June 2014 – Sweet Tooth Experiments

Jelly Biscuits

Posted on June 29, 2014 Posted in Biscuits .

Jelly Biscuits

Ever notice how Jelly (Jello in America) has the most amazing flavor variations, from fruits to wine flavors to favorite drinks like Blue Heaven?

We use essence and extract to add flavor to our baking – vanilla, coconut, almond, mint and rosewater to name a few. So if we already add flavors why can’t we have the awesome favourite Jelly flavours in baking? Well there is no reason we can’t.

This then brought me to experiment with my 2 most favorite Jelly flavours – Creamy Soda and Bubblegum. I made a batch of both of these biscuits and they were both so flavorsome and took me back to childhood!

Ingredients:

250g butter
110g sugar
80g condensed milk
300g plain flour
1 + ½ tsn baking powder
100g Jelly powder (flavored gelatin)

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 160c and line 3 big baking trays with baking paper.
With electric beaters beat the butter and sugar for 5 minutes until light and creamy.
Add the milk and beat for another few minutes until smooth.
Add the flour, baking powder and the jelly powder to the mix and stir.
Mix until well combine.
Roll mix into balls with hands to small golf ball sizes (25g in size).
Place balls on the trays and slightly flatten with hands.
Bake for 16 minutes or until slightly golden.
Once cooked place on a rake to cool.

Notes:

I have decorated by sprinkling pink decorating sugar to give the biscuits a special touch.

Ingredients

Step 5

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Apple Crumble Pizza

Posted on June 22, 2014 Posted in Unique .

Apple Crumble Pizza

So by now you would notice that I frequently experiment with vegetables in sweet baking, love to make traditional unique world treats and play with textures.

However, lately I have really started to take an interest in turning ‘traditional’ savoury meals into sweet alternatives.

Based on this new found curiosity I decided to experiment with a very well known easy dish that is properly one of the most popular meals around the world….Maybe this wasn’t the smarted thing to play with every households family favourite food, but I think if you try this recipe you will let my off the hook as its that good!

Now this recipe does have quite a few parts (5 in fact), but each part is super easy using pretty much the same ingredients so please don’t be turned off by this, especially since 2 of the parts take between 2-5 minutes to do!

So if you’re a fan of pizza and have a soft spot to a warm winter apple crumble…humm you will LOVE my Apple Crumble Pizza!

Pizza Base:

1 cup of warm water
½ tsn salt
2 tbsn sugar
2 tbsn oil
3 cups plain flour
1 tbsn dry yeast

Cheese Spread:

125g cream cheese
2 tbsn brown sugar
1tbsn lemon juice
¼ tsn nutmeg

Apple Topping:

65g butter
5 Granny Smith apples (4 apples if very large), peeled and thinly sliced
¾ cup sugar
3 tbsn plain flour
2 tsn cinnamon

Crumble Topping:

½ cup plain flour
2 tsn cinnamon
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
½ cup oats

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190c and line a 16-inch pizza tray with baking paper.

Pizza Base:

2. Pour flour and yeast into a large bowl, stir.

3. Add the water, salt, sugar and oil into the dry mix.

4. Knead into a smooth dough for 5 minutes and cover with a tea towel to rest for at least 15 minutes. In the interium:

Cheese Spread:

5. Add cheese spread ingredients into a bowl and whisk until well combined.

Apple Topping:

6. Place the flour, sugar and cinnamon into a medium sizes saucepan, stir until sugar is dissolved.

7. Add the butter and apple and turn the hotplates to medium, stirring constantly.

8. Once mix comes to the boil turn to low and continue to mix until the apples are tender.

Crumble Topping:

9. Place all ingredients into a bowl and with hands rub to combined.

Assembling:

10. Place dough onto the tray, punching down dough to make a large circular base.

11. Spread the cheese spread with the back of a spoon to evenly distribute.

12. Evenly place apple mix onto the spread layer.

13. Sprinkle the crumbling topping over the apple mix evenly.

14. Cover the pizza for 15 minutes in a warm place with a tea towel on the top.

15. Place the pizza in the oven for 25-30minutes or until browned and golden.

Notes:

Brown sugar is not essential if you have none just use white sugar.
If you don’t like nutmeg again this is not essential so you can omit this, but to be honest you wont taste the ingredient it just enhances the others flavours.
This recipe does make a MASSIVE pizza. It is very easy to half the mix if you don’t have an army to baking for 🙂 (you will notice this from the step pictures).
I recommend using a mandolin to get quick and easy apple slices and granny smith apple as they hold their shape quite well when you cook them.
Make sure you punch the dough down well and spread evenly as the dough will rise quite a bit and you don’t want it really thick in the centre but thin on the outsides.

