January 2018 – Sweet Tooth Experiments

Blueberry Lavender and Lemon Marshmallows

Posted on January 27, 2018 Posted in Marshmallows .

Blueberry Lavender and Lemon Marshmallows













I recently posted a recipe for Moscato Lemon Marshmallows, where I mentioned in the post that there were 2 marshmallow flavour combos that I really liked with varying methods where I opted for the recipe that provided the fluffier product.

As the flavour combo of the less optimal method of blueberry, lavender and lemon was so tasty I decided to use the Moscato recipe as the base to redo the blueberry version.
I did need to play around a bit with volumes and ratios, as Moscato’s liquid is much thinner than mashed up blueberries. After experimenting accordingly I reached the point where I was quite satisfied the texture of the marshmallows was just as good as the Moscato version.



The blueberry, lavender and lemon work really well together, the lavender is not overwhelming and is balanced well by the berries as they have the same flavour profile. Whilst the lemon complements both the berry and lavender, pushing the flavour up a notch.

Ingredients:

325g frozen blueberries (you will need 200ml juice for the recipe)
1 tsn vanilla essence
4 tsn gelatin
220g sugar
180ml glucose
1 tsn lemon zest
1 + ½ tsn ground lavender
3 egg whites
½ tsn salt
20g corn flour
60g icing sugar

Method:

Line a 10cm x 10cm slice tin with baking paper.
Heat the blueberries in a bowl in the microwave until thawed and steaming.
Squash the blueberries through a sieve to get 200ml juice.
Pour 120ml of the juice and the vanilla essence into a saucepan on a low/medium heat until the mix is simmering.
Add the gelatin to the saucepan and whisk with a hand whisk until the gelatin is dissolved, set aside.
In another saucepan add the remaining 80ml blueberry juice, the sugar, glucose, ground lavender and lemon zest and stir on a high heat until the sugar is dissolved.
Place a candy thermometer into the saucepan and allow to cook until 128c degrees is hit, following take the pan off the heat.
Meanwhile, place the egg whites and salt into a bowl and whisk with electric beaters until soft peaks form.
Pour the sugar syrup into the egg whites in a slow stream while whisking the egg mix on high with the electric beaters until all the syrup is combine.
Next add the gelatin mix slowly, whisking with the electric beaters until the egg mix is cooled.
Pour the mix into the lined tin and place in the fridge for 4 hours+ (overnight if possible) to set.
Remove the marshmallow out of the tin, and on a cutting board pull the baking paper away from the sides of the marshmallow.
Spray a knife with oil spray to stop the marshmallow sticking and cut the marshmallow into squares.
Place a piece of baking paper onto the bench, sieve the icing sugar and corn flour into a bowl then sieve over the piece of baking paper to cover.
Place the marshmallow onto the icing sugar mix and roll each piece until they are all completely covered on all sides.
Eat and enjoy!

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White Chocolate Golden Syrup Cranberry Florentines

Posted on January 20, 2018 Posted in Biscuits .

White Chocolate Golden Syrup Cranberry Florentines





There are many many many versions of Florentine recipes that exist in magazines, recipe books, online etc so it’s quite rare for me to post a recipe that has so many variations and is so well known. Though most florentine recipes use the same standard base ingredients of cornflakes, condensed milk, milk chocolate and glaze cherries the secondary ingredients can span wide.


So when I came across a florentine in a café that had no cornflakes and was completely addictive I decided to create my own version, though deliberately without the 4 base ingredients for a good challenge.


I made a thin biscuit batter instead of the cornflakes, golden syrup instead of the condensed milk, dried cranberries instead of the glaze fruit, 4 different nuts instead of just focusing on 1 and lastly white chocolate instead of the traditional milk.

I identified that the golden syrup provides a malty caramel flavour which with the nuts tastes absolutely delicious. The white chocolate allows the nuts, golden syrup and cranberries to shine as it’s not as overwhelming in flavour as milk chocolate.A warning, this biscuit is moreish-ly addictive!

Ingredients:

50g brown sugar
50g butter
30ml golden syrup
45g plain flour
75g mixed roasted nuts (I used cashews, pecans, walnuts and almonds)
40g cranberries
90g white chocolate

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c degrees and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
Place the sugar, butter and golden syrup into a bowl and heat in the microwave until the mix bubbles.
Using a hand whisk beat until the mix is well combine.
Sieve the flour over the butter mix and beat until combine.
Chop the nuts into small pieces and add to the sugar butter mix.
Slightly dice up the cranberries and add to the butter mix.
Stir the mix until all ingredients are combined.
Roll the mix into balls, 15g each and place them onto the baking paper ensuring at least 5cm between each ball.
Place the trays in the oven and bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Allow the biscuits to cool and harden on the trays.
Place the while chocolate into a bowl and on a low/medium level heat in the microwave in 1 minute intervals until the chocolate is melted.
Use a bread knife or spatula spread the chocolate over the bottom of each cooled biscuits placing the biscuits chocolate side up onto a plate.
Place the plate into the fridge until the chocolate has set hard.

Boozy Mocha Yoghurt Ice-Cream recipe




















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Mandarin and Curd Lamingtons

Posted on January 13, 2018 Posted in Cakes .

Mandarin and Curd Lamingtons


I recently made a trifle that featured an orange curd and though the trifle was nothing special I really quite enjoyed the curd and idea of a curd that was not a standard lemon. On top of this I saw a recipe for lamingtons where instead of milk chocolate they used white, in which I though was interesting and got me thinking of lamingtons with no chocolate at all (very taboo of my Australian heritage I know).

As I wanted to do some lamington experimenting outside of chocolate and also wanted to make another fruit flavored curd I decided to combine both of these experimental baking sessions into one.



