Dessert | The Mindfulness Kitchen

Sumac and Pistachio Meringues with Pomegranate

By Emma Hawkins | July 4, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

Those of you who follow my Instagram will know that I had an incredible meal at The Vanilla Pod restaurant in Lynton a few weeks ago. When I was there one of the specials was a sumac meringue with rhubarb and pistachios. Whilst I went for a different, but equally delicious feta cheesecake for dessert (which I’ll be adapting and re-creating soon!), I knew this was something I wanted to try out for myself when I got home.

Sumac is a tangy spice used in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking. Traditionally it’s used in savoury food, but the combo of the sumac with the sweet meringue and the pistachios is to die for (no exaggeration). This is also super easy to make, the hardest bit is just the meringues and the trick with them is just to make sure everything is spotlessly clean before you start and to whisk for a really long time. So if you’ve got something coming up which you want a cool, inventive dessert for, this is the one for you! These meringues will also store for a really long time in an air tight tin, so if you have some left over egg whites from something else you can whip them up and then bung them in a box till you need them.

Recipe

Serves 8

Time: 45 minutes, plus cooking time

Ingredients

4 Large egg whites (130g)
260g (Double the weight of your egg whites) Caster sugar
40g Salted pistachios, roughly chopped, plus extra to garnish
2 tbsp Sumac
400ml Double cream
A handful of Pomegranate seeds
100g Fresh raspberries

Method

To get set up pre-heat the oven to 140˚C and line two baking trays with baking paper. Then wash a metal or glass bowl and two electric whisk beaters with lots of soap and warm water to make sure they’re spotless (any fat on these utensils will stop the meringue for puffing up).
Weigh the egg whites into your bowl and note down the weight. Then, using an electric whisk, whisk the egg whites until they hit a stiff peak. Now add the sugar, 1tbsp at a time, to get a stiff meringue (about 8 minutes), you want to add in double the weight of the egg whites in sugar.
Add the chopped pistachios and 1 tbsp of the sumac, and then carefully fold them into the meringue with a large metal spoon or spatula.
Now spoon the mixture into 8 small mounds on your lined baking sheets. Take a spoon and make them into wells by pushing the meringue up the sides slightly.
Sprinkle the meingues with a little more sumac and then bake in the oven for an hour, until crispy but still white. Turn off the oven and leave the meringues to cool in it. When cool the meringues will store in an air tight tin for up to 3 weeks.
When ready to serve, whip the cream with a whisk until it just holds its shape. Crush half the raspberries, and then mix them into the cream to get a ripple and then dollop it into the wells of the meringues. Scatter the pomegranate seeds over the cream and finish with the rest of the fresh raspberries, a few chopped pistachios, and a sprinkle of sumac.

Thanks fore reading!

Emma x

French Toast with Maple Syrup and Summer Berry Compote

By Emma Hawkins | July 1, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

With term over now I’m getting into full holiday mode, and a big part of that requires making breakfast at midday in m’ PJs, dancing crazily round the kitchen to Panic at the Disco. Pancakes would probably be my go-to brunch dish, but I’ve made a lot of them recently so I thought I’d branch out. There’s a tonne of different names for this, but whether you call it egg bread, gypsy toast or French toast, it all tastes insane. For those of you who’re as unfamiliar with French toast as I was about a week ago I’ll explain what it is. Basically you take some bread, or brioche in my case because the concept of dieting has flown from my mind, then you soak it in a gently spiced egg/milk mixture, before frying it in a pan with some butter to get a beautifully crispy, spongy piece of bread. You can then serve it with a good drizzle of maple syrup and some stewed red fruits to make an irresistible, comforting brunch dish.

The egg/milk mixture you soak the bread in isn’t sweetened, so you could easily make this into a savoury breakfast if that’s more your thing. To do this use some thick white bread instead of the brioche and don’t add the spices to the milk mix. Then top it all off with bacon and maple syrup, cheese and tomatoes, or scrambled egg!

