A Chocolatee Delight

A little birthday cake for a special friend!

...a rich (rich) mud cake that will satisfy your chocolate cravings for days!

Cake

375g Butter

1 1/3 Cup Brown Sugar

2 Cups Plain Flour

2/3 Cup Coco Powder

400g Dark Chocolate, melted

¾ Cup milk

4 Eggs

Whack the oven on to 160 degrees, & leave to heat while you whip up the mixture for this delicious treat. Pop the butter & sugar in a bowl & mix with an electric mixer & mix until light & fluffy. Slowly add in eggs, one at a time, then fold through the flour, cocoa & melted chocolate & stir in the milk. Pop the mixture into a lined tine & bake for 1 ¼ hrs or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Leave to cool in the tine before icing…

Icing

250g Dark Chocolate

½ Cup Cream

70g Butter

Pop all the ingredients in a heatproof bowl over simmering water & stir until melted & smooth. Take off the heat & leave to cool. Beat with the electric mixer until thick & fluffy then pipe onto the cake….yumm

Enjoy! x

Australia Day!

All us Aussies enjoy the festivities of Australia Day...

Surf, Sun, Sand...and that's just at the beach!

Friends, family, the triple J hottest 100

 AND

A WHOLE DAY OFF!!

So supplement all those fab things with a true Aussie favourite...

A pie with mushy peas!

Meat!

2kg Beef Chuck Steak

2 Onions finely diced

3 Cloved Garlic crushed

2 Beef Stock cubes

Water

Oil

Gravox Gravy Powder

Chop up the meat into small pieces, it doesn’t have to look pretty, just make sure they are all around the same size. Pop the meat with the onions, garlic & a splash of oil into a pot & cook until the meat is browned.  Crumble in the stock cubes & cover with enough water to just submerge the meat. Cook on a low heat for about 1-1 ½ hrs. Keep an eye on the pot just to make sure that the meat doesn’t catch.  When the meat is tender, you may need to thicken the liquid around the meat so add a few spoons of gravox ( if you need it) & cook for a further 10mins. Have a taste & season if needed.

Pastry Cases

185g chilled butter

2 ¾ cups Plain Flour

1 Egg Yoke

Iced Water

Process the butter & flour until it resembles bread crumbs. Add the yoke & splash the water in until the dough becomes a ball in the food processor. Refrigerate for 30mins then roll out, cut out little circles to fit in to a cupcake tin, mold the circles into the holes & bake in a moderate oven (180 degrees- pre warmed) for about 20mins or until golden.

Mushy Peas

1kg Frozen Peas

80g Butter

Handful Mint

Salt

Cook the peas, then whack them along with the butter, mint & a pinch of salt into a food processor & whiz until smooth, have a taste & add more salt, butter or mint if needed.

Lids

Puff Pastry

All you need to do for the lids is cut out circles that fit onto the pastry cases. Pop in a oven preheated to 180 degrees and cook until golden.

To assemble the pies, poop the hot meat into the cases, top with mushy peas & a lid & Enjoy! x

Sweet Little Morsels

Christmas saw the birth of some new little delicacies that tasted oh so good.

Triple Choc Tarts with Sherry soaked Strawberries

Mascarpone & Golden Syrup Panna Cotta with Coffee Syrup & Toasted Macadamias

Lemon Curd Profiteroles & Blonde Toffee 

Kylie's Eaton Mess

Triple Choc Tarts with Sherry soaked Strawberries

         

   Strawberries

            1 Punnet Strawberries

            1 Cup Sweet Sherry

            

All you need to do is chop the stalks off the strawberries, put them into a zip lock bag, add the sherry & leave overnight if you can to let the fruit soak up all that sherry goodness.

  

   Pastry

       185g chilled butter

1/3 cup icing sugar

2 cups plain flour

¼ Cup Cocoa

1 egg yoke

iced water

Process the butter, icing sugar, flour & cocoa until it resembles bread crumbs. Add the yoke & splash the water in until the dough becomes a ball in the food processor. Refrigerate for 30mins then roll out & pop into a free form tart tin & bake in a moderate oven (180 degrees- pre warmed) for about 10-15mins for a small tin.

           

Chocolate Custurd & Ganche

This is the same recipe as I have previously used...see http://kyliejayne.blogspot.com/2010/11/tarting-it-up.html for recipe and directions. (no caramel used in this recipe)

Time to serve…just pop a strawberry upside down on each tart & Enjoy!

