June 2018 – Sweet Tooth Experiments

Thiples

Posted on June 30, 2018 Posted in Greece, Traditional .

Thiples

Thiples are a Greek traditional thin-sheet pastry (also known as Diples), usually made for special festive occasions. Similar to Cannoli’s shell texture and crunch Thiples are fried pastry that is soaked in a honey lemon syrup and sprinkled with a sesame and nut cinnamon mix for the extra crunch and flavour.

Think Baklava syrup and Frappe (aka Cioffe…aka Italian deep fried bow-tie cookies).

This is not the easiest of desserts to make, the pastry needs to be super super thin, but the outcome is addictively moreish – I can see why these are a Greek dessert treasure!

Dough:

4 eggs
30g ouzo
1 tbsn sugar
20ml lemon juice
1 tsn vanilla essence
470g ‘oo’ flour

Syrup:

170g honey
110g sugar
30ml lemon juice
1 tsn ground cinnamon

Extra:

50g walnuts
35g sesame seeds
¼ tsn ground cinnamon
Oil to fry

Method:

Place the eggs, ouzo, sugar, vanilla and lemon juice into a bowl and stir until combine.
Add the flour ¼ cup at a time until the dough is stiff (disregard any unused flour).
Knead the dough for 5 minutes.
Place the dough in an oiled bowl with plastic wrap over the top and leave for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
For the syrup place all the syrup ingredients as well as 60ml of water into a saucepan on high heat and stir until well combine and sugar is melted.
Once the mix boils reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes, take off heat.
Toast the sesame seeds until golden on a medium heat in a saucepan.
Finely chop up the walnuts and place them in a bowl with the cinnamon and seeds, stir until well combined.
Roll the dough through a pasta machine until you reach 2mm in thickness.
Cut the dough into 10cm x 10xm squares.
Roll the dough up into tube shapes.
Place the frying oil into a saucepan and add a little dough, place heat on high.
Once the dough starts to sizzle remove and turn the heat to medium/low.
Add in the tubes (triples) and fry until golden brown.
Remove the thiples and place onto paper towel.
Pour the syrup into a bowl and add in the thiples, turning them for a robust syrup coating.
Place the thiples onto a serving plate and top with any remaining syrup as well as the nut mix sprinkled on the top.
Enjoy!

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NOTE:

Rolling the pastry prior to adding to the oil is not the traditional method. Technically you are to add the pastry as a sheet and roll with tongs, this however clearly takes a lot of practice. As this recipe rolls prior to the oil make sure your oil is not too hot or the outside will brown before the pastry in the middle has had time to cook.

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Chocolate Top-Deck Tiramisu Cupcakes

Posted on June 23, 2018 Posted in Cupcakes .

Chocolate Top-Deck Tiramisu Cupcakes

Tiramisu is my ultimate all-time favorite dessert ever. The only thing with traditional Tiramisu is that its not the easiest thing to eat – a bowl/plate as well as a spoon is a must. Unlike a slice or cupcake Tiramisu can really only be eaten sitting at a table.

So I decided that I would come up with a recipe that tastes like the traditional treat but as a cupcake.

For the cupcake recipe, I modified my never fail white chocolate and dark chocolate wedding cake recipes with the coffee and marsala flavor combo, as well as staying true to the traditional mascarpone cheese for my ‘icing’.

Though I have included the mix of white and dark chocolate in this recipe, in which is not traditional for this dessert, the chocolate batter works flawlessly with the traditional flavors.

Ingredients:

White chocolate layer:

85g butter
85g white chocolate
130g sugar
150ml water
105g self-raising flour
65ml milk
1 egg

Dark chocolate layer:

85g butter
85g dark chocolate
130g sugar
150ml water
20g cocoa powder
85g self-raising flour
10ml marsala
55ml expresso coffee
1 egg

Syrup:

30ml marsala
30ml expresso coffee
15g sugar

Icing:

