Golden Tarte Tatin

February 27, 2017 by TSJC

This is one of those rainy day recipes, relatively easy to make, and a great way of using tart crisp Granny Smith apples so readily available in every super market. The golden caramel adds loads of character to the apples, and store bought pastry keeps things simple. I always think a tarte tatin is best eaten fresh, an hour after its come out of the oven, but stolen leftovers at room temperature late at night are almost as delicious (don’t plan on leftovers). We cooked this recipe as part of our French evening in February at The Cookery and everyone agreed it was a winner if you want more details on our classes take a look HERE.

Tarte Tatin
8-10 slices

Ingredients
1 sheet puff pastry, large enough to fit chosen pan
plain flour, for dusting
6-8 Granny Smith apples, size dependent
100gms caster sugar
70gms unsalted butter
25gms melted unsalted butter, for brushing

Good quality, store bought, vanilla ice cream, to serve

Directions
Step 1:
Start by rolling your pastry lightly, depending on the thickness until it is about 3mm thick, be careful you should only roll the pastry a little, don’t be tempted to try and fill a 30cm pan with a 15cm piece of pastry. Now cut a circle the same size as your chosen pan or dish, using a plate as a guide. Prick the pastry all over with a fork, wrap in baking paper or cling wrap and place on a baking sheet in the freezer while preparing the apples.

Step 2:
Heat oven to 170C fan or 180C conventional. Peel, quarter and core the apples.

Step 3:
Put the sugar in a 20cm ovenproof heavy-based frying pan and place on a stove at medium-high heat. Allow the sugar to melt and cook slowly for 5-7 mins until it is a dark amber caramel syrup that’s starting to smoke, then turn off the heat and stir in the 70g cold butter, that has been diced into small cubes.

Step 4:
To assemble the Tarte, arrange the apple quarters around the edge of the dish, rounded-side down or side on, just keep them nice and tight- then fill in the middle in a similar fashion. Gently press with your hands to ensure there are no gaps, be careful the caramel is hot! Now give the apples a generous brush with the melted butter

Step 5:
Bake in the centre of the oven for 25-30 mins, then remove and place the frozen pastry over the apples, it will soften in place quickly, take a little time to tuck the edges in around the edge of the dish. The cut a few small steam vents before placing the tarte back into the oven.

Step 6:
Bake for 40-45 mins until the pastry is golden brown and crisp.

Step 7:
Allow the tarte to stand at room tempt for at least 45-minutes before carefully running a knife around the edge, and inverting it onto a plate, serve warm or room temperature with the icecream

Delicious and easy to make, sweet caramel apples balanced off by the apples natural sharpness – delicious.

Cannoli Siciliani – Classically Italian!

September 22, 2014 by TSJC Leave a Comment

This is one of my all time favourite Italian dessert pastries, crisp and delicate shells filled with a light and perfumed cream studded with tiny golden citrussy bites and dark bitter shavings of good chocolate. I added some Frangelico to the cream mixture to add a light hazelnut scent and also some of Leafy Greens delicious Organic Vanilla powder. I usually whip some mascarpone cheese into the ricotta mixture to add a little richness, but if you have a really great creamy ricotta cheese you can leave this out.

The hardest part about making cannoli is rolling the pastry to the required thickness, or rather thinness. You can do this very carefully by hand, but this is a really special skill.

I use a pasta machine, it does the job quickly and you get all the cannoli perfectly even which means they all fry at the same speed. If you are planning on filling the cannoli before hand you need to line the fried tubes with some melted chocolate to try and prevent them from getting soggy, but cannoli are best filled and eaten. To make cannoli you are going to need to get your hands on some cannoli tubes, these varying size stainless steel tubest are used to shape your pastry around, so that they hold the shape when you deep fry them.