Recipe

Serves 4

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

2 Large eggs
120ml Milk
1 tsp Vanilla extract
½ tsp Ground cinnamon
½ tsp Ground ginger
4 Thick slices of brioche
1 tbsp Vegetable oil
1 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Maple syrup
Fresh berries to serve

For the compote

100g Mixed frozen berries (e.g strawberries, blackberries and raspberries)
1 tbsp Lemon juice
2 tbsp Caster sugar

Method

Whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and ginger.
Cut the brioche slices in half to make triangles, then lay them out in a single layer in a shallow dish. Then pour the milk mixture over them and leave to soak for 5 minutes, turning the slices over half way through.
Heat 1 tbsp of the oil and butter in a non-stick frying pan until melted and bubbling.
Carefully pick up two of the bread slices and fry in the pan for 3 minutes on each side till golden and crisp. Repeat with the rest of the bread.
Serve with the berry compote, a drizzle of maple syrup and some fresh berries!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Neapolitan Brownie Cheesecake

By Emma Hawkins | June 17, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

My parent’s are aiming to walk the South West Coastal Path over the next few years and so last week we were all on holiday to kick-start the journey. As we were walking loads, we were in Devon, and it was insanely hot, it goes without saying that we ate a tonne of ice cream. So in homage to all of that I decided to do an ice-cream themed bake for Father’s day.

In truth, I’m more of a mint choc chip girl than Neapolitan, but I thought that the classic vanilla, chocolate, strawberry layer thing was too good to not use for this. I also finished my Art Foundation course the other day (silent whoop!) and so after that I treated myself to a brownie cheesecake thing from Tescos. I’ve seen brownies being used in cheesecakes for years but that was the first time I tried it myself, and boy was it good. So rather than having a biscuit base for this one I made a fudgy brownie, and dare I say it I think it’s better than a biscuit base. It’s chewy, rich, and is way easier to transport/slice into as you don’t have crumbs flying everywhere!

This one has a few elements to it, but it’s all very easy to put together when broken down. For the swirls on the top I used strawberry jam which worked way better than I thought it would! If you’d prefer something sharper for the topping you could use marmalade, raspberry jam or boil up equal parts fruit and sugar to make a thick puree.

Recipe

Serves 12

Time: 1 hour, plus chilling

Ingredients

For the Brownie

230g Caster sugar
100ml Vegetable oil
2 Medium Eggs
½ tsp Vanilla extract
55g Cocoa powder
90g Plain flour

For the Cheesecake

1 tbsp Vanilla bean paste
550g Cream cheese
50g Icing sugar
250ml Double cream

For the Topping

2 tbsp Strawberry jam
200ml Double cream
4 Small fresh strawberries, plus extra for serving
2 tbsp Chocolate sprinkles

Method

Begin by making the brownie. Pre-heat the oven to 160˚C. Grease and line a 9-inch cake tin with baking paper.
Put the sugar and oil into a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk these in to make a smooth mix. Add the cocoa and whisk it in carefully, it will explode out of the bowl a lot! Finally, add the flour and whisk it in to make a smooth batter.
Pour the mixture into the lined cake tin and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes so that a crust has formed and the middle is goey but baked through. Leave to cool in the tin.
Now make the cheesecake layer. Put the vanilla and cream cheese into a bowl and whisk together until smooth. Add the icing sugar and double cream and then whisk again until the mixture is lump-free and beginning to thicken.
Once the brownie is completely cooled pour the cheesecake mix on top and smooth it over with a spatula.
Spoon the strawberry jam into a small bowl and beat it with a small spoon to break it up and make it slightly runny. Spoon blobs of the jam onto the cheesecake and then mix it around with a knife a little to get a swirl effect.
Put the whole cheesecake into the freezer for 1 hour, and then leave in the fridge for another 3 hours, or better still over night to set.
When ready start prepping the topping. Pour the double cream into a bowl and whisk until soft peaks form. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a star-shaped nozzle. Pipe rosettes of the cream around the edge of the cheesecake.
Quarter the strawberries and then push them into the gaps between the cream rosettes. Finish with some of the sprinkles and serve chilled!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Soufflé Pancakes with Almonds and Apricots

By Emma Hawkins | June 6, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

Is there anything better than a good pancake I hear you ask? Well yes there is. These are pancakes made with whipped egg whites and baked in the oven so they puff up and go all fluffy like a soufflé. They will sink pretty quickly after coming out of the oven so it’s best to eat them as soon as they come out, but unlike normal soufflés they’ll stay light as clouds even after they’ve sunk, so even if you wait a bit before eating them they’ll taste insane!

