September 2015 – Sweet Tooth Experiments

Spiced Bourbon Marshmallow Slice

Posted on September 28, 2015 Posted in Slice .

Spiced Bourbon Marshmallow Slice

So I know that bourbon and chocolate go together very well (hello my Bourbon Chocolate Cake with Peanut Bourbon Icing recipe), however I wanted to use up some bourbon by making something different. Chocolate goes with most things as flavour parings tend to enhance and put a spin on the cocoa/cacoa taste. What I wanted to do was make a bourbon recipe that enhanced the bourbon flavour. On top of this as we know I do have a sweet tooth and bourbon is not sweet so I had to somehow also make it super appealing and absolutely tasty for by palate.

My solution to this was to play around with a variation of spices, mixing and matching until I found a set that went extremely well together, had similar flavour properties and also brought out the sweetness in the bourbon.

Sound impossible? See the below recipe and become a lover of bourbon!

Ingredients:

½ cup self raising flour
½ cup plain flour
¾ cup brown sugar
¼ tsn nutmeg
1/8 tsn ground ginger
1 + ½ ground cinnamon
1 + ½ mixed spice
100g butter
1 egg
1 tsn vanilla essence

Marshmallow:

1 tbsn gelatine powder
140g sugar
180ml cup water
4 tsn bourbon

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180c degrees and line a 20cm x 30cm cake tin with baking paper.
Place the flours, sugar and spices into a bowl and mix.
Melt the butter in a bowl and add the vanilla essence.
Stir the egg into the flour mix, add the butter mix and stir until well combine.
Place the mix into the cake tin and flatten with fingers.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes then set aside to cool.
Make the marshmallow mix by placing the gelatine into half the water and stir to combine the mix.
Place the remaining water, sugar and bourbon into a bowl and whisk with electric beaters for 4 minutes.
Place the gelatine mix in the microwave until warm and syrupy in texture.
Slowly pour the gelatine in a consistent stream while the beaters are on high.
Continue beating for a further 8 minutes or until the mix is light and fluffy.
Pour the mix over the cooled slice base and place in the fridge for 2 hours to set completely.
Cut and enjoy.

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Lemon Avocado Meringue Pies

Posted on September 21, 2015 Posted in Pies .

Lemon Avocado Meringue Pies

You may notice every now and then I dabble with incorporating avocado in my baking. Is it actually a great substitute for quite a few ingredients, in particular the more naughty baking ingredients. An example of past recipes include; Avocado Chocolate and Orange Mousse Tart or my healthily Guilt-free chocolate Icing .

Though this recipe does have condensed milk, (which let’s face it it’s exactly healthy – but better than refined sugar) I have used avocado as the lemon tart filling. So instead of the sugar dense lemon curd and/or mountain of sugar in the traditional filling (along with flour and who knows what in mass produced products) you are eating nutritional vitamin rich healthy fats.

As so much lemon juice is used in this recipe you don’t taste the avocado, it literally taste exactly like a lemon tart.

To complete the treat I have whipped up some meringue and placed on the top with just a dash of sugar to keep with the lowish (lower than usual) sugar trend.

Ingredients:

Pastry:

200 plain flour
100 butter
30g sugar

Filling:

1 large avocado (200g)
320ml sweetened condensed milk
100ml lemon juice

Meringue:

2 eggs
2 tsn sugar

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 200c degrees.
Place the pastry ingredients into a food processor and blitz until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add 40g of water and process until the mix resembles dough and comes away at the sides of the bowl.
Knead the dough for a minute then divide into 6 balls of 60g each.
With a rolling pin roll the balls into disk shapes and place into 6 small (3 tbsn capacity) tart cases.
Prick the pastry with a fork a few times on the base and place the tarts in the fridge for 30 minutes.
After 30 mins place some rice or baking weights onto baking paper and add to the center of each tart case to weight down the rise of the pastry base while cooking.
Place the tart shells in the oven for 10 minutes.
Remove the baking paper and weights and bake in the oven for a further 8 minutes or until the tart shells are slightly golden brown, set aside to cool.
To make the filling place the avocado, condensed milk and lemon juice in a food processor and blitz until silky smooth.
Spoon the mix into the cooled tart cases and place in the fridge for 30 mins to set.
With electric beaters whisk the egg whites on medium until soft peaks form.
Increase speed to high, while beating in the sugar until thick peaks form.
Spoon the meringue on top of the pies and blow torch the meringue until golden brown on top, serve.