Cannoli Siciliani
Makes 12-24 Tubes

Ingredients
Cannoli Tubes
– 400gms stone ground unbleached flour, plus extra for rolling
– 140ml white wine, plus extra 60ml
– 1 jumbo free range egg yolk
– 40gms castor sugar
– 40gms butter, cold cut into small pieces
– pinch of fine salt
– sunflower or other vegetable oil for frying

Cream Filling
– 400gms good fresh ricotta cheese
– 100gms mascarpone cheese
– 2tbsp runny honey
– 40gms finely chopped candied mixed citrus peel
– 60gms drained maraschino cherries, finely chopped
– 3 tbsp Frangelico/Marsala/Cointreau/Amaretto/Orange Juice
– 60gms good dark chocolate, finely chopped

To make the pastry start by sieving the flour and salt into a large bowl. Now rub the butter into the flour, working quickly and lightly to keep the butter as cold as possible. Once the butter is rubbed in stir in the castor sugar and then add the egg yolk. Mix the egg yolk into the flour before adding the wine. Add about 100ml of the wine, and keep adding the wine extra wine tablespoon at time making sure you mix well between each addition. Once the dough has come together add knead it for a few minutes until it is smooth and silky, it should be elastic, not so moist that it sticks to the counter when you kneed the dough, or so dry that it crumbles when you try and knead it. Once you have finished with the dough wrap it in cling wrap and place it in the fridge to rest for at least 30-minutes or for as few hours.

When you are ready to roll the dough, cut it into 4 pieces. Keeping the extra dough wrapped while you work with each piece. Run it through the pasta maker on its thickest setting, dusting with flour as needed. Repeat this process until you have reduced to around a 6 or 7, depending on the thickness you like and your specific machine. I usually make mine around a 7, since I like the pastry really delicate and crunchy.

Now using a martini glass or circle the right size for your steel tubes, start cutting out disks of pastry. When you wrap them start by placing the tube in the centre of the circle, then fold one side round. wet the edge of the side still on the counter and just roll the tube over it, pressing gently as you do. This will seal the tubes, and also by wrapping from the centre you will keep the opening of the tubes clear of fried pastry. I roll, cut, wrap, fry in one long line, so that the pastry goes into the oil as soon as its cooked. The tubes need to be deep fried in hot clean oil, test the oil by dropping a small piece into it, it should pop to the surface a bubble. Fry one or two tubes at a time, be warned they brown very quickly so if you stick too many in you might find yourself battling to stop them from burning. Turn the tubes as they float in the oil so that they brown evenly, I find a set of chopsticks is the easiest way to handle them. Remove the tubes and lay them against the sides of a colander lined with absorbent paper towel. This will allow any trapped oil to drain away, as soon as you can, lift the pastry tube carefully into a clean dry dish cloth. Using one side of the dish cloth, carefully push the steel tube whilst gripping the pastry tube with the other hand gently. Once some of the tube is exposed, and using the cloth pinch the steel tube and pull it all the way out. You will master your technique fairly quickly it only takes a few finger burns to learn how to hold the tube, Plus if you grip too hard the pastry tube will break.

To prepare the cream place all the ingredients into a bowl and whisk till well combined. Add the filling to a pastry bag and set it aside. At the last minute pipe the mixture into the tubes, remember the tubes will only stay crisp for about 30-minutes. If you want to try and fill the tubes earlier, melt some chocolate and brush the inside of the tubes with it. Once this has gone cold it will form a protective layer between the tube and the cream, but the tubes will still get soggy after a few hours. To fill the tubes, pipe in from one side till the cream starts to come out then flip the tube and pipe in until it starts to come out that end. To serve lay the cannoli on a platter and dust well with icing sugar.

Rich Choc Walnut Butterscotch Bars

September 17, 2014 by TSJC 1 Comment

These are those incredible nutty, chewy, sweet and crunchy bars. Be warned once these are made you will want to way to get them eaten as quickly as possible to avoid completely destroying your diet. I used organic walnuts in these, but you could use peanuts, hazlenuts or even almonds. The recipe is really simple its just that there are 3 stages which can be quite time consuming, but the outcome is really well worth the effort.

Rich Chocolate Walnut Butterscotch Bars
Makes 12 -24 (Depending on the size you cut)

Ingredients
Biscuit Crust
– 225gms cake flour
– 1/2 tsp baking powder
– 150gms plain milk chocolate
– 115gms unsalted butter
– 50gms muscovado/demerrera sugar
– 30ml finely ground almonds (or finely ground oats)

Butterscotch Filling
– 175gms unsalted butter, cut into chunks
– 115gms raw castor sugar (or regular will do)
– 30ml golden syrup
– 175mls condensed milk
– 150gms whole roasted nuts, walnut/hazelnut/almonds/peanuts

Chocolate Topping
– 250gms chocolate
– 25gms butter

Start by preheating the oven to 160°C. Grease a 20cm x 20cm baking tray. Now in a bowl sift together the flour and baking powder. Now rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Melt the chocolate over a pot of barely simmering water. Rub in the brown sugar and almonds before adding the molten chocolate. Work it in briefly till it forms a loose dough.

