving on my return home but after a sausage workshop and a Bavarian festival yesterday all I find in the fridge are the leftovers; sausages, sauerkraut and potato salad, not really what I had in mind, the body is craving a sugar injection. Luckily I had made a double batch of sweet bread dough last week and pulled that out of the freezer to make something not so sausage like for morning tea. A quick rummage in the cupboard delivered ground almonds and lemon peel, if I bound them together with egg I though  it might make a kind of citrus marzipan filling. I’m please to say the results did offer a light bread with a not too sweet citrus marzipan style filling, very satisfying and now it was time to put my feet up and have a wee siesta after all that hard work!

Ingredients – makes 1 loaf

• 400g high grade flour
• 40g sugar
• 80g butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp dry yeast
• 1 cup warm milk
• 150g lemon candy peel
• 140g ground almonds
• 1 large egg
• sprinkle of slivered almonds for decoration

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C and line a baking sheet with parchment.
2. Add the yeast to the warm milk to allow it to dissolve.
3. Place the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the middle.
4. Add the yeast and milk, sugar, vanilla and melted butter to the well and bring together to form a tacky bread like dough.
5. Knead dough for 10 minutes and then allow to rest in a warm place till double in size.
6. Place the candy peel, ground almonds and egg into a bowl and beat together.
7. Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 2/3 inch thick, 14 inches by 12 inches.
8. Spread the almond mixture over the dough to completely cover and then roll across the narrowest width.
9. With seam side down place the roll onto a baking tray for a ‘free form’ loaf or into a loaf tin.
10. Lightly spray with oil and cover with a plastic bag.
11. Allow to prove till double in size.
12. glaze with a little egg wash and sprinkle with slivered almonds
13. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown

A Taste of Spring – Asparagus & Goats Cheese Galette

Once the asparagus starts to appear in the veggie stores it is a sure sign that spring is on it’s way, although it doesn’t necessarily mean the good weather is on it’s way and for Aucklander’s it can mean wet raining spring days and it is at this time of year that most people seem to complain about the weather. Being English I don’t think we have very bad weather here but then I am at an advantage having grown up in Northern England where you thought sitting on a beach with a windbreak and a blanket was a great way to spend summer!

The first flush of asparagus is always very expensive but I just can’t help myself, I just have to have some, I have waited eight months to see it’s little green tips again. This week alone I have eaten it ‘natural’ in a risotto and now in a Galette. Do I ever get tired of it? Never, so there will be lots of asparagus recipes to come.

Ingredients

• 180g of flour
• 110g butter
• 1 egg
• 1 large bunch of asparagus
• 50g goats cheese or goat feta, chopped or crumbled
• 2 tbsp ricotta
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• handful fresh thyme leaves
• salt & pepper.

Method

• Slice asparagus down the centre and remove about 1 inch from the end if it is ‘woody’. At this stage do not trim the asparagus down to size, you will do that once arranging it on the pastry.
• Mix together the ricotta, lemon zest, thyme and a pinch of salt and pepper together.
• Preheat oven on ‘bake’ to 180C.
• Place the flour & butter in a bowl.
• Work the ingredients together until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
• Add the egg and bring dough together then flatten slightly.
• Rest dough in fridge for 20 minutes before rolling out.
• Roll dough out to a circle the size of a large dinner plate
• Spread the ricotta mix over the centre of the pastry leaving an inch from the edging free.
• Arrange the asparagus around the centre, tips to the middle.
• Cut the asparagus down to size 1 inch before the edge of the pastry (where ricotta ends).
• Fold the outside of the pastry into the centre, pleating as you go, it doesn’t have to be perfect, galettes are rustic.
• Use the extra ends to fill in between the spears by slicing them lengthways to create a long triangle.
• Brush the asparagus with a little melted butter to prevent it from drying on the oven.
• Sprinkle with goats cheese.
• Bake for 35 minutes, until golden brown.
• Sprinkle with some fresh thyme and serve warm with a salad or a a slice as a pre-dinner nibble!

