November 2020 – Sweet Tooth Experiments

Limoncello and Lime Zesty Citrus Ice-Cream

Posted on November 21, 2020 Posted in Ice-cream & Sorbet .

Citrus Spiked Simple Ice-Cream

Technically not a ‘true’ ice-cream, I wanted to make a tasty alcoholic refreshing dessert – perfect for a hot Summers day. This recipe came off the back of exactly this concept, whilst also delivering on ease and minimal ingredients that anyone can make and look like a star.

With 4 ingredients and the most challenging step holding electric beaters this is a decadent recipe that takes seconds and will satisfy with its zesty sweet tang in every scoop.

Why pay way $$$ on fancy Ice-cream brands when you can make a delectable one with a boozy twist!

Ingredients:

250ml thickened cream
320g condensed milk
120ml limoncello
100ml lime juice
2 lime zest

Method:

Beat the cream with electric beaters until peaks form.
Place the milk, limoncello, lime juice and zest of 2 limes into a bowl and whisk until combined.
Fold the cream into the milk mix until just combine.
Spoon the mix into a container and place into the fridge to set overnight.
Scoop and enjoy.

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Limoncello and Lime Zesty Citrus Ice-Cream

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Jackfruit White Chocolate Macadamia Brittle Ice-cream

Posted on November 15, 2020 Posted in Ice-cream & Sorbet .

Jackfruit White Chocolate Macadamia Brittle Ice-cream

For some time Jackfruit has been on my radar, but being a vegetarian most of my experience with this fruit has been via savory dishes as a meat replacement. Being such a versatile fruit, I decided to make it the feature of a dessert.

With such an interesting taste to work out flavour combos I opted to look at the closest fruits I deemed most similar, these being mango, apricot and pineapple.

After playing around with a few apricot, pineapple and mango flavour pairings with jackfruit I landed on a killer recipe. White chocolate as the foundation flavour, macadamia brittle crunch flavour bombs and 2 different jackfruit textures for smoothness and chewiness.

I actually didn’t think this would be a successful bake but was so surprised I ended up redoing the recipe to this time write down the ratios!

Ingredients:

160g dried Jackfruit
50g caster sugar
30ml cold water
100g Macadamia, salted
10g butter
110g white chocolate
800g vanilla ice-cream
¼ tsn caramel essence (optional)

Method:

Place 100g of the jackfruit into a bowl of boiling water, leave for 10 minutes, drain then dice into small pieces, set aside for later.
Chop the remaining 60g jackfruit into small pieces.
Chop up the nuts into small chunks.
Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Place the 30ml cold water and sugar in a saucepan and heat on medium heat, cooking, stirring until sugar has dissolved.
Turn the heat to high, add the nuts and allow the mix to boil until it reaches 110c degrees on a candy thermometer or begins to turn golden, remove from the heat.
Quickly stir in the butter.
Pour mix onto the baking paper, leave aside until completely cooled.
Finely chop up the white chocolate.
Place the ice-cream into a bowl and allow to soften for 10 minutes.
Chop the nut brittle into small pieces and place into the bowl with the ice cream.
Add the jackfruits, essence and white chocolate to the ice-cream and stir until well combined.
Pour into a container and place into the freezer for 4 hours+.

Dried Jackfruit

Jackfruit White Chocolate Macadamia Brittle Ice-cream

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Jackfruit White Chocolate Macadamia Brittle Ice-cream

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Microwave Sponge Cake

Posted on November 7, 2020 Posted in Cakes .

Watermelon Daiquiri Cake with Ermine Frosting

I do a loooot of baking, and quite a lot of my recipes include sponge cake as a layer. I have previously shared my never fail amazing sponge cake recipe but let’s face it, sometimes I have limited time to whip up this element in a bake and need a quick fluffy alternative (and paying $5 at the supermarket feels like big wasted money).

This got me thinking of coming up with a super fluffy, easy and tasty sponge recipe that I could whip up and cook in seconds saving me 20 minutes per future bake.

Therefore, coming up with a microwave sponge cake recipe would be super helpful, but could it be done?

After 4 experiments, a lot of time trailing and dish sizes I landed on the below recipe in which has worked 3 times in a row perfectly.

A great secret recipe that involves no oven and saves you on baking time and money!