Press the dough into the base of your baking dish, you will not be able to roll it out like a normal dough so just press it in until it is flat and even, prick all over with a fork. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until firm. Set aside to cool in the tin.

Now prepare the butterscotch mixture. Add all the ingredients, excluding the roasted nuts, to a small heavy based saucepan. Stir until the butter and sugar have melted. Now allow to simmer over a low heat until it is a golden colour, be careful to not allow it to cook on too high a heat or you might burn the sugars. Once it is golden stir in the roasted nuts. Now spread the mixture evenly over the biscuit base. Leave to set and cool.

Once the butterscotch mixture has cooled, set a bowl over a pot of barely simmering water, add the chocolate and the butter. Melt until smooth and silky. Now spread over the butterscotch mixture and shake the pan to allow the mixture to go smooth. Depending on the type of nuts you have used you may or may not have a smooth top layer, this is not important.

Allow to cool and then cut into pieces. I originally cut about 16 large pieces from the tray, however, these are very rich so you might want to cut them into smaller size chunks.

Gourmet Greek Tiramisu

August 21, 2014 by TSJC Leave a Comment

I love tiramisu and frankly their is absolutely nothing wrong with the original recipe made using mascarpone, it is rich, luscious and always a winner. However, I am so in love with the Gourmet Greeks Greek Yoghurt that I had to give it a try using yoghurt instead of mascarpone. What a treat, it is still as delicious, but a little less rich which means you can eat more! Now that’s what I call a successful recipe update.

Please note I tried this with 3 other supermarket Full Fat Greek Yoghurts it did not work, I noticed that only a truly drained yoghurt works, even the premium supermarket products may contain vegetable starch to thicken this prevents the tiramisu from setting.

Tiramisu
Serves 6-8

Ingredients
– 3 free range eggs, separated whites and yolks
– 1/3 cup castor sugar
– 250gms Gourmet Greek Yoghurt
– 250mls heavy cream, whipped till thick
– 250gm pack of Savoiardi Biscuits
– 2 cups strong coffee
– ½ cup marsala
– cocoa powder for dusting

Method
STEP 1: Beat the egg yolks and sugar until thick, pale and creamy
STEP 2: Now gently fold the whipped cream and Greek yoghurt into the egg yolk mixture
STEP 3: Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then fold these into the yoghurt & egg yolk mixture, being careful to not knock out too much air
STEP 4: Using a flat glass dish mix your coffee and marsala
STEP 5: Quickly dunk the biscuits into the coffee mixture, then place on the base of your serving tray, dunk the biscuits quickly or they will become too soft.
STEP 6: Pour out a third of your yoghurt cream mixture onto the biscotti, now give a good sprinkle of fine unsweetened cocoa powder
STEP 7: Top this with another layer of soaked biscuits and some more cocoa powder. Repeat until ending on a layer of cream and cocoa powder

STEPS TO REMEMBER
CREAM – VOLUME – DUNK – LAYER – DUST

Moist Carrot Cake Muffins

August 5, 2014 by TSJC Leave a Comment

It doesn’t matter what you call these, small cakes or muffins, just so long as you make them. Its a really simple recipe to achieve moist, dense, spicey carrot cake muffins.

Moist Spicy Carrot Cakes Muffins
Makes 1 cake / 12 muffins

Ingredients
– 200gms dark brown sugar (demererra works well)
– 180ml sunflower oil
– 60mls buttermilk
– 3 large eggs
– 10ml vanilla extract
– 100gms canned pineapple chunks, drained
– 200gms finely grated carrot, I use a microplane
– 1 tsp nutmeg
– 2 tsp cinnamon
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 250gms cake flour
– 1 tsp baking powder
– 100gms pecan pieces, roughly chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting
– 250gms full fat cream cheese, room temperature
– 2 cups icing sugar
– 100gms butter, room temperature
– 1 tsp vanilla essence
– 1 tbsp cream

To start preheat the oven to 180°C, and place the wrack in the middle of the oven. Grease 12 large muffin tins, or 1 22cm springform cake tin.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer add the sugar and oil – mix until combined about 30-seconds. Now with the mixer running add the buttermilk once combined begin adding the eggs 1 at a time until well combined. The mixture will still be gritty, unlike when you cream butter and sugar.