Torta Della Nonna

Thursday night I had an Italian Dining workshop and Torta Della Nonna was the dessert on the menu. The name means grandmother’s cake, and is a Tuscan and Roman classic. There are many variations – well, grandmothers vary don’t they! But are always a custard filling flavoured with citrus zest and often contain ricotta like this one.  Some are just a pastry base but others are topped with pastry also. You will nearly always see some sort of Torta della Nonna on sale in pastry shops – they generally look like custard tarts or flans.

The beauty of holding workshops often means there is ‘stuff’ left over so with some pastry and pastry cream left I was able to make a few individual tarts. Most fitting for the Torta Della Nonna I used my Nan’s very original tart dishes which must be at least  40 years old which I remember her using when I was a child.

The quanties below will make a 26cm flan dish

Ingredients – Pastry

• 180g of flour
• 110g butter
• 1 egg
• 50g of icing sugar.

Method – Pastry

• Preheat oven on ‘bake’ to 180C.
• Flour a 24cm – 26cm tart tin
• Place the flour, sugar & butter in a bowl.
• Work the ingredients together until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
• Add the egg and bring dough together then flatten slightly.
• Rest dough in fridge for 20 minutes before rolling out.
• Roll out thinly to fit pastry tart tin

Ingredients – ricotta cream:

• 250g of ricotta
• 3 eggs & 2 yolks
• 300ml of milk (room temperature, not straight from the fridge)
• 60 g of plain white flour
• seeds of one vanilla pod
• 150g of sugar.
• Zest of one orange
• 100g Pine-nuts to decorate.

Method – ricotta cream

• In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla seeds.
• Sift in the flour and whisk whilst adding it.
• Add the milk and whisk again to combine.
• Put the mixture in a pan on a low heat and stir continuously until it starts to thicken.
• Add the ricotta & orange zest to the custard, mix and pour into the pastry case.
• Sprinkle top with pine-nuts.
• Bake for 30-40 minutes.
• Serve dusted with icing sugar.

Chocolate Pear Galette with Praline Crunch

I promised I was going to make a chocolate galette and here it is…chocolate pear galette with a praline crunch topping. It worked perfectly and so simple to make, particularly since I had some chocolate pastry left over from a previous workshop. The chocolate pastry is just a regular short pastry with the addition of cocoa powder. Adding the sliced pears and making a quick toffee and adding the hazelnuts to to make a praline crunch. Of course if fyou didn’t want to make the toffee you could just add chopped hazelnuts.

The only downside of having pastry left over from a previous recipe was I really would have liked a lot more of these galettes they were so yummy! The recipe below will make four reasonable size individual galettes or one family sized galette. I recommend serving it straight from the oven with ice cream or cream.

I do seem to have an obsession with galettes at the moment and I am just waiting for asparagus to come in season to make a savoury one topped with some goats cheese….mmmmm I can almost taste it, just a few weeks to wait……

Ingredients

• 180g plain flour
• 110g butter
• 50g sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp cocoa
• 2-3 pears
• 50g hazelnuts
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup castor sugar
• additional sugar for dusting
• A little milk for glazing the pastry

Method

• Preheat oven on ‘bake’ to 180C .
• For the pastry, place the flour, cocoa & butter in a bowl.
• Work the ingredients together until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
• Add the egg and bring dough together and divide into 4 equal portions, shape them into balls and flatten.
• Rest dough in fridge for an hour before rolling out.
• Prepare the pear by coring them, slicing them into halves and then into 1 cm thick wedges.
• Roll one piece of dough into a circle the size of a ‘side plate’.
• Arrange pear wedges in a circle from the centre of the dough leaving 4cm free at edges.
• Fold dough into the centre, pleating as you go, it doesn’t have to be perfect, galettes are rustic.
• Brush the pastry with a little milk and dust the whole galette with sugar.
• Repeat with the rest of the dough. Alternatively you can make one large galette.