I don’t use apricots that much in my cooking as they’re a bit too sharp when eaten raw, and a bit too sweet when dried. This one works with a combo of fresh apricots and apricot jam to give a perfect balance of sweet and sharp to go with the fluffy pancakes, almost like lemon juice and sugar on classic crepes. If apricots aren’t in season you can always work with plums, peaches, strawberries or raspberries instead.

Recipe

Serves 4

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

30g Unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
3 Large eggs
50ml Whole milk
60g Caster sugar
200ml Double cream
A few drops of Almond essence
35g Plain flour
200g Apricot jam
2 Fresh apricots
A sprinkle of Flaked almonds to garnish
Vanilla ice cream to serve

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C.
Grease 4 bilini moulds with butter and leave them in the oven to warm up.
Now make the batter. Take a pan and melt 20g of the butter over a medium heat.
Separate two of the eggs. Put the two egg yolks in a bowl with the other whole egg. Add the melted butter, milk, half the sugar, cream, almond essence, and the flour. Then whisk until smooth.
In another bowl whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Then add the rest of the sugar and continue to whisk until the mixture become stiff enough to hold it’s shape.
Fold the egg whites into the batter and mix until fully combined.
Pour the mixture into the bilini moulds and put them back in the oven to bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown and risen.
Meanwhile prep the toppings. Put the rest of the butter (30g) into a small pan and leave to melt. In another pan gently warm the apricot jam until it begins to loosen and becomes runny. Then de-stone the apricots and cut them into thin slices.
When the pancakes are ready work quickly. Using a palette knife take them out of the moulds. Brush the pancakes with butter and pour a little of the apricot jam over them. Repeat with the rest of the pancakes, stacking them up or sharing them out as you do. Top with the apricot slices and serve with vanilla ice cream!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Mixed Berry Clafoutis

By Emma Hawkins | May 16, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

When I was in Canada over the summer we were lucky enough to spend a day with a couple of my Mum’s friends at their lake-side house in depths of British Columbia. It was a stunning place – really hot, gorgeously sunny and beautifully peaceful.

For dinner that evening we had a really good blueberry clafoutis for dessert. The end result was a really interesting texture, kinda unlike anything I’ve eaten before. It’s a cross between a set custard and a light sponge cake, so it’s creamy, sweet and fluffy all at the same time – but it somehow really works! I’d heard of clafoutis as a thing but I’d never eaten one, which is really odd as they’re so easy and quick to make! As the ingredients are very basic and are also really easy to substitute for, even in the depths of Canada, a boat ride away from the nearest town, something as tasty as this could be rustled up.

Here I’ve used fresh summer fruit as it’s that time of year when it tastes really good and is readily available, but you can use pretty much any fruit for this. It’s an especially good thing to whip up if you have any soft fruit that needs eating up (e.g plums, peaches, berries and so on). Just bung them in the dish, pour over the all-in-one batter mix and voila!

Recipe

Serves 6

Time: 10 minutes prep, 25-30 minutes cooking

Ingredients

80g Plain flour
½ tsp Baking powder
100g Golden caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
2 Large eggs
2 Large egg yolks
260ml Double cream
1 tbsp Vanilla bean paste
Butter for greasing
A handful each of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries (or any other soft fruit you like)

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C.
Put the flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, egg yolks, cream and vanilla into a bowl and whisk until fully combined.
Take a medium sized oven-proof dish and grease it with a little butter. Then sprinkle over some sugar to line the dish.
Hull and quarter the strawberries. Then scatter these strawberries, along with the blueberries and raspberries into the greased dish.
Pour over the batter mix and then bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown and slightly puffed up.
Serve slightly warm with icecream!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x