In a another bowl sieve together the flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Then add the flour mixture to the wet mixture, using a spatula stir until just combined – don’t be temped to overwork the mixture the muffins will become chewy. Once the flour is combined fold in the drained pineapple, carrots and pecan pieces. Stir until just combined.

Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full and bake in the centre of the oven for 18-24 minutes – or until the muffins are golden on top and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Don’t overbake the muffins or they will dry out, remove from the oven and allow to cool a few minutes before removing the muffins from the tray and allowing them to cool completely.

To make the cream cheese frosting, place the softened butter and cream cheese in the bowl of a mixer or in a large mixing bowl and blend until fluffy and combined. Once combined start adding the icing sugar in batches, blending thoroughly between additions. Now add the vanilla extract and milk and blend until the frosting is smooth and fluffy.

Brutti ma Buoni

August 1, 2014 by TSJC Leave a Comment

Ugly but good- is the perfect name for these nutty little macaroons. I made mine using hazelnuts and orange peel which makes them the perfect little snack to have with both coffee and hot chocolate. They are easy to make, the real skill comes in learning how your oven works and getting your timing right, just as you would with a meringue.

Brutti Ma Buoni
Makes 18-24

Ingredients
– 3 jumbo egg whites
– 200gms unrefined sugar
– 200 grams blanched hazlenuts, roughly chopped
– zest of 1 orange, DO NOT ZEST TILL WHITE, should only be the outer layer
– 1 tsp vanilla extract

Start by preheating the oven to 180°C. Now grease a flat heavy cookie tray, use a little butter and sugar, or some non stick spray – set aside.

In a clean bowl, or in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer start whisking the eggs whites with a balloon whisk fitted. Once the egg whites have loosened start adding the sugar a few spoons at a time, whisking well between each addition. With the last addition of sugar add the orange peel, and the vanilla essence- the mixture should be at a soft peak stage. Now fold in your chopped hazelnuts. Spoon out the mixture leaving 1cm around each biscuit, I find a heaped teaspoon gives a nice slightly larger than bite size cookie.

Bake for about 20-minutes then drop the heat to 150°C and bake for a further 10-minutes. They should be golden and crunchy but have a slight chewiness.

For an amazing ice cream treat crush your cookies over good vanilla ice cream and drizzle with a little melted hazelnut spread

Quick, simple and delicious Melktert

July 15, 2014 by TSJC Leave a Comment

This is the recipe which can be given credit with me embarking on a hunt for the ultimate Melktert, quick and easy to make, the filling cooks in under 10-minutes this is ideal for those bakers who need a quick melktert fix with little hassle. I am taking this as the first entrant in my Melktert hunt- Congratulations to Mandy Watermeyer who the recipe came from.

Melktert – Mandy Watermeyer

– 1 packet Tennis biscuits crushed and mixed with 125g melted butter – press into rectangular glass
dish to form crust

Filling
– 1 Tin condensed milk
– 3 “condensed milk tins” milk
– 2 extra-large eggs
– 3 heaped tablespoons Maizena (cornflower)
– 1 heaped tablespoon custard powder
– Pinch of salt
– 1 teaspoon butter
– 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Bring 2 cans of normal milk to the boil in microwave, then add condensed milk and butter to hot milk and mix well.
In another bowl beat remaining tin of milk, 2 eggs, maizena, custard powder and salt till smooth and runny. Pour this mixture into the bowl of hot milk and beat again – add vanilla

Place in microwave on high for 2 minute intervals beating with hand beater in between to remove lumps. Repeat until mixture is consistency of thick porridge – usually 4 x 2 minutes

Pour over base and sprinkle with cinnamon then allow to cool and set

Keeps well in fridge – if there is any left!!!

I made this exact recipe except I took it to the stove stop, old habits die hard. If you prefer to do it this way it still only takes about 10 minutes to make but there is more elbow grease involved. Heat the milk in a pot, then make the cold custard mixture as suggested and add the hot milk to that slowly, then place it on the stove and whisk till it s thickened.

Chewy Strawberry, White Chocolate & Yoghurt Muffins

July 9, 2014 by TSJC Leave a Comment

I am never sure what muffins are really supposed to be. Breakfast? Tea time? Dessert? Especially when they are like these moist, chewy Strawberry, White chocolate & yoghurt muffins! I’ve adapted this recipe from one I used to make with just sour cream. I find this mix of sour cream and heavy real Greek yoghurt give these muffins a dense moist chewiness.

