My husband bought some lovely frozen raspberries and asked me to find something to bake with them. He didn't want a cake. He was thinking "pie". I found frozen raspberry pie which looked pretty good. And of course baked berry pie (we have blueberries too) with pie crust - which I've not yet tried to make. I was thinking "tart" and thougth back to when I recently made a lemon meringue pie and how well that turned out. I wondered, "Is there such thing as a raspberry meringue pie?"
Turned to the trusty internet and typed in raspberry meringue pie and lo and behold there is!
I checked quite a few recipes, and of course needed one that called for frozen raspberries.
I decided to go with this recipe from NZ Woman's Weekly but chose to use a pastry recipe from my Essential Baking cookbook - the same one from the lemon meringue pie I'd made, which was now tried and true.
PASTRY
185 g (1 1/2 cups) plain (all purpose) flour
2 tablespoons icing (confectioner's) sugar
125 g (4 1/2 oz) unsalted butter, chilled and cubed (note: I grated it from chilled, much easier to work with)
60 ml (1/4 cup) chilled water
Sift the flour and icing sugar into a large bowl. Using your fingertips, rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add almost all the water and mix with a flat bladed knife or pastry tool using a cutting action until it forms a firm dough. Add more liquid if the dough is too dry. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and gather together into a ball. Roll between two sheets of baking paper until large enough to fit your tart pan or pie dish (23 cm / 9 inch). Line the pie dish with the pastry, trim the edge and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F / Gas 4.
Line the pastry with a sheet of baking paper and spread a layer of baking beads or uncooked rice evenly over the paper. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove the paper and beads. Bake for a further 10 minutes or until the pastry is lightly golden. Leave to cool.
MY RASPBERRY MERINGUE PIE COOLING
FILLING
1 cup frozen raspberries 1¼ cups milk ½ cup caster sugar 2 tbsp cornflour 2 egg yolks Juice of 2 lemons
MERINGUE
3 egg whites ½ cup caster sugar
DIRECTIONS 1. Make the pie crust as above.
2. Place the raspberries into the bowl of a food processor or blender and process until fine crumbs. Place the milk, sugar and cornflour into a saucepan and whisk until well mixed. Allow the mixture to boil and thicken. Pour half a cup of the hot milk into the egg yolks while whisking. (Note: you're going to pour the hot milk in slowly and whisk lots because you don't want the eggs to cook / scramble.) Pour the egg yolks back into the pan and continue to whisk until well mixed. Add the lemon juice and raspberries and mix well.
3. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff, gradually add the sugar while continuing to beat until the mixture is smooth and glossy.
4. Pour the raspberry filling over the pastry base and pile the meringue on top. Bake for 15 minutes until the meringue is golden.
FINISHED PRODUCT
Well - it's done.
Reflections - I could have cooked it a little bit longer during the blind baking, so the pastry would be golden. I'd love to learn how to peak the meringue better and could maybe have used a bit more meringue on it. Cut the pie a little early - couldn't wait! - so the filling was a bit warm and just a bit runny. But all in all we love it! Tasty and tart! It's going to be difficult not to eat the whole thing tonight!
Here's a lovely appetizer I found and made for friends this weekend and I have to highly recommend it. It's savoury and has great textures, atop the crunchy grilled bread.
I combined ideas and ingredients from two recipes, and modified a bit.
First, I liked the idea of roasting the chickpeas, from the first recipe. And if I had remembered to get parsley I'd have included it, from this recipe, but I forgot!
I used canned chickpeas, which is just fine, and roasting them is that added element that really made the dish I think.
I bought a package of "traditional bruschetta bread" which was nicely cut into pieces like the ones in this picture.
Roast the Chickpeas: Preheat the oven to 230 C / 450 F. On a cookie or baking sheet, spread out the chickpeas and drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and mix it all up. Roast for 20 minutes or so, or until golden brown. Set the tray aside to let them cool off.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together, and add the roasted chickpeas when cooled. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Allow to marinate for at least 20 minutes, preferably longer.
