Tag: Desserts
Pear Tart Tatin

Pear Tart Tatin

By | | Comments 0 Comment

Here’s another french classic – pear tart tatin. Soft, juicy pears, sticky caramel and crisp, caramelised pastry – it’s a classic for a reason. Unlike most tarts, this one’s unusual as it’s baked upside down. The caramel is made in the pan, then the pears go on top, the pastry on top of that, and then it’s all whopped in the oven. Then when it comes out it’s turned over to show the deliciously caramelised pears. As well as giving the pastry a beautiful flavour, this way of cooking it all also helps to keep the pastry crisp, as the juice from the pears doesn’t have the chance to rest on the pastry when it’s in the oven, and make it soggy.

The first time I ever made this I used shop bought puff pastry and roughly chopped apples. These are two great alterations to make if you want to save time or if you’re just starting to learn how to bake. On the other hand, if you haven’t made your own puff pastry before I’d recommend giving it a go. It takes a bit of time, but it’s not so much time that you have to work on it, more just that you have to leave it a lot to chill in between turns. This recipe is for rough-puff which is a slightly easier and quicker variation on full-puff pastry, but it still gives a beautiful light and crispy pastry.

Recipe

Serves 8

Time: 2 hours (plus time for chilling) – much shorter if using shop bought puff pastry

Ingredients

For the rough-puff pastry

  • 225g Plain flour
  • ½ tsp Salt
  • 250g Unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
  • 150ml Cold water

For the Filling

  • 3 tbsp Water
  • 100g Caster sugar
  • 60g Unsalted butter, diced
  • 4 Conference pears, peeled, cored and quartered

Method

  1. Put the flour and salt into a large bowl. Add the cubed butter and stir until each piece is coated in flour, trying not to break the butter up too much.
  2. Pour in the water and then stir with a round-bladed knife to bring the dough together.
  3. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and shape into a rough rectangle. Wrap in clingfilm and then chill in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.
  4. Roll the pastry out onto a floured surface into a long rectangle until about 1cm thick. Fold the bottom third up onto the middle third of the pastry. Then fold the top third down onto the other two thirds to make a block one third of the original long rectangle.
  5. Turn the pastry 90˚ so that the folded edge faces you, not the smooth edge. Press the ends down with a rolling pin to seal. Chill in the fridge for another 15 minutes.
  6. Repeat steps 4-5 another 4 times.
  7. Chill the pastry in the fridge for at least an hour, ideally overnight.
  8. When the pastry is ready you can begin to assemble. In a large frying pan (which can go in the oven) put the water and caster sugar. Leave for 5 minutes so that the sugar absorbs the water.
  9. Put over a medium heat and gently bring to the boil. Leave until a golden caramel forms – be careful not to stir during this process and the sugar will crystalize. Add the butter and stir to melt and combine. Leave to cool slightly.
  10. Meanwhile roll out the pastry on a floured surface until about the thickness of a pound coin. Cut out a circle 2cm wider than the diameter of the pan.
  11. Add the peeled and cored pears to the caramel in a spiral, all facing the same way. Then add the pastry on top, pressing the excess around the side of the pears so that the pastry snuggles everything in.
  12. Put into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and crisp.
  13. Once ready take it out of the oven and get ready to turn it out. Take a toasting tin or large bowl and a large plate. Put the plate over the pan so that when turned over the tart will be on the plate. Hold the pan and plate together, and turn 90˚ over the roasting tin to let the juices drain – this will prevent the pastry from going soggy when turned out. Once the juices have stopped dripping, turn over completely, tap a bit to release and then take the pan away.
  14. Serve immediately with double cream or ice cream.

 Thanks for reading!