Greek Yoghurt, Strawberry & White Chocolate muffins

Makes 6 Jumbo / 12 standard

– 250 gms flour

– 1 tablespoon baking powder

– ½ teaspoon salt

– 1 jumbo egg

– 200 gms sugar

– 60 gms unsalted butter, melted

– 200 mls sour cream

– 100 mls Gourmet Greek Yoghurt

– 1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries

– 100 gms white chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C, grease a standard 12 or jumbo 6 muffin tray. Now sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.

In a separate bowl whisk the egg for about 20 seconds until pale and well combined. Add the sugar and whisk vigorously until thick, creamy and pale white. Once the butter has cooled slightly, add it in 2 additions, whisking to combine after each addition. Now whisk in the Greek yoghurt and sour cream. Add the chopped strawberries and chocolate to the flour – stir to distribute the pieces evenly. Now add the dairy mixture to the flour and fold in with a rubber spatula until the batter comes together and the berries are evenly distributed, 25 to 30 seconds – Do not overmix.

Finally, spoon the mix into your muffin pan and then bake in the middle of the oven for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and then carefully turn the muffins out and allow them to cool.

Because of the mix of dairy and strawberries this produces a muffin that is very soft when hot so be careful when turning them out!

These muffins are delicious on their own, but for an extra treat top them with a simple cream cheese frosting, with some extra strawberry and chocolate. Store in an air tight container.

Quick Scones

June 29, 2014 by TSJC Leave a Comment

This recipe takes 4 ingredients and about 15 minutes to make from start to finish. You can use your food processor to do the first step, however, if you work quickly with cold butter you can achieve great results by hand in about 3 minutes.

Quick Scones
Makes 6 – 8

Ingredients
– 225gms cake flour
– 3 flat tsp baking powder
– 60gms butter
– 140mls milk
– 40gms caster sugar (optional)
– pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Sieve the flour, baking powder and pinch of salt into a large bowl. Then working quickly and with cool hands rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Mix the sugar in if you are using it, then with 2 butter knives mix the milk into the flour. Criss cross the knives as though you are chopping up food for a child. Only add about 85% of the milk to start, add more if needed. However, the mixture should rather be slightly soft than too dry. Tip the dough onto a floured surface and quickly kneed it until smooth, should only be about 4 or 5 turns, don’t over work the mixture or the scones will be biscuity.

Gently roll the dough until about 2cm thick and then cut out scones. If you want your scones to have a glossy top, brush them with an milk wash, for soft tops dust them with flour. This mixture should only produce about 6-8 scones, anymore and it means your scones are too thin and they will not rise. Bake in the hot over for about 8-9 minutes.

Serve topped with fresh cream, scones and strawberry jam!

The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie

June 27, 2014 by TSJC 1 Comment

This cookie is a hybrid of the best of nearly a dozen different cookies tested. Each one chosen for a different characteristic, be it crunch, chew, chocolatey flavour, nuttiness, dunkability and then slowly massaged into a cookie that I think lives up to all the demands placed on a chocoalte chip cookie! I tried loads of different nuts and they were all delicious but the ones I loved the most were the hazelnuts, because they give the deeply chocolate cookies an almost Nutella finish, totally moreish!

The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie
Makes 24

Ingredients
– 225 gms unsalted butter, room temperature
– 180 gms light brown sugar
– 180 gms dark brown sugar
– 40 gms golden syrup
– 2 large free range eggs
– 2 tsp vanilla essence
– 230 gms cake flour
– 70gms oats, finely ground
– 40gms ground almonds
– 1 tsp baking soda
– 2 tsp hot water
– pinch of salt
– 300gms dark chocolate
– 100gms hazelnuts

Start by preheating your oven to 175°C. In a large bowl cream the butter, and sugars together, until smooth. Then slowly beet in the eggs, one at a time till incorporated, then add the vanilla, beat in. In a small bowl dissolve the baking soda, salt in the hot water, it will fizz, then beat it into the mixture. Now stir in the flour, chocolate chips and nuts. Use a small scoop to scoop out mounds of the mixture onto a baking tray that has been sprayed with non stick spray. Don’t place the cookies too close as they will run into each other.

Bake in the centre of the oven until the cookies are crisp and golden on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. Allow the biscuits to cool slightly on the baking tray before trying to remove them and allowing them to cool completely in the oven.

The Secret Jozi Chef

Home of The Cookery