Ingredients:

50g butter, softened
50g caster sugar
1 egg
2 tbsn milk
¼ tsn vanilla essence
50g self-raising flour

Method:

Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl with electric beaters until fluffy and pale.
Add the egg and beat until creamy.
Add the milk and vanilla and beat until well combined and silky smooth.
Add the flour and beat on a low setting with electric beaters for 30 seconds or until just combined.
Spray a microwave safe glass/plastic bowl/silicon 20cm x 10cm baking dish with oil spray.
Pour the mix into the dish, allowing for the dish to be half full or less (the mix will significantly rise).
Use the back on a spoon to evenly distribute the mix in the dish.
Top the dish with plastic wrap and poke holes in the wrap with a skewer to allow the steam to escape.
Cook the cake in the microwave on high for 90 seconds.
Remove from the microwave and place the dish aside to completely cool.
Once cooled invert the dish onto a chopping board and cut in half vertically, making 2 even 10cm x 10cm cake halves.
Place one layer on a plate and top with your favourite filling followed by the 2nd cake layer, Enjoy.

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Chocolate and Peanut Rice Crust Tart

Posted on November 1, 2020 Posted in Tarts .

Chocolate and Peanut Rice Crust Tart

Chocolate and Peanut Rice Crust Tart recipe

This recipe actually derived from a savoury tart recipe with a brown rice and seed base. I liked the idea of a rice base so much I adapted the recipe to suit a sweeter bake.

As the parmesan added such great richness and flavour, whilst being a great binding ingredient I left it in the sweet adaptation recipe. This then dictated what type of a sweet bake I would make as dark chocolate and parmesan go so well together (see my Parmesan Cheese Chocolate Slice recipe).

I changed the seeds from the original recipe to peanuts as peanuts had similar fat content in which the tart needed to keep it moist, while coating the proteins and starches in the egg, rice and flour. A few trials and I had the perfect base.

As peanuts were used in my base, I made this the hero ingredient along with the previously identified dark chocolate and wah-lah a peanut filled tart with chocolate ganache recipe on a rice crust tart case was born.

You would have no idea of rice in the base, in which is a great alternative to flour and the peanut filling with dark chocolate topping is just to die for.

This recipe exceeded my expectations and then some – decadent, delicious, unique and so so satisfying.

Chocolate and Peanut Rice Crust Tart recipe

Ingredients:

Base:

500g packet ready steamed white rice
50g peanuts
40g parmesan
20g plain flour
1 egg
1/2 tsn salt

Filling:

75g peanut butter
180g sugar
60ml water
80g butter
80ml thickened cream
160g peanuts

Ganache:

165g thickened cream
240g dark choc
3 egg yolks
1 tbsn caster sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c degrees and spray 8 mini tart cases with oil spray.
Place the rice, peanuts, flour and parmesan into a food processor and blitz until the mix resembles bread crumbs.
Add the egg and salt and blitz until well combined.
Divide the mix into 8 balls and using wet hands push the mix into the base of the tin and up the sides of the tin to cover the tin completely and evenly.
Prick the bases with a fork a few times and place the tart cases into the oven, baking for 20 minutes.
Remove the tarts from the oven, take the tins off the tart shells and bake for a further 5 minutes base side up to ensure a crispy brown base on the tart shells.
Set the bases aside to cool.
Spoon and evenly spread the peanut butter into the base of each tart shell and place in the fridge for 15 minutes to set.
Meanwhile place the sugar and water into a saucepan on medium heat, whisking with a hand whisk until sugar is dissolved.
Turn the heat to high and allow to bubble until the mix starts to caramelise.
Remove the mix off the heat and carefully add the butter, cream and salt, whisking with a hand whisk.
Place the pan back on a medium heat, whisking until the mix is silky smooth.
Add the peanuts to the pan and whisk until well combined, leave aside to cool.
Spoon the peanut caramel mix into the base of the tart shells – over the peanut butter and place the tarts back in the fridge for 30 minutes.
To make the ganache place the cream and chocolate in a saucepan over a pot of simmering water and stir until well combined, silky and smooth in texture, leave aside until slightly cooled.
Place the egg yolks and sugar in another saucepan and whisk with a hand whisk until the egg is pale and creamy – do not place directly on the heat or the yolk with scramble.
Place the yolk mix and chocolate mix into a bowl and beat with electric beaters until cooled, thick and creamy.
Spoon over the top of the peanut mix and place the tarts in the fridge to completely set for 2+ hours.