Toast the bread or grill it for more dramatic presentation. Spoon mixture on bread, drizzle with olive oil, and serve.
Final comments
Ok so you definitely have to take up some of the oil when you're spooning up the chickpea and olive bruschetta mixture as well as drizzle enough oil onto the bread so that the bread isn't dry. Use lovely extra virgin olive oil and it's oh so yummy.
I put a spoon out with the tray of bruschetta so that my guests could pick up their bruschetta and transport it to their with their hand, then go back with the spoon and scoop up the stray chickpea & olive bruschetta mixture that may have fallen off so they can get every last bit.
Everyone really liked it, and so did I. I'll definitely be making this again!
Substitutions: light crunchy peanut butter instead of creamy ... dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar ... dark & milk chocolate disks roughly chopped instead of chocolate chips. Addition: flaxseed for some omega 3
Note: My cookies came out all big and flat ie the spread out a bit too much. Oh well, I think it was partly because my oven wasn't quite hot enough.
They still smell yummy - can't wait to eat 'em!
Update: Tasted and OMG YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!
No Butter Banana Cake
Also, had one lonely, browning banana and no butter left. So I adapted a no butter banana loaf recipe I found online to make a small banana cake. I have a couple of small cake tins that come in really handy at times like this.
I used one banana, almost a cup of flour, a quarter cup of sugar and the rest of the ingredients adjusted accordingly. Added crushed walnuts mixed with a little suger, sprinkled over the top.
Making the most of a Friday off ... earnest housecleaning and then a yummmmmmy brunch. Scrambled eggs with fresh herbs (basil & chives) from the balcony and a little dried oregano, oven cooked bacon with fresh rosemary, beans (from a can) and wholegrain toast with peanut butter (for the hub) and vegemite (for me) plus some sauteed mushrooms, tomato, basil & chives. OJ and crisp, cold chardonnay.
Hubster's got some fish cake mixture cooling - it involves bbq'd salmon he'd already cooked (we had it for dinner but heaps left over) and mashed potato + many delectable ingredients.
He's going to marinate chicken for skewers on the barbie, so edit in a bit with that info.
I'm planning to make cookies and a small banana loaf. More updates to come.
Chocolate treats count: 1/2 I've given the hub these special orange chocolate wafers early. Lindt chocolate bunny on Sunday unless for some reason it must come out sooner. :)
The hubster bought me a set of Ninja Bread Men cookie cutters for Christmas, along with a few other baking tools. Isn't he lovely? Of course he benefits from my baking addiction too. :D)
As I'm off for a day on a friend's boat tomorrow, I offered to bring the sweet / dessert and decided to try out my new cookie cutters using the 'gingerbread people' recipe from another of the hubster's Christmas gifts, the Essential Baking cookbook.
Holy wow these things are hard to decorate for a novice. No way I'm getting close to what's on the package, dude. Thanks to Stephanie Stiavette over at a blog called A Culinary Life for posting her approach to decorating them.
This is the best I could do this first try. I think they're good enough to take on tomorrow's boat ride. They're definitely tasty. Here's my little ninja army.
Every year the people in our building have a holiday gathering in the back garden, including friends from neighbouring buildings in the invitation. It's an everyone-please-bring-a-plate affair, and this year I'm planning to bring sausage rolls.
I haven't made them before, but I've made meat fillings for various things and I use puff pastry a fair bit, so I'm going to go for it and I'm thinking it'll be pretty tasty.
Here's the receipe and directions. I'm posting it BEFORE I make it as I'm trying my best to get the recipe right just based on reading and thinking and reviewing my past meat fillings etc. I'll post again afterwards to see if there were any changes / adustments / notes / things I missed.