Emma x

 
Mississippi Mud Pie

Mississippi Mud Pie

By | | Comments 0 Comment

It’s thanksgiving tomorrow, and how better to celebrate it than with a huge Mississippi mud pie. Being a Brit I don’t normally celebrate, or even know when thanksgiving is. Yet luckily last Sunday I was at one of my drama rehearsals, and when we were trying to work out who was free for a rehearsal this Thursday a fellow cast memeber, who’s American, replied ‘yes, even though it’s Thanksgiving’. The convo then spiralled off into talks of pumpkin pie and pastry crusts, but this got me thinking.  Why not look into classic American dishes and make one to celebrate? I know Mississippi Mud Pie isn’t strictly traditional for thanksgiving, and the Americans out there will be gritting their teeth that I haven’t made a pumpkin or pecan pie. But personally I find the later overly sweet and not suited to my British palette, whereas this chocolate binge of a pie is heaven on a plate to me.

I’m not sure why it’s called Mississippi mud pie – the name unfortunately doesn’t do the dish justice. I’ve been skipping past it in cook books for years, not even looking to see what it is, and stupidly I think it’s probably because of the name. There have been many variations from the original, but it’s essentially a chocolate biscuit base, a gooey chocolate brownie on top, then a smooth chocolatey creamy mousse thing, and finally topped off with freshly whipped cream. I’m a huge chocoholic, and as I was making this I was getting way too excited with each layer I was putting on. You might be looking at it and thinking that’s way too much chocolate, but it’s actually not overpowering. Think of it as an ombre cake where each layer is slightly more subtle than the last. The Oreo and Bourbon base is really rich, then the brownie is slightly sweeter and less rich, then the next layer is chocolatey and creamy, and the top layer of cream is a great break from the chocolate.

With the days getting darker at the moment I’m constantly struggling to make my dishes before the light dims and so I was a little rushed making this. As I wanted to photograph this before the natural light started to go, to avoid the yellow wash that comes from my kitchen lights, I took it out of the mould after only two hours of resting. When you read the recipe you’ll see that I recommend at least 4 hours, or even better overnight, which is why in some of the pictures the chocolate filling is pouring out everywhere. Trust me though, if you leave it for long enough it will set and look beautiful when cut. I left mine in the fridge over night and this morning the chocolate filling had set and gone all beautiful, so be patient. That said, it still tasted amazing after 2 hours, so if you can’t wait, and you don’t need it to look neat and elegant when cut into, an hour is long enough for chilling.

Recipe

Serves at least 8

Time 1 hour 15 minutes, plus lots of time for chilling

Ingredients

For the Chocolate crust

  • 160g Oreos
  • 200g Bourbon biscuits
  • 100g Unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing

For the Chocolate brownie

  • 150g Butter
  • 210g Dark chocolate
  • 3 Medium eggs
  • 210g Caster sugar
  • 40g Plain flour
  • 100g White chocolate, roughly chopped

For the Chocolate filling

  • 100g Dark chocolate
  • 290ml Whole milk
  • 3 Egg yolks
  • 60g Caster sugar
  • 15g Plain flour
  • 1 tbsp Cocoa powder
  • 20g Cornflour
  • 150ml Double cream

For the Topping

  • 350ml Double cream
  • 1 tsp Vanilla bean paste
  • Cocoa powder for dusting

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Grease and line a 24cm loose bottomed cake tin with butter and baking paper.
  2. Put the biscuits into a large bowl and crush with the end of a rolling pin to make into a fine crumb. Pour over the butter and mix to combine.
  3. Tip the mixture out into the tin and smooth out into an even thickness with a spoon. Put into the oven and bake for 5 minutes to firm it up.
  4. Now make the brownie mix. Put the butter and chocolate into a bowl over a pan of simmering water and leave to melt.
  5. Take another bowl and whisk the eggs until pale and fluffy with an electric whisk. Add the sugar and continue to whisk until it leaves a trail when the whisk is taken out.
  6. Fold the chocolate into the eggs, sieve in the flour and add the chopped white chocolate. Fold everything again until combined.
  7. Pour the mixture into the biscuit case and bake again for about 15-20 minutes until a crust has formed on top and it feel slightly firm. Set aside to cool.
  8. Now make the chocolate filling. Put the chocolate into a heat-proof bowl and melt over a pan of simmering water. Put the milk into a pan and heat until just boiling.
  9. In another bowl whisk the egg yolks, sugar, plain flour, cocoa powder and cornflour until smooth. Pour in the milk whilst whisking until smooth.
  10. Pour the mixture back into the pan and cook gently until just starting to thicken. Take off the heat, stir in the melted chocolate and leave in the fridge to cool completely.
  11. Take the filling out of the fridge and whisk to break up. In another bowl whisk the double cream to soft peaks. Fold the cream into the chocolate mix and then pour this over the cool brownie. Put this into the fridge to chill for 2 hours.
  12. Finally whip up the double cream and vanilla into soft peaks. Spoon this into a pipping bag with a round nozzle and pipe in blobs over the chilled chocolate filling. Put all this back into the fridge to chill for at least another 2 hours, or even better overnight.
  13. When ready to eat, take it out of the mould and dust with cocoa powder before serving.