• Put the water & sugar for the toffee in a pan on a low heat until the sugar has dissolved then turn up the heat.
• The sugar liquid should boil and start to turn golden brown, once it does turn off the heat and add the hazelnuts to the pan.
• Pour mixture out onto a grease tin to cool. Once set, blend in a food processor or bash with a mortar & pestle!
• Sprinkle the mixture over the top of each galette.
• Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown (a larger galette will take approx 35 minutes).

Apple & Cinnamon Galette

Doesn’t apple and cinnamon remind you of winter? Those of you who saw the previous post will know this is one of my recipes from the epic ‘double cream’ weekend when it was wet and cold outside and we had a litre of double cream fresh from the farmer to consume. I’m proud to say we did consume it all and that was all within on week too! On one hand I am really sad that it has all gone, I miss the sneaky spoonful straight from the jar when I go to the fridge, on the other hand I don’t feel that I need haul myself through the water at the pool an extra ten lengths every day to shed it off.

I love the honesty of galettes, nothing to hide offering up just the bear basics, saying that, I have a class this weekend where we will be making chocolate pastry and I’m just pondering the idea of a chocolate, pear and praline galette!

Apple & Cinnamon Galette

Ingredients

• 180g plain flour
• 110g butter
• 50g sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 sour apples (I use Granny Smith)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• additional sugar for dusting
• A little milk for glazing the pastry

Method

• Preheat oven on ‘bake’ to 180C .
• For the pastry, place the flour & butter in a bowl.
• Work the ingredients together until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
• Add the egg and bring dough together and divide into 4 equal portions, shape them into balls and flatten.
• Rest dough in fridge for an hour before rolling out.
• Mix together the water, cinnamon and tablespoon of sugar together in a small bowl.
• Prepare the apples by coring them, slicing them into halves and then into 1 cm thick wedges.
• Roll one piece of dough into a circle the size of a ‘side plate’.
• Arrange apple wedges in a circle from the centre of the dough leaving 4cm free at edges.
• Brush apples with cinnamon mixture.
• Fold dough into the centre, pleating as you go, it doesn’t have to be perfect, galette are rustic.
• Brush the pastry with a little milk and dust the whole galette with sugar.
• Repeat with the rest of the dough. Alternatively you can make one large galette.
• Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown (a larger galette will take approx 35 minutes).
• Serve with cream or ice cream.

Master Chef & a Croquembouche Workshop

With Master Chef being all the rage and the topic of conversations here in New Zealand at the moment, yes..yes..I know we are a bit behind, I though it would be rather appropriate to hold a workshop with one of the ‘hardest’ challenges from the series. Croquembouche, something a lot of people had not even heard of until the final round of the NZ Master Chef and I was going to get everyone recreate there own in a three hour session! A mini one of course, not the huge tower one associates with a French wedding croquembouche but we were going to make everything from scratch; profiteroles, pastry crème & caramel toffee. The girls did an excellent job and here is their evidence, although I don’t think the evidence was around for long!

Below is the recipe we used from the Australian chef Adriano Zumbo, it isn’t difficult it just takes some time and you really need to put about 3 hours aside to complete it. Alternatively you could prepare the profiteroles and pastry crème a day ahead and then make the caramel and assemble the tower the day you are going to present it. I say present as it is rather impressive to offer guests even if it isn’t perfectly symmetrical. We ‘free formed’ ours rather than use a cone, in which case you start at the base and and allow each profiterole with caramel on it to set before adding the second layer, this takes no time at all.

Makes 50 – 60 profiteroles, the ones pictured are half of the below mixture each.