Ingredients

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Step 5

Slicing the apple. Use gloves and vegetable holder when slicing.

Apple Crumble Pizza recipe

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Apple Crumble Pizza recipe

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Apple Crumble Pizza recipe

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Orange Lemon and Chocolate Cannoli Tart

Posted on June 15, 2014 Posted in Tarts .

Orange Lemon and Chocolate Cannoli Tart

I have this absolutely awesome Cannoli recipe where I usually cheat and buy the Cannoli shells from my Italian grocery down the road. I buy the shells as I’m not a fan of deep frying food and to be honest try to opt for the more healthier versions of sweets if I can.

Now, my Italian grocery has recently been taken over and I don’t like my chances of being able to get my hands on the usual traditional Italian products I have in the past. So I had a though…What would happen if I tried to make my awesome Cannoli’s in a tart instead of the fried shells?

Sweet pastry is quite simple to make (especially if you have a food processor) therefore by turning my Cannoli’s into a tart I won’t have to deep fry or make my own shells.

The outcome – This by far would have to be one of the best sweets I have made in a long time. The only difference from my Cannoli recipe is I added an egg and baked this version and OMG I had people telling me how much they adored my tart that had never commented on my baking before.

Ingredients:

Pastry

2 cups flour
½ cup white sugar
½ tsn salt
2 tsn cocoa powder
100g butter
1 egg
1 tbns milk

Filling

375g ricotta
165g icing sugar
1 egg
I lemon
1 orange
100g 70% cocoa dark chocolate

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 175c and spray a tart tin with oil.
Place the flour, sugar, salt and cocoa powder into a food processor and pulse a few times to mix.
Dice the butter into small pieces and process until combined.
Add the egg and milk and process until combined.
Wash hands and turn dough out into a ball onto baking paper.
Using a rolling pin roll the dough into a circle shape and place into the tart tin and place tin into the fridge for 20 mins.
Place the ricotta, egg and icing sugar into a bowl.
Grate the chocolate, orange zest and lemon zest into the bowl.
Stir until all ingredients are combined well.
Spoon the mix into the tart tin and smooth the top.
Place into the oven and cook for 25 mins or until the party is browned and the filling has puffed up a bit.
Once cooked let the tart cook before removing from tin.

Notes:

If you don’t have a food processor combine flour, sugar, salt, cocoa ponder and diced butter in a bowl. Rub butter with dry ingredients until it resembles breadcrumbs. With your hands mix in the egg and milk until the dough is formed.

Ingredients

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Licorice Biscuits

Posted on June 9, 2014 Posted in Biscuits .

Licorice Biscuits

Its been a while since I have heard the word licorice, its not a food that I would go out and buy but would eat if it was in front of me.

After attending a wedding that had a lollie (candy) buffet with an amazing chocolate covered licorice I decided that I wanted to bake something with this ingredient.

After some though I felt a licorice pie could be a goer, a cake…maybe, but the easiest and quickest way to incorporate this ingredient into baking would have to be biscuits, (easy and quick as I planned to bake a few variations to get that scrumptious recipe).

Outcome – a few attempts (too chewy, too hard, too soft then one perfect with a shortbread consistency version) I have decided to share this awesome recipe. This biscuit is super tasty but only for a licorice fan as I have gone ‘generous’ with the flavor.

Ingredients:

250g butter
130g sugar
80g condensed milk
2 tsn anisette essence
300g plain flour
1 + ½ tsn baking powder
80g licorice pieces

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 160c and line 3 big baking trays with baking paper.
With electric beaters beat the butter and sugar for 5 minutes until light and creamy.
Add the milk and essence then beat for another few minutes until smooth.
Add the flour and baking powder to the mix and beat.
Add the licorice cut into small pieces and beat until well combine.
Roll mix into balls with hands to small golf ball sizes (30g in size).
Place balls on the trays and slightly flatten with hands.
Bake for 18 minutes or until golden.
Once cooked place on a rack to cool.