Thanks for reading and happy Thanksgiving for tomorrow!

Emma

 
Apple and Blackberry Crumble

Apple and Blackberry Crumble

By | | Comments 0 Comment

Being a country girl, pretty much every hedgerow and tree around where I live is covered in blackberries or apples at the moment, and it’s times like these – when fruit is literally falling onto your doorstep – that you need to make the most of it. The other day a big bag of cooking apples magically appeared on the kitchen table, which happens a lot now that my Mum has discovered foraging. But lucky for me I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them –  when life gives you apples, make apple crumbles.

Ever since I was small a big bowl of this with some custard would put a smile on my face, and it still does to this day. You can put almost any fruit into a crumble – rhubarb, berries or pears just to name a few other classics. Blackberries and apples are definitely my go-to couple though, as they carry a lot of flavour, and they’re the perfect combo of sweet and sharp.

I’d recommend serving this with a really good custard. You can either make this powdered, in which case follow the back of the packet’s instructions, or you could make an even better custard from scratch. For this I have a really good recipe which is on two of my other posts – Bakewell roly poly and French fruit tarts – the links to which are at the bottom of this post under ‘you may also like’ (if they’re not there, refresh the page and they’ll pop up or go to my recipe index).

Recipe

Serves 8

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

  • 4 Bramley apples
  • 85g Brown sugar
  • 150g Blackberries
  • 150g Butter
  • 150g Caster sugar
  • 150g Plain flour
  • 150g Rolled oats
  • 1 tsp Ground cinnamon

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C.
  2. Peel, core and chop the apples into chunks.
  3. Put the apples into a pan with the brown sugar and heat gently until they begin to break down and soften. At this point remove them from the heat, add the blackberries, and set aside for now.
  4. Now make the crumble topping. Put the butter and caster sugar into a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth and light. Add the flour and rub it into the butter mixture with your fingers. Work this until you get a bread-crumb texture, shaking the bowl from side to side every so often to bring the lumps to the top.
  5. Add the oats and cinnamon, and then mix with a round bladed knife to combine with the breadcrumb mixture. Don’t worry if clumps form, this will happen as the butter will have softened, it’ll taste good.
  6. Take a large oven-proof pot or dish and put the stewed apples and blackberries into it. Spoon the crumble over the top loosely, not pressing down as you want it to remain crumbly.
  7. Put the crumble into the oven for 25-35 minutes until the topping is golden brown and slightly crisp.
  8. Serve immediately with lots of custard, cream or ice cream.

Thanks so much for reading and happy national baking week! We’re getting halloweeeny on the next few posts so make sure you look out for them.

Emma x
Bakewell Roly-Poly Pudding

Bakewell Roly-Poly Pudding

By | | Comments 0 Comment

I think this might just be the most British pudding that has ever existed. Not only is it a roly-poly pudding – the Lord of quintessentially British desserts – but it’s a bakewell roly-poly pudding.  For years this steamed suet roll has been gracing our tables in the UK, whether it be in the school canteen or at a humble family meal, and so it’s naturally become synonymous with warmth and comfort. Thus, if you need a little comfort food, all you need to do is rustle up one of these –  it’s bound to bring back memories of cosy autumn evenings and home baking, even if you never had this as a kid.