200g mascarpone cheese
35g icing sugar
25ml marsala
2 tsn expresso coffee

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 160c degrees and line an 8-capacity cupcake tray with patty cases.
Spray the patty cases with oil spray.
In a saucepan on the stove melt the butter, chocolate, sugar and water on medium heat until smooth and glossy.
Pour the room temperature chocolate mix, milk and egg into a bowl.
Sift the flour to the chocolate mix and whisk with a hand whisk until smooth.
Spoon the mix into the prepared patty cases until 1/3 full.
Place the tin in the freezer for 10 minutes to slightly firm.
Meanwhile make the dark chocolate batter by placing the butter, chocolate, sugar and water into a saucepan on medium heat until smooth and glossy.
Pour the room temperature chocolate mix, expresso and egg into a bowl.
Sift in the flour and cocoa powder into the chocolate mix and whisk with a hand whisk until smooth.
Take the tin out of the freezer and spoon the dark chocolate mix into the prepared patty cases until they are 2/3rds full.
Place the cupcake tin in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Leave the cupcakes in the tin for 5 minutes before placing onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Meanwhile make the syrup by placing the ingredient into a bowl and heating in the microwave until bubbling, leave aside.
Brush the syrup on top of the cupcakes with a pastry brush and remove the patty cases.
Make the icing by placing all the icing ingredients into a bowl and using electric beats whisk until the mix thickens.
Spoon the icing into a piping bag with a circle nozzle and pipe on top of the cupcakes.
Finish the cakes with a dust of cocoa powder and some grated white chocolate.

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Chocolate Top-Deck Tiramisu Cupcakes recipe

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Green Tea and Pistachio Eclairs

Posted on June 16, 2018 Posted in France .

Green Tea and Pistachio Éclairs

This recipe came to me when I was looking at pairing two strong, similar and complimentary flavours together, these being Green Tea (a core Asian slightly bitter tea) with pistachios (core Middle East staple nut).

To balance out the savouriness on the palette I then introduced the integration of white chocolate.

Though the mix of Asian, Middle Eastern and French (the origin of Eclairs ) palettes sounds bazaar and all over the shop this little treat is super tasty, delighting all that experience its uniqueness.

Ingredients:

Éclair:

90g butter
250g water
150g flour
1 tbsn sugar
¼ tsn salt
4 eggs

Filling & Icing:

400g cream
100g pistachios
45g Matcha
50 icing sugar
120g choc
40g butter

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 200c degrees and place baking paper on 2 large baking trays.
Place the butter and water into a saucepan and stir on a medium heat until bubbles start to form.
Combine the flour, sugar and salt into a bowl and stir to combine.
Add the flour mix to the water mix and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mix comes away from the sides of the pan in a ball.
Remove the saucepan off the heat and leave for 5 minutes, allowing for the pastry mix to cool.
Beat the eggs in a bowl with electric beaters. Following add the pastry mix beating until the egg is fully combine and incorporated.
Fit a pastry bag with a 3cm tub nozzle and pipe 12cm pastry strips 3cm apart onto the baking paper. Cut the pastry ends with a wet knife.
Bake pastry in the oven for 10 minutes.
Turn the oven down to 190c degrees and bake for a further 20 minutes, or until the pastry is puffy and golden brown.
Turn off the oven and cut the éclairs in half horizontally. Following remove some of the pastry soft center from the éclairs.
Place the eclairs back in the oven for a further 10 minutes to dry out.
Following leave the éclair shells aside to cool completely.
To make the filling beat the cream until soft peaks form.
Place the pistachios into a food processor, blitz to a finely diced consistency.
Add 25g of the Matcha powder, the icing sugar and 70g of the pistachios into the whipped cream, beat until combine and firm peaks form.
Spoon the cream filling into the middle of half of the éclairs where you previously removed some of the centre. Top the cream filling with the remaining eclairs.
To make the ganache icing place the butter and chocolate in a saucepan on a low heat and stir until melted, combine and glossy.
Add 20g of the remaining pistachios to the ganache with the remaining 20g of Matcha powder, stir until well combined.
Spoon the ganache icing over the top of the éclairs.
Place eclairs in the fridge to set the ganache icing for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Sprinkle the remaining 10g of pistachios on the éclairs and enjoy.

Notes:

Matcha powder is green tea powder, the same powder used to make green tea ice-cream.

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Caramel and Chocolate Flan Brulee Brownie

Posted on June 9, 2018 Posted in Brownies .

Caramel and Chocolate Flan Brulee Brownie

There is not much to say on this little sweat treat.

I decided I wanted to make a slice that had layers of amazing tastes and textures, really taking the taste buds on a journey.

How I planned to do this was combining various scrumptious desserts into one delicious multi treat.

This recipe is executed by a rich chocolate brownie base, a light and fluffy vanilla flan centre and smooth melt in-your-mouth caramel with a crisp brulee top.

If I haven’t got your attending by now nothing will!

