honey – Page 3 – Sweet Tooth Experiments

Cinnamon Apple and Burnt Honey Semolina Pudding

Posted on August 21, 2016 Posted in Pudding .

Cinnamon Apple and Burnt Honey Semolina Pudding

This recipe is a mix between a rice pudding and porridge that can be eaten as a satisfying breakfast or a quick and easy dessert.

I eat porridge for breakfast quite frequently and also enjoy a sweet coconut rice pudding for dessert.

To my porridge I like to experiment by replacing the oats with similar ingredients such as chia seeds, sago or quinoa flakes. To take my experimenting to the next level I decided to use semolina instead of the oats in porridge or the rice in rice pudding.

For the flavouring I opted for apple and cinnamon – an oldie but a goodie.

After playing around with the recipe I decided that caramelized apple slices on top of the pudding and beautiful vanilla & cinnamon cooked into the semolina delivered the best taste result.

To add more depth I topped the pudding with a burnt honey sauce and roasted nuts for the satisfying crunch texture.

If you’re after a delightful creamy and moreish breakfast option or a sweet way to finish a meal this recipe will have you covered.

Why this recipe makes the website – the result I ended up with blew my expectations. I could but the spoon down!

Ingredients:

Pudding:

600ml milk
60g sugar
1 tsn cinnamon
1 tsn vanilla essence
70g semolina
15g butter

Apples:

2 apples
40g butter
2 tbsn maple syrup
½ tsn cinnamon

Extra:

80g honey
40g water
80g mixed almond/hazelnut/brazil/macadamia nuts

Method:

Place the milk, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla into a saucepan on a high heat.
Whisk the mix until it boils.
Add in the semolina and butter, stir and reduce the heat down to simmer.
Whisk continuously until the milk is soaked up by the semolina and the mix thickens (about 15 minutes).
Remove off heat and divide the mix up between 4 bowls.
Peel the apples and thick julienne cut them.
Place the apple in a saucepan on high heat along with the 40g butter, maple syrup and ½ tsn cinnamon.
Stir with a spoon until the apples caramelize and are slightly soft.
Spoon the apples over the semolina pudding.
Place the honey a saucepan on high heat for 1 minute or until it darkens in colour.
Add the 40g water and stir until the mix slightly reduces and is syrupy in consistency.
Spoon the honey over the pudding.
Top with finely diced nuts and enjoy.

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Cinnamon Apple and Burnt Honey Semolina Pudding

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Yoghurt Panna Cotta with Honey Figs Syrup

Posted on April 26, 2016 Posted in Panna Cotta .

Yoghurt Panna Cotta with Honey Figs Syrup

I recently went through a phase where I wanted to make ‘healthy’ desserts, but without using super expensive ingredients or ingredients that are difficult to find.

On top of this I didn’t want them to be too hard to make, I wanted to make the recipe easy for anyone to pick up and master. Additionally, I wanted people to be able to zip into Coles for ingredients and make a simply tasty and not KJ (calorie) heavy dessert.

This Panna Cotta recipe uses low fat yoghurt and milk instead of fattening cream and honey to add some extra sweetness.

The figs provide some beautiful flavor and sweetness (especially being soaked in honey).

Ingredients:

Panna Cotta:

120ml low fat milk
2 tsn honey
2 tsn vanilla essence
2 + ¼ tsn gelatine
480ml low fat vanilla yoghurt

Syrup:

120ml honey
200ml water
320g figs (around 5 figs)

Method:

Spray 4 x 250ml cup ramekins with oil spray.
Place the milk, honey and vanilla essence in a bowl and heat in the microwave until boiling, stir to combine.
Add the gelatine and beat until smooth with no lumps.
Add the yoghurt and whisk to combine.
Pour the mix evenly between the 4 ramekins and place in the fridge to set for 4 hours.
Meanwhile, make the figs cut up the figs into 6 pieces vertically and place in a saucepan.
Add the honey and water to the saucepan and heat on high on the stove.
Stir constantly until the figs are soft and a syrup has formed (will take around 5 minutes on high/medium heat).
Place the syrup and figs into a bowl and leave aside to cool completely.
Once the Panna Cotta has set turn out onto a plate and top with the cooled figs and cooled syrup. Serve.

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Traditional Panforte

Posted on March 13, 2016 Posted in Italy .

Traditional Panforte

A traditional Italian dessert that goes back to the 13^th century. The name itself means strong bread thanks to the layer of spices, in particular pepper.

There are so many variations to this traditional sweet treat, therefore I decided to experiment by baking 3 types; one with coffee, one with chocolate and one plain. The chocolate Panforte was by far the tastiest.

There are also variations in the nuts, fruit and spices in this dessert. I opted for the ingredients that I loved and deemed would work well together.

I actually didn’t think much of this dessert when I first made it, but after having a piece the next day after the flavours had time to develop I couldn’t put the slice down.