Snausage Rolls
Ingredients
4 - 5 pieces frozen puff pastry
500g organic beef mince
500g organic pork sausages - minced / take off casing & use filling only
2 bacon rashers, finely chopped
1.5 onions finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 small carrot grated
fresh parsley
fresh thyme
½ cup -1 cup bread crumbs – grate bread to make your own
dried oregano
fresh sage
salt
pepper
1 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp Worchester sauce
egg wash (egg whisked in a bit of milk)
sesame seeds
Directions
·Chop and prepare ingredients
·Line 2 baking trays with baking paper
·Preheat oven to 200 C
·Take puff pastry out of freezer and separate pieces to soften up
·Saute onions and garlic with a bit of oil or butter to soften; let cool
·Put mince, bacon, carrot, herbs, salt, pepper, onions, garlic, bacon, bread crumbs, mustard and Worchester sauce in a bowl and mix with hands
·Roll; cut into party size pieces; brush with egg wash; sprinkle with sesame seeds [How to roll: Starts at 2:06 ]
·Place on baking tray, seal side down
·Bake for 20-25 minutes until pastry is puffed and golden
I pretty much used the following recipe from a website called SpringChild, with some notes alongside with an R>.
Chocolate Hazelnut Palmiers Ingredients [R>Didn't have Hazelnut so modified to Nuts] 4 ounces homemade puff pastry or 1/8 package frozen pastry thawed but still slightly chilled [R>1 sheet frozen puff pastry] 1 beaten egg [R>This is for wash. Didn't have, so used brown sugar mixed with water&cream.] 1/3 cup finely chopped roasted hazelnuts [R>Used chopped mixed salted nuts + fig & pecan cookie] 1/4 cup chopped chocolate chips [R>Used 1/2 milk chocolate chops and 1/2 dark chocolate melts] 1/4 cup light brown sugar 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg 1 tablespoon butter
Method: Heat oven to 425 degrees [R>218 celcius]. Grease a baking sheet with some butter or some pan spray. [R>I use baking paper] In a medium bowl, combine the hazelnuts, chocolate chips, brown sugar, spices, and butter. Roll out the puff pastry to 8x12 inch [R>A4] rectangle. Brush the pastry with some of the beaten egg. Sprinkle the surface of the puff pastry with the nut mixture, leaving a couple of inches at either end and using 2/3 of the nut mixture. Fold the short sides of the rectangle into the middle. Brush the tops with the egg and sprinkle on the rest of the nut mixture. Fold the folded edges into the middle. Brush the top with the egg. Fold the pastry in half to form a roll. Cut into 16 slices. They will be kind of pretzel shaped! Bake for about 10 minutes and the pastry is golden brown. [R>Took about 14 in my oven.]
Thanks for posting this recipe SpringChild. My filling was chunkier and my palmiers are not as well formed as the ones in the photo posted with the recipe, but for the first time I'm pleased. And they taste yummy.
It's my anniversary weekend (happy 5th hubster!) and I wanted to make my husband something sweet. I was thinking cake and if it's for the hub it must be chocolate. But chocolate cake is really not my fave, so it has to have some other element to it for me. Nuts work. Or maybe something of the marble cake variety. So I headed over to the Joy of Baking which is a good online resource for tested, trialed recipes.
Ater reading through a variety of mouth-watering recipes and crossing many off the list due to what I've got in the kitchen at the moment (no fruit, no cream cheese), I've landed on a Chocolate Hazelnut Torte though I will be making some modifications. (I'm posting this as I bake the torte.)
CHOCOLATE ALMOND TORTE RECIPE
Ingredients
1/2 cup (70 grams) unsalted slivered almonds, toasted in a dry frying pan (careful to lightly toast, NOT brown them)
1/4 cup (30 grams) all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
4 large eggs (divide when cold, egg whites in one container, yolks in the other; warm to room temperature - about 30 mins)
6 ounces (170 grams) dark chocolate baking melts
6 ounces (170 grams) unsalted butter cut into piecea
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated caster sugar; divided 1/2 cup or 100g + 1/4 cup or 50g
Seeds from 1 vanilla bean
1 tsp pure maple sugar, granulated
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Directions adapted from Joy of Baking [with mine in brackets]
A note about 'folding': seeing the word 'folding' in a recipe is a signal to me not to mix like I usually do, all haphazard and boisterously mixing indredients together, but rather taking my time, turning the bowl, and gently folding the ingredients together to maintain fluffyness and airation. It's a lesson I had to learn.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees F / 190 degrees C. Line the bottom of a cake pan or springform pan with parchment paper.