The flavours of a bakewell pudding can be summarised as almonds + raspberry. In this case I’m going to use plums instead as they’re in season and also work really well with the almonds. I’m also not going to use traditional animal suet as it isn’t vegetarian and vegetable suet is just as readily accessible. You could use it if you want the true ‘authentic’ version, but it’s completely your choice. I must warn you that suet is weird. If you’ve never worked with it before, imagine those pellets that you feed rabbits, then imagine them made out of wax. That’s the kind of stuff we’re dealing with here. But, that said, it does make really good puddings, so we’re going to use it.

I should probably write more for this post, but a simple pudding only needs a simple write-up. So, in summary, this tastes good and it’s comforting, perfect for now!

Recipe

Serves 8

Time:  1 hour plus extra time for cooking

Ingredients

  • 50g Slightly salted butter
  • 200g Self raising flour
  • 50g Ground almonds
  • ½ tsp Almond essence
  • ½ tbsp Vanilla bean paste
  • 50g Vegetable suet, shredded
  • 150ml Milk
  • 150g Plum jam

For the custard

  • 250ml Whole milk
  • 1 tbsp Vanilla bean paste
  • 50g Caster sugar
  • 3 Egg yolks
  • 10g Plain flour
  • 10g Cornflour

To serve

  • 2 Plums
  • 75g Plum jam
  • 25g Flaked almonds

 

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Take a deep roasting tin and fill it with water about 2/3 full. Put this onto the bottom shelf, or base of the oven and leave in the oven.
  2. Take a sheet of foil and another of greaseproof paper and lay the paper on top of the foil. Grease the paper lightly with butter, and set aside for later.
  3. Now it’s time make the roly-poly. Put the butter, flour, ground almonds, almond essence and vanilla into a bowl. Cut into the butter with a round bladed knife to chop it into small lumps. Once you can’t chop the butter any further, go in with your fingers and rub the butter into the flour until you have a bread-crumb texture. Shake the bowl from side to side every now and then to get the lumps to the top so you can rub them in.
  4. Stir the suet into the mixture. Then pour in the milk and bring together with a round-bladed knife until a dough forms. If the dough is dry add some more milk, you want the dough to be a little sticky.
  5. Flour a surface (a lot) and tip out the dough. Shape into a rough square and then roll out to around 25x25cm. Don’t roll it as thin as you would pastry, and this dough is very soft and will tear easily.
  6. Spread the jam over the sheet of dough, leaving a 1cm strip at one end. Roll the dough up from the other end into a tight spiral. Pinch the non-jammy dough into the roll to seal it.
  7. Lift the roll onto the greased baking paper, making sure that the join is on the paper and not facing up. I know this part is much harder than you would expect, I found that it’s true to it’s name, and so literally rolling it onto the greaseproof was the best way to get the roll off the work surface.
  8. Bring the foil and paper up around the roly-poly and fold over the top and scrunch the ends to seal the parcel. Don’t wrap the dough too tightly as it’ll need to stretch when cooking.
  9. Make sure a rack is above the tin of water in the oven and place the parcel onto the rack. Steam in the oven for at least 1 hour.
  10. Meanwhile make the custard. Put the milk and vanilla into a saucepan and bring to the boil.
  11. Mix the sugar, egg yolks and two flours until fully combined. Once the milk is heated, remove the pan from the heat and mix 1/3 of the milk into the egg mixture.
  12. Whisk the mixture quickly and then pour the egg mixture into the milk. Put the pan back over a heat and whisk on a medium heat until the mixture boils and thickens. Pour into a jug and cover with cling-film to prevent a skin from forming. Set aside for later.
  13. Once the pudding is ready take it out of the oven and let it sit for a few minutes before unwrapping. When this is going on you can prep the decorations.
  14. Put the almonds into a small roasting tin and roast in the oven for 3-5 minutes, or until starting to brown. Set aside for now. Then halve, stone and thinly slice the plums. Take the extra plum jam and put into a pan. Heat gently for around 2 minutes, until it’s thinned out slightly. Put into a pipping bag with a small round nozzle.
  15. Unwrap the roly-poly and put it onto a serving plate. Arrange the plum slices on top of the pudding. Pipe the thinned jam on top of the plum slices in a zig-zag and top with the flaked almonds. Serve with the custard and enjoy!

