Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Over the fence between our house and the neighbour’s, a passionfruit vine scrambles. It’s growing in Mark’s garden, but this year we’ve benefited from these gorgeous purple fruits ripening on our side…

I wanted to try incorporating them into my new tea cake. Like many of our recipes, it’s gradually evolving – this time I reduced the sugar by 20% (Pete liked it so much that I’ve amended the original recipe) and whipped the whole thing up in the food processor (although it works equally well in the mixer as per our original instructions).

• 250g unsalted butter, soft but not melted
• 200g caster (superfine) sugar
• 4 large free range eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used homemade)
• 150g self-raising flour
• 150g almond meal
• 5 passionfruits
• ginger syrup

1. Preheat oven to 160C with fan and line a baking tray with parchment paper (I used a rectangular 30cm x 23cm / 12″x9″ pan enamel baking pan).

2. In the large bowl of the food processor, blitz together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and pulse until combined, adding in a spoonful of the flour if required to stop the batter from splitting. Scrape down the sides as needed. Add the vanilla and pulse again.

3. Stir or sift the flour and almond meal together, then add to the food processor and pulse until just combined. Scrape half the batter into the prepared tray. Cut the passionfruits and scrape out the seeds and pulp. Spread half over the batter.

4. Spread over the rest of the batter, then top with the remaining passionfruit pulp. Drizzle over the ginger syrup.

5. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes, or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean. Rotate the tray half way through the baking time if needed. Watch carefully to ensure the seeds on top don’t burn. Allow to rest briefly in the tray before lifting out and cooling completely on a wire rack.

I sent half the cake over to Mark’s house, and served the rest at our flaming pig dinner. It was a huge hit all around!

Read Full Post »

I first made these a couple of years ago and at the time, I didn’t write up the recipe because I hadn’t finished tinkering with it yet.

As a rule, we don’t like cupcakes. Pete has declared them too “cutesy”, and the ones we’ve tried in the past have either been too sweet, too dry or too boring. These, however, are the exception – they’re always a huge hit with family and friends.

They’re based on a Nick Malgieri recipe from The Modern Baker, but over the years I’ve amended the ingredients list substantially – reducing the sugar, salt and butter, substituting our homemade Greek yoghurt for the sour cream, and adding a piped frosting. Most significantly, I now use a 70% cacao dark chocolate (over here, it’s difficult to find the unsweetened chocolate originally specified) – this change necessitated a major rejig of the butter and sugar quantities.

The methodology, however, closely follows Mr Malgieri’s original instructions, and I bow to his genius here. The batter is made without a mixer, making these a great “early morning while everyone is asleep” bake, and the resultant cupcakes are moist, tender and absolutely delicious.

I’ve topped them with a simple butter and cocoa frosting, adapted from an old Mrs Field’s recipe that I’ve been using for years (this bit requires an electric mixer, but hopefully by then everyone will be awake). I’m still a bit tragic with a piping bag, but if you’d like more detailed instructions, my friend Mandy has a brilliant video tutorial here.

• 385g (1¾ cups) sugar
• 225g (1½ cups) plain (AP) flour
• ¾ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 185g (6½oz) 70% cacao dark chocolate, cut into small pieces (I used Callebaut Sao Thome origin blend)
• 250ml (1 cup) boiling water
• 110g (7 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
• 2 large (59g) free range eggs
• 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract (I used homemade)
• 130g (½ cup) Greek yoghurt (Pete’s recipe is here)

1. Preheat the oven to 175C (350F) or 160C (320F) with fan. Line 18 standard muffin pan holes with paper liners.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, sifted bicarb and salt.

3. Put the chocolate into a large mixing bowl and pour over the boiling water. Allow to sit for a couple of minutes, then whisk until smooth. Add the melted butter, whisking, then the eggs one at a time, whisking quickly after each addition until smooth. The batter will thicken slightly as you do this. Whisk in the vanilla and yoghurt.

4. Whisk in the flour and sugar mixture in three batches, whisking well after each addition. Ladle the batter evenly into the lined muffin pans.

5. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, until the cupcakes are well risen and a cake tester inserted into the middle of the least cooked one comes out clean. Rest in the pans for five minutes before lifting out and cooling on a wire rack.

Frosting (adapted from recipe from Mrs Field’s Best Ever Cookie Book)

• 110g (7 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
• 190g (1½ cups) icing sugar mixture (powdered sugar), sifted
• 45g (⅓ cup) unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted (I used Dutched)
• 5ml (1 teaspoon) vanilla extract
• 30 – 35ml (6 – 7 teaspoons) milk (or as required)

1. Sift the icing sugar mixture and cocoa together into a medium bowl (omit this step at your own peril – you might end up with bitter lumps of cocoa and hard bits of icing sugar in the finished frosting if you do).

2. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter in a large bowl, then beat in a third of the icing sugar/cocoa mixture and the vanilla. Beat in the remainder of the icing sugar/cocoa mixture alternately with as much milk as is required to create a spreadable frosting.

3. Scrape the frosting into a large piping bag fitted with a star nozzle, then decoratively pipe over the cooled cupcakes. The boys have declared that they like the cakes iced with small stars best – I’m told the big swirls put too much frosting on each cupcake. Pause briefly to admire your workmanship before sharing and scoffing!

Read Full Post »

Remember this gorgeous bottle of Austrian pumpkin seed oil that my friend Tania gave me? It’s become a mainstay in our kitchen, going on everything from salads to pastas…

Last week I used it to make focaccia…

• 350g low hydration sourdough starter (80% – fed at a ratio of 80g water to 100g bakers flour). Starter should be ripe and bubbly before you start.
• 580g water
• 70g pumpkin seed oil
• 70g extra virgin olive oil
• 875g bread/bakers flour
• 1¼ teaspoons dried yeast
• 18g fine sea salt
• Extra pumpkin oil, for drizzling
• Flaky sea salt, for scattering on top

The basic instructions are here, although this larger amount of dough nearly filled my 90cm tray – you might need to divide it between two trays if your oven is smaller.

Sourdough focaccias are always a bit addictive, but this pumpkin seed oil flavoured one was particularly moreish. They’re an occasional weekend bake for us – too high fat for everyday eating and too large to eat on our own, but perfect for sharing with the neighbours!

Read Full Post »