In a heatproof bowl, over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter. Remove from heat and set aside.
Beat the egg yolks with 1/2 cup / 100 grams sugar until pale and thick (about 3 - 5 minutes). (When you raise the beaters the mixture will slowly fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.) Beat in the vanilla extract [and the maple sugar]. With a rubber spatula gently fold in the warm chocolate mixture and the nut and flour mixture. Set aside while you whip the egg whites.
In a clean bowl, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites, at medium speed, until foamy and then add the cream of tartar. Continue beating until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup (50 grams) sugar, beating at high speed until stiff but not dry. With a large spatula or whisk, fold a small amount of the whites into the chocolate batter to lighten it. Quickly fold in the remaining whites. Do not over mix or the batter will deflate. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes , or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake shows moist crumbs.
Cool the torte completely in the pan on a wire rack. It will rise and then fall in the center, leaving a higher rim of cake around the sides and there will also be some cracking and crumbs. Once the torte has cooled completely remove from pan. Serve with softly whipped cream.
Decoration
I'm thinking a dusting of icing sugar then some artful squiggly lines of cake decorating icing topped with shaved macademia nut & chocolate bar that I've got in the fridge.
Cooling stage note
Omg I have cooled the cake a bit and popped it out of the spring form cake pan and it's looking so goooooood! How exciting. Can't wait for it to cool so I can decorate it. Photo to come once that's done.
Final note
Ok ... the cake was falling apart a bit so what? I had to keep the baking paper under it when I transferred it to the plate, so what? I decorated it and cut it and served it with a bit of whipped cream and WOWSERS this torte tasted so very very good. Scrumptious even. I highly recommend making this recipe.
I heard it on Masterchef. "Mise en place." I know what it means, I think at the time. Putting things in place, or something like that. I looked it up and Wikipedia tells me, "Mis en place, literally "putting in place", is a French phrase defined by the Culinary Institute of America as "everything in place", as in set up. It is used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients (e.g., cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components) that a cook will require for the menu items that he or she expects to prepare during his/her shift."
And I realise that it's all about one of my favorite parts of the cooking experience ... getting all the ingredients measured and ready and set out so they're poised to be used in your culinary creation. I mean, I don't go to the level of prep a chef would, but I do love getting it all ready and I love how it looks all together as well.
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That's a photo of the ingredients for a broth used when the hub braised a couple of lamb shanks. Roughly chopped carrot, shallot, garlic, celery, mushroom, red chilli (not the super hot kind). Also in the broth was chicken stock, dried rosemary (fresh would have been better), bay leaf, red wine and a bit of rock salt and black pepper.
I enjoy checking out ebay, hunting around for cute / interesting / useful things that I'd like to buy or even just for home decor inspiration. For the sake of narrowing down the options today, I chose to view only stuff that's in Australia and only items for which free shipping is offered.
Here are a few things I liked on ebay today:
These cactus appliqued cushion covers don't really match our decor, but I like 'em (under $20).
I like some of the homewares on an ebay store I just stumbled across called Summer of Coconut. Love the name too. My faves are (latest bids for both are under $10 with 2 days left):
So I guess I like me some porcelain figurines. Jen Bishop over at http://theinteriorsaddict.com should check out the owls to feed her addiction.
Sometimes I like text-as-art and sometimes I don't. This tin sign ($34.50), I like. Its message makes me nostalgic.
I love chairs. I don't know why, but I totally do. When the hub and I moved in together I had to get rid of some chairs ... I had something like 34 chairs counting stools, dining set and collapsible chairs. Ok weird! Anyway, I love this collapsible chair ($69) ... it's the latest in mod camping equipment or a fab chair to pull out when you've got people over.
