Thursday, September 11, 2008

Summer Nectarine Cakes : Great for lazy day !


Because I didn’t have a lot of time lately (almost everyday I went to the mall with my sisters, last week), I was tried. But I couldn’t stop baking and all I want is an easiest recipe which I don’t have to do anything more than mix and pour (yes, this one is the easy and yummy recipe, that I use very little time for mixing, about 5 minutes).


The recipe is from.......... I always place this book near my bed, haha, I think it’s a beautiful cookbook and the recipe are very simple and easy as the name of the book.

Nectarine is one of my favorite fruits and when turns it in to this cake the flavor of sweet fruit goes very well with the lightly sweet almond base cake.

So, take all the ingredients out of the fridge and you will have a lovely little cake to enjoy in less than 30 minutes.






Summer Nectarine Cakes
Makes 12


3
egg whites
1 cup (110g/3¾ oz)
almond meal (ground almonds)
½ cup (75g/ ⅔ oz)
icing (confectioner’s) sugar, sifted
¼ cup (40g/ ½ oz)
self-raising (self-rising) flour or cake flour with ¼ tsp of baking powder
50g (1¾ oz)
butter, melted
1 tablespoon
finely grated lemon rind
1
large nectarine, halved and thinly sliced


Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).


Place egg whites, almond meal, sugar, flour, butter and lemon rind in a bowl and mix to combine.
Spoon the mixture into 12 lightly greased ¼ cup (60ml / 2 floz) capacity patty tins and top with a slice of nectarine.
Bake for 15 minutes (I bake for 20 minutes) or until puffed and golden.


Summer Nectarine Cakes

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Blackberry Pavlovas: Easy and lovely dessert


Easy, easy, and easy, I can’t say more. If you ever make a meringue but found it soft and chewy inside, that is what we want for the Pavlova. I love this kind of dessert from its soft and rich flavors (the sweet meringue, the unsweetened whipped cream and a sweet and a little sour from the fruit compote). This recipe is from the ........ (it’s on the cover of the magazine, actually when I saw the book this is the first recipe that I wanted to try). The blackberry sauce is very easy to make too, and if you like you can use other kind of fruit but just stay on the sweet and lightly sour taste. This dessert is great for party and many part of it can be prepared in advance, even the whipped cream. Just bake the meringue, make the sauce and whip the cream in the last minute (or buy a ready whipped cream which can be used any time). So, come and enjoy the easy and delicious dessert with me.

Blackberry Pavlovas
Serves 6


4
Egg whites
300 g
caster sugar
2 tsp
white vinegar
2 tsp
cornflour
1 tsp
vanilla extract
500g
blackberries
284ml
double cream / whipped cream, whipped


Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Draw 6 small on a sheet of baking parchment and put it with the draw side down on a baking sheet. Whisk the egg whites until reach stiff peaks then whisk in 250g sugar in large spoonfuls until you have a stiff, shiny meringue mixture. Whisk in vinegar, corn flour and vanilla. Dollop the mixture out on the circles on the parchment and make dips in the center.
Bake for 10 minutes then turn the oven down to 120C/fan 100C/gas ½ and bake for an hour more-the meringue should be a very pale biscuit colour. Cool a little then carefully peel off the paper and put the meringue on a serving plate.


While the meringue is cooking, put ¾ of the blackberry and the rest of the sugar in a pan and cook for a few minutes over a low heat until the blackberries begin to soften give up their juice and the sugar dissolves. Cool then stir in the uncooked blackberries.


Once the meringues are cool, spoon cream into the dips in the centre then spoon over the blackberries.
Adaptation from: Olive magazine issue September 08


Blackberry Pavlovas

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Golden Caramel Toffees: Great for giving and keeping


Toffee, toffee, this is a special request too, but who can say no to this kind of sweet. Caramel toffee is not hard to make if you have a sugar thermometer (but you have to be careful when making it, the hot sugar is extremely dangerous, keep the children and pets away and wear a glove). This is a soft and chewy toffee that reminds me of my love for sweet when I was a child. There is a toffee with a soft caramel filling, taste the same as this one and I love it. When I was a child I always sleep with a toffee in my mouth- “It’s bad for your teeth” – my mom always said that but I couldn’t stop doing it.


Anyway I stop doing that now (ok, I’m grow up and knowing that it’s better to chew it when you awake, haha), but I always love the taste of caramel toffee. Actually I start making it not long ago, before that I think it’s hard to make at home. There will be a lot of toffee when you make this recipe but you can take care of them easily by wrapping them up and send some to your friends, I think they will be glad to see what’s inside these colorful wrappers.
The recipe is from ..............The book that focuses on the small size sweet, most of them are not bigger than 2 inches. It’s good if you like to make all this little things, which always welcomed by anyone.
Note: I think it’s better to warp this sweet little thing in a wrapper even the book suggests cut it into pieces, it’s very sticky. So, I add how to warp it with a paper cup (which mean you don’t have to cut a lot of paper for it, ^ ^ , and they are cute in colorful papers )


Golden Caramel Toffees
Makes about 2 pounds 3 ounces (about 200 pieces small toffee)


1
vanilla bean
2 cups (1 pint)
heavy cream
1 cup
light corn syrup
2 cups (400 grams)
granulated sugar
2 ounces (½ stick)
unsalted butter, softened and cut into 4 pieces
½ teaspoon
salt

24-karat gold leaf (for decoration)

Plastic cut into 2 ½ inches square (for cover the toffee

Paper cup


1. Line bottom and sides of a 9-inch square pan with parchment paper; set aside.


2. Split the vanilla bean in half with a small paring knife, and scrape out the seeds; discard the pod. Add the seeds to the cream in a 1½ -quart saucepan; scald the cream and keep the saucepan near the stove so that if the cream cools too much when needed, you can reheat it briefly.

3. In a deep, heavy-bottomed 4-quart saucepan over low heat, blend the corn syrup and the sugar, stirring occasionally until the mixture becomes more fluid and most of the sugar appears dissolved.
4. Stop stirring, raise heat to medium-high, and gently boil until a candy thermometer registers 305 degrees F (hard-crack stage), about 9 to 10 minutes.


5. Add the butter and salt to the sugar mixture, stirring constantly. Pour in the warm vanilla-flavored cream in a slow but steady stream without letting the boiling stop (be careful-mixture foams up and is steamy). Lower heat to medium and continue to boil gently until the thermometer registers about 248 degrees F, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching, about 14 to 15 minutes.
6. Let the candy stand about 3 minutes to allow bubbling to subside, then pour into the prepared pan without scraping the saucepan; allow to cool at least 5 hours.
7. Invert onto a clean cutting board and cut into ½ -inch-wide strips; then cut across the strips to form ½ -inch squares. To apply a patch of gold leaf to each square, use a small artist’s brush. With the brush, lift a tiny patch about the size of an oatmeal flake of gold leaf and deposit it on top of the caramels for decoration.
Note: Before place the caramel toffees on the paper cup place small pieces of the plastic over the cup because it’ll stick to the paper.


Or do it my way: cut the toffee into ½ inch pieces place the toffee on the plastic and place on the paper cup. Twist the top of the paper to hold the toffee.
Golden Caramel Toffees


Golden Caramel Toffees Ready to Go

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