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Carrot Chocolate and Chai Cake

Posted on September 14, 2015 Posted in Cakes .

Carrot Chocolate and Chai Cake

Chocolate and chai just work wonderfully together. Spices give the carrot a beautiful personality and carrots in chocolate cake produce the most moist and satisfying texture. This being said it makes perfect sense to take these flavours and produce a uniquely flavorsome cake.

One of the challenges I wanted to give myself was to try and pack this cake as full of veggies as possible. I wasn’t aiming for a big carrot flavour, I was more after the nutrients the carrot added to the cake and the texture it created with the grated carrot.

After some experimenting I produced an absolutely lovely cake that has a massive 3 cups of grated carrot! How’s that for a kick start to your veg intake for the day.

As you cannot taste or see the carrot (thanks to the chocolates strong colour and taste), it means you can trick the kids into eating some veg.

Ingredients:

1 + ½ cup self raising flour
45g cocoa powder
3 chai teabags
870g grated carrot
2 eggs
150g brown sugar
100ml vegetable oil
125g dark chocolate, melted

Icing:

250g mascarpone cheese
125g dark chocolate
300g icing sugar

Method:

Pre heat an oven to 175c degrees and line a 25cm cake tin with baking paper.
Place the flour, cocoa powder and contents of the tea bags into a food processor and blitz for 1 minute on high.
Place the carrot into a bowl and stir through the flour mix until all the grated carrot is completely covered.
Place the sugar, oil and melted dark chocolate into a bowl and beat with a hand whisk until well combined.
Pour the chocolate mix into the carrot mix and stir until well combine with no lumps.
Pour the mix into the cake tin and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Place the cake on a cooling rack until cold.
Meanwhile to make the icing place the cheese, melted chocolate and icing sugar into a food processor and blitz until the mix is smooth and fluffy.
Spread the icing on the top and sides of the cake.

Note:

I have decorated with carrot praline on top of the cake.

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Carrot Chocolate and Chai Cake recipe

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Miso Doughnuts

Posted on September 8, 2015 Posted in Doughnuts, Unique .

Miso Doughnuts

Taking some flavor inspiration from Japanese cuisine and mixing it up with one of the most well know treats in the world being America’s Doughnut (assumed to have originated in Manhattan pre-mid 1900s), this recipe will surprise and delight.

I have dabbled in using Japanese stable ingredients in baking recently (black sesame macaroons to some) so I decided that I would make doughnuts but put my spin on them by using the black sesames as the chocolate sprinkles and miso paste with sugar as the doughut glaze.

To enhance the Miso flavor I have modified the doughnut batter to also incorporate the Miso paste.

The outcome was actually a really fluffy and surprisingly delicious doughnut.

I actually took these to work and no one knew they had miso paste and I had great feedback.

Ingredients:

Doughnuts:

180ml milk
1 tbsn dry yeast
60g sugar
300g flour
2-egg yolk
30g butter
1 tsn miso paste

Icing:

30g butter
50ml water
1 tbsn miso paste
290g icing sugar

Extra:

1 tbsn black sesame seeds
Oil

Method:

Place warm milk, 1 tbsn sugar and the yeast in a bowl and stir until the mix is combine.
Leave the milk mix aside to bubble for 20 minutes.
Place the remaining sugar, flour, yolks and the butter softened in a bowl.
Pour in the milk mix and stir until well combine.
Flour the bench and kneed the dough for 10 minutes until elastic and smooth.
Spray a bowl with oil spray and place the dough in covered with cling wrap for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Flour the benchtop again, adding the miso paste to the dough and kneed for 3 minutes.
Using a rolling pin roll the dough out to 1cm and using a 7cm cutter cut out the doughnuts.
Following cut out the holes with a 2cm circle cookie cutter.
Place the doughnuts aside for 30 mins and cover with a tea towel.
Place the sesame seeds in a saucepan and on a medium heat warm through until the seeds are slightly roasted and release their aroma.
Place oil for frying on a saucepan and using a candy thermometer heat the oil on medium until it reaches 175c degrees.
Place the doughnuts in the oil for 30 seconds on each side until golden brown.
Place the cooked doughnuts onto paper town to absorb the excess oil.
For the icing place the water, miso and melted butter into a bowl and stir until combine.
Add the icing sugar and using a hand whisk beat until combine,
Place the doughnuts onto a tray and using a pastry brush ice the top of all the doughnuts until all the icing has been used.
Top with the sesame seeds and enjoy.

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