Mascarpone & Golden Syrup Panna Cotta with Coffee Syrup & Toasted Macadamias

Panna Cotta

                 300mL thickened Cream

                4 Generous Desert Spoons of Golden Syrup

                Splash of Vanilla Essence

                 500g Mascarpone

                 100mL Thickened Cream

                 10g Gelatin

                 ¼ Cup tepid water

Coffee Syrup

                 250mL Strong Black Coffee

                 1 Cup Sugar

                 Spoonful of  glucose

Sprinkle the gelatin over the water & mix until all the gelatin is dissolved.  In a pot pop the 300mL of cream, golden syrup & vanilla & cook over a low-medium heat for about 5mins. Add in the gelatin & water & continue to cook while stirring for a further 2 mins. Pop the mix into a mix master & beat at a high speed…slowly add in the mascarpone & extra cream & once the mixture is smooth pour into whatever container you want to use. I used plastic shot glasses, & they where a perfect size as the mixture is quite rich.

            

For the coffee syrup, pop everything into a pot & stir over a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved & mixture becomes more viscous, leave to cool until your ready to serve.

           

Finally the nuts, you can use whatever you fancy, I used macadamias & toasted them in a hot over before serving.

            

When you’re ready to eat, pop the nuts on top of the panna cotta, then the syrup & Enjoy!

Lemon Curd Profiteroles & Blonde Toffee

Profiteroles

¾ Cup Plain Flour

100g Butter

1 Cup Water

4 Eggs

Lemon Curd

           Juice & Zest of 2- 3 Large Lemons

           ¾ - 1 Cup Caster Sugar

           200mL Cream

           3 Eggs

Toffee

           1 Cup Caster Sugar

            ¼ Cup Hot Water

Turn your oven up to 200 degrees….you will need it nice and hot! Then pop the water & butter in a pot & cook until the butter melts & the mixture starts to simmer. Add in the flour & stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth, then continue to cook over a low heat until the mixture leaves the side of the pan.

           

Pop the mixture into a mix master & beat for about 4 mins…this will cool the mixture down. Add in the eggs one at a time & beat well after each addition.

            

Next up piping…pop the mixture into a piping bag & drop about 3 teaspoons of the mixture onto lined baking trays. Bake for about 30mins or until golden. Turn the oven off, then keep the door slightly ajar & leave the profiteroles to cool or until they sound hollow when tapped. Cut a little slit into the sides of each one so you can pop the lemon curd in. Now it’s time to fill…yum!

           

Now for the lemon curd. I quite like my lemon curd to have a tartness to it, but I find the best way to make this is by taste. First of all pop the juice, zest & sugar in a pot over a low heat. What you want is for the sugar to dissolve & the zest to start to disintegrate, this is a point where you can taste the syrup to see if the balance is right…add more zest & juice if you need more lemon flavour or sugar if it’s too tart. In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs & cream then add into the syrup. Turn the heat up a tad & continue to stir until the mixture become thick. Then leave to cool for a bit, pop in a piping bag with a smallish nozzle & pipe the mixture into each profiterole.

            

Finally, pop the sugar & water on a pot over a low heat to dissolve the sugar. Once that is all done, crank the heat up. What you want is the syrup to bubble & turn a golden colour. As soon as it starts to turn golden turn the heat off- you don’t want to burn the mixture. Then carefully spoon the toffee on top of each profiterole, Enjoy!

Kylie's Eaton Mess

            Meringue

                 3 Egg whites

                 150g Caster Sugar

                 Splash of White Vinegar

                 Pinch of Salt

            Messy Part

                   Double Cream

                   Lychees peeled & roughly chopped

                   Passion fruit

Heat the oven to 120 degrees. Then pop the egg whites into a mix master & whisk until firm peaks form, add in the sugar, vinegar & salt & continue to whisk on a high setting until all the sugar is dissolved. Pop blobs of the meringue mix onto lined baking trays. Before you put the meringues in the oven, turn the oven down to 100 degrees or even 90…you want to dry out the mixture not necessarily cook it. Cook for about 1 hr then leave turn the oven off & leave to cool in the oven.

            

Then to serve pop a meringue on a plate, dollop some cream on top then sprinkle the fruit on top  & Enjoy!

Thanks again to Alyssa Smith for her wonderful photography
xxx