Notes:

Licorice is not the easies to dice I actually used scissors to cut the pieces into small diced pieces.

Ingredients

Step 7

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Biscuit Coconut and Jelly Slice

Posted on June 5, 2014 Posted in Slice .

Biscuit Coconut and Jelly Slice

A few weeks ago I went shopping at an Asian grocer and got my hands on Taro Jelly powder. I love Taro and wanted to use this flavour in a cake which got me thinking back to a slice I once made with chocolate, coconut and raspberry layers, where the taro could work as the top jelly layer.

Now, coconut works well with Asian food but the chocolate…that needed to be replaced to a plain flavour. The end result was so interesting with varying textures and beautiful flavour.

However, the best part about this recipe is that it is so substitutable. YOU can be the experimenter and use whatever biscuit you want as well as whatever jelly flavour you like.

This recipe is all about inspiring you to make your own creation. A fan of strawberries and cream? Use a vanilla biscuit as the base, replace the coconut milk with cream and use a strawberry jelly on the top. Or maybe you love cherry ripe? Try a chocolate base with a cream middle and cherry jelly. The variations are endless!

Ingredients:

250g sweet biscuits
100g butter
2 tsn gelatin powder
2 tbsn warm water
I cup thickened cream
1 cup coconut milk
½ icing sugar
85g packet of Taro pudding powder (or any flavor jelly you like)

Method

Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper.
Place the biscuits in a food processor until blitzed, pour into a bowl.
Pour the butter melted into the bowl and mix with the biscuits until combined.
Press into the slice tin and place into the fridge.
Place the gelatin into a bowl with the water and whisk to combined (it should look like a yellow tinged gel).
Place the cream, milk and icing sugar on a pot on the stove and whisk ingredients until the mix is warm – not boiling.
Add the gelatin and whisk on medium heat for 3 minutes.
Allow the mix to cool slighting and pour over the biscuit base.
Place back in the fridge and let the layer set for 2-3 hours.
Make the jelly according to the packet directions, let it cool completely then pour over the coconut layer.
Refrigerate for 4 hours or until set.

Notes:

I used Nice biscuits for the base.
If you don’t like coconut just use 2 cups of cream instead of the coconut milk.
This is such a simple recipe but you do need to let each layer set so it will take time to make, however 95% of the time is the gelatin setting in the fridge.

Ingredients

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Citrus Dark Chocolate and Ricotta Cannoli’s

Posted on June 1, 2014 Posted in Italy, Traditional .

Citrus, Dark Chocolate and Ricotta Cannoli’s

I have actually made these Cannoli’s on quite a few occasions and in variations each time.

In this recipe I have tweaked to provide you with what I think the best variation (and the easiest as I cheat a little). I’ve made this before with alcohol, pistachios, candied fruit peel, glace cherries, you name it!

I have also made these from scratch (the cannoli shells that is) and to be honest they take a very long time while being fiddly and messy. As I have an Italian grocer down the road buying a pack of 12 shells for $5 is so much more easier.

Cannoli’s are a traditional Italian dessert consisting of fried pastry filled with a cheese filling (usually ricotta or mascarpone). Variations of the filling are also common with cream or custard being piped in the shells.

Also stay tuned on this post, in a few weeks time you will see how I experiment with this recipe to produce a delightful and to die for sweet treat alternative using the fillings.

Ingredients:

300g fresh ricotta
¾ cup of icing sugar
Finally grated rind on 1 orange
Finally grated rind of I lemon
100g dark chocolate grated

Method:

Mix together all ingredients until smooth.
Spoon into a piping bag with a star nozzle (Witlon tip size up to you).
Pipe the filling into the shells generously starting from one end to the other.
And it’s as simple as that.

Notes:

This will fill easily 12 medium size shells or 18 small shells.
This filling is actually really good as a filling in the middle and on top of a chocolate cake or sponge cake to give a basic cake a twist of variation.
The filling can also be piped into profiteroles as a change up from cream or custard (I shared my profiterole recipe in January).

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Sweet Tooth Experiments

Monthly Archives: June 2014

Jelly Biscuits

Apple Crumble Pizza

Orange Lemon and Chocolate Cannoli Tart

Licorice Biscuits

Biscuit Coconut and Jelly Slice

Citrus Dark Chocolate and Ricotta Cannoli’s

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