Outcome = exactly what I hoped, Caramel, Chocolate Vanilla Flan Brulee Brownie bliss.

Ingredients:

300g caramel (I used Nestlé Caramel top n’ fill)
1 tbsn extra sugar

Brownie:

100g dark chocolate
50g butter
70g sugar
70g plain flour
1 egg

Flan:

310g sweetened condensed milk
260ml milk
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190c and line a 21cm square cake tin with baking paper.
Spread the caramel evenly in the bottom of the cake tin and place in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.
Combine the chocolate and butter into a microwave safe container and microwave on medium for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave and stir every 30 seconds until the mix is silky and smooth.
Add the sugar, eggs and flour to the chocolate mix and whisk thoroughly with a hand whisk until well combined.
Using a spoon carefully place the mix on top the caramel without moving it. Spread to ensure even layering.
In a food processor add in the condensed milk, milk, eggs and vanilla essence. Cover and blend ingredients until the mix is thoroughly combined together.
Spoon milk mix over the brownie layer.
Place the tin in the oven for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let the brownie cool completely in the tin.
Once the brownie has cooled flip the tin on a plate, removing the tin and baking paper. Sprinkle the extra sugar on the top of the caramel layer.
Using a blow torch scorch the top of the slice until browned and bubbling.
Cut and serve.

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Black Sesame Macarons

Posted on June 2, 2018 Posted in Biscuits .

Black Sesame Macarons

For a while now I have been meaning to bake something with Black Sesames and to be honest if was difficult to come up with a recipe where the seeds can be the hero flavour and really shine.

As the flavour is quite subtle adding any other flavour in the mix would clout and take over.

Why Black Sesame then if it’s such a restrained flavour? I ate the seeds in an ice-cream Asian dessert recently, and though the dessert wasn’t anything special I was quite drawn to the rawness and uniqueness of the flavour.

After playing around with a few recipe drafts I ended up deciding on macarons. Macarons are so airy and light thus the filling is usually the primary element in which I could easily use the seeds for the filling and make it shine. A slightly vanilla spiked biscuit flavour would allow the black sesame to really take over the palate.

Now the last time I made macaron’s they didn’t turn out that great, so to ensure I would get the best result possible I have used Adriano Zumbo’s macaron recipe as a base guide and altered accordingly.

The outcome = perfect macaroons!

Black Sesame Macarons recipe

Ingredients:

Macarons:

95g eggwhites (3 large egg equivalent)
135g icing sugar
135g almond meal
40ml water
1/4 tsn vanilla essence
125g sugar

Filling:

2 tbsn black sesame seeds
45g butter
90g icing sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 135c degrees and line 2 large biscuit trays with baking paper.
Using a 20 cent piece sized cookie cutter draw circles on the paper leaving 2cm gap between each.
Sift the icing sugar and almond meal through a sieve into a bowl, stir to combine.
Add 45g of eggwhite and the vanilla, stir until well combine.
Place the sugar and water into a saucepan and cook on a high heat, stir until the sugar has dissolved and the mix boils to become a syrup.
Place a candy thermometer in the syrup and leave the temperature on high until it hits 120c degrees.
Add the remaining eggwhites into a new unused bowl and with electric beaters beat for 30 seconds on a medium speed.
Next, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the eggwhites while you beat.
Beat eggwhite for 3 minutes or until the mix is smooth and glossy.
Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the almond mix until just combine.
Add the remaining eggwhites to the mix and fold until just combine.
Place the mix into a piping bag fitted with a 1.5cm plain circle nozzle.
Pipe the mix into the drawn circle shapes by placing the nozzle in the centre of the circle and use pressure on the piping bag until the circle is filled.
Once all circles are filled tap the tray to get rid of any air bubbles and leave the tray for 45 minutes to allow the biscuits to form a skin on top.
Bake the biscuits for 15 minutes or until crisp.
Let them cool completely on the tray.
Meanwhile to make the filling, place the seeds into a saucepan and on a medium heat stir until the seeds start to release their wonderful scent (do no allow to burn).
Take the seeds off the heat and grind the sesames in a pestle and mortar until they resemble a paste (do 2 tsn at a time).
Once cooled place the paste, room temperature butter and icing sugar in a bowl and using electric beaters whisk on high for 3 minutes or until mix is creamy and fluffy.
Spread the biscuits with the icing mix and sandwich 2 biscuit together, the filling in the centre.
Enjoy and serve.