Choux Pastry Ingredients

• 200g Water
• 275g Milk
• 10g Sugar
• 10g Salt
• 200g Butter
• 265g Flour
• 8 Eggs

Choux Pastry Method

• Preheat the oven to 200C fan bake and lightly grease 2-3 oven trays and set aside.
• In a large pan combine the butter with water, sugar, milk & salt and bring to the boil.
• Remove from the heat and using a wooden spoon quickly beat in the flour.
• Return to the heat and continue cooking & beating until the mixture comes together and leaves the side of the pan, about 2 minutes to cook flour.
• Remove from heat and allow cool slightly.
• Transfer to a large bowl beat the mixture to release any more heat.
• Gradually add the eggs, one at a time.
• Beat well between each addition until all the eggs have been added and the mixture is thick and glossy. Beat for a few more minutes, or until thickened.
• Allow to cool before piping
• Spoon the mixture, in batches, into a piping bag fitted with a 1.25-1.5cm nozzle.
• Cover remaining pastry with cling film to prevent drying out.
• Pipe mixture onto trays about 3cm x 2cm high leaving room for spreading.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes, in batches, or until firm and hollow when tapped.
• Transfer puffs to wire racks.

Pastry Cream Ingredients

• Milk  600ml
• Eggs Yolks 165g
• Sugar  165g
• Cornflour 65g
• Butter  65g
• Vanilla 1 bean

Pastry Cream Method

• To make the pastry cream, place milk and vanilla bean in a saucepan.
• Heat gently until the milk almost boils, remove from the heat.
• Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornflour in a bowl until thick and pale. Gradually whisk in the warm milk.
• Return mixture to same saucepan and stir over medium heat until the custard boils.
• Spread over a tray to cool rapidly. Cover the surface of the custard closely with plastic wrap to prevent a skin forming, at 55°C transfer to a bowl and stir through butter and refrigerate to cool completely.
• Put custard into a piping bag with a nozzle less than 1cm.
• Poke a small hole in the base of each puff and fill with custard

Caramel Ingredients

• Sugar  330g
• Water  100g
• Glucose 130g

Caramel Method

• For the caramel, combine water and sugar in a saucepan until it boils.
• Add glucose, and cook until caramel in colour.
• Remove from the heat and dip the base of the pan in a bowl of water to cool slightly. Grease a cake ring and place ring mould on a baking paper lined tray, pour enough caramel to coat the base 5mm. This is the base for the croquembouche
• Dip the puff bases in enough toffee to coat and place upside down on a tray lined with baking paper.
• To assemble, oil the croquembouche cone.  Dip the sides of the puff balls in the toffee one at a time and place around the base of the cone. Continue adding balls until the cone is covered.
• Transfer the base for the croquembouche to a serving plate. Place a small amount of caramel on the base. Grasp croquembouche gently and lift from the cone and place on the caramel base.
• Re-heat the remaining toffee then dip two forks back to back in it. Spin toffee around the Croquembouche. Decorate with violets or sugar flowers.

Chocolate, Hazelnut & Orange Tart

It’s quite deceptive this tart, it looks rather pleasant but doesn’t jump out at you with decadence and have you drooling at the picture but believe me it is rather unexpectedly delicious! I saw the recipe in one of our local NZ food magazines and thought “hmm looks pleasant, I’ll throw that one together for sunday dinner with friends”. The combination of hazelnut, orange and chocolate together are perfect, not too sweet and quite luxurious. I don’t often make things twice but I loved it so much I made it again this weekend for a friends birthday treat…. I hope she lets me have some!

Ingredients

• 300g sweet short pastry
• 210g hazelnuts, finely chopped (not ground completely)
• 150g castor sugar
• 90g butter
• 2 eggs
• Zest of one orange
• 100g 70% chocolate, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp orange liqueur

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 180C.
2. Roll out pastry to fit a 24-26cm loose bottom tart tin. Place pastry case in fridge while making the filling.
3. In a large bowl beat together the butter & sugar.
4. Add eggs and beat for further two minutes until light & fluffy.
5. Add the chopped hazelnuts, chopped chocolate, orange zest and liqueur to the bowl and combine all the ingredients.
6. Spoon the mixture into the tart case and smooth the top.
7. Bake for 30-35 minutes on a low shelf in oven (helps cook pastry quicker) until the filing is set and golden in colour.
8. Allow to cool in tart tin before removing.