Thanks so much for reading. I hope this one brings you a little warmth and comfort for the cold days ahead. Next post coming out on Sunday!

Emma x
Raspberry and Hazelnut S’more Dessert

Raspberry and Hazelnut S’more Dessert

By | | Comments 0 Comment

A s’more is one of the best campfire snacks there is. Two graham crackers sandwiching a thick marshmallow and a block of chocolate, all put over an open flame to melt it into a messy squidgy tasty thing. However, the main problem with s’mores is that they rarely make an appearance outside the mid-summer eve campfire.

On my travels this summer, as you’ll probably all know by now, I spent some time in North America. This is the hometown of the s’more, and pretty much every supermarket I went into had giant marshmallows and graham crackers everywhere, just asking to be made into these treats. This sparked my imagination to try to transform this snack into a fully-fledged dessert.

So that’s what I’ve done. I’ve taken the main components of biscuit, marshmallow and chocolate and have played around with them to make this. I’ve added in the two new flavours of raspberry and hazelnut as I think they bring something new that works with this. They also helpfully cut through the pure sweetness which you inevitably get once you’ve up-sized this snack. So in the end we have a nutty biscuit base – a bit like a cheese cake, a chocolate and brown butter ganache, and a raspberry marshmallow to top it all off.

Whilst I usually write my own recipes I should point out that the chocolate and brown butter ganache I haven’t changed at all from the original source. I found this recipe on the Great British Chefs website, and after I’d made it I found that it tasted so good I didn’t want to mess around with it. Originally the ganache was part of a much larger recipe (the link to which is at the bottom of this post), but I’ve taken it out of that recipe and have slotted  it into this one, where I think it fits really well. The ganache also tastes really good on it’s own, so if you have any mixture left over after making this, put it into small pots and you can have it as an after-dinner snack!

This does take a long time to make, and it is fairly complicated, but the finished result is well worth the effort. Just make sure you have a crazy amount of time to carry  it out so you don’t get stressed, and be patient.

It’s also worth mentioning before you start that you’ll also need some specialist equipment to make and present this. You’ll need 4 metal food presentation rings, a blowtorch, an electric or stand-alone whisk, and an electric food thermometer. You could probably work around this if you don’t have any of the above (the rings and blow torch in particular), but unless you have a really strong arm and an intuitive sense of what temperature sugar is boiling at, you’re going to need a thermometer and electric whisk. Anyway, aside from that there’s no reason why you can’t make this, so on to the recipe…

Recipe

Serves 4

Time: 2 1/2 hours, plus lots of time to set the layers

Ingredients

For the hazelnut biscuit base

  • 50g Chopped hazelnuts
  • 150g Biscuits
  • 70g Butter

For the chocolate and brown butter ganache

  • 200g Salted butter
  • 200g Dark chocolate, melted
  • 200g Milk chocolate, melted
  • 375g Double cream
  • 50g Glucose
  • 3 Egg yolks
  • 4g Cocoa powder

To decorate

  • 100g Dark chocolate
  • 50g White chocolate

For the raspberry marshmallow

  • 225g Granulated sugar
  • ½ tbsp Liquid glucose
  • 2 Gelatine sheets
  • 1 Egg white
  • ½ tsp Vanilla bean paste
  • 63g Raspberries, crushed

For the raspberry coulis

  • 125g Raspberries
  • 20g caster sugar
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

