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Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category

Little Chocolate Cakes (Gluten Free)

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on July 20, 2011| 46 Comments »

Australian foodwriter Jill Dupleix creates fabulous recipes.

They’re  comforting to eat, elegant in their simplicity, and just so do-able.

Like our baked beans and potato splats which were both inspired by her, this gluten-free recipe is a tried and tested family favourite.  Make it when you’re weary, and it will bring a little cheer to your day.  If you whisk the egg whites by hand, you won’t even need to lug the electric mixer out.

I’ve modified Ms Dupleix’s original recipe slightly – substituting semisweet chocolate for the bittersweet, and using a microwave instead of a double boiler.  It makes an already simple recipe even easier!

Little Chocolate Cakes
(a recipe by Jill Dupleix)

  • 200g (7 oz) dark chocolate, chopped or in callet form (I used Callebaut 811, 54% cacao)
  • 100g (3½ oz) caster sugar (superfine sugar)
  • 120g (½ cup) unsalted butter, chopped
  • 100g (3½ oz) blanched almond meal (ground almonds)
  • 4 large (59g) eggs, separated
  • icing sugar, for dusting (confectioner’s sugar)

1. Line 12 muffin pan holes with paper liners.  Preheat the oven to 180C/360F or 160C/320F with fan.

2. Place the butter, chocolate and caster sugar in a large pyrex mixing bowl and melt them together in the microwave, using short bursts on high and stirring frequently.  Be careful not to scorch the chocolate.  The mixture should be smooth and glossy.  Allow to cool slightly.

3. Stir the almond meal into the chocolate mixture, then beat the egg yolks in one at a time.

4. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Stir a large spoonful of the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture to loosen it, and then gently fold in the remainder.

5. Divide the mixture evenly between the 12 muffin liners, and bake for 25 – 30 minutes.  The cakes will rise a little as they bake, but flatten as they cool.  Be careful not to overcook them – Jill suggests pulling them out while they’re still a bit soft in the middle for extra fudginess.  Allow the cakes to rest in the muffin pans for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.  Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe

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Pailleté Feuilletine and Fairtrade Chocolate

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on July 17, 2011| 53 Comments »

On my last chocolate run to Chefs’ Warehouse, I picked up some Callebaut Pailleté Feuilletine.

These fine shards of wheat wafer give a delicious crunch to chocolate, although they can’t be added to milk or water-based ingredients as they’ll turn to mush.

I tempered up a batch of our milk chocolate blend (47% cacao), using the following formula:

  • 400g Callebaut 823 milk chocolate (33.6%)
  • 100g Callebaut Cocoa Mass (100%)

I then added 100g of the feuilletine wafers to the chocolate and very gently stirred it in.  It was a little tricky to get the stiff mixture into moulds…

Big Boy describes the finished bars as “a really classy Kit Kat”.

The French horns are his, whereas Small Man gets the trumpets – I still can’t believe I found a mould with the two instruments my sons play!  The chocolate was well tempered, but the added feuilletine gave them a slightly mottled appearance…

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I was also happy to discover that Chefs’ Warehouse can now order in Callebaut Fairtrade chocolate on request.

At the moment the Fairtrade versions of the 811 (54% dark), 823 (33.6% milk) and the 70% dark are only available in 10kg sacks, but hopefully they’ll bring them out in a smaller format soon.

The Fairtrade 811 costs 25% more than the regular version, but I’m happy to pay the premium.  My friend Gillian of Chocolate Here uses Callebaut Fairtrade for her artisan chocolate business – do visit her market stalls if you’re ever in County Clare, Ireland!

. . . . .

Chefs’ Warehouse
111-115 Albion St
Surry Hills NSW 2010
(02) 9211 4555

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Spicy Things

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on July 13, 2011| 47 Comments »

I’ve been having a blast playing with all my new spices!

I dragged out my masala dabba, which I bought a couple of years ago but never got around to using.  It’s a traditional Indian spice box, made of stainless steel…

It has an inner lid to lock in freshness, and a small spoon…

I filled mine with (clockwise) : Kashmiri chilli powder, coriander powder, black mustard seed, turmeric, cumin powder and fennel seeds, with cinnamon, green cardamon and star anise in the middle.

I made garam masala, following  this recipe from Mamta’s Kitchen.

Into a grinder went:

  • 1 tablespoon black Sarawak pepper
  • 1 teaspoon whole cloves
  • 4 whole black cardamon pods
  • 4 whole green cardamon pods
  • 2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds
  • 5 broken dried bay leaves (a gift from the Spice Girl)
  • 10cm cinnamon stick, broken up

After blitzing, the mix was sifted to remove any fibrous bits.

I used the garam masala in Mamta’s chickpea curry (Channa curry) following the recipe here.