Ingredients:

100g hazelnuts
100g almonds
150g candied citrus zest (or glace zest)
60g dried figs
60g glace cherries
¼ tsn black pepper
¼ tsn ground cloves
½ tsn ground cinnamon
¼ tsn ground ginger
100g flour
¼ tsn salt
2 tbsn cocoa powder
100g dark chocolate
135g sugar
180ml honey

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180c degrees and line a 25cm spring form cake tin with baking paper.
Place the hazelnuts and almonds in a pre-heated oven on a baking tray for 6 minutes or until just raosted. Remove the almonds.
Allow the hazelnuts to roast for 5 more minutes then place the hazelnuts in a dishtowel.
Rub the hazelnuts in the towel to remove the skin.
Coarsely chop up the nuts.
Chop up the dried figs and glace cherries.
Turn the oven down to 150c degrees.
Stir the nuts, zest, figs, cherries, spices, flour, salt and cocoa powder until well combine.
Place the dark chocolate in a bowl and on a low level heat the chocolate for 1 minute in the microwave. Stir then continue in 20 sec intervals until the chocolate is melted. Set aside to cool.
Combine the chocolate to the nut mix.
Bring sugar and honey to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Then boil without stirring until a candy thermometer reaches 120c degrees.
Immediately pour honey over the fruit mixture and quickly stir until combined (mixture will be very thick and sticky).
Spoon mixture into the tin and spread evenly with back of a wet spoon.
Dampen your hands and press mixture firmly and evenly to compact as much as possible.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until edges start to rise slightly and the top is bubbling.
Cool panforte completely in the cake tin on a cooling rack.
Once cooled remove from the tin, remove the baking paper, dust with icing sugar and cut into slices.

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Jasmine Honey-Lemon Bombe Alaska

Posted on August 24, 2015 Posted in Cakes .

Jasmine Honey-Lemon Bombe Alaska

This recipe is such a beautiful surprise cake.

I have taken the traditional Bombe Alaska model of cake, ice cream and meringue and placed an Asian twist on it.

Green tea, chai, earl grey and rosemary are some ingredients I have successfully baked with in the past so I decided, after a friend was telling me how Jasmine was her favorite tea I would experiment.

Why Jasmine was so appealing was due to this ingredients being so beautiful and interesting in scent. Therefore, I went to my local Asian grocer and purchased a bag of Jasmine flowers for me to experiment with.

By using my super fluffy cake base recipe (the same sponge cake recipe as my Blueberry Cardamom Pudding – yet to be posted), making things super easy by buying vanilla ice-cream (why reinvest the wheel when we already have 3 elements to this dish) and honey infused meringue this dish will look very impressive indeed.

Outcome = super delicious but not too sweet.

Ingredients:

Sponge:

4 egg
145g sugar
4 tsn corn flour
145g self raising flour
1 tsn butter
80g water
2 tsn lemon zest

Ice-cream:

500g vanilla ice-cream
100g cream
20g jasmine flowers
25g honey

Meringue:

4 egg whites
100g sugar
2 tsn honey

Method:

Using oil spray cover 6 large muffin tin holes 8cm in radius.
Layer each hole with 2 sheets of cling wrap, ensuring the holes are well covered and there is overlap.
Place the flowers into a saucepan with 100g cream and on a low heat simmer until steam appears and the flowers have soaked up majority of the cream. Do not boil.
Place the mix into the food processor and blitz until almost smooth.
Add the ice-cream and blitz until the ice-cream is smooth and the flowers are evenly distributed through the ice-cream.
Place the honey in the microwave for 30 seconds to thin out then pour into the ice-cream mix until well combine.
Pour the ice-cream in the holes and tap the tin to remove air bubbles, place in the freezer.
Meanwhile preheat oven to 180c degrees and line a 20cm x 20cm cake tin with baking paper.
Beat the eggs in a bowl with electric beaters until thick and creamy.
Add the sugar slowly while beating until the sugar dissolves.
Triple sift the flours into the egg mix and fold until just combine.
Add the butter to the boiling water and stir to combine.
Add the lemon zest and stir.
Once the butter mix has cooled pour into the egg mix and fold until just combine.
Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
Allow the cake to cool in the cake tin and turn out on a cutting board.
Using an 8 cm cutter cut our 6 circles the same size as the muffin tins.
Place the cake circle over the top of the ice-cream and lightly push with your fingertips.
Place the tin back in the freezer for 3 hours to set.
Beat the eggwhites with electric beaters until soft peaks form.
Add the sugar slowly on a high speed followed by the honey that has been placed in the microwave for 30 seconds to thin out and beat until thick and glossy.
Turn the cakes with the ice-cream out onto plates.
Cover the ice-cream with the meringue mix, ensuring complete coverage.
Using a blow torch slightly brown the meringue.
Enjoy!