  1. Begin by making the biscuit base. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Put the hazelnuts into a tin and roast in the oven for 5 minutes, until starting to brown. Crush the biscuits in a large bowl with the back of a rolling pin until they become crumbs. Melt the butter in a pan and then add to the biscuits. Add the nuts and then mix until fully combined.
  2. Take 4, 6x7cm presentation rings and place on a lined baking tray. Spoon the biscuit mixture into the bottom of the rings and smooth out with the back of a spoon so it’s an even thickness. Leave in the fridge for half an hour to set.
  3. Next make the chocolate and brown butter ganache. Melt the butter in a pan for around 8 minutes. You want it to turn a rich nutty brown but not to burn. Allow to cool slightly then pass through a sieve. Don’t use a plastic sieve as it’ll melt (I’ve found this out from past experience). Leave to cool completely.
  4. Put 125g of the cream into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the glucose and allow to dissolve before removing from the heat.
  5. Melt the chocolates in a heatproof bowl. Then pour the cream onto them and mix until smooth. Set aside for later.
  6. In another bowl whisk the egg yolks until pale and creamy. Add the cocoa powder and whisk again until combined. Slowly drizzle the brown butter into the egg yolks, whisking continuously as you do so, as though you were making a mayonnaise.
  7. Fold the nutty egg mixture into the chocolate mix. Whip the remaining double cream until soft peaks start to form. Fold this into the main chocolate mix.
  8. Take the biscuit bases out of the fridge and pour the brown butter ganache on top. Leave enough space in the top of the moulds to top with marshmallow (so only fill around 2/3 full).
  9. Chill the cylinders in the fridge for at least two hours to set.
  10. Meanwhile make the chocolate decorations. Gently melt the white and dark chocolates in separate heatproof bowls over pans of simmering water. Line two baking trays with acetate. Drizzle the white chocolate over the acetate to create a scribble pattern. Leave to set at room temperature, meanwhile keep the dark chocolate melted but not hot.
  11. Once the white chocolate has set pour the dark chocolate over the top and smooth out with a palette knife. Leave to cool for 5 minutes. Then take a large cookie cutter and cut out rounds out of the chocolate sheet. Take a smaller cutter and cut out smaller circles within the larger ones to create discs. Leave to cool completely until set and then use the cutters again to fully cut out the shapes. Leave somewhere cool until plating.
  12. Once the ganache is completely set you can start to make the marshmallow. Begin by soaking the gelatine sheets in a bowl of water.
  13. Put the sugar, glucose and 100ml water into a saucepan and boil. Heat the sugar until it reaches 127˚C. Remove the gelatine from the water and squeeze to remove excess water. Add to the sugar syrup to dissolve the sheets. Pour the mixture into a jug and set aside for later.
  14. Put the egg white into a very clean bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until firm peaks form (if you have a mixer this is a good time to use it as the next step can take a while). Continue to whisk the egg whites and pour the sugar syrup onto them to make an Italian meringue. Add the vanilla and whisk until the mixture is thick, shiny and has cooled down, this should take around 10 minutes.
  15. Take the raspberries and crush them slightly. Fold them into the marshmallow mixture and then spoon the mixture on top of the ganache in the moulds. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or until completely set.
  16. To make the raspberry coulis mix the sugar and lemon juice with the raspberries in a pan. Heat gently until the raspberries are mushy and the sugar is dissolved. Press the mixture through a sieve and discard the seeds. Put the coulis into a small jug to serve.
  17. Now it’s time to plate! Use a palette knife to loosen the s’mores from the baking tray. Lift the moulds onto the plate using the palette knife. Use a blowtorch to lightly heat the sides of the moulds to loosen them from the mixtures inside. Remove the moulds to reveal the stacks of s’mores. Blowtorch the top of the marshmallow to lightly caramelise it. Carefully remove a chocolate disc from the acetate with a palette knife and lean against the side of the s’more stack. Serve with fresh raspberries and the raspberry coulis.

Thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this one! Lot’s more coming very soon…

Emma x

(Here’s the link to the original recipe for the brown butter ganache

http://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/chocolate-brown-butter-ganache-recipe )