A tip from the lovely Barbara at Harkola – dried chickpeas can be soaked and frozen before boiling. They can then be boiled from frozen as required.

When I made this curry, I simply took the container out of the freezer and emptied it straight into a pot of cold water, brought it to the boil and simmered it until the chickpeas were soft.

Finally, I used my homemade curry powder to make a Malaysian style chicken and potato curry.  It was a hearty feed on a cold winter’s night!

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Pebbly Beach Fruit Squares

Posted in Recipes, tagged on July 9, 2011| 28 Comments »

When I was growing up, one of my favourite treats was the Arnott’s Spicy Fruit Roll – a buttery shortbread biscuit wrapped around a dried fruit filling.  These easy cookies are very reminiscent of those, and I find them incredibly moreish!

These delightfully named Pebbly Beach Fruit Squares come from Alice Medrich’s Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies – the latest addition to my cookbook library, and an absolute treasure trove of interesting recipes.  I’ve added metric measures for the ingredients, as I always prefer to use scales when I bake.

  • 240g (8.5oz) plain (AP) flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 125g (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
  • 150g (¾ cup) sugar
  • 1 large (59g) egg
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon ground anise (or grated lemon rind, or ground cinnamon)
  • 1 cup moist dried fruit – I used a mix of blueberries, candied orange peel, golden raisins, finely chopped Persian figs and cranberries
  • raw or demerara sugar, for sprinkling (I used raw caster sugar, as I couldn’t find my demerara!)

1. Mix the dried fruit together, breaking up any lumps with your fingers.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until combined (but not fluffy), then add the egg, vanilla and ground anise (or lemon rind or cinnamon) and mix well.  Then add the flour mixture, and beat until combined.

4. Divide the dough into two, flatten it out and wrap well in clingfilm, then refrigerate for at least two hours, or overnight.

5. Remove the chilled dough from the fridge and allow it to rest before rolling out.  Preheat oven to 175C (350F) with fan.

6. Between two sheets of parchment, roll out one piece of dough until it forms a large thin rectangle – the original recipe specifies dimensions of 8½” x 16½”, but mine wasn’t quite that big.  Carefully peel off the top sheet of parchment.

7. Scatter half the dried fruit mixture over half of the dough.

8. Using the parchment paper, carefully fold the other half of the dough over to enclose the fruit.  Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour and flip it back over onto the parchment, so that you can gently loosen the paper from the other side.

9. Scatter the top of the dough with raw or demerara sugar.  Trim the edges, and then cut into 16 pieces.

10.  Lay the cookies onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper, and repeat with the remaining dough and fruit.  Bake the cookies for 12 – 15 minutes (mine took 15 minutes) or until lightly golden brown, rotating the pan(s) once during the baking time.

11. Allow to cool on a wire rack, and then store in an airtight container. Try not to scoff them all at once!

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Saturday Happenings

Posted in Food & Friends, In My Kitchen, Recipes, tagged , , , on July 3, 2011| 56 Comments »

If I get to spend Saturday playing in the kitchen, the whole week that follows is much easier, in so many ways.

Ingredients are prepared, treats and loaves are baked, and frankly, I’m just a nicer person for having had the chance to unwind.

Yesterday, I messed around with making my own Malaysian curry powder…

Here’s my final blend…

  • 150g coriander seed
  • 40g fennel seed
  • 25g cumin seed
  • 25g white peppercorns
  • 5g black peppercorns
  • 25g dried Kashmiri red chillies (seeds removed)
  • 10g Kashmiri chilli powder
  • 20g ground turmeric
  • 5g cardamon powder
  • 1 star anise
  • 5 cloves
  • 10cm piece cinnamon

I pounded the star anise, cloves and cinnamon with a mortar and pestle, then roasted them with the coriander, fennel, cumin, peppercorns and whole chillies in a dry wok for a few minutes until fragrant.  The mix was blitzed in a large food processor and then combined with the chilli powder, turmeric and cardamon powder.  As the mixture was still quite coarse, I ground it down further in small batches in a coffee/spice grinder. A handful of dried curry leaves was added at the end.

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We made seven and a half litres of stock (beef, chicken and fish), following the instructions in this great YouTube clip – it was nice to give the old pressure cooker a workout…

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A discussion with Linda about sourdough bagels inspired a batch…

I’ve written two bagel posts in the past – a step by step tutorial on yeasted bagels and one on sourdough bagels.  The links are here:

Yeasted Bagel Tutorial
Sourdough Bagels

. . . . .

I turned a couple of experimental loaves into dry breadcrumbs – the slices were dried in a 100C oven for two hours until crisp and then whizzed in the food processor.  Crumbed flathead fillets are one of Small Man’s favourite meals…

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And finally, I made a rabbit pie for dinner, although I didn’t get to take a photo before Big Boy tucked in!

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Anything exciting happening in your kitchen this weekend?

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