The experiment for the day; a Grapefruit curd lamingtons and a Mandarin curd lamington.









The curd would replace the jam component of the lamington as well as provide a solid flavour boost then incorporated into the sponge batter as well as the icing that holds the coconut in place.

As grapefruit is such a strong and zingy taste it was a bit too overwhelming in this instance, but the mandarin lamington was absolutely delicious and addictive, thus has made it to this website.

Ingredients:

Curd:

2 eggs
2 egg yolks
160g sugar
2 mandarins (you will need 2 tsn zest and 160ml juice)
80g butter

Cake:

150g butter
220g sugar
2 eggs
200g self raising flour
20g corn flour
300g sour cream
40g desiccated coconut
160g mandarin curd (as made earlier)
3 mandarins (you will need 1+ 1/2 tbsn zest and 160ml juice, 100ml juice kept aside for the icing)

Icing:

350g icing sugar
50g mandarin curd (as made earlier)
20g butter
100ml mandarin juice (left over from earlier)

Extra:

200g shredded coconut
50g mandarin curd (as made earlier)

Method:

Place the 2 eggs and the 2 yolks into a bowl with the sugar and whisk with a hand whisk until the mix becomes light and airy.
Zest and juice the 2 mandarins and pour into the egg mix, whisk until just combine.
Pour the egg mix into a saucepan along with the butter on a low heat and continuously whisk with a hand whisk until the mix thickens to a custard like consistencies and thickness.
Leave the curd aside to cool completely (this recipe will yield 360ml of curd).
Meanwhile, make the cake by pre-heating the oven to 180c degrees and line a 20cm x 20cm cake tin with baking paper.
Whisk the butter and sugar in a bowl with electric beaters for 5 minutes of until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between each addition until fluffy and silky.
Sieve the flours into the egg mix, then add in the sour cream, coconut and mandarin curd.
Lastly zest and juice the 2 mandarins, placing all the zest and 60ml of the juice into the egg mix.
Fold the ingredients with a spatula until half combined.
Whisk the mix with electric beaters on low until only just combine.
Pour the mix into the cake tin and bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Leave the cake in the tin for 5 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack.
Lastly make the icing by placing all the icing ingredients including the 100ml of juice saved from earlier into a saucepan on medium.
Whisking the icing with a hand whisk until the sugar is dissolved and the mix is smooth and glossy.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and transfer into a deep bowl, leave aside until at room temperature.
To assemble the lamingtons pour the extra coconut into a bowl.
Cut the cooled cake into 16 even square pieces.
Cut the squares in half horizontally and top the bottom pieces with the extra 50g of curd.
Place the top lamington piece on top of the curd, sandwiching the lamington in place.
Softly place a lamington on a folk and dip the folk into the icing mix until the lamington is completely covered in icing.
Allow excess icing to drip off the lamington then drop the lamington gently into the bowl of coconut.
Use a spoon to ensure the lamington is completely covered in coconut and place the lamington on a plate.
Repeat the icing and coconut steps with the remaining 15 lamingtons.
Leave the laminations in the fridge for 30 minutes to completely set, then enjoying!


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Vegan Vodka Watermelon Sorbet

Posted on January 6, 2018 Posted in Ice-cream & Sorbet .

Vegan Vodka Watermelon Sorbet

Have you ever heard of people infusing vodka into a whole watermelon? A friend was telling me if you cut out a hole in the watermelon skin and hollow the watermelon out a little bit you can pour vodka into the hole to make a spiked watermelon. You put it in the fridge for a day and then cut it up as per usual for a twist on having a drink of vodka.

This got me thinking. As I had some watermelon left over from a previous bake and have a New Years Eve gathering in a few days I could get into some experimenting.

So I figured as watermelon is basically all liquid, if I blitz the flesh with the vodka and some sugar I could freeze the mix and make a granita.

Though the granita was lovey it wasn’t really anything unusual, therefore I decided to add in another flavour to compliment the watermelon taste as well as turn it into a silky smooth and more satisfying sorbet.

As my friend hosting is a vegan thus wont eat eggwhite (which is needed to turn the granita into sorbet) I decided to use an alternative that she could eat. There are many egg replacement options that vary in results, however I have noticed that of you want eggwhite alternatives aquafaba (the liquid in cans of chickpeas) is actually the best alternative out there. It whips up exactly like eggwhites and if you add some cream of tartar the peaks will hold. Aquafaba does have a slight taste to it but it’s so subtle that the watermelon flavour completely covers any trace 100%. Not only does this alternative yield the best results, it’s actually not an unhealthy alternative (etc like using a water/oil comb). AND most importantly I can guarantee no one will be able to tell you have used chickpea liquid.

Ingredients:

120g sugar
800g watermelon flesh
½ tsn lime zest
90ml vodka
2 tbsn aquafaba (or 1 eggwhite if you wish to opt against Vegan)
1/4 tsn cream of tartar

Method:

Run the skin off the watermelon and place 800g of the fruits flesh into a food processor.
Add the sugar and zest into a food processor and blitz until the watermelons is liquid in consistency.
Place the mix into a bowl and heat in the microwave until warm, stir to dissolve the sugar.
Allow the mix to cool and add the vodka, stir to combine.
Place the bowl into the freezer until the mix is frozen (this will take about 3 hours).
Whip the aquafaba (or egg white) along with the cream of tartar with electric beaters until peaks form.
Add the frozen watermelon mix back into the food processor with the whipped aquafaba and blitz until the mix is silky smooth and paler in colour.
Place the mix back into the bowl and into the freezer to freeze again.
Remove the mix from the freezer 5 mins prior to serving.
Spoon into cocktail glasses (or whatever bowl you want), enjoy!

Note: Aquafaba is simply just the liquid that a can of pre-soaked chickpeas come in.


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